The Drowning Tide (Blair Dubh Trilogy #2) Read Online Free Page B

they’d thought it was Freya who couldn’t conceive. He’d been prepared to forego being a dad for her but he didn’t think he could cope with the knowledge that she’d never get to be a mum because of him. He’d taken something from her that she really wanted and he hated himself for it. Not only that, he was desperate to be a dad himself and he felt less of a man knowing he couldn’t achieve that naturally. He considered what the doctor had said about donor sperm. That might be Freya’s only chance. How would he feel knowing another man’s baby was growing inside his wife’s belly? Craig sighed and ran a hand down his face. He’d like to think he’d be fine with it if it made her happy but he couldn’t be sure.
    “What’s up with your face?” said DS Muir when Craig stormed into CID and threw himself into his chair.
    “Mind your own business.”
    “Charming,” said Muir, returning to his paperwork, leaving Craig to glare at his desk and the work piled up on it that he no longer had any enthusiasm for.
    “Ah, there you are Sarge,” said a young detective constable. “I’ve got that report back on the seeds.”
    Craig sat bolt upright in his seat. “Seeds? Why are you talking about seeds? Are you taking the piss?”
    The detective stared at him as though he was mad. “It’s to do with the Thompson murder. There were some weird seeds stuck to the blanket the body was wrapped in. You asked me to get them analysed.”
    “Oh yeah, sorry,” he said, snatching the report out of his hands. “Alright, you can bugger off now.”
    The DC looked at Muir, who grinned and shrugged. The detective shook his head before leaving.
    Craig stared at the report but struggled to take a word of it in, feeling like he’d been hit by something very big and heavy. But he had to remain focused. A fifteen year old boy had been murdered and dumped by the side of a road and he had to find out why and by who. With a huge effort of will he managed to put aside all thoughts of Freya and weans and read the report. As soon as he’d finished he knew exactly who’d done it. In fact it astounded him that it had been so easy so he read it again and cross-checked the information just to make sure. Everything fit so he could arrest a murdering scumbag.

CHAPTER 4
     
    Craig returned home in a much more upbeat mood with a bunch of red roses for Freya. When he’d arrested the boy’s own uncle for the murder the man had resisted and the surge of adrenaline and testosterone Craig experienced in the ensuing struggle had done him the power of good. Craig had recalled all the unusual plants the uncle had been growing in his greenhouse, as well as the packets of seeds. The man had broken down and confessed during the interview that he’d strangled the boy when he’d refused his sexual advances. Craig had personally charged him and marched him into a cell. He’d cleared up a high profile case and, after informing the victim’s family and seeing both the relief that their son’s murderer had been caught and the horror that the dad’s own brother was responsible, he’d realised his own problems weren’t that heavy. At least he had hope, unlike that poor family. Their boy was never coming home.
    As he ascended the stairs to his flat screeching and yelling floated down to him from above.
    “Oh shit, not again,” he said, taking the rest of the stairs two at a time. He burst through the front door to find Freya furiously arguing with a tall redhead.
    “Mandy, get out right now,” bellowed Craig. His mad ex hadn’t stopped stalking him since they’d broken up before The Elemental incident. Ever since he’d married Freya she’d only upped her campaign and he was reaching the end of his tether.
    “Craig,” beamed Mandy. “At last. You won’t believe the horrible things this woman has said to me.”
    “That woman is my wife,” said Craig, wrapping an arm around Freya’s shoulders and pulling her to him. She might have her anger