Flowers for the Dead by Barbara Copperthwaite Read Free Book Online

worse.”
    I kept grumbling back that I didn’t feel very lucky.
    No, she had not felt lucky at all at the time, Laura remembers. She lays her pen down, unable to see through the tears that are now coming faster than the memories. She wraps herself in a hug, wishing it were her father’s arms she could feel, wishing that she could go back in time and stop the tragedy hurtling towards her that far overshadowed this silly crash.
    Neither she nor her father had had any idea at the time that this random accident would save Laura just weeks later. The difference between life and death had been a knife-edge of coincidence.
     
    ***
     
    Loneliness eats at Adam’s core, a werewolf ripping him apart and gnawing on his bones. He can feel the teeth, hear the lips smacking. Red Riding Hood lost and needing to be saved.
    No, no, he is the huntsman, strong and coming to the rescue.
    Only he does not feel strong, he does not feel like he is coming to the rescue. Why can’t someone save him? Even with Julie crooning words of comfort inside him, as she has for the last six months, he cannot find respite.
    He rubs his head. It hurts. Everything hurts. His face is wet with tears.
    Huntsman. He needs to go hunting.
     
    ***
     
    TWENTY-FIVE YEARS EARLIER
     
    Adam was not much of a talker. At the tender age of six he had already learned there was little point because no one listened. Instead he would sit quietly, trying to keep as still as possible so that people didn’t notice him. The only movement would be his fingers picking at a scrape on his knee, elbow, knuckles…
    His parents often despaired about how clumsy he was, telling him he should look where he was going then he would not fall over so much. Adam did not argue with them, he simply nodded and made himself even more still.
    He was never tempted to tell the truth: that he hadn’t fallen over, that his mummy had got some sandpaper and scrubbed at his tender flesh with it. He deserved it for being a bad boy, and it never would have happened if he had been good. From drinking his orange juice fast enough, to keeping his room tidy, to not looking at his mummy in the right way, he was never good enough. Adam was bad to the bone.

CHAPTER FIVE
    ~ Rose Of Sharon ~
    Consumed By Love
     
    PRESENT DAY
     
    Blue lights blaze, a siren piercing the summer air and leaving behind a tinnitus impression. Mike watches the squad car nose its way through the heavy congestion that always builds up around the traffic lights outside the station, and wonders where it is heading.
    He will find out if it is anything interesting when he goes back inside, but currently he is busy having a sneaky fag, making the most of not only the rain stopping but the August sun popping out briefly. There is a small patch of grass nearby, and he stares at it absently, watching a bumblebee hypnotically moving from clover flower to clover flower. He looks without seeing, though, lost in thought over a case he is working. His wedding ring twinkles in the sunlight occasionally as he brings his cigarette up for another drag.
    Ring! Ring!
    Mike visibly jumps then smiles at himself as he fishes his mobile from his pocket. It is Simon.
    “You working? Or you all right to talk?” his friend asks after they have exchanged greetings.
    “Fag break. Just wondering if I can hand a case over to Trading Standards. We’ve a load of counterfeit goods flooding the area at the moment.”
    “Hah, don’t blame you for trying to get rid. Wish I could get rid of Operation Blaze.”
    “Still no break through?”
    “Nope.”
    “What about the driver of the light-coloured Ford Focus seen in the area? It sounded promising.”
    “Tracked down the driver and eliminated him from our enquiries.”
    Mike takes another gentle drag, then stubs the cigarette out on the wall he is leaning against. The brick is blackened from such use. He knows that right now what his friend wants is someone to talk to who is nothing to do with his case, so that