‘Are you sure, Jo?’
‘Yes, thanks, Dad. But I still have regrets that Anubis killed three girls before I could stop him.’
‘You can’t beat yourself up too much, Jo,’ he said, putting photographs into a box. ‘You saved Lindsay, and let’s face it you didn’t kill the other three, the Professor did. Don’t start feeling that you killed them, that way leads to madness.’
‘I know what you mean, but at the moment I can’t seem to detach myself from the case. The emotional pull still seems to be great.’
Mick took the papers out of her hand. ‘Here, sit down,’ he said and they both sank onto the sofa. ‘You have to learn to come to terms with these things, Jo. The word is that the force likes you for these big cases. I hear the plan is that they are going to let you keep your own team permanently and then you’ll be set up and ready for when the next big one comes along.’
‘Really, Dad?’
‘Really. But when you’re told, looked surprised, okay?’
Jo laughed, ‘Okay, and thanks. You’re the best!’
They cleared the rest of the wall and Jo went to get ready to meet the team. Glancing at her watch she realised she was running late and hurried to turn the shower on.
64
Hurrying through Chichester city centre, Jo saw the lights of the restaurant in the distance. She kept up a quick pace and soon arrived. She could see the team at a table in the window. They weren’t eating yet, thank goodness. They must have waited for her.
Byrd saw her and raised his glass. Their eyes locked and she went what she would previously have described as going all girly. She smiled at him and raised her hand in return to his greeting. There was an empty chair opposite him, obviously for her. Judith, Bill, Jill and Jeremy were already there, so she was the only one missing.
The explosion took her by surprise.
The bang echoed off the shops and buildings.
Bouncing. Ear bursting. The loudest noise she’d ever heard.
First the front of the restaurant disintegrated in front of her eyes. Then it felt as if all the air had been sucked out of the immediate area.
She couldn’t breathe or speak. Nor could she hear anything. It was as though she were in a vacuum. All Jo could do was open her mouth in shock. There were no words to describe how she felt about what had just happened.
Her team. Gone.
Byrd. Gone.
Gradually her hearing came back and she could hear the tinkling of glass as it fell around her. It landed in her hair and on her clothes, like lethal snow. It was everywhere. There was a cacophony of screams from car alarms. Then came the sirens of police, ambulances and fire engines.
The blast had blown her off her feet and she got up slowly. Her hands and knees were cut, but she ignored the pain and the blood. All she could see was the gaping hole that was the front of the restaurant.
Where her team had sat.
Where Byrd had been.
The End
To be continued…
Divining the Dead
Jo Wolfe psychic detective crime thriller
Book 2
DI Jo Wolfe has a secret. She can touch the dead and see how they died. But no one must know.
After a great result in their last case, DI Jo Wolfe and her team decide to celebrate with a meal in a popular Italian in central Chichester. As Jo approaches the restaurant the unthinkable happens – a bomb detonates inside, and she has to witness the death of the diners.
In the aftermath, Jo finds out that the target was a local MP and she receives a warning from the group responsible. They intend to kill politicians, ‘painting red the powers’ homes with crimson gore.’ They intend to rid the UK of corrupt and incompetent MPs.
Can Jo rise above her grief and stop the ultra-right-wing group in their tracks?
Will the visions from the dead help her?
Or will her communication with the dead, hamper the investigation?
This is the second in a new series following Jo Wolfe, a detective who developed psychic abilities after a riding accident. The only person who knows about her gift (or curse depending upon your point of view) is her father and together they attempt to right the wrongs of the living, with the aid of the dead.
Wendy Cartmell is well known for her bestselling, chilling crime thrillers and Sgt Major Crane mysteries. Several of them have ghostly and psychic elements and wanting to develop these themes further, she decided it was time she wrote a supernatural suspense series.
Now available from AMAZON
By Wendy Cartmell
Sgt Major Crane crime thrillers:
Crane and Anderson crime thrillers:
Emma Harrison mysteries
Supernatural suspense
All my books are available to purchase or borrow from Amazon by clicking the covers.
Check out my website and blog, where I review the very best in crime fiction.
Wendy Cartmell
Touching the Dead Page 16