A septuagenarian idiot with a rusty old Saxon sword and a Union Jack shawl had been terrorising Warrior Square over at St Leonards, waggling his sword around and threatening the alcoholics and drug addicts in the gardens. Fortunately there hadn’t been any injuries, just a lot of colourful language peppered with a barrage of old-school racism.

  When he arrived back home that evening, Boyd found a note from Emma on the dining-room table.

  Got asked out on a date!!

  With that guy in the Olde Pump House. The one who wanted the selfie!

  Your dinner’s in Chef Mike. It’s yesterday’s roast leftovers.

  Ozzie’s been fed, walked and pooped.

  Be back later.

  Love, Ems xx

  He smiled. He remembered the floppy-haired doofus down at Ye Olde Pump House. He seemed harmless enough. At least he wasn’t covered in tattoos and piercings.

  The doorbell rang, and Ozzie responded with a series of barks that echoed through the hallway.

  Boyd shut Ozzie in the dining room – he was getting pretty territorial and feisty when it came to his home – and switched on the hallway light. Through the frosted glass of the front door, he could just make out the red jacket of a DPD courier. The man waved, pointed down and disappeared.

  Boyd opened the door to find a small parcel on the doorstep. ‘Cheers mate!’ he shouted as the courier climbed back into his van and drove off.

  He bent down and picked up the parcel, pretty sure he hadn’t ordered anything recently. It must be for Emma, he decided. He’d been too busy adding the finishing touches to his study, putting up shelves and setting out his DVD collection. Not in alphabetical order – that would be too sad – but just tidy-looking.

  He looked at the label. The parcel was addressed to him: W. Boyd.

  Maybe he had ordered something. It was all too easily done with one-click buys these days.

  He closed the front door behind him and went back to the dining room. He grabbed a pair of scissors from the cutlery drawer, sliced open the packing tape and opened the lid of the plain brown cardboard box.

  Inside was a note atop a bed of polystyrene packing chips. He unfolded it to reveal a very short, hastily scribbled message.

  Boyd -

  Nix – no more. Stay away. Stay silence.

  :)

  He felt his skin go cold, goosebumps covering his arms, and his stomach flipped over. He spotted a dark dot of blood on one of the packing chips and then another. Like stars in the sky, once you notice one, you see them all.

  He stared at the small cardboard box in front of him, unwilling to dig into the packing chips to see what was waiting at the bottom for him… yet knowing it had to be done.

  He carefully started picking them out and then saw what it was the Russians had sent as a parting gift.

  ‘Oh, shit…’

  THE END

  DCI BOYD RETURNS IN…

  Old BONES, NEW BONES available to pre-order here

  Acknowledgments

  A big round of applause for the following folks, some of whom know they’re in Team Boyd, and some who don’t.

  First of all, to Debbie Scarrow, my better half and outsourced brain. I come up with ideas that one might laughingly call a ‘story’, but Debbie bashes them into something far better – a plot.

  Wendy Shakespeare for her excellent copy-editing and advice in turning this story into a proper grown-up book. She spares my blushes many times over.

  Maureen Webb, Samantha Leatherland and Lesley Lloyd for their help, advice and their eagle-eyed proofreading of the ARC.

  I’d like to thank the admins and members of the Facebook group UK Crime Book Club. They are an incredibly lovely and very knowledgeable bunch of people to whom I have frequently turned for advice. Special shout-out to Kath Middleton (group admin) who allowed me to gate-crash the group and ask scattershot questions in all directions.

  I’d also like to thank the Crime Collective. You know who you are.

  And finally, my heartfelt thanks go to Spaniel Aid UK – for allowing us to adopt our adorable boy Ozzie in 2017. He’s as much our dog as he is DCI Boyd’s dog.

  If you would like to know more about Spaniel Aid UK and the work they do please visit their website. www.spanielaid.co.uk

  Also by Alex Scarrow

  LAST LIGHT

  AFTERLIGHT

  OCTOBER SKIES

  THE CANDLEMAN

  A THOUSAND SUNS

  The TimeRiders series (in reading order)

  TIMERIDERS

  TIMERIDERS: DAY OF THE PREDATOR

  TIMERIDERS: THE DOOMSDAY CODE

  TIMERIDERS: THE ETERNAL WAR

  TIMERIDERS: THE CITY OF SHADOWS

  TIMERIDERS: THE PIRATE KINGS

  TIMERIDERS: THE MAYAN PROPHECY

  TIMERIDERS: THE INFINITY CAGE

  The Plague Land series: Plague Land

  PLAGUE NATION

  PLAGUE WORLD

  The Ellie Quin series

  THE LEGEND OF ELLIE QUIN

  THE WORLD ACCORDING TO ELLIE QUIN

  ELLIE QUIN BENEATH A NEON SKY

  ELLIE QUIN THROUGH THE GATEWAY

  ELLIE QUIN: A GIRL REBORN

  About the Author

  Over the last sixteen years, award-winning author Alex Scarrow has published seventeen novels with Penguin Random House, Orion and Pan Macmillan. A number of these have been optioned for film/TV development, including his bestselling Last Light.

  When he is not busy writing and painting, Alex spends most of his time trying to keep Ozzie away from the food bin. He lives in the wilds of East Anglia with his wife Deborah and four, permanently muddy, dogs.

  Ozzie came to live with him in January 2017. He was adopted from Spaniel Aid UK and was believed to be seven at the time. Ozzie loves food, his mum, food, his ball, food, walks and more food…

  He dreams of unrestricted access to the food bin.

  For up-to-date information on the DCI BOYD series, visit: www.alexscarrow.com

 

 

  Alex Scarrow, Silent Tide

 

 

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