SIX
The piercing ring tone from his mobile phone brought Detective Inspector Malcolm Hardy out of his deep slumber.
As usual, he found himself curled up on his armchair still fully dressed from when he arrived home for work. Falling asleep in front of the television after a couple of drinks had become something of a regular occurrence with him recently, and although he had promised himself that he would make more of an effort to sort himself out in the evenings his plan had so far not come to fruition.
As he sat up abruptly, he managed to dislodge the glass that had been nestled in his lap, and before he could make a grab for it, it fell to the ground and shattered on the hard-wooden floor.
Hardy surveyed the scattered splinters of glass splayed around his shoeless feet and heaved a si
