The Sandman

by steve higgs

  A startled gasp rippled around the open area and everyone stopped moving.

  Quinn dropped like a stone.

  Standing in my eyeline now was the chief constable. He looked shocked.

  I growled, ‘Put your dog back on its leash.’

  I was going to jail, that much was for certain now. It wouldn’t matter what I had done in the past or how deserving Quinn was of it; you can’t punch a policeman on television and not face consequences for your actions.

  I was okay about it and was happy for the trade. Ian Quinn needed to be punched and I believed punching him was the final guarantor I needed for them to actually launch an enquiry. He’d done almost nothing to solve this case while putting lives at risk with his ambition and I wanted someone to know.

  Cops were rushing to get to me, or to get to the chief inspector who hadn’t twitched since I decked him. I didn’t resist when they ordered me to place my hands behind my back.

  Amanda fought her way to me, using the fact that she knew all the cops to make them let her through. Though none of them said it, I think most of them wanted to give me a pat on the back for knocking their boss out, and one or two of them gave me a wink when the chief constable wasn’t looking.

  ‘Oh, Tempest,’ sighed Amanda. ‘What did you do?’

  I gave her a lopsided, apologetic grin. ‘What I had to do, babe. Can you look after the dogs for me, please? I guess I’ll be out tomorrow sometime but back in court soon enough.’

  She sighed again. ‘They’ll give you a month at least, regardless of the circumstances. You just did that on live TV. Letting you off would send a terrible message.’

  I shrugged. ‘I’ll miss you when I am inside. I’ll miss you tonight.’

  She leaned in to kiss me. ‘I’ll have the turkey waiting for you.’

  Feeling the gaze of the chief constable on them, the officers waiting to take me insisted Amanda step back, and they led me away.

  The press conference was a disaster, but only for the police. The press loved it and chased the cops holding me all the way to the squad car they put me in.

  In the back of the police car, I allowed myself to relax. It had been a frantic few days filled with worry, adrenalin-fuelled chases, too little sleep, and missed meals. Tonight, I would sleep like a baby, and charged with assault, I would be released in the morning until my court hearing. However far away that proved to be.

  As things were, I couldn’t come up with anything much to feel sad about.

  The End

  The Golem in Block C

  I know you are a fan of this series; how could you not be after reading seventeen books? But did you know there is a secret story? It may become available for sale one day but for now it is FREE for you, my readers.

  Tempest is in jail after happily pleading guilty to assaulting Chief Inspector Quinn, but the jail in Maidstone is an ancient place filled with stories and legends.

  The Golem in Block C has reaped victims in the past and is back to claim a new one. Can Tempest unravel this mystery while he is incarcerated? Or will he fall victim to the same creature that just took the life of a guard.

  All you have to do is click the link to find yourself transported to a hidden part in the back of my website. You’re going to love it.

  If you are reading this as a paperback, obviously the link will not do it. But you can copy it by hand into your web browser to achieve the same effect.

  Good luck.

  Author’s Notes

  Hello, reader,

  It is the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday as I write this final note. I finished the book in the small hours of this morning, staying up to crank out the last chapters because I was in a flow at that point.

  I’m not entirely sure my wife approved of me sliding into bed at 0224hrs, but it’s not like I was just getting in from the pub. She was good enough to leave me there to get an extra half an hour this morning, so I awoke when our baby daughter, who turns one this month, started poking me. She was tucked up next to me and had a smile for me when she discovered it was daddy and not mummy keeping her company.

  This turned out to be the hardest book I have written since Damaged but Powerful about twelve months ago. On both occasions, it is the timeline that has thrown me. Most of my books I write chronologically from start to finish, the story flowing from my brain to the page in a flurry of fingers.

  With The Sandman, I had already written The Ghoul of Christmas Past which overlaps the events in this story and thus created limitations on what I could write. I had not considered this until I sat down to write this book.

  It was a bit of fiddle, and I kept trying to work out how to fit Patience into the story even though she was involved in events in the overlapping timeline. I am happy with the end result and hope you are too.

  The dedication for this book is to a person in my author’s Facebook group. He came up with the camouflage jackets as Basic’s next endeavour and deserves the credit for his imagination. You can join the Facebook group too if you wish to, there is a link on the last page of this book. It’s a cool place to exchange questions and thoughts about my books and you can find information there that is not available anywhere else.

  I mention etorphine in this book. It is a semi-synthetic opioid possessing an analgesic potency approximately 1,000–3,000 times that of morphine. It was first prepared in 1960 from oripavine, which does not generally occur in opium poppy extract but rather the related plants Papaver orientale and Papaver bracteatum. Interestingly, it is the drug used by the serial killer anti-hero in the TV show Dexter. Its effects as an incapacitant are instant.

  The second world war bunker in Cobham Woods is a real thing, it just isn’t in Cobham Woods. I shifted it a couple of miles, but it exists in real life, not just my imagination. I really did stumble upon it while walking my dogs one day many years ago. Kent is littered with forgotten Spitfire hangers and sea defences from a time the oldest generation can just about remember but will seem like ancient history to my kids.

  I have the chaps employ t-shirt guns in the bunker, but then found several of my advanced copy readers had no idea what it is. They use them at sports events and the like to launch t-shirts (and probably other soft merchandise items) into the back rows. It’s a wide tube with a compressed air can attached. The t-shirt is packed tightly into a pack so it is much like firing a bean bag gun only not so dangerous.

  With this book ready for publication, I need to shift my attention to the short story that follows it. I will write that next, so it is ready for people to download by the time they are reading this. Then I have more cozy mystery fun with my Felicity Philips Investigates series. It’s time for book two in that series and then I have a Patricia tale to write and then another Albert, but the Blue Moon crew will be back really soon, and you can see the next book on the following page.

  Take care.

  Steve Higgs

  What’s next for the Blue Moon Crew?

  Incarcerated for a crime he gladly committed, paranormal detective, Tempest Michaels, has been enjoying the peace and quiet. But all that is about to change …

  … there’s a monster roaming the prison’s passageways at night and it’s just taken a life.

  The legend of the jailhouse golem is more than two hundred years old and though it has been investigated in the past, no one has ever come close to solving the mystery.

  He won’t get paid for this one, but there’s something more valuable at stake … his life.

  Surrounded by inmates who want to kill him, facing a creature that cannot be killed because it isn’t alive, and worried the very guards employed to protect him might be the ones behind it all, Tempest Michaels faces his toughest challenge yet.

  Worse yet, he’s all alone.

  Get ready for a tale so fast paced you’ll lose your breath!

  The paranormal? It’s all nonsense, but proving it might get him killed.

  A FREE Rex and Albert Story

  There is n
o catch. There is no cost. You won’t even be asked for an email address. I have a FREE Rex and Albert short story for you to read simply because I think it is fun and you deserve a cherry on top. If you have not yet already indulged, please click the picture below and read the fun short story about Rex and Albert, a ring, and a Hellcat.

  When a former police dog knows the cat is guilty, what must he do to prove his case to the human he lives with?

  His human is missing a ring. The dog knows the cat is guilty. Is the cat smarter than the pair of them?

  A home invader. A thief. A cat. Is that one being or three? The dog knows but can he make his human listen?

  More Urban Fantasy by Steve Higgs

  Don’t pick a fight with him. You won’t lose. You’ll die

  Zachary has a secret he tries to keep under wraps …

  … if only people would let him.

  When he drifts into a remote farming community looking for work, the trouble starts before he orders breakfast. Normally he would just avoid the trouble and move on, but there’s a girl. Not a woman. A little girl, and the men that want to dominate the village threaten her livelihood.

  And that just won’t do.

  There’s something very rotten in this community but digging into it brings him face to face with something more powerful even than him. Something ancient and unstoppable.

  He has no choice other than to fight, but who will walk away?

  As the false gods find their way into the realm of mortals, how many mortals will rise to defend the Earth?

  Be ready for war.

  She’s got a magical hand cannon and is carrying God’s sword. That makes her tough to beat, but when the devil himself sends the four horsemen of the actual impending apocalypse after her …

  … let’s just say all bets are off.

  With a demon at her side, who she’s not crazy enough to trust, Anastasia is going after the missing armour of God.

  It would be an easier task if anyone on Earth knew where the angels hid it.

  She’ll recruit help, but can she get to the armour before the horsemen get to her?

  Be ready for a wild-assed ride!

  When a missing persons case brings me into contact with the only other supernatural creature I have ever seen, it’s not long before I am ass-deep in trouble.

  The police don’t like me, there’s a clandestine organisation who want me to join them, and what might be a demon trying to catch me. When I refuse to play ball with any of them, my life starts to get tough, but I had no idea how low they might stoop to force my hand.

  Soon they will find out just how badly they underestimated me. I hope. Have I bitten off more than I can chew?

  Somehow, I need to escape captivity, cross to a mysterious demon realm, rescue a girl, and find my way back. Easy, right? It might be if they hadn’t confiscated my wand.

  Thankfully, I’m not alone, I have a powerful werewolf as an ally. If only he wasn’t such an annoying, snarky d-bag.

  More Books by Steve Higgs

  Blue Moon Investigations

  Paranormal Nonsense

  The Phantom of Barker Mill

  Amanda Harper Paranormal Detective

  The Klowns of Kent

  Dead Pirates of Cawsand

  In the Doodoo With Voodoo

  The Witches of East Malling

  Crop Circles, Cows and Crazy Aliens

  Whispers in the Rigging

  Bloodlust Blonde – a short story

  Paws of the Yeti

  Under a Blue Moon – A Paranormal Detective Origin Story

  Night Work

  Lord Hale’s Monster

  The Herne Bay Howlers

  Undead Incorporated

  The Ghoul of Christmas Past

  The Sandman

  Patricia Fisher Cruise Mysteries

  The Missing Sapphire of Zangrabar

  The Kidnapped Bride

  The Director’s Cut

  The Couple in Cabin 2124

  Doctor Death

  Murder on the Dancefloor

  Mission for the Maharaja

  A Sleuth and her Dachshund in Athens

  The Maltese Parrot

  No Place Like Home

  Patricia Fisher Mystery Adventures

  What Sam Knew

  Solstice Goat

  Recipe for Murder

  A Banshee and a Bookshop

  Diamonds, Dinner Jackets, and Death

  Frozen Vengeance

  Mug Shot

  The Godmother

  Murder is an Artform

  Wonderful Weddings and Deadly Divorces

  Dangerous Creatures

  Albert Smith Culinary Capers

  Pork Pie Pandemonium

  Bakewell Tart Bludgeoning

  Stilton Slaughter

  Bedfordshire Clanger Calamity

  Death of a Yorkshire Pudding

  Cumberland Sausage Shocker

  Arbroath Smokie Slaying

  Dundee Cake Dispatch

  Lancashire Hotpot Peril

  Felicity Philips Investigates

  To Love and to Perish

  Tying the Noose

  Realm of False Gods

  Untethered magic

  Unleashed Magic

  Early Shift

  Damaged but Powerful

  Demon Bound

  Familiar Territory

  The Armour of God

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