Gray clicked the link and read the article, which told of a 17-year-old youth who received a £500 fine and a twelve-month driving ban for killing his passenger girlfriend when he crashed his car.  He had admitted driving without due care and attention rather than face the charge of causing death by dangerous driving.

He thought about Stuart Boyle, the man who had killed Daniel.  The police wouldn’t give Gray any specific details about Boyle due to the trial, which was starting today, but one officer had admitted he had ‘previous’.  They were confident of a conviction, and the fact that Boyle had been remanded in custody at the start of the year suggested their case was good.  They had CCTV evidence of Boyle leaving the driver’s side door, which was captured by a resident who had installed the cameras after being plagued by the local youths.

Gray would miss the first day of Boyle’s trial, which was expected to last all week, but would be in court for the remaining days and the verdict.

Another headline caught his eye

“M1 closed near Luton after crash kills two.”

His thoughts immediately turned to his wife.  The coroner’s verdict was suicide based on the fact that she had removed her seat belt and disabled the air-bag before ploughing into the motorway bridge support at over one hundred and ten miles per hour.  Gray didn’t dispute their decision, but since her death he had cursed himself daily for not realising she wasn’t as strong as him, and he knew he should have seen the signs.  His Army training had taught him that death inevitably came for everyone, and when you lose someone close you celebrate their life, not mourn their passing.

On this day, his Army training abandoned him and he cried like he hadn’t cried in his thirty six years.

The funeral was held at the same church where their son was laid to rest.  The mourners were equally split between Dina’s family and Gray’s ex-Army friends, separated by the coffin suspended over the hole in the ground.

Tom’s parents had handed him to social services as a toddler and he had been raised by foster family after foster family until he was old enough to join the Army and finally find people with whom he could truly bond.  They were his only family now.

To Gray, the service seemed to be over as soon as it had started.  He had spent the entire time in his own recollections and heard few of the words spoken by the vicar, not even allowing the late autumn drizzle to penetrate his little world.