Disclaimer: I do not own the copyright for Waking the dead or its characters – all rights belong to the BBC

Content: Heartache, angst, violence,

Rating T – violence

Hey everyone. Sorry it has taken me a bit to update this, life has been a little bit busy lately. Thank you all for your continued reading and feedback. I really do appreciate your time. X

Beyond Grace

Chapter Seven

Boyd and Spence stared in silence through the two way glass at the man sitting before them in interview room. Both trying to comprehend how this insignificant looking man could have been responsible for taking the life of someone that they loved. Not much surprised Spence anymore, he had seen the extent of one human's cruelty to another many times, but never did he believe for one second that anyone would want to murder Grace. As he stared through the glass, he was imagining ways that he could make Harbinson suffer the hatred that he felt towards someone he didn't know almost uncontainable.

Boyd stood trying to bring his thoughts into alignment, his mind racing from images of Grace, to questions he needed to ask, to what he really wanted to do to Harbinson. He swallowed hard as he watched the mousey haired man sit silently in the chair, only occasionally lifting his head and looking around the interview room. He intently stared at Harbinson's face, was that the last face that Grace had looked upon? Were his filthy hands the last touch that she felt? Boyd felt a pain in his stomach as he tried to suppress the image of Harbinson's fingers touching Grace, the wave of nausea almost overtaking him. After what seemed like an eternity he strengthened himself and made for the door which led to where Harbinson was sitting.

He turned to his DI "Stay here Spence huh."

"Yes Sir." Almost at once Spence felt guilty as the feeling of relief swept over him. He didn't want to sit across the table from Harbinson; he didn't want to even be in the same room as him. He wasn't sure he would be able to control himself.

Boyd inserted his ear piece into his right ear, pulled open the door and entered. He walked silently toward the table in the middle of the room, slid the chair from underneath and sat down placing a brown folder on the top. He sat in silence trying to command control over his body, yet never releasing his gaze from Harbinson's face.

"What am I doing here, I've done nothing wrong." Harbinson broke the silence with distain.

"Shut up, I ask the questions in here. Okay?"

"Look you can't hold me here. I just …"

"I'm sorry didn't you hear me ….. SHUT THE HELL UP." Harbinson sat back in his seat, folded his arms and expelled air loudly.

"Am I boring you?"

"What?"

"I said am I boring you?"

"Yea …. Just tell me what ….."

"Okay let me stop you right there. Firstly I think that you are confusing me with someone who actually cares what you think. Secondly why don't you start telling me where she is?"

"Where who is? Aww this is crazy." Harbinson tutted loudly.

"Harbinson I swear do not screw me around, I am not in the mood to be screwed around today so why don't you just save us both time and tell me where she is." Boyd was fighting hard against the rage that was overtaking him.

"Look I don't know who you are talking about, you can't hold me in here, I've done nothing."

Boyd's tone began to rise "Let me make this crystal clear to you yea. No-one knows that you are here, so that means I can do whatever I want. I can rip both your arms off right here and now and beat you to death with them if I wanted and no-one would ever know, and I swear if you don't start answering my questions I will do exactly that." His eyes widened as he held Harbinson's gaze before continuing. "Now you will start telling me what I want to know and you will start right now, ARE WE CLEAR?

Harbinson lifted his head and stared at Boyd. He noticed a wreckless emotion flash in the eyes of the man who sat across the table from him. Whatever information he wanted to know had put him on the edge and Harbinson was in no doubt that he was crazy enough to be capable of carrying out his threat.

"Yea … Yea." Harbinson replied.

"Good." Boyd leaned forward and clasped his hands together. "Now what don't you start with telling me where Grace Foley is?"

"Never heard of her."

"Aww come on, seriously I'm gonna lose it, we both know that is not true – so stop wasting time and tell me where she is."

"I swear to you I …."

The noise of Boyd's hand slamming onto the desk reverberated around the interview room. "Listen you little prick, I don't know what kind of game you are playing but it stops now. I know you know Grace Foley and I also know you had a personal grudge against her so why don't you just take a look at this and maybe it will jog your memory a little."

Boyd opened the brown folder in front of him and placed the photograph of Grace in front of Harbinson. His eyes never leaving his face, intently gauging his reaction but in doing so ensuring that he didn't have to look again at the photograph which lay in front of him.

Harbinson picked up the photo and blew out air. "Why are you showing me this?"

"YOU KNOW WHY, NOW WHAT ….."

A sudden look of recognition flashed over the face of Harbinson "Hold on … yea, yea I do know her." Nodding his head he continued. "That's the slag who got me banged up. They did her good, just what she deserved, makes me wish I hadda done it myself."

The smile that had appeared at the corners of Harbinson's lips had little time to light there as Boyd leant over and grabbed his head violently smashing it off the table, the impact causing Harbinson's nose to immediately spill blood. His dark eyes narrowed as he slid the chair from underneath him and grabbed Harbinson by the hair trailing him into the corner of the room. The last few days of pain, hurt and frustration found release in a cloud of fury as he allowed the darkness to completely engulf him raining unrelenting punches to Harbinson's face. His knuckles, aching under the force of the impact, were painted with Harbinson's crimson blood as the delicate skin under his eye split. Harbinson's legs gave way under the barrage of pain, plummeting him to the floor.

"GET UP …. I SAID GET UP!"

Grabbing Harbinson's t-shirt he trailed the man back unto his feet pinning him against the wall with one arm while the other continued to pound into his abdomen. Every destructive motion fuelled by the haunted image of Grace.

Spence had heard what Harbinson said from his position in the observation room and as he watched Boyd smash his face into the desk he made no attempt to enter to stop him. Harbinson deserved everything Boyd dished out and more. No-one speaks about Grace that way. He didn't hear the door open behind him, nor at first the voice calling to him.

"Spence… Spence … SPENCE!" Eve was yelling "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON … YOU''VE GOT TO STOP HIM."

"Eve you didn't hear what he said about Grace."

"I don't care Spence …. He's gonna kill him!"

"What?" The realisation of how far Boyd had gone hitting him in wave of panic.

Spence swore loudly running into the interview room. "BOYD, BOYD, that's enough." He shouted running towards his boss, grabbing Boyd's arms in an attempt to hold him off.

Boyd turned to face his DI, fist raised in the air, his eyes glinting, portraying the fury that was coursing through his body. "BACK OFF SPENCE, I'M WARNING YOU, BACK OFF." Spence knew that Boyd would have no qualms hitting him in order to return to the main reason for his loss of control.

Placing himself between the two men holding out his hand towards his boss Spence continued "Boyd …. Listen to me Boyd ….. he's not worth it, yea, Grace wouldn't want this, she wouldn't want you to …"

Boyd's body shook at the mention of her name. Observing Harbinson's beaten state he knew she would be horrified at what he had done, at what he undoubtedly would have done if Spence hadn't have stepped in. Breathing heavily he swallowed hard as the wave of realisation washed over him. I wanted to kill him; I was going to kill him. He rubbed his fingers over his eyes to displace the tears that were threatening to spill down his face and slowly nodded in acceptance of his DI's words.

"Get him cleaned up eh Spence." His voice barely a whisper.

"Sure thing boss, leave it with me."

Boyd stood silently for a moment processing the aftermath before turning to leave. As he entered the observation room Eve reached out to him grabbing his arm as he passed.

"Boyd …?" He turned to look at her, his eyes awash with emotion and self-degradation. He couldn't talk to her, he couldn't talk to anyone. Releasing himself from her grip without a word he continued toward the confines of his office

The door to the lab opened and Eve lifted her gaze to watch Spencer enter.

"Did you get Harbinson sorted?"

"Yea I patched him up, he'll live … unfortunately."

"Fortunately for Boyd though." Her eyebrows raised in relief. "He's gonna be feeling pretty sore for a while, Boyd really laid into him."

"Good." Spence sat down at the table next to Eve. "Aww Eve, this is such a mess, Boyd's too involved to think straight, we all are. I guess that's why should never of been investigating this in the first place, the Commissioner was right."

"So what are you saying, that we should call him, take ourselves of the case?"

"No, No not at all. We owe it to Grace to be the ones to find her yea? I want to find her. We just have to somehow take a step back, try to focus on the case and the evidence and not on …." He inhaled deeply.

"Grace…" Eve completed his sentence.

"Yea …. not on Grace."

"Actually I have found something out." Eve quietly spoke. "I was going to tell you both before, when I came into the interview room, before Boyd ….." Her voice trailed off before continuing. "Anyway, you know how he was sent the bullet through the post, which I thought looked as though there was dried blood on it, well there was. I ran it for DNA and got a match ….. with Grace."

Spence covered his face with his hands "We're gonna have to tell him."

"I know, I was just giving him some time to cool down. He's already convinced that this was the bullet that killed her."

"Looks like he could be right."

Spence gathered his thoughts, "Okay, so are you going to tell him, or am I?"

"I'll do it." Eve replied.

The knock at his door broke into Boyd's thoughts. He had been sitting in his office for almost two hours, lost in his own thoughts and grief. He knew he had lost control, that he would have continued beating Harbinson until …. it was unthinkable. The fact that he was capable of desiring to kill someone with his bare hands was unthinkable. Am I any better than those I put away?

"Come in." his tone tinged with remorse.

"Hey Boyd, how are you doing?" Eve's voice was warm and sympathetic.

Boyd lifted his head and looked up at her "How's Harbinson?" Purposefully ignoring her enquiry into his wellbeing.

"He's going to be fine, a little bit tender for a while, but he'll live."

"And you and Spence, how are you guys doing?"

"We're holding up, worried about you though." Boyd allowed himself to smile at her

"I'm … I'm sorry you had to witness that …."

Eve shook her head to silence him. "It's hard on all of us."

"Yea, even still."

"Boyd, I need to talk to you about the bullet. I've ran some tests. " Eve steadied herself as she continued her voice lowered. "The DNA is a match to Grace."

"I see." He knew there was so much more he should be saying but his throat wouldn't allow any further words to pass the lump that was threatening to choke him.

"I am waiting for the results of the ballistics test; we are running it through the database right now. It could take a few hours to complete depending on how quickly we can get a match, if of course, there is a match."

Boyd shook his head in acknowledgement. "Okay, thanks Eve. Let me know as soon as something turns up would you, please?"

"Of course."

"Thank you"

As Eve turned to close the door on her way out she could hear his resolve break and him begin to quietly sob.