BLOOD STAINED an unputdownable crime thriller with a breathtaking twist (Detective Claudia Nunn Book 1)

by Rebecca Bradley

‘He’s been arrested for the murder of Ruth Harrison . . .’

  There was a quick intake of breath from Kirsty. Harrison looked up at her and shook his head sharply. ‘No, Kirsty, I didn’t.’

  ‘Be quiet, Dominic.’ She glared at him as tears filled her eyes. She turned to Claudia. ‘And grounds?’ she asked quietly.

  This was the part where she had to tell Kirsty why they thought Dominic was the one who had murdered Ruth. Claudia couldn’t believe this was happening. ‘There was a broken glass at his home indicative of a struggle and a pool of blood which we’re having assessed to see if it is a match for Ruth, and also if someone could survive losing that much, but on first glance, we’re saying, no, no they couldn’t. Something bad happened at that address last night and we need to find out what that was.’

  A tear slipped down Kirsty’s cheek. She tapped in the details Claudia had given her into the custody system. ‘You don’t know where she is?’ she asked.

  ‘No, not at this moment in time.’

  Seeing Kirsty become emotional made Claudia’s own throat thicken. She tried to swallow past the pain and hurt inside her but she nearly choked on it. What had Ruth gone through? And where was she? Was she cold and shivering and bleeding out waiting for them to find her? The thought nearly brought Claudia to her knees. She grabbed hold of the custody desk and held on hard.

  Kirsty continued to type into the system. Claudia could hear her giving Dominic his rights. It was vague and fuzzy, in the background. Words she had heard hundreds of times before. His rights to legal advice, his right to read the codes of practice, the book that said how cops had to work and also his right to have someone told that he was here. But who would he tell? The one person he might tell that didn’t know was probably dead.

  The acrid taste of vomit hit the back of her throat. She swallowed hard and winced at the taste in her mouth.

  ‘I need a drink of water. Are you okay with him?’ she asked Kirsty.

  Kirsty waved her away. ‘Yes, yes. Go. We’ll finish getting him booked in and then get him fingerprinted, photographed and his DNA done etc.’

  They both looked at her with sympathy written across their faces. Though she couldn’t tell if Dominic’s was for himself or for her.

  She stumbled away in the direction of the toilets, walked into a cubicle and locked herself in, pushing her forehead against the door. She couldn’t believe she had been the one to book him into custody. Sharpe had been cruel to put this on her. There were plenty of other people who could have done it. She turned around to the toilet basin. She wouldn’t vomit.

  Claudia could see why Sharpe had done what she’d done. If it was unsettling her then it would damn well be unsettling him. With a deep intake of breath she steadied herself and unlocked the cubicle. In front of the mirror she could see the day was already starting to take its toll on her. Dark shadows were starting to form under her eyes. She twisted the tap on and held her hands underneath the running water until it was cold, then scooped it onto her face. It was time to take Dominic Harrison into interview and see what he had to say for himself. Ruth was out there somewhere and she needed to be found. Whatever state she was in.

  When she came out of the ladies her DS, Russell Kane, was waiting for her. Russ was a hulk of a man, with broad shoulders from his spare time playing rugby. He had a proper rugby player’s nose that had been broken several times and was bent out of shape, but for all his bulk and threatening appearance, he was one of the most loved members of her team and she was glad she had him with her today.

  ‘Hey, Russ.’ She smiled up at him. ‘Thanks for today.’

  ‘No worries. How are you holding up?’

  ‘Oh, you know. . . Sharpe said this was the best play to find Ruth. Bearing in mind it’s the most important thing right now, I have to put my feelings aside and get on with the job. I hope we can find her before anything bad . . .’ She paused a minute, rubbed at her face. ‘Before anything worse happens to her.’ She looked Russ in the eye. ‘The blood needs to be tested. We don’t know that it was hers yet. I’ve seized a toothbrush and hairbrush so they can look for a match, but until then, we hold out hope.’ She didn’t know if she was saying that for factual accuracy or to keep herself going.

  ‘Got it.’ He’d do anything for her and if she needed for him to hold it together and keep this day ticking over like any ordinary investigation then that’s what he would do.

  * * *

  The offender interview room in the custody suite was not that different to the witness interview room they had left at Snig Hill — though this one held recording equipment and had a red emergency push bar running around the room.

  Dominic had stated he did not want a solicitor. Neither did he want a Fed rep — a representative of the police federation, the police union, who could be present during the interview. He said he had done nothing wrong therefore he had no need of either of them. Those were for people who were guilty or had something to hide. He was neither.

  Claudia and Kane grabbed their seats and lowered themselves down in front of him.

  The room closed in on her. Small, suffocating and claustrophobic. Claudia wanted to claw at her throat but tried to focus on the job at hand. Kane unwrapped the discs the interview would be recorded on. The seconds dragged by as Kane loaded the disc into the machine, then they were ready.

  Claudia made the introductions. When it was time for Harrison to talk for the recording and give his own name and address she gritted her teeth. Her body told her that Sharpe and Connelly were wrong. They were way out on a limb and she was not the best person to be doing this. She reminded Harrison that he was entitled to free and independent legal advice and cautioned him again, explaining the caution to him in plain speak, even though it was something he had done himself many a time, so understood the caution back to front.

  Harrison never said a word throughout it all. He just looked at her as she walked through the initial procedures. Then it was time to remind him of his reason for arrest and she stumbled. Her words fell over themselves as they came out of her mouth. ‘You’ve been arrested on the murder of — the suspicion of the murder of Ruth Harrison at some point between yesterday afternoon, when she was last seen, and today.’

  A drop of sweat slid down her spine. She wriggled in her seat in an attempt to get her clothing away from her skin. Damp patches were an obvious sign she was struggling and she would not give him the pleasure of seeing that from her.

  Opposite her, Harrison was sitting back in his chair. He could have been the interviewing officer for how calm he was. Kane gave her the briefest half-smile. He was here for her and had her back. She could do this.

  ‘You’ve already explained about last night and how you didn’t see Ruth when you got home from work, Dominic. Tell me what you think has happened to her,’ she said, proud that her voice came out calm and level.

  Harrison scratched his head, his eyes dark. ‘I’ve told you, I think it’s the Sheffield Strangler, the case I’m investigating. I think he has something to do with this and in taking her he might even have decided to set me up.’

  ‘I’m not working that case. Why don’t you tell us about it?’

  Chapter 10

  Dominic

  Six months ago

  The team were parked a little away from the scene. It was the closest the car could get. They would have to make the rest of their way on foot.

  Dominic had seen a couple of large lamps inside one of the CSU vans. These were in preparation for the darkness that was already threatening to descend. It was the start of October — it would be dark by seven and they needed to be organised. The sky was already overcast and gloomy, the wooded area adding to the feeling of being penned in. They had to work quickly to prepare the ground for where they wanted to place the equipment and make sure they weren’t covering evidence with the base of the lights.

  Further down the road was an ambulance with its rear doors open and sitting on the back step was a man holding onto his do
g on a lead. His shoulders were slumped, his grip on the lead loose, but the spaniel lay quietly at his feet. ‘Krish, go and talk to the caller, make sure he’s okay and if the ambulance let him go, take him back to the station for a CSI to do an examination and seize his clothing. If they take him to the hospital go with him and do everything you need to do there. I take it you brought a change of clothes in case he hasn’t got anyone who can bring him a set?’

  DC Krish Dhawan pulled his notebook from the car. ‘Yes, all organised before we left. The fact that he’d fallen onto the body gave me a clue. I imagine he doesn’t want to be in those clothes any longer than he has to be.’

  ‘Let’s hope he hasn’t transferred too much evidence onto himself because until we take those clothes off him he will be shedding it as he moves. We need to get this done as quickly as possible. Maybe do it in the back of the ambulance if they’ll allow. The change of clothes at least.’

  Dominic was conscious of losing evidence. As there was no life to save, his priority was to preserve evidence so they could advance the inquiry and bring the case to a conclusion with a prosecution. And for that to happen they needed to be alert. They needed to take every step with careful precision and consider all scenarios.

  Krish grabbed a bag out of the boot and headed towards the ambulance.

  It was off one of the wooded footpaths that the body had been found and the uniformed officers guarding the crime scene had done as Kapoor had requested and kept the cordon wide. CSU had beat them there. Suited up, they were approaching the scene slowly and methodically under the canopy of the trees which was casting a dark gloom over proceedings.

  There was no need for all of them to enter the scene so Dominic pulled on the white Tyvek suit, provided his details to the uniformed officer guarding the cordon, and followed the CSIs on the silver plates they were laying down.

  It took them about five minutes to reach the woman’s body. The officers had cordoned off the footpath to stop people coming to look. There was also a small cordon closer to the woman.

  She was in a shallow grave with parts of her body above the soil. Dominic swallowed, not happy about what he was about to see, but he steadily approached the unsettled ground.

  Her blonde hair was a matted tangled mess in the shrubbery and soil on the ground. She was somewhere in her forties. For some reason he had expected someone who was younger, but she had lines on her face that expressed her age.

  Dominic stood over the woman and took in her state. There were ligature marks around her throat and yet it had also been cut. Had he tried to strangle her but failed, so cut her instead, or had the strangulation been part of an elaborate game? Her clothing was dyed red where the blood had run down from the slice in her neck. Her legs were still under the soil. She had been dragged partly out of the ground she had been placed in and Dominic surmised that it was probably animals that had disturbed the basic shallow grave, pulling on the woman in an attempt to better get at her, to see what she was. But he didn’t think they had done much damage. It didn’t look as though she had been in the ground long, though flies had already made themselves at home. He flicked his hand in front of his face to shift a stray fly that had moved too far away from his feeding ground.

  A stain of bright red lipstick smeared around her mouth added a garish look to the poor woman.

  Clicking sounded in Dominic’s ear as one of the CSIs took photographs of the scene and of the woman in situ. Dominic stepped back out of the way and the CSI thanked him.

  ‘Ah, Dominic, what do we have all the way out here, then?’ The voice came from behind him. He turned. It was the Home Office registered forensic pathologist Nadira Azim. She was a petite woman with a softly spoken voice. He liked the way she worked. Her respect of the dead shone through in everything she did.

  ‘It’s not pleasant, Nadira,’ he said as she approached.

  ‘They seldom are,’ she replied, lifting her face mask up to cover her mouth.

  He moved to the side to allow her past and she stepped over to the woman in the ground and crouched down at the side of her. ‘Good evening, what are you going to tell me today?’ she said to the corpse in the ground, so quietly Dominic had to strain to hear her.

  It seemed as though the only sound in the woods was the noise of the flies as they buzzed around the body. He hated death and what it did to people. He understood that it was natural. That this woman in front of him didn’t feel any of this and that her energy was going back into the soil every minute that she rested here. But still, it irked him the lack of respect that was shown to her. She should be with her loved ones. Ideally alive, but if she was dead then she deserved to be laid to rest as she and her family had decided she would be. Not left like this for the wildlife to make the most of.

  ‘She’s not quite gone into bloat yet, Dominic,’ Nadira said from her position on the ground. ‘Which means she hasn’t been dead long. I’d say a day or two but I can give you a better idea once I do the PM back at the morgue.’

  ‘When will you be fitting that in?’ Dominic asked.

  She turned to him. ‘I’ll table her for first thing in the morning. How does that suit?’

  ‘Suits fine. I’m hoping we’ll have an ID by then. I hate when they lay unidentified. It seems so disrespectful.’

  Nadira’s fingers worked quickly as she took nail clippings from the woman before she bagged up her hands. ‘I hope you do. I like to put a name to my patients.’ She sat back on her heels. ‘I’m not sure about bagging her head. It’ll interfere with the cut mark around her neck.’ She paused a moment and Dominic let her think. The flies continued their own work around her and Nadira ignored them, unperturbed. ‘I think I’ll leave it and make sure she’s bagged properly as a whole so we don’t lose anything. I don’t want to risk that wound any more than those flies are damaging the evidence right now.’

  Dominic peered over Nadira’s shoulder at the wound across the woman’s neck which was gently humming. His stomach twisted. ‘Urgh. The natural process is disgusting. When I die you can burn me and make it quick.’

  ‘You’d better have a conversation with Ruth then. Make sure she’s aware of your wishes.’ Nadira picked up one of the flies with a pair of tweezers — too stuffed with feeding to move out of her way — and unceremoniously dumped it into a clear glass vial before twisting a lid on.

  ‘How do you want to go?’ Dominic asked. ‘Do you believe in all this green burial that’s all the rage now? Where you’re left in the ground without a casket to let the bugs eat you so you go back to the earth where you supposedly came from?’

  Nadira continued with her tweezers, collecting flies and eggs and dropping them into vials. ‘I do, Dom. It’s a brave new world. As a Muslim woman I will be buried without a casket anyway.’

  A couple of CSI clanged up behind them with the huge metal lights and suddenly they were bathed in fluorescent white light. The woman was illuminous in death in the white glow.

  ‘That’s better,’ said Nadira. ‘I was beginning to struggle. What with the tree cover and the time of day.’ She turned to the CSIs. ‘Thanks, guys. I appreciate it.’

  The day was dragging on; they were losing the light. They needed a break in the case, some new evidence they could move on or the day would close on a new case with no leads.

  Chapter 11

  Dominic

  They didn’t have an identification for the woman as yet. There was nothing on her person that gave her away and most of her fingertips had been nibbled at by woodland creatures so fingerprints were out of the question.

  The crime scene investigators did their thing around her body, sieving for evidence, slowly brushing away the soil around her. It wouldn’t be a quick job to get her out of the ground. They couldn’t just pick her up and take her away. The smallest piece of evidence in the damp woodland ground could prove to be the piece they needed to close the case.

  ‘I’m going to talk to the witness,’ Dominic said. ‘We’ll also search our missing pers
on’s database now I have some kind of description to go on. See if we can ID her before the PM tomorrow.’

  He walked away from the burial site and the quiet efficient scene of people hard at work, tirelessly taking it step by tiny step. He admired the CSIs and how they could focus on such detailed work and in such difficult conditions.

  Back on the road Krish was still at the ambulance and Paul was waiting by the car with DC Hayley Loftus. There wasn’t much to do here as it wasn’t a place you were going to get a collection of witnesses.

  ‘What’ve we got, Sarge?’ Hayley asked.

  Dominic ran his hand through his hair. ‘It’s not pleasant. She’s in a shallow grave and it looks as though animals have tried to drag her out. There are bruises around her neck but she’s also had her throat cut. Nadira won’t make a guess on which one killed her until she’s done the PM, as you can imagine. The woman looks to be in her forties. We need to check our missing people to see if we have anyone of that age that matches her basic description. How’s Krish getting on? Do we think the dog walker has anything to do with it?’

  Paul shook his head. ‘From what I can gather the guy is shaking like a leaf. He’s either a really good actor or he’s had nothing to do with this at all. We’ll obviously look into him. Get his movements for however long this woman has been missing and around the time of death. Do what we can with him. But I think he’s a witness and nothing else.’

  ‘I’ll go and check in with Krish and we’ll go from there.’ And with that Dominic turned his back and strode towards the ambulance where Krish, the paramedic and the dog walker were waiting.

  The dog walker was an older gent. He had thick white hair with a bald patch at the top, and was pale and shaken, sitting on the steps of the ambulance with a blood pressure pump around his arm. He was wearing tracksuit bottoms and a plain white T-shirt. Krish had obviously managed to get him changed and seized his clothes.

  Dominic hoped that a CSI had done his examination as well. It annoyed him when tasks were left half done.