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

by Rebecca Bradley

  ‘I’ve been completely honest with you. You can’t believe what that bastard says to you. He has her. You know that from the lipstick we found in the garage. I don’t know how he dare deny it after leaving that behind. I don’t know what game he’s playing but don’t let him screw with you, Claudia. I’ve given you everything. Now please hunt the bastard down.’

  Claudia regarded him closely. Never had she been through anything so difficult in her life. Only further examination of the Strangler case would help her sort through this. They had to keep going with the interview. Difficult as it was.

  Chapter 49

  Dominic

  Three weeks ago

  Nearly six months had passed and the Sheffield Strangler had managed to evade detection and arrest. He had also managed to kill a further three women. These women fitted the same profile. They were in their forties, they had one or more children and were using the Close to Me dating app.

  ‘We’ve liaised with the undercover team,’ Kapoor said in the morning briefing. The mood was heavy. It had been a long haul and they’d trudged in day after day and pulled their weight for all that time. Putting in the hours and the emotional energy, in an attempt to bring this killer to justice, with no break in the case. The team had expanded. More staff had been brought in to give it fresh eyes and an injection of new blood. ‘We’re going to see how they can help us with this. We can’t let him keep killing this way. It seems that he’s changed his photograph on the dating site, but one that still makes sure he can’t be identified. The app has noted a decline in use but women are still lonely and still using the app, believing it won’t happen to them. But, unfortunately, it has to happen to someone.’

  That night was the night Ruth came home and told Dominic she had been assigned the case. She was to be the lone single woman who would start using the site, with a profile that said she was a single mother. This meant she had to go out on several dates as men asked to meet her, because they never knew which men were genuine and which were the killer. This caused tension in the house as she readied herself for her dates. Dominic stressed that she was either on a date with an eligible bachelor or a crazed killer and the tension within the house grew. They were barely speaking to each other by this point. Dominic didn’t know how to talk to her. He was so consumed by the case that life outside of work was meaningless to him.

  As far as the investigation went, Ruth was an attractive woman so she had quite a lot of hits on the app. It was a busy time for her. The team were with her every step of the way and she said she was never afraid at any point. If it looked to be a genuine date and not the killer one of the team would text her that there was a problem with her ‘son’ and she would make her escape. The undercover team were prepared to be in it for as long as was needed. They were sure he would connect with Ruth at some point. The way the app worked was you could have conversations through the app for as long as you wanted before you set yourself up on a date. At all times Ruth had multiple conversations going as well as arranging dates. She made it clear on her profile she had a young son and reiterated this in the conversations. Because it was in her profile, she only got hits from men who were okay with this. It seemed it was the expected thing of a woman of her age to have already had their children. It wasn’t as shocking as it might have been had she been dating when she was in her twenties.

  Two weeks in and the team thought they might have started chatting to the right man as the image on his profile photo was blurry and his face was hard to make out.

  Dominic’s instinct to forbid Ruth from meeting him fought with his desire to catch this monster.

  Chapter 50

  Claudia

  Forty hours since Ruth’s attack

  ‘You’re being bailed.’ Claudia stared at her father across the interview-room table.

  ‘What’s happened?’ he asked.

  ‘We want time to get a better picture. You’ll have conditions, of course. I want your passport. You’re not to leave the country. But the evidence so far is circumstantial. You know that, you’re a cop. The evidence is in your home. Any prints or DNA found is likely to have a genuine reason for being there. We got the results back on the lipstick, your prints aren’t on it.’

  ‘You think I’m the Sheffield Strangler?’ He sounded incredulous.

  Claudia ran a hand through her hair. ‘Of course not, he contacted us while you were in custody, which is the main reason you’re being bailed.’ A strand fell back down in front of her eyes.

  ‘And if he hadn’t?’

  She shook her head.

  ‘You’re not sure, are you?’

  ‘Of course I am. You’re my father.’ The reality was that she was confused by the whole situation and needed solid evidence one way or another. What they had now was neither here nor there. ‘Do you want this bail or not?’

  Dominic stared at her. ‘I didn’t do this, Claudia. I promise you. Once you find her, you’ll know that.’

  She stared at him.

  ‘You know I want bail. I want to do something more proactive to find Ruth than sitting in here like I have for the past two days.’

  ‘It’s late now, there’s not a lot you can do. We don’t have a body.’ She bit her lip. ‘I’m sorry, Dad, but you know the score, it’s how we work. If she hasn’t survived we don’t have as much evidence of the offence until we have her body.’

  ‘I want her back, Claudia, in one way, shape or form. Be she alive or dead. I would rather have my wife back but if you have a body then you have a body.’ He stopped talking and stared down at the table.

  ‘It’s been so long and she’s lost a lot of blood,’ Claudia said. ‘The odds aren’t in her favour. I’m so sorry, Dad.’ She stood. ‘Let’s get you out of here so you can go home.’

  ‘It’s safe to go to the house? CSU have finished?’

  ‘Yes, they finished last night. I’d take you but I’ve got some stuff to do. Will you be okay?’ She was tired and just wanted him gone for the day.

  ‘I’ll be fine. I drove into work yesterday morning. I just need a lift back to HQ.’

  She messed with her hair again. ‘Dad, we seized your car.’

  There was silence. They stared at each other. Knowing it had to be done. It was the right thing to do once he was arrested for Ruth’s murder but that fact was a sore between them now. One they were to worry at or avoid at all costs for the pain it might cause.

  ‘I’ll see what I—’ Claudia started.

  ‘Don’t worry. I’ll get one of the lads from the station to take me home.’ He spoke over her.

  Her cheeks coloured. ‘I’m sorry, Dad.’

  He shook his head. ‘Don’t be. You were only doing your job.’

  She opened the door to the interview room. ‘I’m sorry they decided I had to lead this investigation and interview you.’

  He shook his head again. ‘It’s fine, honestly. You were the best person they could think of and if that’s what they thought then I’m good with that. All I’m interested in is getting Ruth back.’

  Claudia went to speak to the custody sergeant. ‘Any word on the telephone number yet?’

  ‘It’s a pay-as-you-go.’ His mood was sombre.

  Claudia rolled her eyes. ‘Pretty much as expected.’

  ‘Paid for in cash and the store doesn’t have CCTV. It’s only a small corner shop.’

  ‘So it’s going nowhere.’ She was sick of this job. People watched far too many crime dramas and knew how the police investigated crime and therefore knew how to avoid detection. It frustrated the hell out of her.

  ‘If I’d realised, I could have kept him talking,’ the sergeant complained.

  She’d been annoyed with him earlier but there really wasn’t anything to be done and she told him as much. ‘He wouldn’t have talked to you. It’s not likely he would have let slip something that would have helped us. He’s too smart for that. He’s proved too smart all the way through this. That’s why the investigation has been running so long.’
She could see her words were not having much effect on the sergeant. He was berating himself for his earlier slip. ‘Thank you for running the number though.’

  ‘The least I could do. I’ve had the results emailed to you for reference.’

  She thanked him, completed the necessary work to release Dominic then unlocked his cell and let him out.

  He looked smaller than she remembered him being before this started. More shrivelled and, if possible, more grey. His skin pallor and his hair.

  ‘Let’s get you back,’ she urged him into the sunlight out of the building.

  Back at HQ Dominic walked into the corridors of the station, looking for a friend, a colleague who could run him home. Kane walked to the incident room and Claudia went to her office. There was a pile of paperwork she needed to do to make sure what had occurred over the last couple of days was above board. For all Sharpe’s promises of there being nothing untoward, Claudia didn’t want to risk it and would write up her own account.

  Several hours later her eyes were crossing and she could no longer think straight. As far as she could see, everything had been covered as far as her involvement in her dad’s case went. It was time to go and see Sharpe and catch up with her.

  Sharpe was in her office, head bent over some paperwork on her desk. ‘Ah, Claudia, you’ve finished up for the day?’ Sharpe looked pristine. As though she had only just walked into her office, not that she’d been there for a very long day.

  ‘Dominic’s been bailed,’ Claudia said sitting in the chair opposite Sharpe without waiting for an invitation. She was too tired for politeness.

  ‘And your thoughts after spending two days with him?’

  ‘He’s my dad . . .’ She paused, attempting to parse out her thoughts.

  Sharpe waited her out.

  ‘The bottom line is I need evidence. You know me, the way I work. There isn’t a rule book I don’t like.’ She bit her lower lip. ‘They don’t have the perfect marriage. He admitted to an affair with Hayley Loftus who’s on his team, but said it’s over or it’s going to be over.’ She rubbed at her eyes. ‘I’m not sure which it is to be honest.’

  ‘Could be motive.’ Sharpe shuffled the papers in front of her and tidied them into a neat pile, tapping the edges on the desk to align them.

  ‘He’d been caught lying to us, he had to be honest about it. I don’t think it’s anything more than a work fling that has probably run its course. We have the lipstick in the same make and colour the Sheffield Strangler uses, at the scene where Ruth was taken.’

  ‘Mmm.’ Sharpe was thoughtful. ‘You heard from him this morning.’

  ‘Yeah, said he doesn’t have Ruth.’

  ‘What do you think of that?’

  ‘Dominic seems to think he’s waiting to dump her so we can find her body. Says he likes the ritual of the burial, and the strangulation. It’s his thing. It’s what gets him off. Dominic thinks the Strangler wants us to find her like that. I think Dominic has a point. He’s worked the case for six months. He knows the guy pretty well.’

  ‘You’re right. And there was nothing on the lipstick?’

  ‘No. There never has been in any of the cases. It’s not unusual.’

  ‘What about Ruth’s cells on the lipstick, has he used it on her yet?’

  ‘I didn’t want to tell Dominic this but yes, he had smeared the lipstick on Ruth.’ Claudia let out a long sigh. The last two days had been difficult.

  ‘Go home, Claudia. It’s a new day tomorrow. We have a late shift on tonight, they’ll keep making enquiries and will be available should anything come in overnight, but for now, you need some sleep or you’ll be no use to anyone and I want you fresh for tomorrow.’

  Claudia stretched her arms over her head and yawned, only now realising how tired she was, though it was doubtful she would actually sleep.

  ‘You look like shit,’ Sharpe said.

  Claudia didn’t comment. But how was it she looked like shit and Sharpe looked immaculate? She rose from the chair. ‘I’ll see you tomorrow.’

  ‘Bright and early, Claudia.’

  * * *

  It felt like she’d only been away from her desk a couple of hours when Claudia found herself sitting back at her desk the next morning. She immediately started to type up the interview from the previous day. She had an hour or so before the rest of the team was due in. It should give her enough time to catch up on deskwork. She needed to go through her emails. Two days of not going near them meant they would be stacking up.

  Staff started to trickle in. Then it was time to do a team briefing and see where everyone was up to with their enquiries. She looked at the clock, eight a.m. They should be ready for her now.

  Claudia’s office was two doors away from the incident room. She liked that she was close to her team. It meant she was accessible and she liked that they came to her if they had a problem. She strode the short distance to the morning briefing.

  ‘Sorry I didn’t get to see much of you yesterday. It was a tough day all round and I want to thank you for your dedication and professionalism as well as your generosity in dealing with such a sensitive job. I’m sure you’ve already collared Russ and if I know him, he’s been discreet and not given anything away.’

  Kane inclined his head in agreement.

  ‘We’ve no leads on Ruth and it looks like the Sheffield Strangler has her, but we don’t count her out until we have her body. Do I make myself clear?’

  There was a quiet round of agreement in the room.

  ‘So, let’s get on and work through what we have.’

  Graham went first, updating the room about the forensics on the lipstick and that it was clean other than having Ruth’s DNA on the actual lipstick itself. Though it didn’t fit with the usual scenes of being left with the body, the make and colour did match that of the Sheffield Strangler and that was a part of the MO that hadn’t been made public.

  Claudia looked at Harry. ‘You were tasked with liaising with the source handling team to see if anyone on the streets had heard anything about the missing woman or the Sheffield Strangler. How did you get on?’

  Harry leaned back in his chair. ‘No one is reporting having heard anything. It seems that the killer is pretty much keeping to himself.’

  It was as she expected.

  ‘Have we had any results from the photofit we put out?’

  Harry again. ‘There have been a few phone calls from people who think they recognise him, but we’ve followed through on them and the majority have alibis for the time period Ruth went missing — it was the easiest period to check. You know what people are like, they want to be involved in a high-profile murder investigation so are nominating their neighbours. Poor guys are gobsmacked.’

  ‘Someone does know him though.’ She was exasperated they were no closer.

  Harry kept quiet. There was nothing to add. Claudia took a deep breath. ‘Russ and I interviewed Dominic Harrison and, for anyone who doesn’t know, he’s my dad.’ Silence smothered the room. ‘He was distraught as you’d expect him to be. He was adamant the Sheffield Strangler has done this as he’s been chasing him for the last six months and thinks the killer wants him off his tail. If it is the Sheffield Strangler, and the lipstick goes some way to prove that it is, then this is as good a way as any to get the detective you see as bothersome off your back. His focus is going to be directed elsewhere. Little does our killer realise there’s a huge team involved in tracking him and not just the one who he’s been liaising with.’

  She let the information sink in. ‘Today we continue to work with the Sheffield Strangler investigation team. It’s going to be another long day, I’m afraid.’

  Claudia thanked them and walked back to her office. There was a small pile of mail waiting for her. She picked up the top envelope as she seated herself behind her desk. It was hand-delivered as it had no stamp or postmark. She opened it and stared as she read the note. Then dropped it on the desk, picked up her phone and photographed the paper in fro
nt of her as she re-read it.

  DI Nunn,

  It’s unusual for me to make a phone call. Letters are my usual mode of communication. I wanted to make sure you believe I do not have your missing officer. Because taking a cop is a step too far and I need you to believe this. I want to meet with you, so I can prove I do not have her. Come alone and I’ll tell you where I was and what I was doing at the time she was taken. But you must come alone. I do not trust anyone else. If I see signs of any other police presence I will not show up. Trust that I will know if they’re there. To find out the truth, meet with me at the graveyard at Cemetery Avenue at 11 a.m. in front of the Nonconformist chapel. Don't be late or risk your investigation being stuck in the wrong place and your cop running out of time.

  A sudden coldness filled her chest and her skin prickled. This was direct contact from the Sheffield Strangler and he wanted to meet with her. She had no idea what she was going to do. It was a chance to finally capture him, but he’d said she had to be alone and he’d know if other cops were present. She had no idea what he had put in place to detect the other cops, but she was wary of scaring him off if she could get into a real dialogue with him while Ruth was still missing. Ruth was the priority here. She didn’t want to do anything to jeopardise her safe return. If going to speak to him, under whatever pretence he was setting up, was a way to get Ruth back safely then she would do whatever was needed. And that included going to meet him.

  But without backup?

  It just wasn’t something she was capable of doing. It went against everything she stood for. She was a rule-follower.

  But what about Ruth? What if involving the troops got Ruth killed?

  This guy said he didn’t have her and if he didn’t have her then what was the risk? Though the whole point for Claudia was to find Ruth. There was a chance he was lying to her and this made her wonder what game he was playing.

  Claudia looked at her watch. She didn’t have much time. The Sheffield Strangler, as the press dubbed him, had obviously planned it so that the police couldn’t easily set up any kind of surveillance or anything where they were to meet. She couldn’t do this on her own though, no matter what his instructions were, it wasn’t how she was built.