‘We went through the mispers, and there haven’t been any males between twenty and forty reported missing in the last forty-eight hours.’
‘So we’ve still got a chance to find him,’ said Claudia. ‘What do you have?’
‘We’ve spotted something else on the drawing that might be able to help us,’ Kane said.
Claudia leaned forward, her interest piqued. ‘Well?’
‘There’s a bundle of clothes on the towpath at the side. Obviously belonging to the guy hanging from the bridge. It looks like he’s definitely chosen his victim beforehand.’
‘And does the enlargement help us any?’ She tapped her fingers on her desk.
Krish bounced on the spot with the paper in his hands. He laid it out on Claudia’s desk, shoving a pile of folders out the way. She tried not to tut at him and lifted the pile out of his way and moved them onto a set of drawers. Krish smoothed the paper out so they could all look down on it, then planted his stubby finger down in the middle where the pile of clothes did indeed sit below the bridge on the footpath.
‘Okay, I see them. Move your finger.’ Claudia tucked a strand of hair behind her ear so it didn’t fly in her way as her head leaned forward over the image. ‘What’s so interesting about a pile of clothes?’
‘Obviously not the clothes,’ said Kane. ‘There’s no way to know what a person is going to wear before they dress themselves. But look at the trainers.’
Claudia trained her eye on the pile of clothes and on top of them a pair of trainers. One upright, one on its side. ‘What about them?’
‘Look at them closely. They look identifiable and they look pretty special for a pair of trainers. We might have a way to identify our victim.’
CHAPTER 25
Claudia peered down at the enlarged sheet of paper, crinkling her eyes so she could focus in on the trainers which rested on top of the clothes folded on the ground.
Either she was getting old and her sight was failing, or the image wasn’t quite clear enough.
‘He’s taunting us,’ she spat out in fury and frustration. Her blood boiled in her veins at being so close and yet so very far away.
Krish leaned in closer, his dark curls pushing her out of the way. His woody aftershave tickled the back of her nose. ‘I thought enlarging it would help,’ he said, disappointment clear in his tone. ‘Does anyone have a magnifying glass?’
‘A magnifying glass? What century do you think we’re in?’ Russ teased.
Krish didn’t take it very well. He jolted upright and stared at his supervisor, a glint of his frustration at the job now directed at his boss. Claudia watched them. Krish was obviously loyal to Dom having come from his original team. He might feel Kane was taking priority because Claudia leaned on him more. She recognised that and needed to actively change it. They worked well together, and he’d been a rock when they’d had to investigate Dominic. By her side the entire time. None of this task force could even comprehend what that had been like. But she had to include them more.
‘I think if we can get our hands on a magnifying glass it might help,’ she said. ‘It certainly can’t do any harm. We’ll be able to see the image more clearly, at least. Anyway, it’s not like we can scan and enhance the image using these archaic computers. And sending it to the computer forensics department will take too long. Let’s give it a shot.’ She turned to Krish. ‘Try to source one, will you, and we’ll have another look at it and see if we can figure out where these trainers are from.’ She smiled at him. ‘Good shout.’
Krish glared at Kane again and stalked out with a nod to Claudia.
‘That went well.’ Russ turned his attention back to the drawing.
‘You asked for a punch in the face.’ Claudia grinned at him. ‘Really? I’d have punched you if you’d have mocked me like that.’
Russ had the good grace to look shamed. ‘It kind of slipped out. Do you think he’s okay?’
‘If he’s not, he’s in the wrong career. We don’t need babies in this department, but it warranted a right hook is all I’m saying.’
‘Yeah, and with your by-the-book approach to everything the poor guy would have been out, regardless of whether you agreed with him.’
Claudia laughed at him. ‘Then it’s a good job he had the sense to keep himself in check.’
Russ returned his attention to the drawing again. ‘A magnifying glass, though?’
‘It can’t hurt to try, can it?’
Russ shrugged. His broad shoulders like shifting boulders under his work shirt. ‘You think we can do this?’
Claudia dropped back into her chair, the question a punch to her abdomen. All the air in her lungs was expelled with the bluntness of the query. She grabbed for her breath and clambered for an answer that didn’t sound as if she was reading a greeting card. All sweet and sickly promises of what they could do if only they tried hard enough. This was her second in command — if you didn’t consider Dom. If she couldn’t be honest with Kane, then she couldn’t do this job.
‘We’re fighting an uphill battle. But at least it’s a battle we’re in. We usually turn up when it’s all done and dusted and the body is on the ground. This time we have a chance to stop it before it happens.’ She let out a long breath. ‘If we can’t do this, if we can’t make it work, we’re going to make sure we did the best job we could have done — there’ll be no room for second guesses.’
Russ tapped the drawing with his fingers. ‘What’s this all about?’
She considered the question. ‘I don’t know. We’d need a profiler for that. Maybe something to consider? The case is unusual enough to warrant one. But if I was to guess, I’d say he was playing some kind of game. He wants our attention.’
‘He’s certainly got that.’
Claudia leaned back in her chair. ‘He has indeed. I spoke to Nadira before you came in. If we don’t get to this guy in time, our hanging man is not going to make it if he’s left up there too long.’
‘This is definitely a murder?’
‘It’s definitely a murder.’
There was another knock, and this time Lisa stuck her head around the door. ‘I’ve been in touch with our GIS team and they can help with the bridge issue.’ She was as excited as Krish had been by the trainers in the drawing.
The team was making inroads, and it was great to see.
‘What exactly is a GIS team?’ She should know, but there were so many small teams that functioned within the force she couldn’t possibly be aware of them all.
‘The Geospatial Intelligence Systems team.’ Lisa had stepped fully into the office now, peered at the enlarged drawing on Claudia’s desk. Her eyes sparkled at having found someone to aid with identifying the bridge.
‘This team can help, how?’
‘They’re going to get us a list of all the bridges over canals in the city. We can visit each one and see if any match the drawing.’
‘Good work. Thanks, Lisa. That’ll prove to be extremely helpful. What with the trainers in the drawing and the GIS team, we might actually be in with a chance of stopping this before it happens.’ A small flutter made itself at home in Claudia’s chest at the prospect of preventing a murder before it was committed. They’d never been in this position before, and it was a good feeling. One she could definitely get used to. If only all criminals gave them a heads-up first.
Lisa bounced back out of the office, her excitement visible in her walk. Claudia smiled.
She peered out through the windows into the incident room. Krish was back and appeared to have retrieved a magnifying glass from somewhere. A small group of the team were standing with him around the enlarged image on his desk. Krish bent right over, his nose practically on the paper. He was shouting at the team to get off him and to shut up, he couldn’t focus with all the noise.
They dutifully shut up.
Claudia jumped to her feet. She couldn’t wait in her office for the news. She strode into the incident room, took up position behind the huddle of
cops currently all showing her their covered backsides.
‘Got it!’ screeched Krish. ‘I’ve got it. Look at the way they’re fastened at the top. The laces go all the way down the side of the trainer. Not many can look like that.’
Claudia stepped forward. ‘How does that help?’
Krish bolted upright, not realising she had been behind him. The magnifying glass in his hand clattering to the desk.
‘Yeah, I think I recognise those. That’s it: Adidas Human Race NMD Pharrell x Chanel,’ said Graham, reading from the website. ‘Came out in 2017. An expensive brand that not many guys on the street can afford.’
‘Something you buy?’ asked Rhys.
Graham gave a quick look at the drawing. ‘Not for me, mate. But when I was in the army, there were some young lads who were into that kind of thing. It kind of got me interested. We weren’t paid enough to kit ourselves out in that gear, but they’d rave about the brands they liked. The stuff they’d wear when they were either higher ranking or had left and got some cushy civvy job that earned them a hell of a lot more.’ He scratched at his jaw. ‘Like I said, they were young lads. But when someone talks enough about something, it’s hard to forget.’
‘Any way we can chase down who owns these trainers?’ Claudia asked.
‘It’s worth a try, boss. They’re expensive, at five to six grand a pair. Whoever owns these has some spare money to throw around and loves his footwear. But even at that price, there will still be plenty, maybe hundreds of them, out there to make our job difficult.’
‘Hundreds narrows our victim pool from what it was. Make contact with all the places who sell these trainers and find out if they shipped to Sheffield. That way, if we focus on the Sheffield buyers, we might be able to ID our victim and stop his murder.’ She would not give up. She could nearly reach out and touch their next victim.
CHAPTER 26
Claudia hadn’t been part of the team that headed out to check out the bridges. As a detective inspector, it wasn’t her job to do the legwork like that. Neither was she calling all the footwear distributors and attempting to identify the victim.
Because of this, she was a ball of anxiety. Her skin was clammy and her nerves shredded.
She paced from her office into the half-empty incident room. A low hush quivered through the air as the few officers left in the office space made the required calls to locate the trainers — to no avail so far or she’d know about it.
The other side of the team weren’t having much luck either, as she hadn’t heard from them.
She wanted to lash out at something. Take her pent-up rage out on an inanimate object. Release the energy that swirled around within her.
Instead, she stormed out of the incident room and out of the building, finding herself in the smoking shed again. A place that was of no use to her as she wasn’t a smoker, but it was a place the smokers gathered, regardless of rank. You could have a conversation with anyone in headquarters down here on the flats of the grey concrete that headquarters towered over. Maybe someone could soothe her furrowed mind.
The shed was empty, the heat of the day searing up from the ground, making Claudia hot and sweaty and uncomfortable.
She kicked the side of the shed and cursed as her toe throbbed in her shoe.
‘Whatever did the shed do to you?’ a voice behind her asked.
She didn’t recognise the voice and turned to see who it was. A male in a suit stood behind her, which, because of his suit, meant she had no idea of his rank. He could be a DC two ranks lower than her own or any rank higher.
He was tall and filled his suit well. And had the most twinkly blue eyes she had ever seen. They stood out because his hair was dark and his eyes sparkled below his eyebrows.
‘Sorry about that. It’s a tough day.’
‘I can see that.’ He smiled. ‘Anything I can do to help?’
She had no idea who he was. Headquarters was so huge you didn’t know everyone inside. It was easy to never meet other colleagues in there, to only head into your own part of the building and out again and not engage with the rest of the staff.
This was the reason she had come to the smoker’s shed, to look for help, wasn’t it?
As he waited he pulled out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter from his pocket, offered Claudia one.
‘I’m sorry, I don’t smoke.’
He raised an eyebrow.
She laughed.
‘So you don’t smoke . . .’ He lit his own cigarette and inhaled. ‘Yet I find you in the smoking shed. Not only in the smoking shed, but assaulting the poor structure. What on earth could it have done to offend you so much?’
Claudia brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. She looked a little ridiculous. It would never sound sensible if she tried to explain herself. ‘I wanted . . .’ She thought about her next words. ‘I wanted . . .’
He waited patiently.
She actually wanted to kick him for his patience.
‘How about you tell me about your day?’ He tried instead.
That was easier. It was unlikely he was Press wandering about within the confines of the outer limits of South Yorkshire Police grounds.
‘I’m waiting for my team to identify a male, who, if we don’t find him, will become a victim of murder.’ She ran a hand through her hair. Some pent-up pressure was being released in the conversation.
He nodded. ‘Ah, the drawing victim. That’s your job?’
How did he know about that? ‘Yes, but how—’
‘Did I know?’ He swapped the cigarette he was smoking into his left hand and held out his right hand. ‘DCI Adam Blackwood. I’m the new Intelligence DCI. Taking over from Jennings.’
It all clicked into place. ‘Oh, I’d heard Jennings was leaving. I hadn’t realised she’d already left. I would have popped by and introduced myself.’ She tried to prevent herself from blushing. A thoroughly female thing to do and a bodily function she had no control over. But he didn’t seem to notice. She was annoyed at herself for not being on the ball with the new mover in the intel department. She should know better. She took his hand. Although the sun was beating down on them, his hand was not hot and clammy as expected but cool, and he held hers in a tight grip.
‘Jennings had some leave due, so she took that to start her retirement early. Her retirement do is still planned for next month if you’re going to be there?’ He smiled. It was crooked. Like someone had fitted his teeth in his mouth incorrectly. ‘Plus, don’t worry about not coming by. From what I hear, you have a hell of a lot on. I wouldn’t be welcoming the new boy if I was dealing with what you’re sorting through.’ He let go of his grip on her and Claudia withdrew her hand.
He walked past her to the bin and stubbed out his half-smoked cigarette. She watched him.
‘I’m trying to stop,’ he said by way of explanation. ‘I’ve not got there yet, but I keep trying. For every half I don’t smoke I class it as a win. So, anything I can do?’
She frowned.
‘The victim you’re chasing.’
Talking to him, coming down here, it had done what she had hoped it would, and she had calmed considerably as the stress ebbed away.
‘We’ve got two lines of enquiry going at the minute that I don’t think your team will be able to help with. But it’s really useful to have met you. I’m glad I came down here. Thanks.’ She smiled at him.
‘You never gave me your name.’
‘Claudia Nunn. DI on Complex Crimes.’
‘Ah, the new task force. And you have a crazy sending you drawings. You’re off to a fast start.’
Wasn’t she just.
‘You’ll get in touch if we can help at any point?’ DCI Adam Blackwood said.
‘I will. Thank you. And thank you for . . .’ She waved a hand in front of her and then around at the smoking shed.
Blackwood laughed. A loud, hearty laugh. ‘You’re more than welcome. It was refreshing seeing someone give this old piece of crap a kicking. I just wish I co
uld be more helpful. I do hope you find your victim.’ And with that he turned and headed back towards the building.
But not before Claudia had clocked that he had not been wearing a wedding band.
* * *
The day dragged on and the team gradually returned to the incident room looking dejected one by one. Each time one of them entered, Claudia leapt from her chair to be met by a shake of a head, to which she slunk back to her own office, completely deflated.
The section chasing the trainers had got nowhere either. They’d had to stop searching hours ago when the working day finished. But the unit looking for the canal bridge had stayed out into the late evening as the daylight worked in their favour.
It was no good, though. In the end, they had to call it a night. There was no way they could look for the bridge in the dark.
‘We’ll start again in the morning,’ Claudia said with as much enthusiasm as she could muster. ‘We have some hours left on the clock. As long as we find the location, we stop the murder. Don’t give up, guys.’ She had to push them onwards. She could sense their despondency, the pending grief in their body language. It was in her own body, like a still lake waiting to relinquish its goods from the depths.
At home, she allowed the grief to take over. She grabbed her PJs and, childlike, curled up on the sofa with a blanket around her while she tried to lose herself in a book, but it was no good. Her mood wouldn’t allow her to focus on the words.
Somewhere out there, a man was living his life, and while she tried to read a book, he was oblivious to the fact that this might be his last night.
CHAPTER 27
It had been a long day, but Dominic trailed the car in front of him for about a mile. Watching every junction taken, every indicator used, every stop sign halted at and every speed limit broken. He couldn’t stop the vehicle because he didn’t have blue lights as he was driving his own car, and more importantly, because he wasn’t in uniform. You could only do a traffic stop if you were in uniform. You could use a plain car, but you did have to be in uniform.
SECONDS TO DIE a totally gripping serial killer thriller with a twist (Detective Claudia Nunn Book 2) Page 10