BLOOD STAINED an unputdownable crime thriller with a breathtaking twist (Detective Claudia Nunn Book by Rebecca Bradley (whitelam books .txt) 📗

in her forties. It hasn’t yet been officially linked to Operation Halo,’ he paused, made eye contact with the questioner, ‘and we will inform you when it is linked. But there are some indicators to suggest that the team on Operation Halo should be the lead team on this murder as well.’

‘What are these indicators?’

Dominic smiled. ‘You know I’m not in a position to provide operational details. I’ll give you as much information as I can, but we do need to keep some material close for investigative purposes.’

They walked out of the room in the line they had entered but backwards. Dominic leading the way out and Kapoor bringing up the rear. The back of Dominic’s neck itched. Kapoor was going to blow a gasket as soon as he’d said his farewells to the Butlers and not a second before.

He was pleasant and kind to them. Shaking their hands. Reassuring them they could work with what had happened.

‘The police are used to thinking on their toes, Helen. It’s how we work. Please don’t worry about it,’ he soothed. His voice gentle and velvet-like.

The minute they were out the door he turned on Dominic. ‘What the bloody hell?’

Dominic shoved his hands in his pockets. He may as well make himself comfortable for this one.

‘I thought we said we weren’t going to disclose the link between the two cases!’

‘In case you missed it, boss, we didn’t do any of the disclosing. The family did. There’s little we can ever do to control the family. You did a brilliant job of trying to get them to slow down and think before they spoke before we went out but it was obviously preying on their minds.’

Kapoor was pacing back and forth in front of Dominic. They were in Kapoor’s office, well away from the feeding press.

‘How do you think they’ll spin this?’ Kapoor asked. ‘We’re going to get slaughtered, aren’t we? We didn’t catch the killer so he’s able to have killed again, that kind of thing?’ He scratched his head. ‘Police incompetence leads to second murder.’

‘Boss, I’d like to see them come in here and resolve this case any faster than any of us have done.’

‘That’s not the point though, is it? It’s our job and their job is to comment on how we’re doing ours. To hold us to account. You know Connelly is going to go ape shit when he reads the papers in the morning.’

‘He might not need to wait until the morning. Some of those reporters will be able to load the reports online tonight.’

Kapoor spun on the spot. ‘Shit, I’d forgotten about the bloody internet. I don’t know how. It’s the bane of my life. I’m going to have to update him straight away and he won’t be happy because this one is going to be fed all the way up to the chief constable now it’s a double murder case.’

‘Look, we can’t do anything about it. As you said to the Butlers, we have to work with it now. I’m just going to pop out to interview Madeleine’s ex-husband, Alex Chapman. We couldn’t get hold of him earlier and we’re hoping we should be able to catch him now. But after that, we’re all back in bright and early in the morning. It’s a new day, we’ll all be fresh and we’ll go from there.’

Kapoor walked around his desk to his chair. ‘Make sure you bring your A game, Dom, I want this case clearing up. Two murders is two too many. Tomorrow, you change the direction of this investigation and put us in the lead and him on the back foot.’

Chapter 28

Dominic

Alex Chapman was the picture of politeness. He moved around his large kitchen making drinks. There was a huge square island in the middle of the room with a line of white leather bar stools along one side. It was here Dominic and Hayley sat. The surface of the island polished to such an extent that it reflected their faces back to them. Dominic was perturbed by this and placed his hands on the granite.

‘You say this is about my ex-wife, Maddy?’ Alex placed cups and saucers in front of the officers. ‘I’m not sure how I can help. I haven’t seen her for a while. Our son is old enough that I contact him directly to sort our plans.’ He paused as he collected his own drink and his eyebrows furrowed. ‘What is this about exactly?’ He stood opposite them.

‘Shall we go and sit somewhere we can talk?’ Dominic asked. He didn’t like the dynamic of Chapman standing over them while they had this conversation.

Alex Chapman smiled. ‘Of course.’ He headed towards the door. ‘This way.’

Dominic and Hayley climbed down from their stools and with some clinking, collected their drinks, and followed the ex-husband through to the equally large living room. He wasn’t doing badly for himself. Divorce obviously hadn’t hurt him.

‘You haven’t seen the news?’ Dominic asked when they were all seated.

Chapman frowned. ‘This doesn’t sound good. Should I have? Again, I ask, what’s this about?’ The polite façade slipped as frustration niggled at the edges of the question.

Dominic was reminded of Gwen Grady’s comments that Alex Chapman was not a good man and had made Maddy feel less than human. He was also suspicious the man wasn’t already aware of why they were here. The press briefing had been done and had gone out on the local news channel. He’d expected to be walking into a torrent of abuse about not being informed. Not that he needed to be. He was the ex-husband now. But Alex was claiming to have no idea why they were there.

Dominic looked to Hayley who gave a barely perceptible shrug, then he turned back to Chapman. ‘Madeleine Chapman was found dead yesterday.’

The cup in the saucer Chapman was