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

into the envelope so had rigid fold marks, but if he bent his head at an angle he could still read it. ‘Yes, boss.’

‘I have so many questions,’ Kapoor started, ‘but the first one has to be, what does it say?’

Dominic checked the sheet he’d dropped on the desk and read from the page:

‘DS Harrison, please don’t worry that you are failing the families as the press are making out. You are not. It’s just that I’m too good for you. And if you fear this is a hoax, I left the women with a little red kiss.’

Chapter 31

Claudia

 

Twenty hours since Ruth’s attack

‘I heard that the killer was in contact with someone on the investigation team, I just never realised it was you. Why did you keep it a secret from Ruth and me?’ They were back in an interview room in the custody suite. Claudia’s surprise and horror at this disclosure was plain to see.

Dominic sighed. ‘How do you think you both would have reacted if you’d known it was me he was talking to?’

‘We’re cops, you know?’ Claudia spat back at him. Now they were talking about their personal life the frustration she felt spilled over.

He laughed. ‘You sound so much like Ruth.’

‘I’m glad we’re not pretending that you’re not my dad anymore.’ She waved an arm between them. ‘It was a damn strain trying to run this like any other case.’ Her head was tight and throbbing at the same time, like it was going to explode. First there was the excruciating concern for Ruth — she was family. Not only family by marriage, but they were close, they were friends, and good friends at that. They spent time together, away from her dad, shopping, tea and coffees, wine, chatting, putting the world to rights. Her heart was breaking. Then she’d been placed in this ridiculous position of interviewing her own father about the situation. A father where tension easily flared up at the best of times. They both had issues. Silent fears that mostly left unsaid managed to leave a rumble of disquiet. Ruth had always been great at smoothing things out between them. But now she wasn’t here and it was like the world was splitting apart.

Dominic put his head in his hands. ‘They knew what they were doing putting you in here to interview me.’

‘Why do you say that?’ Claudia looked to Kane who shrugged his shoulders. She didn’t believe anything between them was obvious at work. After all, they’d never actually worked together on any jobs in the past.

‘Just look how emotional we’re getting. If I had anything to let slip, we’re heading into the time when it’s going to happen, don’t you think?’

Claudia dropped her voice, fear curdling in her stomach. ‘Do you have anything to let slip? Do you know what happened to Ruth?’ Sharpe had played her cards well asking Claudia to run this investigation, but it was harder than she could ever have imagined. No one could have considered that it would get this dark.

He lifted his head. ‘I’m not a killer, Claudia. How can you ask these questions?’

‘Because that’s what I’ve been sent in here to do, you’ve acknowledged that.’

Dominic nodded.

‘You know the rules, Dad. For the recording.’

He sighed. ‘Yes. I know that’s why you’re in here.’

‘So why all the secrecy around the contact?’

Dominic leaned back and crossed his arms. ‘It wasn’t just to protect myself from getting grief from you and Ruth about the danger I could be in. It was to protect the pair of you.’

‘You were protecting us? How?’

‘If I kept my two lives apart, my home life and my work life, then I hoped the Sheffield Strangler wouldn’t realise you were both important to me. And hopefully you wouldn’t be targeted if he ever became angry with me. Which he did at times. It’s not easy liaising with a killer through the press. And this was why I was so up in arms when Ruth was given the task of going undercover to try to trap him.’

‘You really thought he’d risk himself by coming after us?’

Dominic rolled his eyes. ‘He’s a dangerous man, Claudia, you must know that? You haven’t worked the case but you know enough from the chatter within the force and from the press. Plus the little I’ve told you myself.’ He let out a sigh. ‘What happened if he wanted to send me a more personal message? Not one printed on paper? One to get under my skin? How do you think he would do that?’

Claudia rose from her chair and paced around the room. ‘You think he would hurt someone you love to send you a message?’

Dominic nodded.

‘Dad . . .’

‘Sorry. Yes. Yes, I do think he’d hurt someone I love to send me a message. He liked to have the upper hand. He gloated and he taunted and he hated it if we made any steps forward. He wanted to put me back in my place.’

Claudia paced around the room some more. Kane sat silently. He was here for support. This was her interview. Her investigation. He would do as she wanted and he’d keep quiet until she needed him.

Dominic kept his head down.

‘So,’ she said, ‘You think he’s found out Ruth is your wife rather than her going missing as part of the operation?’

‘Have you spoken to her team? Was she going on a date? If it was part of the operation they’d know about it and she wouldn’t be missing because they’d have been there to back her up and support her. No matter how pear-shaped it went, she’d have come home at the end of the day. No, this is her going missing because he found out somehow that she’s my wife and he’s playing a game with me for