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

say a police officer is missing or are you going to name her? Thereby giving the killer the information that he does indeed have Dominic Harrison’s wife if he wasn’t already aware. If he thought he had taken someone from the dating app then he’d think she was single.’

‘I think we can forget her meeting him on the app and being taken. The fact that she was taken from the home she shares with Dominic is enough to say he knew she was married to him. Whether he initially saw her through the dating app is another issue we don’t yet know. But there are photographs of Dominic and Ruth together in the house.’

‘So you’re going to name her?’

‘I don’t see that it can hurt anything from here.’

‘We’d better get in there,’ said Sharpe, straightening up her jacket and brushing off an invisible piece of lint. ‘The vultures are waiting.’

* * *

Claudia followed Sharpe into the press briefing room. She always felt a little bit dowdy in comparison to Sharpe who pretty much matched her name in all manner of ways: her speech, her conduct and her clothes.

They sat down behind the long table and peered out at the sea of faces staring back at them, eager to know why they had been called in so late in the day when they hadn’t heard of a new body being found. Whispers were going around the room that maybe the police had someone in custody at last. This could be the reason they would call them in without it being another murder. That or someone at the top had finally lost their job because of it all. They had been talking about that one for a while. A six-month investigation without changes in staff, someone surely had to answer for the fact that they hadn’t got anywhere. They were certainly making them answer in the pages of the press. Be that on paper or online.

‘Thank you for coming in,’ Sharpe started and the room fell quiet but for a couple of people who finished off the conversations they had started. Sharpe glared at them, and soon the whole room was silent and waiting for her to continue.

‘As you can imagine, being called at such short notice like this, we have something we want to tell you that couldn’t wait. It’s important and we wanted to do a press conference rather than send out a note.’

Pens were being scribbled across notepads and cameras were on and aimed at the pair of women in front of the room.

A hand went up in the middle of the huddle of reporters.

‘We’ll take a couple of questions at the end of the briefing,’ Sharpe cut them off.

‘Where are Harrison and Kapoor?’ the determined reporter persisted.

‘Like I said—’ her stare was hard, flinty — ‘we will answer questions at the end and if you let us get on with the briefing you may find you have some questions answered.’

A rumble went around the room as people presumed someone had in fact lost their job over this case.

Sharpe was clearly not impressed with the behaviour. She was used to her subordinates listening to her when she was talking and waiting for her to continue. This rabble seemed to be pissing her off. Maybe this was why she rarely did press conferences.

Sharpe and Claudia waited for the noise to die down. Eventually it did.

‘If you don’t mind giving us your full attention for the next ten minutes we’d appreciate that,’ Sharpe said. ‘I’m going to hand you over to DI Claudia Nunn who will inform you why you’re here and what’s happening.’ She inclined her head towards Claudia who smiled in response.

Claudia’s nerves were getting the better of her. This was a huge gamble. She was making a lot of assumptions coming out here with the story she was about to tell. But it was information-based if not evidence-based. She swallowed and started.

‘A woman has been reported missing and a thorough investigation has led us to believe that she has been taken by the Sheffield Strangler.’

There was silence from the room as they waited for more details.

She continued. ‘This is the first time we’ve been in front of him this way, knowing he has someone before we find the body. But he’s made it clear he has this woman. He wanted us to know. So we want to ask him to return her to us with no further harm caused. You’ll see in your press packs on your chairs that there is a photofit of a male. We’d like you to circulate this image as we believe he may be able to help us with our enquiries.’ This next part was the difficult section, the information that was going to cause uproar in the room. She took a deep breath in, held it and released. ‘We can inform you that the woman who has been taken is DC Ruth Harrison of South Yorkshire Police. She is a serving officer and—’

The room exploded. Voices shouted out to her, arms flew up into the air, flashbulbs blurred her vision. She tried to battle through the wave of sound.

‘We want no further harm to come to DC Harrison. All we ask is that she is returned immediately.’

It was no use. They had heard enough; they had heard the important information and wanted their questions answering. Claudia looked to Sharpe. Her fingers were clenched together under the table. Her knuckles white with the pressure. She looked out to the reporters. Arms still in the air. Phone calls were being made. This was news and they wanted to get it out as quickly as possible.

‘We’ll take a couple of questions,’ Sharpe said, only loud enough for those who were still listening to hear her. Another couple of hands went up and she pointed to one of these. One