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

Tyler was the splinter and the sting. Every second she had with him was now precious to her.

The uniformed officer who had Tyler by the arm looked at DI Kapoor who now had control. He gave a short nod and Claudia took Tyler’s arm and manoeuvred him out of the room. She knew better than to make a scene about who was in control here. All she cared about was Tyler and Ruth.

Once they were close to the front door and out of earshot of most of the cops in the house Claudia spoke quietly into his ear. ‘Why Ruth?’ She needed answers. She’d lost her friend. Family.

His head shot up and his eyes bored into hers. ‘I didn’t take her. I didn’t kill her. I told you that.’

She opened what was left of the front door. ‘The others?’

He looked back to the floor. A silent agreement without incriminating himself. Then he was looking at her again. ‘I told you, she didn’t have kids.’

How could she believe a violent killer? Claudia pushed him down the single step and he stumbled, righting himself and scowling at her. ‘I didn’t kill your cop. That’s far too much heat coming down on me.’

They were nearly at the marked police vehicle now. A couple of uniformed cops stood by the side of it waiting to transport Tyler to the police station.

Claudia handed him over. He hadn’t given her the answers she wanted. There was a block of stone sitting in the pit of her stomach.

‘I didn’t do this,’ he hissed as one of the cops pushed him into the rear seat with a little too much force.

* * *

Claudia’s involvement was over. As agreed, she left the scene to be searched by the other officers in attendance and climbed into her own car and drove steadily back to the station. Her mind was a jumble of thoughts. The last three days replayed in varying snippets. She lost focus and ran a red light causing an angry motorist to press his hand to his horn for an inordinate amount of time. Guilt flooded through her but she couldn’t correct her error. She continued on.

Once in her office she closed the door to the world and sat silently, looking at her computer occasionally as though she might be prepared to do some work, but she never moved.

A few hours later there was a knock at her door and Sharpe pushed her way in.

‘Good God, Claudia, open a window, would you.’

Claudia blinked. How long had she been sitting in here? ‘Ma’am.’ She rose and unlatched the window, cracking it open, feeling the breeze float across her skin.

Sharpe took the chair across from Claudia’s. ‘The search team from Tyler’s address have updated me.’

Claudia waited.

‘They’ve found several phones they believe to belong to the victims. A couple have blood on. We expect DNA testing to identify it as belonging to the victims. Fingerprints have already been done and Tyler’s prints are on them so he can’t claim they were placed there by someone else. And by fingerprints I mean his right hand. Did you notice his burnt-up left hand?’

Claudia couldn’t remember if she’d seen it. If she had wouldn’t it be something that would stick in her mind? ‘I’m not sure . . .’

‘Dominic said it was something to do with him cooking alone when he was a child. His whole left hand is stripped of flesh and is just angry scar tissue. Anyway, there are even prints from those fingers, which though they can’t be identified the same way as typical fingerprints they add to the weight of the evidence against him. He might have been careful at crime scenes, but I don’t think he expected us to come through his door. He also had a couple of brand-new House of Maven lipsticks in Velvet Berry. He wasn’t planning on stopping. This was a good collar, Claudia.’ She paused. ‘You’ve worked hard. We asked a lot of you. I think you need to take a little time off along with your father—’

Claudia opened her mouth to object.

Sharpe held up a well-manicured hand. ‘At least for a few days. You need it.’

‘Has he gone into interview yet?’ Claudia asked.

Sharpe shook her head. ‘He’s about to. They were waiting to see what the search yielded. It doesn’t matter what he says, they have him sown up. He’s going down for a very long time. Now forget about Tyler. Go and spend some time with your father. It’s not every day we ask you to arrest a parent for murder. We accept this hasn’t been ideal, but we are grateful for the hard work you’ve done.’

Claudia was exhausted. They’d been through so much and now she had to say goodbye to Ruth.

* * *

Two weeks later they gathered for Ruth’s memorial.

She couldn’t be buried yet as Tyler was fighting the charge of murder for Ruth. He was entitled to a second post-mortem on her body.

The space was heaving with cops in dress uniform. So many people attended that there was standing room outside. She had been a popular officer and friend within the service. Claudia was proud to have known and loved her. Tears welled up in her eyes and she fought to retain a level of professional dignity even though there was nothing undignified about giving in to grief. She wanted to hold it together for her dad who had been a tower of strength these past two weeks. Now he walked up to the front to give his speech.

Dominic stood tall and proud and looked out at the hundreds of mourners that had turned out for his wife. He pushed his shoulders back.

‘Thank you all for coming today. Ruth would have loved to have seen you