Russ stepped into the office further, his broad shoulders from his days of playing rugby filling the doorframe. ‘What do you have there?’
Claudia flipped the paper around at him so he could get a glimpse of the strange arrival. He narrowed his eyes, attempting to grasp what he was seeing.
‘It looks to be a drawing of a crime scene. Quite beautiful, if you take out the gruesome murder side of it,’ she said. ‘With the blade, it looks like it could be a piece of fan art or something, you know . . . something from a book or a TV show, or something historical.’
‘And they sent it to you? You have a fan?’
Claudia peered inside the envelope it had come in. ‘I’ve no idea who sent it. Strange as far as gifts go.’ She folded the drawing back in half, but not before noticing the big round clock in the top right-hand corner. It was shaded so as to appear insignificant. But it was there, nonetheless. The hands of the clock were pointing to 9 a.m., and on the outside in a box was written the word ‘Friday’.
As she pushed the paper back into the envelope a tiny shiver ran down Claudia’s spine at the level of effort that had gone into this artist’s work. Opening her top drawer, she dropped the envelope into it and closed it again, adding it to the mess contained within, knowing she would leave it to fester in there for months until she got around to clearing the drawer. But right now it seemed too harsh to bin it.
‘You’re not worried?’ Russ asked her.
Claudia had already moved on to the next envelope. ‘About?’
‘That someone has taken the time to draw something for you?’
She waved a hand dismissively. ‘It’s a drawing. How much harm can it cause me?’
CHAPTER 3
The art installation was nearly ready. He’d loved the location the moment he set eyes upon it. The fact that there was already a steel bedstead in situ was a stroke of luck. He’d found it when he’d been scouting for locations and decided it was perfect for his needs. The place was derelict. He hadn’t seen anyone in weeks.
It really was ideal.
Light through the windows set the perfect scene. He’d been at different times of day to check. Light levels should always be maintained between 50 and 100 lux. Not that the materials he would be using would degrade at speed, but light was always a factor you had to consider. And as long as the audience saw the installation at the time he’d sent the invitation for, then there wouldn’t be a problem.
There were still some parts of the exhibit he had to source, but he was comfortable he could complete it in time.
He was so excited his whole body pulsated. He’d never felt like this.
This installation would have everyone in the art world talking. They would regret turning down his requests for gallery space.
He would show them.
CHAPTER 4
Russ had left her about an hour ago. Claudia had no idea who he’d sent to the nightclub homicide. She closed the lid of her laptop and opened the door. Her office was within the confines of the incident room. The blinds had been down so she couldn’t see out. She needed to fix that. She’d obviously pulled them down during a meeting or phone call. Glass walls were all well and good, but they didn’t offer a hell of a lot of privacy to the occupant.
Russ was standing over DC Rhys Evans. Quiet laughter was bubbling up between them. Across the other side of the room, DS Dominic Harrison was at his desk. She made a move towards him. There was a fine line between being his supervisor and his daughter. Particularly as they were both still grieving the loss of Ruth.
Empty desks indicated DCs Graham Dunne and Lisa James were missing, so Claudia figured they’d been sent to the murder investigation.
‘Hey,’ she said as she grabbed a chair and wheeled it over to Dominic, sinking into it as she pulled up next to him.
Dominic looked up. ‘Hey, yourself.’ He smiled at her. ‘What’s new?’
She shrugged. ‘Not much. Looks like Graham and Lisa have gone off to support Simpson on a job.’
‘And you’re spinning your wheels.’ He was observant.
Dominic could have taken unlimited time off to grieve Ruth, bearing in mind the circumstances of her death, but he’d returned quickly. Too quickly if Claudia thought about it for very long.
‘What’re you working on?’ she asked, instead of mulling on what lay between them.
‘CPS want some more paperwork for a case I put together a few months ago.’
It didn’t matter to her team that there was no new work coming in. They all had a pile of casework to be getting on with. Police work was ten minutes of excitement and then six months of paperwork. The public only ever saw the exaggerated side in books and in television dramas. If real life was depicted they’d soon get bored.
Claudia realised Dominic was staring at her.
‘You’re working on the Tyler case, aren’t you?’ He knew her so well. He was her dad, he could read her even when she wasn’t talking. Not a trait she wanted from a member of her team. Even if she wasn’t officially putting the file together, he knew she would wheedle her way in somewhere. She rolled her eyes at him.
‘Don’t do that,’ he chided. Like a father.
‘And don’t do that,’ she commanded. Like his supervisor.
Dominic laughed. Breaking the tension around the mention of Tyler.
‘I’m not working it, no. Keeping myself apprised as it’s going along.’
Dominic nodded. ‘You’re coming for lunch on Sunday?’
She looked at her watch. No idea why. It would not tell her anything. ‘Of course.’ She’d been for Sunday lunch with him on as many Sundays as their shift pattern allowed. They were both due rest days this coming weekend. If a job didn’t come in.
Claudia hoped for a case. Not that she wanted anyone’s life to be so disrupted that her team needed to be involved, but she would at least like to be busy. It was one of those things.
Krish stood and announced to the room he was making a brew. A small cheer from those in the incident room met the announcement.
Claudia had selected DCs Krish Dhawan and Rhys Evans from Dominic’s old team. Dominic had tried to get the whole team transferred over — there were only four DCs under him — but there wasn’t the capacity yet. Sharpe had said it might be possible once Complex Crimes found its feet.
It had been a simple decision to leave Hayley Loftus behind, as Dominic had admitted to an affair with her before Ruth had been murdered. Claudia didn’t think she could face working with the pair of them together. Dominic was adamant that it had been over before Ruth’s murder and that they had barely even spoken since her death.
Paul Teague was a little more difficult. He was a great cop and Claudia was disappointed not to have him on the team. She’d also had to drop Harry Harbor from her own team. He’d been gutted, but if Sharpe was as good as her word, which Claudia knew her to be, then one day they both might work with them again.
Claudia rose from her chair. Her father watched her.
‘Be careful how deep you sink into the Tyler case,’ he said.
He was looking out for her.
‘It’s just some paperwork I have to do for my part in the investigation.’ She pushed the chair under the desk. ‘It’s nearly over.’
He was still watching her. ‘And you’re doing okay?’
She smiled before she walked away. There was no way she was going to tell him how confused she was by the whole case. How it had gotten under her skin. He was grieving for the loss of his wife. Yes, Ruth had been Claudia’s friend, but Dominic had lost the love of his life. Claudia would figure out the truth of the case as it finally came to a close.
CHAPTER 5
At her desk on Friday morning Claudia swivelled her chair around, turning her back on her office to stare out of the window. The caller was still talking at her through the phone in her hand. A hand that was going numb with tension at how hard she was gripping the handset.
The sun was out and the residents of Sheffield
were mulling about their business, short sleeves exposing skin that spent most of the year wrapped up. The women — and some men — wore sandals, and faces were upturned towards the bright globe in the blue sky, sunglasses protecting them from the glare. If you were so minded you could practically feel the summer joy through the glass.
But Claudia was not so minded this morning.
This caller was Samuel Tyler’s solicitor, and she wanted to relay a message from the killer. The man who had murdered an undercover cop, Claudia’s step-mother and closest friend.
‘What makes you think I’d even contemplate this?’ asked Claudia. The tips of her knuckles whitening, bile rising in her throat.
‘I’m not here to reason one way or another,’ the solicitor said quite calmly. ‘My role here is to convey what my client has said to me and nothing else. What you decide is entirely up to you.’
Of course it was.
‘What does he want?’ Her office was warming, the glass acting like a greenhouse in the small space she’d been allocated. The title Complex Crimes might be grand, but the office they’d provided her didn’t match the name. She missed her spacious old office, though the building was getting on. Opened by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in 1975, it was creaky and drafts were inevitable. But she’d rather the airy space of her old haunt than the pocket-sized box that she was placed in now. Maybe they would upgrade her in the future, as they’d promised to do with the staff, if the team proved their value. She could only hope.
There was a sound as though the solicitor was flicking through papers. ‘Mr Tyler hasn’t passed on why he wants to meet, other than to say it’ll be worth your time and you’ll be glad you went.’
There was a long stretch of silence as Claudia contemplated what this could mean and what her own response would be. ‘Can I think about it?’
‘Certainly. I’ll leave you my number. Call me and I’ll set up the meeting whenever you’re ready.’
The solicitor thanked Claudia for her time and hung up the call.
Claudia continued to gaze out of the window. Her mind was racing, trying to grasp for meaning in the request, and as a potential answer was within reach, her thoughts froze. Though she couldn’t imagine what possible reason Tyler could have for wanting to see her, she was nonetheless intrigued. And at once, horrified.
This was the man who had murdered multiple women and a well-respected undercover police officer, wife, step-mother and friend.
She wondered how he was faring in prison. In normal circumstances it would be difficult for him because he’d killed women. But he had the kudos of killing a police officer. Did that trump the women in the eyes of Tyler’s fellow inmates?
Whether she wanted to see him was one thing. The other was, could she? Did she have it in her to face him again?
Claudia gritted her teeth. If she did, then she would show no fear.
She would discuss this with her father. He deserved to know about the phone call. It would upset him. Anger him even. But as Ruth’s husband, he should know that Tyler had reached out.
Claudia narrowed her eyes as she thought about her dad being Ruth’s husband. Was Tyler reaching out to her as the officer who had arrested him or as Ruth’s step-daughter? And why hadn’t she thought to ask? Shock at the request had sent all sense flying from her head. She should follow up with the solicitor before she decided.
With her mind made up on that point, she twisted her chair so it was back in place at her desk, the sunshine behind her.
Today was their last shift before a long weekend off. And she was ready for it. She would make the most of the sun and maybe take off to the coast for the day tomorrow. Blow some cobwebs from her mind with the sea breeze. Eat her body weight in junk food and return home to a bottle of wine and a good book.
It was as the smell of the sea air tickled her brain cells in anticipation, along with the salt and vinegar of the chip bag, that her desk phone rang again and everything changed. Her long weekend was forgotten as the caller mentioned a dead man in an industrial building, wrists strapped to a bed with rope and staked to the mattress with a long blade through his back.
CHAPTER 6
Claudia walked up the stairs to Sharpe’s office, each step heavier than the last, the sheet of paper in her hand heavier even than her feet.
Maxine, Sharpe’s PA, looked up at her in surprise. ‘She’s not expecting you.’
‘It’s important.’
The look on Claudia’s face must have confirmed this, and after a few mumbled words into her phone, Maxine ushered Claudia through.
Sharpe was immaculate, as always. Highly polished nails tapped on the edge of her desk in barely held patience. ‘I’m due on a call to the assistant director of children’s services in ten minutes. What’s so important, Claudia, that I had to risk being late?’ There was none of the recent warmth that Sharpe had shown Claudia since Ruth’s death. Today was a stressful day for Sharpe, or so it seemed, and Claudia was about to make it ten times more so.
Claudia waved the paper she was holding in the air between them.
‘Is that supposed to mean something to me? Didn’t I hear you have a case? Does it warrant your attention as Complex Crimes? And why are you even in the building?’ Sharpe asked multiple questions and expected an answer for each.
Claudia was still standing, and Sharpe, she knew, had no intention of asking her to sit. She had the all-important call shortly. Social Care would feel snubbed if Sharpe was late, and Sharpe, in turn, would bring all her anger down on Claudia.
But this was worth crashing that meeting.
Sharpe stared at her, waiting for Claudia to respond.
Claudia took in a deep breath. She waved the sheet of paper at Sharpe again. ‘This is a printout of a photograph I took of a drawing—’
A loud sigh stopped Claudia in her tracks. She was losing Sharpe.
‘The drawing,’ she continued, ‘is in an exhibit bag, ready to go to forensic submissions, because from what I’ve been told, it sounds as though the image is an exact replica of the crime scene I should be on my way to.’
The lines between Sharpe’s eyes deepened. ‘You’ve had a sketch artist at the scene already?’
Claudia threw the paper on Sharpe’s desk. It fluttered down slowly, landing gently in front of her. Face down. ‘No, it’s not a sketch artist’s interpretation of the scene. This is a drawing I received earlier this week.’ She waited for her words to sink in.
Sharpe picked up the sheet of paper and turned it over, staring down at the perfectly drawn image of a man tied to a bed in an industrial building with a blade through his back. ‘This is the report that’s come in?’ She was querying rather than making a statement, wanting facts as she tried to get her head around what Claudia was saying.
‘As far as I can tell.’
‘How . . .’ Sharpe had no other words. Her eyes widened as she flicked between the image and Claudia for answers.
‘It looks like we were prewarned,’ said Claudia.
‘In a drawing?’ Sharpe nodded towards the chair in front of her desk, calls with the assistant director of children’s services long forgotten.
Claudia dutifully sank into the chair and waited for Sharpe to speak again. When she did, it was to tell her that the team had their first complex crime. ‘Oh, and Claudia . . .’
Claudia waited.
‘This drawing thing, it’s not to get out to the press. Not until we know what on earth this idiot is trying to say to us.’
Claudia couldn’t agree more. They’d be inundated with drawings if this got out. There were some real nutjobs out there. Not that that was the official term for them, but putting it bluntly, they really were. And they made Claudia’s job so much more difficult.
Sharpe looked down at the drawing again. ‘It’s rather intricate, isn’t it?’
Claudia agreed. ‘Whoever did this knows how to work a pencil, that’s for sure.’
‘You think this is our murderer? Or does our killer ha
ve an accomplice?’
‘That’s a big question and one I’m in no position to answer.’ Claudia rose from her chair. ‘I thought I’d better make you aware before I headed out.’
Sharpe’s phone rang. She picked it up. ‘Tell him something has come up and reschedule, please. Thanks, Maxine.’ The handset was quickly returned to its cradle.
‘Keep me updated on this, Claudia. I want to be apprised every step of the way. This—’ she waved the drawing in the air between them — ‘would certainly place the investigation firmly within your remit.’
It took Claudia everything she had not to roll her eyes. She did not need supervising when it came to murder investigations. That was one of the main reasons they had given her this task force. But she kept her mouth shut, knowing Sharpe was likely interested rather than needing to tell Claudia what to do.
‘Before I go,’ Claudia said, halfway to the door. ‘I received a call from Tyler’s solicitor.’
Sharpe raised an eyebrow.
‘He wants to meet me.’
‘How do you feel about that?’ Sharpe had been nothing but supportive throughout the investigation, first into Ruth going missing and then into her murder.
Initially they’d had to arrest Dominic for her murder and had drafted Claudia in to interview him. The top brass thought it would unnerve him and make him talk if his daughter was running the case. But it had become clear when they found her body that he hadn’t been responsible.
Interviewing her father had been one of the most difficult things Claudia had ever done. Sharpe had pushed her onwards with it, but she’d also supported her. Nothing had been too much trouble. Whatever Claudia had needed Sharpe had got or done for her. Now she wanted some honesty. Yet Claudia didn’t know her own feelings. She couldn’t be honest with herself, so how could she be honest with Sharpe?
‘Uncertain.’
Sharpe inclined her head. ‘Don’t let him destroy you, Claudia. You did an amazing job bringing him in. Remember you only have to face him across a court room now. You’ve done your part. You need not meet him again.’
SECONDS TO DIE a totally gripping serial killer thriller with a twist (Detective Claudia Nunn Book 2) Page 2
