SECONDS TO DIE a totally gripping serial killer thriller with a twist (Detective Claudia Nunn Book 2)

by Rebecca Bradley

  The hushed voices that were the soundtrack of the Medico-Legal Centre melted into the distance, and Claudia and her father were the only two people standing here at this moment in time. It was like the world had stopped.

  It reminded her of the previous hour with Louise Kennedy. How that must have felt for her.

  ‘What does he want?’ her father whispered again.

  She stepped closer to him. ‘I don’t know, Dad. His solicitor didn’t have an answer. All he has said is it will be worth my while.’

  His eyes widened. ‘You can’t go!’ There was so much vehemence in those three words.

  ‘I haven’t decided yet.’

  ‘You can’t go.’ He was demanding, as though he could control her. A prickle of obstinacy ran up her spine, but she kept her mouth shut. He would be emotional about Tyler. He’d killed his wife. She wouldn’t get the conversation she’d hoped from her father.

  She checked her watch again. ‘We should go.’

  Dominic straightened himself and ran a hand through his hair. ‘He’s poison, Claudia. You can’t trust anything that man says. Why would you even consider going to talk to him?’ His eyes were hooded and the case visibly haunted him.

  ‘I need to think about it,’ was all she could offer him.

  Dominic stared at her then walked off down the corridor towards the morgue. Not another word passed his lips on the subject of Samuel Tyler. Claudia trailed behind him. Regretting telling him of the phone call. Wishing for a simpler life.

  Wishing Ruth was still here. Ruth could always talk sense into Dominic. She was kind and warm and funny, and her dad could never say no to her.

  Tyler had ripped their world apart.

  CHAPTER 12

  Dominic couldn’t think straight. Samuel Tyler was safely locked up for multiple murders, including the murder of his wife. A murder he himself had committed and then framed the serial killer for. It had been easy enough because he’d been the detective who had attended most of the crime scenes. He could copy them well, knowing everything about the killer’s MO. Even details not released to the public. Particularly details not released to the public. It was these details that made Ruth’s crime scene all the more believable that it belonged to the Sheffield Strangler and no one else.

  So when they caught that serial killer, and it turned out to be Samuel Tyler, victim support officer, it was easy enough to add one more body to his tally.

  Only now Dominic was afraid of the reason Tyler wanted to see Claudia.

  Of course Tyler had denied killing Ruth. He hadn’t done it. But no one had believed him. They presumed his fear of admitting her murder was because she was a cop and that he didn’t want to be treated badly by her fellow officers and by prison officers. Not that it was a thing. Not nowadays, anyway. Maybe in years gone by.

  But what reason could he have for wanting to speak to Claudia?

  He pushed open the door to the morgue and tried to focus on the task ahead. They were here to do a job. Claudia had dropped this bombshell on him though, and his heart raced. Adrenaline coursed through his body. His thoughts were scrambled. He needed time to figure out what his response should be to what she’d said. But there was a sense of everything moving around him too quickly. How could he gain control?

  Samuel Tyler held Dominic’s future in his hands. No, Tyler didn’t know the identity of the man who had really killed Ruth, but he knew with certainty that he hadn’t murdered her and he’d already tried to tell Claudia this. When Ruth initially went missing Tyler had met up with Claudia. Dominic had rushed to their meeting place to put a stop to it, but under the guise of protecting his daughter. He’d gotten away with it. She’d been angry with him, but he could take it. He’d take anything to protect his secret.

  Protecting his secret, protecting his life, his career and everything he held close.

  He wasn’t a cruel man. He was capable of love. He loved his daughter dearly.

  And he’d loved his first wife, Claudia’s mother, until he’d met Ruth and been swept away with the joy of her.

  It seemed to be a fault of his. Other women. Becoming distracted by them. Turning away from his marriage vows and loving another.

  No, he wasn’t a cruel man, but Ruth had threatened him when she had found out about his affair with Hayley.

  Claudia followed him into the morgue. He couldn’t bear to speak to her and silently went to change in readiness for the PM.

  His mind continued to whirr. Ruth had threatened to take away everything important to him. His career, his standing at work, his pension, his home. She had threatened to tell Claudia he’d cheated yet again. She had threatened to tell everyone at work about what he’d done with Hayley. He would have lost everything. His anger had bubbled the more she had spoken until eventually it had cracked.

  And afterwards he was alone with a body. The body of his wife. The body of his daughter’s step-mother and friend. The body of a cop.

  He was terrified, but he’d seen a way out. No one would understand she had driven him to it. Yes, there were arguments in some court cases of self-defence. But he couldn’t see that argument flying here. In fact, he didn’t even want a case to go to court. He didn’t want to be the subject of gossip. He’d had to take more drastic action.

  The fact that both he and Ruth were working on one of the most vicious cases of their career at the time was the perfect get-out clause for him. He knew the MO, that the killer left a lipstick at each scene. And in disguising her body this way, Ruth was counted, as he’d hoped, as one of the Strangler’s victims. It helped that when he’d killed Ruth, Dominic had used his bare hands and strangled her. He hadn’t premeditated her murder. But it had been a streak of luck that he could hide her death this way.

  The net had closed in on the killer, and when they caught him, Ruth was tallied in his body count, and they remanded Tyler in prison for his crimes.

  This was where Dominic’s life became a little difficult. More so now Tyler wanted to speak to Claudia.

  Dominic needed to find out what Tyler wanted. But there was no way he could. He couldn’t allow his carefully created world to crumble around him. He was not prepared to lose everything. Not after all the work he’d already put in.

  When he was ready, Dominic stalked into the post-mortem room and found Claudia in there with Nadira Azim, Smithy the morgue tech and a photographer who would record the entire process. They were standing to the side, chatting.

  Oliver Kennedy was laid on his front on one of the tables in the centre of the room, the blade still embedded in his back.

  ‘Hey, Dominic.’ Nadira smiled at him, unaware of the tension between him and Claudia.

  He returned her greeting as everyone moved towards Oliver.

  ‘Okay, I’ve done the body mapping already.’ With a pen, she tapped the clipboard in her hand, which held a sheet of paper with two outlines of a human shape. One represented the front of the body on the table and the other represented the rear side. A pathologist had drawn in all the marks, scars and tattoos visible on the body they were examining. ‘Nothing particularly stands out. He has a couple of tattoos. One on his back of an eagle and the other on his upper arm of Harry Potter.’

  ‘Harry Potter?’ Dominic queried.

  ‘He’d have only been a boy when the first book and movie came out,’ Claudia said.

  ‘But still,’ said Dominic, ‘he was a grown-arsed man by the time he had the tattoo done.’

  Nadira laughed. ‘It really did speak to a huge generation of people, Dom.’

  ‘But Harry Potter is a real man. An actor, yes? He has a tattoo of . . .’ He looked blankly at the pair of women.

  ‘Daniel Radcliffe,’ said Nadira.

  ‘Exactly. He’s just a guy playing a part.’ Dominic stared at Nadira. ‘You’re a fan?’

  ‘I love the Potter films. Though I didn’t read the books. And Daniel is a great actor. Each to his own, Dom.’

  Dominic sniffed and returned his attention to Oliver Kenne
dy.

  ‘Anything else?’ Claudia asked.

  ‘There’s no obvious sign of injury other than the blade. I’ll have to complete the post-mortem to give you more.’

  They gathered round the table.

  ‘Have you seen a blade like that before?’ asked Nadira.

  It was pretty special as far as knife handles went. This was the first time Dominic had seen it, other than in the crime scene photographs.

  ‘I don’t know much about daggers, but it’s intricate. We must be able to locate where he picked it up.’

  ‘Unless it’s passed down in his family,’ Claudia said, standing close to look at the detail of the handle.

  Dominic ground his teeth.

  The rest of the post-mortem ticked by with very little of note. Oliver Kennedy was, other than the blade dug deep in his back, a very healthy young man.

  ‘Cause of death,’ said Nadira when they were done, ‘was exsanguination from the dagger in his back. If he’d have lived he’d have more than likely been paraplegic, paralysed from the waist down,’ she explained. ‘The blade hit between the T8 and T9 vertebrae, damaging the lower spinal cord.’ She pulled off her gloves and bagged them in an exhibit bag and signed the attached label. ‘We’ll get toxicology results in a couple of days to find out if he was drugged.’

  ‘You can’t think he got on that bed voluntarily?’ Dominic asked.

  ‘Stranger things have happened,’ Claudia replied.

  ‘But we won’t know until the results are returned,’ said Nadira. ‘He died sometime last night. Between 11 p.m. and 3 a.m.’

  ‘We’ll have to find out what he was up to before eleven,’ said Claudia. She turned to Dominic. ‘We have a busy time in front of us, we should get going.’

  Dominic was finding the afternoon more and more difficult. ‘I’ll meet you outside.’

  Nadira looked at him and then at Claudia. Claudia shrugged, but Dominic walked out and heard nothing that might have been said between them. No doubt Claudia would mention Tyler and the solicitor’s conversation.

  He wondered how others would view the proposal. Maybe that was something he should consider. Though wouldn’t they, no matter their thoughts on whether Claudia should go or not, understand Dominic’s reluctance to engage with him? After all, Tyler had supposedly taken his beloved wife.

  CHAPTER 13

  Claudia listened to the bring bring of the Skype call rattle through the old speakers of her work laptop as she waited for Audrina Post to pick up the call.

  When it was answered Claudia thought she’d got the wrong number. The woman on the other end of the video call looked no older than eighteen. Though she had to be at least in her twenties to be doing what she did. Claudia couldn’t help but compare herself and came away feeling ancient, plain and dowdy.

  Audrina Post, from the head-and-shoulders view Claudia had of her, was slim, classy and stylish. Where Claudia was wearing a blouse that was obviously supermarket-rack quality, the sleeveless number adorning Audrina flowed from her shoulders gracefully and in such a way you could practically feel the luxuriousness of it. Her hair was cut pixie short. Her face shining with health, whereas Claudia imagined herself looking dull and worn out.

  Worrying about the way she looked wasn’t something she usually did. Especially in work hours, but then again she wasn’t usually faced with a woman who looked like Audrina Post.

  ‘Detective Inspector Nunn?’ the agent asked. Her voice sing-song and as beautiful as her whole outer appearance. Claudia refrained from rolling her eyes. Some women were just lucky.

  ‘Yes. Thank you for taking my call.’

  ‘You said it was about Oliver Kennedy. I do hope he’s not in any trouble?’

  It was never easy breaking a death message, but doing so over a screen was one of the modern era’s worst problems. It was so impersonal. ‘I’m sorry to have to tell you, Ms Post—’

  ‘Do call me Audrina.’ She smiled. A genuine relaxed smile.

  Claudia had to break that easy calm. Her words would crash through Audrina’s day and wipe the smile from her face. ‘Audrina,’ she said, ‘I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but Oliver is dead. He’s been murdered.’

  It was as if the screen had frozen. The image of Audrina Post stilled on the laptop as the agent absorbed the information.

  ‘Murdered?’ The word was stuttered and said as though it could turn around and hurt the speaker herself.

  ‘I’m sorry, yes,’ Claudia confirmed. ‘I believe you were his agent for modelling contracts?’

  Audrina visibly tried to gather herself. ‘Oh, yes. Yes, I was. Oliver was a client for about . . .’ She paused as she considered her response. ‘About ten, eleven years.’

  Then something occurred to her. ‘You don’t think his modelling had anything to do with his murder, do you?’ She clapped her hands to the side of her head.

  ‘It’s what we’re trying to find out. We’re investigating Oliver’s life, and obviously this was a part of it. What can you tell us about his modelling jobs of late? Was there anything that caused you concern?’

  A hand went from the side of her face and up through her perfectly brushed hair, ruffling it. Making her look less well-maintained. Even the beautiful blouse no longer had the appearance of wealth and luxury but looked more tired and worn, just from a few sentences from Claudia.

  ‘Everything has been running as usual. He isn’t a high-flyer by any means. You know he has to keep working a day job as he can’t guarantee a constant wage through modelling?’

  Claudia nodded.

  ‘Though he could make good money when the jobs did come in. He was a lovely-looking lad. Perfect for the boy-next-door booking.’

  ‘What about the last couple of weeks or so? Anything suspicious that you were worried about?’

  There was a large diary sitting in front of Audrina; she flipped through some of the pages. ‘Give me a minute, Detective Inspector.’

  Claudia waited.

  Audrina’s hands were shaking as she worked. Then she looked back at the camera. ‘Oliver told me he had been approached directly. Through his social media accounts. It was for a small booking. An artist who said he needed a model for a shoot he was doing. I couldn’t find any details of the artist online and told Oliver we wouldn’t take it, but Oliver told me the guy was desperate and he’d hit it off with him, so he was going to help him out.’

  ‘When was he going to do this photoshoot?’

  ‘Oliver phoned me yesterday and said he was doing it late evening yesterday because the light would be good with the sun sinking below the windows of the installation the guy had picked out. He was actually quite excited by it.’

  Tears pricked at Audrina’s eyes. ‘When was he murdered?’

  Claudia hated to tell her the truth of the matter but she couldn’t lie. ‘He was killed last night, maybe yesterday evening.’

  ‘You think it has something to do with this shoot?’

  Claudia couldn’t answer. ‘Do you have the guy’s details?’

  Audrina looked horrified. ‘Like I said, I don’t think they were legit, but I’ll give you what I have. Anything to help. I just wish I could have prevented Oliver from taking the assignment.’

  Once Audrina provided her with the social media details that Oliver was using and the username of the person who had approached him for a photoshoot, Claudia thanked her and ended the call. Now she understood how Oliver had been tied to the bed with no defensive wounds. He’d believed he was there for a photoshoot, when he’d been there to have his life taken away in some bizarre game.

  CHAPTER 14

  He watched the news report with a hot flush spreading over his skin as the reporter on the screen talked about the murder earlier that day.

  So many details were missing. The crucial detail, the information that he had sent to the police before the key event, was absent. He had spent so long trying to get that image right. It was a part of the installation and they couldn’t see this. If they
failed to share his whole exhibit, then he’d have to do something about it.

  They couldn’t be allowed to silence him this way. The same way he’d been silenced by the galleries and museums.

  This was his time.

  He’d show the world his art. The critics would talk about him. His exhibit would be famous. As it deserved to be.

  No one had thought to do anything like this before. He was a pioneer in his field.

  If they refused to give him the limelight he deserved he would have to put his mind to the test and come up with something even better. Something they really couldn’t ignore.

  The world would see him for what he was. They would adore his artwork and swoon over it. His name would be synonymous with great works of art. The strange and the beautiful. The unusual and glorious. His name would be whispered in hushed tones in brightly lit halls, with the same awe reserved for Pablo Picasso and Ron Mueck.

  They would say his name with wonder.

  Yes, the next exhibit would have them talking.

  CHAPTER 15

  ‘Sorry to interrupt your weekend,’ Claudia began the next morning. ‘Thank you as always for working through. These early days are always important and typically fall when we’re due some time off. I’m sure DCI Sharpe will make it up to us.’

  Someone laughed. Claudia didn’t see where it came from. She understood the sentiment. Time off tended to be a luxury.

  ‘I spoke to Oliver’s agent, Audrina Post, yesterday. She said someone booked him for a shoot through social media and that she tried to advise him against it, but he must have attended anyway. I’ve requested a Met officer take a full statement from her as soon as possible. This means we have social media accounts and usernames to investigate. It gives us some lines of enquiry to follow up on. I’m heading out of the office this morning. I’ll have my mobile with me if you need to make contact. Let’s make some inroads in this.’

  With the briefing over and everyone provided with actions for the day Claudia teamed up with Russ and headed out to Oliver’s regular place of work. The coffee shop. It wasn’t a task she would usually engage in. As detective inspector of the team, she should be behind her desk making sure everything was running smoothly. But as this was their first case, she wanted to be involved at a more detailed level. She wanted to go through it step by step herself, afraid to leave anything to chance. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust her team. She did. It was more to do with the fact that she was a control freak.