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

by Rebecca Bradley

  And he was looking forward to the adulation that would come from such extreme work being out there.

  CHAPTER 22

  They didn’t usually pin things to the wall in the incident room. This wasn’t a television programme where the evidence was stuck up around them for all to see. But this image, this drawing, it was a different matter. Everyone needed to see the drawing and keep their focus on it at all times.

  So, with that in mind, Claudia had the drawing enlarged and tacked to the wall in a prominent position where everyone could see it.

  She stood, peering at the pencil work like everyone else in the room. The low brickwork bridge was over what looked to be a canal rather than a river. The water was settled and smooth. Greenery overgrew at the edges and a footpath ran alongside the water. Further in the distance, some buildings added their angles to the skyline, edging out of the bushes and trees and general green area that the image depicted.

  The victim’s dark hair flopped over his forehead. What Claudia thought of as a new beard lined his face. One that wasn’t long and in need of a brush, but rather close to his face. Shaped to his jaw. The drawing was so well done you could nearly see the individual strands of hair growing to create the overall effect. When not close to death, the man in the image looked to be a good-looking male. One who enjoyed his life. Looked after himself.

  He was shirtless in the drawing, and his body was well defined. Likely spent time in the gym. Claudia looked at his hands, trying to peer closer at his fingers to see if he was married. She stared at the image. His hands were twisted as the rope looped his wrists and pulled his hands tight together in the centre above his head and up to the top of the bridge wall. It was not possible to see his ring finger clearly. She wondered if he was missing yet, if a loved one had reported him missing and was at home begging for his return. Or was he still walking free, not knowing what was about to happen to him. Living his life, attending a career, a home, with people who loved him, oblivious to the pending horror that was steamrolling its way to him.

  It was this prospect that stressed her more than any other. The thought that he was out there free and happy with a clock hanging over him and he knew nothing about it, and they could do nothing to warn him. ‘Does anyone recognise the victim or the location for starters? Is he well known in any capacity? Are there any identifying marks in either the victim or location that stand out to you?’

  She was met with a wall of silence. Solid and ominous. This wasn’t the start she wanted.

  ‘Nothing?’ she pleaded with them. ‘This is your city, and no one recognises the bridge?’

  Again the silence pushed back at her. But this time the team had the cognizance to look guilty about their lack of answers. She could hardly scold them as she didn’t recognise it herself.

  ‘Okay,’ she said in response to the quiet. ‘We don’t know who or where he is. We have to move on and zoom in on the details on the drawing. The artist has an eye for detail. Having received the first of his artworks and been to the accompanying scene, I can guarantee they match up particularly well. So, with that in mind, we need to work on what he’s given us. It’s not often we get the chance to stop a murder, in this task force, before it’s committed.’

  She clapped her hands together, the sound loud in the unusually quiet space. ‘Let’s work this.’ She faced the drawing again. The image of the man hanging by his hands from the bridge, pulled down by the weight of the breeze block, was gradually being imprinted on the inside of her eyelids. ‘Let’s start with what we know. What we can see. Who wants to get this going?’

  She needed to kick off a discussion. An engagement of minds. To get a free flow of information running. This was how they worked best.

  Russ spoke up. She could always trust him in a difficult situation. ‘There’s no visible injury. How do we think he’s killed? Can you be stretched to death?’

  She looked to Dominic, who was staring sullenly at the wall. His mind was in a dark place, and if he didn’t pull himself into the here and now, she would have words with him about it. There were more important issues at this point in time.

  Russ had a good point. ‘I have no idea. We’ll have to get in touch with Nadira and find out. If he can’t die from his positioning, then we need to examine the drawing for any other signs of what might kill him. I don’t imagine this guy is hanging here for us to find and take to the hospital.’

  Russ scribbled a note in his pad.

  ‘What else?’

  ‘He looks to be a white male.’ Krish put forward. ‘Between twenty to thirty.’

  ‘Still a large part of the city’s population.’ She hated to be down on suggestions, but they had to be realistic. She needed more from them. ‘How many bridges are there in Sheffield?’ she pushed.

  Again the thunderous silence blanketed the room.

  Claudia ran a hand through her hair, frustration gnawing at the back of her head. ‘Look, we can’t work like this. It needs to be more dynamic. Okay, if you have nothing on the specific questions I throw out, jump in with something else. Keep the ideas flowing. This silence is driving me insane. We can’t solve a crime without words. We have a man who is about to lose his life, and for once in our lives we have the chance to stop his murder before it even happens. Not turn up after the event and chase down his killer. Who here isn’t up for that?’ She glared at them all. It was a genuine question. ‘If you don’t want to stop this murder, then you can walk. Get up and leave and I can attach you to another team where the work is familiar. But if you want to stop a murder, then what I need from you is more. More than you’re currently giving me. More than you’re giving of yourself. More for Oliver Kennedy, because he deserves that much more. If you’re staying, you put in everything you have to offer and then some.’

  The glare continued as she waited for anyone to climb out of their chair and walk from the room.

  No one moved.

  ‘Okay. You’re all staying. That’s good to know. Now you know what I expect. Let’s get to work on this.’

  Claudia returned her attention to the drawing. ‘It’s not a large bridge. Not a well-known structure. Our killer has done this on purpose. It’s smaller, brick-built, looks to be over a canal rather than a river. How many of those in the city?’

  This time there was an immediate response. They’d heard what she had to say. Lisa spoke up, her voice loud and strong. ‘I’ve no idea, but we could contact the Canal and River Trust, which used to be British Waterways, plus we could contact Highways England. It would be a start. See how they could help us.’

  She pointed at her. ‘Good job, Lisa. Get on it ASAP.’ She thought back to her earlier musings. ‘We don’t know if he’s already missing. Check to see if we have any mispers who potentially match the description of the male in the drawing. We need an ID of the lad in the image. Maybe we’ll get lucky.’

  Russ spoke again. ‘Kennedy wasn’t recorded as a missing person because he lived alone. If our killer goes by the same playbook it’s unlikely our victim is missing yet.’

  ‘Do you think he’s going to be another model?’ asked Krish.

  ‘Who’s prepared to model that scene?’ Dominic scoffed.

  Claudia wished that if he didn’t have anything helpful to say, he would keep his thoughts to himself. Of course, what he’d said was likely true, but it was the way he went about it. He had difficulty in reining in his thoughts since Ruth’s murder. His mood was erratic and everyone was stepping on eggshells around him. Not just her. Krish was part of Dominic’s old team and he simply scowled at his old DS, leaving his face to portray what he very likely wanted to say. Claudia was glad it hadn’t blown up into anything more. It wasn’t what they needed.

  ‘Okay.’ She kept the team focused on what they had in front of them. ‘What I want to do is split the team into two. Half of the team work the Oliver Kennedy murder and half work on this image. The work on the Kennedy murder might be a help in this new case. We’ll keep both cases fluid. Everythin
g out in the open. That way one side might hear a snippet that helps them. Of course the Kennedy case is important, but the priority is the recent case. I’ve never once in my career been in a position where I’ve been able to stop a murder like this. I doubt any of you have. We’re in a unique position. Let’s not waste it. Let’s stop a murder.’

  CHAPTER 23

  Dominic understood the urgency of the investigation in front of them but he had his own urgent matter to contend with. And on his walk the fresh air had given him some ideas on how to potentially deal with it. There was no way Claudia could be allowed to continue on the path she was on in believing Samuel Tyler had not committed Ruth’s murder. It led to nowhere but trouble. Trouble for him.

  He’d tried asking her to back off, but she was as stubborn as he was. Of course he’d passed that trait on to her. He couldn’t go to her mother and ask her to speak to Claudia because . . . well, they hadn’t exactly left it on the best of terms when he’d left her for a younger woman. She wouldn’t do him any favours, and she’d want to know why it benefitted him so much. Like a small ratty dog with a bone she’d shake at the information he was feeding her until she got something she vaguely believed. No, Claudia’s mother was not his escape.

  The incident room around him was a buzz of activity. He had to look like he was involved while at the same time working on his own problem.

  Typical of Claudia to demand they work this as a team, then glide out of the room all serene and queen-like.

  Urgh. He hated working for her. It had always niggled him that she had powered past him in promotions, but to have it so close and personal that she actually lorded it over him by having him on her team, it was nearly too much to bear. Of course he loved her, she was his daughter. Nothing would take that away. But his feelings rampaged through him. Sometimes suffocating him.

  Russ Kane, the other DS on the team, stood in front of the image, his hands on his hips. Claudia relied on Russ more than him. Obviously because they’d come from the same team before this task force had been created, Dominic could accept that. But she could at least make an effort to include Dominic more and not make it look like he was just one of the constables.

  ‘What can you see?’ Graham asked Kane. Graham was an ex-soldier who, like Claudia, did everything by the book. ‘Anything stand out, mate?’ He called everyone mate. Something else that grated on Dominic.

  Why was it that everything seemed to grate on him recently? Something to do with grief, Claudia would say, if asked. Something to do with secrets, he acknowledged quietly.

  ‘Just trying to analyse it, but no, nothing coming to me yet,’ said Kane.

  Dominic woke his computer up. Made it look like he was working, but what he was doing was something altogether different.

  What he’d thought about on his walk was Samuel Tyler and how to get to him from out here. How to manipulate him into not talking with Claudia. Not telling her he was innocent. It was a difficult ask. Tyler had nothing to lose. And no reason to do as Dominic asked of him. Yes, they’d been friendly before Ruth’s death, when Tyler was a victim support officer, before he was identified as the Sheffield Strangler. But he was charged with her murder now, and it wouldn’t be good for Dominic to be found on his prison visitor’s log if anyone questioned anything about Tyler’s activity. And because of that, Dominic couldn’t really get to speak with him.

  No, he had to get around it a different way.

  He needed to find out if Tyler had a cellmate. And if he did, then he needed to find out all he could about that cellmate and then pay him a visit. If he couldn’t get close to Tyler he’d do the next best thing.

  ‘Hey,’ shouted Kane.

  Dominic raised his head. ‘What is it?’

  ‘There’s what looks to be a pile of clothes on the towpath. Maybe if we can enlarge the image we can get something from them.’

  Dominic was impressed. If the killer didn’t want them to get at least a little close to his crime, then what was the point in this charade? He turned to Krish, who had been a part of his old team. ‘Can you see about getting the drawing enlarged, Krish?’

  Krish jumped from his chair, eager to move this job along. The clock was ticking.

  Dominic returned to his research. They didn’t have access to prison records, so he couldn’t immediately find out who Tyler’s cellmate was, but there was a cop embedded within the prison as a liaison. He emailed her to ask the question. Once he had his answer he would do some proper research on him. Find out what he wanted or needed. How he could wrap this guy around his finger to do his bidding.

  The email returned within a few minutes. Yes, she was well. She was sorry to hear about Ruth and of course she could help him out with Tyler. As long as he didn’t plan on breaking any rules, haha. He rolled his eyes at that.

  What on earth did she think he wanted the information for?

  Anyway, Craig Lawton was his cellmate. Had been since Tyler was remanded. Currently on remand himself awaiting trial for killing the guy who had raped his daughter. Anything else you need, let me know.

  Dominic typed up a quick response thanking her for the information, letting her know she’d helped a grieving man with a problem, and got to thinking about his next step. He was one step closer to Tyler. Now, how to close Tyler down and stop him ruining his life.

  CHAPTER 24

  Instead of leaving it to the team to find out, Claudia picked up her phone once she was in her office and dialled Nadira herself. She couldn’t wait for her officers to do the work while she sat on her arse twiddling her thumbs doing the crap paperwork. They were on a tight clock, and she was not going to let this guy die on her watch.

  Nadira picked up on the second ring. She must have been sitting at her desk.

  Claudia said hello and asked if she was busy or if she had time to talk through a problem.

  ‘If you’re calling then it must be important.’ There were other voices in the background. Nadira told whoever it was that she was taking this call. Claudia was grateful to her.

  ‘It is, Nadira. There’s a clock on it as well.’

  ‘You have another drawing?’ It was the only logical conclusion bearing in mind their last case together. They weren’t disclosing the fact of the drawings to the public, but Nadira was not the public. She was as much a part of the team as any of the detectives. She saw the horrors of the case as much as any of them, and Claudia had informed her during Oliver Kennedy’s post-mortem that they had received a drawing prior to his murder.

  ‘We do. Delivered directly to me just like the last one.’

  There was a hiss of air down the line as Nadira expelled her shock from her lungs. ‘Why are you being targeted?’

  ‘I don’t know, but that’s not the important question, Nadira. We can analyse that later. I need to ask you about what’s depicted in the image.’

  ‘Okay, go ahead. What do you have?’

  Claudia explained the man in the drawing. The pain and horror on his face, the stretch and bulge in his upper arm muscles, the breeze block dragging his body down. The terror in his eyes. ‘Can he die from this, Nadira?’

  There was a quiet pause. Claudia was getting tired of hearing silence today. She waited for the professional to process the information.

  ‘I’m afraid he can die from the positioning, especially with the breeze block attached. It adds extra strain on his chest, and that’s the problem. He’s going to be suffocating with the pressure on his chest. Air just won’t be able to flow through properly. As well as that being the main problem, his shoulders would dislocate or break, even his hips with the added brick tied to his feet. It’s a form of crucifixion. It sounds very much like a form of torture used in medieval days called strappado. You couldn’t hang anyone long this way because death was the likely outcome.’

  Black spots danced in front of Claudia’s eyes and the noise from the incident room seemed to invade her space. She blinked hard to ground herself. She had never heard of anything so grim. ‘How long
would it typically take to die in this position?’

  A chair creaked. ‘I’d say you have thirty to sixty minutes to find your guy once he’s been strung up. But . . .’ Nadira brightened. ‘You have longer than that, don’t you? You can find him now you know the image is real.’

  Claudia had never felt so defeated. ‘It’s a drawing, Nadira. It’s not a photograph. There’s less detail. Though, to give him his due, it’s a pretty good drawing. We’re doing the best we can, but it’s not going to be easy.’

  ‘I’m sorry, Claudia. I didn’t mean to pile on the pressure. I know you’ll work hard to locate the victim. If there’s anything you think I can do, get back in touch.’

  Claudia thanked Nadira for her help and hung up the phone, sinking deeper into the swivel chair behind her desk. Shoulders heavy, weighing her down.

  What a horrifically awful way to die. And for what? What did the killer hope to achieve? What was behind this? There was no way they could give him the freedom to taunt them like this and then get away with the murder. It didn’t bear thinking about.

  So far the drawings had been kept out of the press. Sharpe had mentioned releasing them to the public now they knew they were actually advance warnings. But to who? Who did they tell to be cautious? White males between the ages of twenty and thirty? And cautious of what? How were they to live their lives for the next day? Afraid to go out of their homes? It was ridiculous. You couldn’t ask a whole swathe of people like that to hide. For one thing they wouldn’t do it. Especially in that age bracket. They would refuse. They’d stand tall and say they wouldn’t be frightened into hiding away. No crazy person with a pencil was going to dictate their life.

  Claudia ran a hand through her hair.

  There was a knock at her door and Russ and Krish pushed their way in. Krish waved an even larger printout of the drawing in his hand.

  She looked at the pair of them. A giddy excitement pulsed from them.

  ‘What is it?’ She didn’t dare have her spirits lifted yet. She tempered them and waited the pair out.