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

by Rebecca Bradley

  The receptionist appeared, a half-hearted smile etched onto his face. Obviously he wasn’t a fan of night shifts either.

  ‘Good evening, how can I help you?’

  Claudia pulled out her ID and introduced both herself and Russ. ‘We booked in a male by the name of James Rogers last night. He’s no longer in his room. We’d like to know the last person to see him and we’d like access to his room, please.’

  They’d booked Zach in under a pseudonym in case the Artist was clever enough to do a search for him. But with the amount of hotels in Sheffield it would take him the whole night or an incredible amount of good luck to find him quickly by calling the hotels and asking for Zach Williams.

  The receptionist looked Claudia and Russ up and down, checking out the relaxed dress code. ‘One moment.’

  Claudia waited. Not so patiently. She had an urge to tap her fingers on the desk but didn’t want to appear rude and annoy the one person who was currently helping them.

  ‘Mr Rogers ordered room service at 10.50 p.m. and it was delivered at 11.06 p.m. The waiter who delivered the food was the last person to see Mr Rogers.’ He looked up from his computer. ‘I can take you to his room if you would like?’ He smiled again. There was no trace of genuine warmth behind the expression.

  Russ took out his notebook. ‘We’d like the name of the waiter who took the food to Mr Rogers, please.’

  The receptionist looked down at the computer screen again. ‘Of course. It was Gareth Davids.’

  ‘And is Gareth Davids still on duty?’

  ‘He is. Will you need to speak with him?’

  ‘We will,’ Russ confirmed.

  ‘Very well. Would you like to speak to Mr Davids first, or would you prefer to attend to Mr Rogers’ room?’

  Russ checked with Claudia.

  She thought about priorities. The last person to see Zach might have something to tell them, but Zach could equally have left them something in his room that told them where he was going. ‘We’ll have a quick look in his room and then we’ll speak to Gareth, please.’

  ‘As you wish.’ The receptionist moved back out of view, most likely to talk to whoever would be covering the reception and to grab the master key card, and then he ushered them to the lift, where they ascended to Zach’s room. A journey Claudia didn’t think she would be making quite so soon. Guilt ate at her as the small box moved upwards. The walls that confined her like her own personal prison cell for her crimes of not protecting Zach. It was something she’d have to learn to live with. Especially if harm came to him. If they couldn’t get to him in time.

  The receptionist opened Zach’s room and Claudia and Russ strode in, snapping on gloves to protect the integrity of any surfaces they might come into contact with. The Crime Scene Unit would do a full examination, but time was not on their side and they needed to look round now.

  The receptionist waited for them in the corridor.

  ‘Nothing’s out of place,’ said Russ. ‘Not from what I can remember. Obviously he’ll have unpacked the few things he brought with him. But it looks tidy enough in here.’

  Claudia looked at the book open on the bed, A Town Called Discovery, and remembered the shelves of sci-fi he had at home. The hours of escapism he enjoyed. Had he been reading his book before he disappeared? Had this book managed to settle the nerves that had so obviously been on display when they’d last seen him?

  Claudia moved into the en suite. Again there was nothing amiss in there. ‘What about his phone?’ she asked Russ. ‘Is it in here?’

  He looked around. ‘I can’t see it.’

  ‘Which suggests he either took it with him when he left, meaning he went of his own accord, or someone else picked it up. We need to figure that out. But what would make him get up and leave? He was terrified when we left him.’

  Russ shrugged and rubbed an eye with the back of a gloved hand. ‘We’ll see if we can trace his phone.’

  Claudia shook her head. ‘It’s off. There’s no doubt about that. But of course we’ll try.’

  With one last look around the hotel room they moved back downstairs and were ushered to a comfortable seating area in front of the reception desk. They were not worried about being overheard at this time of night. Everyone was tucked up in their rooms, oblivious to what was happening within their hotel. That the Artist’s next victim had been here for a short time and was now a missing person. That the police were here and concern was high.

  It was only a matter of minutes before Gareth Davids was ushered out front to speak to Claudia and Russ.

  He was anxious. His hands were clasped in front of him like twisted, gnarled twigs. His shoulders bunched up to his ears.

  ‘Thank you for coming out to talk to us,’ Claudia said, trying to settle him.

  Gareth nodded his head, his lips a thin line in his face.

  ‘We’re told that you took Mr Rogers’ evening meal up to him last night, is that correct?’

  Gareth nodded again.

  She was going to need him to speak if they were to get anywhere with him.

  ‘Won’t you sit with us?’ Getting him a little more relaxed would help. Gareth folded himself into a chair opposite Claudia and Russ. He was tall and lanky and appeared uncertain of himself in the seat. Claudia moved on. ‘He was in his room when you took it up?’

  Again, another nod.

  Claudia held in the sigh she so wanted to release.

  ‘Tell me about your transaction with Mr Rogers, please.’ He had no choice but to talk to them.

  Gareth opened his mouth, closed it then opened it again, but nothing came out.

  ‘I know it’s daunting talking to the police.’ Claudia tried to soothe the jittery man in front of her, but time was running out for Zach and she was about to lose her patience if this waiter didn’t start speaking soon. ‘But you’re not in any trouble. In fact, what you tell us could prove really helpful. Mr Rogers could be in real danger and something you say might help us help him. You’d like to do that, wouldn’t you?’ She hoped that small spark of something that people had for being involved in an important situation with the police would kick in and open Gareth up.

  Again he opened his mouth. This time sound came with it. It was quiet, but it was sound. ‘I knocked on his door.’

  Claudia and Russ both leaned forward at the same time to better hear him. He looked startled and leaned back in his own chair a little. Claudia clenched her teeth together but said nothing. Sensing his boss’s rising frustration, Russ asked Gareth to continue.

  ‘It took a while for him to answer. I shouted that it was room service. He seemed unwilling to open the door. He asked what his order was. I had no idea. It was covered with a lid. He refused to let me in unless I told him, so I had to check under the lid and tell him.’

  He paused.

  ‘I’m presuming it was correct and he let you in?’ Claudia said, feeling proud of Zach for thinking of his own safety that way. If he’d been so cautious, how then had he gone missing?

  ‘Oh yeah. He let me in. Locked the door behind me while I was in the room. It was all very strange. But now you’re here, it kind of makes more sense. He was hiding out, wasn’t he?’

  Claudia could hardly deny it. ‘He was keeping himself safe, Gareth.’

  Gareth nodded again.

  ‘Did you see or hear anything unusual in the room?’

  Gareth scratched at his face. His fingers long and slender now they were unfurled from the bundle they’d been tangled in not a minute previously. ‘I don’t think so, other than the guy in the room was jittery. That was what stood out as strange to me. The whole thing with him. Him not letting me in. Having to check his food and him locking the door behind me while I was in there with him. I were only in there a minute while I put it down and yet he locked me in with him. Very unnerving it were.’

  Claudia could only imagine the number of strange customers hotels saw through their doors and didn’t for one minute believe that Zach was the strangest Gareth
had come across. ‘What did he say while you were in there?’

  ‘He wanted to know if anyone had asked after him on my way up with his food.’

  ‘And had they?’

  Gareth looked surprised. ‘No. I picked up his meal and carried it to his room. I didn’t speak to anyone.’

  ‘What else?’

  ‘Just the tray and the food on the tray.’

  ‘No, what else was said.’

  ‘Oh. He checked under the food covers. I wasn’t sure what he was looking for, but I asked if everything was okay and if I could do anything else for him.’

  Claudia waited for him to continue.

  Gareth got her point. ‘He said he didn’t need me and unlocked the door. On the way out, he asked me not to tell anyone he was there. Not to tell anyone his room number. The only people who should know were already aware, he said.’

  That would be her and Dominic he was referring to. She was puzzled. What had prompted him to leave his room? He was obviously worried sick after they’d left him.

  ‘Did you see anyone lurking around the hotel that you didn’t think belonged here?’ Russ asked, as though reading her mind.

  Gareth returned to non-verbal communications and shook his head.

  Claudia stared at him.

  ‘No, nope. Nothing.’

  That was a no then.

  She thanked him for his time and gave him a contact card, asking him to get in touch if he remembered anything else. He scuttled away as if the chair he’d been occupying was on fire.

  ‘What are you thinking?’ asked Russ.

  She sighed. ‘I have no idea what’s happened here. We had him secured in his hotel room. He was obviously frightened and didn’t want finding if Gareth’s verbal statement is anything to go by. I don’t understand what got him out of his room. And with no one seeing him.’

  Russ looked across at the reception desk. ‘Well, the no one seeing him part is easy enough. The front desk doesn’t look manned unless you ring for attention as we did. Anyone could easily walk in or walk out unseen.’

  ‘The question is,’ Claudia groaned, ‘did our killer walk in or did Zach walk out?’

  CHAPTER 47

  Uniformed officers had seized CCTV from the hotel and the surrounding streets. They’d been provided with a photograph of Zach from his driving licence and the timeframe from him last being seen by the waiter to the moment he was discovered missing, so they could search through the footage to see if they could find him.

  Claudia wasn’t going to wait for a team to search through the hotel CCTV when she could do it herself. The timeframe was reasonably tight for her to view it on fast-forward, and as she did Russ stood behind her, his body tense as they waited for the corridor cameras to show them the truth of what had happened.

  Russ’s hand flew up. ‘There he is.’

  Claudia watched as Zach walked down the corridor alone. Hands shoved deep into his pockets. Shoulders hunched. Chin tucked tight into his jacket. Curling himself into as small a ball as he could. Trying not to be seen. By the camera or by someone else? The person he was walking straight to?

  They watched as Zach moved through the hotel. Though it had no sound, his stance gave the impression he was skulking through the building as quietly as he could so as not to be seen and stopped. He was flowing through the corridors until he wasn’t. Suddenly he stopped still at a door and looked around furtively.

  ‘What does that door say?’ asked Claudia.

  Russ leaned in. ‘Staff only.’

  Claudia rolled her eyes. ‘Please no.’ But then he was gone, through the door and out of sight. ‘Check where that door comes out, but my best guess is it’s a back exit. He’s avoiding the front. The marked car. But how? How did he know to do that?’

  ‘He left of his own volition,’ said Russ, grudgingly.

  Claudia shook her head, trying to clear the image. The young man had seemingly willingly walked to his own death. ‘What would make him do that? He was so scared.’

  Russ shrugged. ‘We need to find him.’

  The on-duty night inspector had been helpful in providing staff to support her with the missing person investigation, knowing what it was likely going to lead to. Everyone in the force was aware of the Artist and wanted to be involved in stopping him in his tracks. Claudia held a mug of coffee. Not a drink she would normally consume, but she needed to be awake and alert, though she was probably overloading her nervous system with adrenalin. There were plenty of natural hormones circulating around her body without the need to add the viciousness of the synthetic component she was ingesting.

  Russ was doing the same thing. He was an everyday coffee drinker, and it wouldn’t have as much of an affect as it would for Claudia.

  ‘We’ve got a request in on his phone, haven’t we? To locate it the minute it comes back online?’

  Russ agreed that they had.

  The last place the phone had placed him had been at the hotel. The fact that his phone was off was not good news. People didn’t just turn their phones off. Though she had warned him when she left not to use his phone to tell the world about the exciting incident he happened to find himself in. Maybe this was his way of controlling the urge to Tweet or Facebook his situation?

  She doubted it. In her experience, when missing persons’ mobiles were off it was not because they were protecting themselves. It was usually because something bad had happened. Someone else had control of their phone and had switched it off in an effort to hide their location from police.

  Claudia now moved away from the video and paced around the incident room. ‘I don’t understand what happened.’

  She was lost. And she was afraid. For the second time in her life, she was truly afraid. The first time had been when Ruth was missing and they knew the Sheffield Strangler had her — what was it with these monsters’ names? It made them almost appealing, and they most definitely weren’t. Now a young man was missing, and most likely in the hands of another killer. The clock was ticking, and he was getting closer to meeting his death.

  She was not only afraid because Zach was about to lose his life, but because she was at a loss as what to do, and that terrified her.

  With her free hand she raked through her loose hair. ‘We need to identify the location in the drawing. Immediately. It’s the only way we have of saving Zach.’

  Russ looked bleak. ‘There was nothing in the image that gave the site away. There was a plain-looking house behind Zach and a pair of wings etched onto him. Maybe the killer’s created the wings and will attach them to him? But other than that, the image is the blandest he’s sent us.’

  He was talking sense, but Claudia didn’t want to admit it. She didn’t want to admit defeat. ‘We can’t simply stand here and wait for someone to find him in the morning, Russ. We have to be active. We have to save his life. He trusted us to do that for him.’ She sank into the nearest chair.

  The incident room was silent without all the staff in the space. She checked her watch. It was 3.15 a.m. ‘Let’s get everyone in.’

  Russ put his mug down. ‘You’re sure?’

  ‘We have a large contingent of uniformed officers working this with us, but it’s not enough. I can’t sit on my hands while Zach Williams is a hair’s breadth away from death. And if getting the team in and putting up with tired faces for the rest of the day is the price I have to pay, then so be it.’

  Russ gave a curt nod and pulled his mobile phone out of his pocket. ‘I’ll get onto it.’

  ‘Thanks. I appreciate it. Leave Lisa and Krish in place, though. We don’t know that Williams didn’t leave of his own accord because he was homesick. Either he or the killer could still turn up at his home address.’

  She walked away and left Russ making calls, waking the team up and getting them in during this desperate time.

  Claudia strode through to the viewing room, where a row of uniform cops were glued to the television screens, watching the night and waiting for signs of their victim o
r their killer. ‘Anything?’ she asked, knowing that if any of them had found anything they’d have jumped straight up and informed her. She chewed down on her bottom lip, desperate to know something. Anything.

  They shook their heads. ‘Sorry, ma’am.’

  ‘No sign of Williams?’

  ‘No, ma’am.’

  ‘Or anyone else acting suspiciously?’

  ‘No, ma’am.’

  There wasn’t a camera outside the hotel, so Zach could easily have walked out without being seen. But to then have disappeared? To not have gone home? The resulting conclusion wasn’t good, and Claudia stalked away from the viewing room disappointed with their lack of information for her.

  Gradually the team filtered in. Claudia stomped about the incident room, waiting for a lead to break, but nothing happened. They’d had their big lead. They’d placed the image with the press and Zach had come forward for them. Then they’d taken him out of the way to what should have been a place of safety and yet here they were, accomplishing little, with no sign of Zach and a clock that was rapidly ticking down to what looked to be his demise.

  CHAPTER 48

  The Artist was pleased with himself. He’d watched Zach, the piece he’d needed for his art installation, being taken from his home by the police and had been hit by despair and panic. Panic that he could no longer complete the exhibit. But then he’d put his mind into gear and got back to work.

  This was what thrilled him most, when his mind was alert and the thrill of everything coming together made his body thrum.

  He of course had Zach Williams’s phone number from being in the same fitness club. All he’d had to do was make a call with a mild threat against his parents, and he’d come running out to the car like a meek little lamb, following his directions to the staff exit to avoid the marked police car watching and waiting out front. All thought of his own safety was gone, so long as he, the Artist, promised to leave his parents out of it.

  The stupid boy. The Artist had no idea who his parents were or where they lived. Zach hadn’t even thought to confirm any of this. The threat had been enough to send Zach scuttling into his arms. Fear drove people to do the most ridiculous things. And this boy was no different.