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

by Rebecca Bradley

  ‘But you have to focus on where you go from here,’ Sharpe continued. ‘You can’t do anything about what has already happened. You lost the boy. It’s a fact. Now you can get justice for him by tracking the bastard down who did this and putting him before a court. Not fighting among yourselves. That does nothing for him. It certainly does nothing in the battle we have to identify and locate his killer. He’s a smart man. We need to be even smarter. Remind me we why we put this task force together, Claudia. Find him and bring him in.

  ‘You and Dominic work so differently, that’s one of the reasons we put you together. You work by the book, Dominic works more by the seat of his pants. Don’t think we don’t know that. But he colours just outside the lines enough to get things done. We can cope with his ignoring of the rules because it gets results. You’re a by-the-book kind of copper, the kind we need in charge, but you have a good nose. Together you can do this. We need you to do this.’

  Claudia hadn’t thought about the fact that Sharpe and Connelly had initially put the task force together with just her and Dominic. Since then, she’d focused on creating the team she wanted to have around her. She hadn’t considered the reason both of them had been selected. Or that Dominic’s unusual policing style had worked in his favour rather than against him in this case.

  Because he was her father, she often became irritated by his walking to his own beat. Of course he’d been doing the job a lot longer than she had and he felt he knew better, but she had rank on him.

  She scrubbed at her face. It was such a mess.

  ‘Are you listening?’ Sharpe pushed.

  ‘Yes. Yes, I’m listening. I was just thinking about Dominic.’

  ‘You two can work together, can’t you? Do we have to step in and rearrange the task force for you?’

  This caught Claudia’s attention. ‘No. No, you do not. Dominic and I can work perfectly well together.’

  ‘That’s not what I was seeing a couple of minutes ago. It looked like Russell Kane was getting in the middle of the two of you.’

  ‘It was my fault,’ she admitted. ‘I allowed my emotions to get the better of me, and Dominic didn’t take it well. Family react to each other a little differently than your usual team members would.’

  Sharpe tapped her fingers on the desk. ‘I came in here to get an update. This latest development isn’t going to play out well in the media. Whatever this is that’s going on between you and Dominic, don’t let it interfere in the investigation.’

  ‘It’s already over, ma’am.’

  Sharpe gave a curt nod. ‘Tell me what we have. I have to liaise with the press officer so we can release a statement.’

  Claudia’s stomach sank. She was positive the killer was getting off on the media attention. With the flair he put into the scenes he set and the name the press had given him, it was a given he was lapping it all up.

  She would find him and she would make him pay.

  CHAPTER 55

  Informing a victim’s parents or guardians got no easier, and this was the case with Zach’s mother and father. They had been a close, supportive family who had enjoyed spending time together, even though Zach had recently moved out of home to live alone. They had been proud of his independence.

  Zach’s father was tall, and Claudia could see where Zach got his dark and brooding eyes from. There was a real resemblance to the man.

  His mother on the other hand was petite but with a midlife expansion around her middle. It made her look comfortable and welcoming.

  Following Sharpe’s conversation, Claudia had brought Dominic with her to the Williams family home.

  The couple were warm and polite until the news was broken and their world was shattered forever.

  ‘We spoke with Zach last night,’ Claudia said.

  ‘He said something about the police. What happened?’ Through her heartbreak, Zach’s mother grasped onto this last sentence. Her son was alive last night. He had been safe with the police. How could this be true?

  ‘We were concerned his life was at risk and we placed him in a secure location . . .’ Claudia tailed off at the absurdity of what she’d said. Sharpe had told her to be careful when breaking this piece of information to the family. Sharpe, the one who was worried about legal proceedings more than the grief of loved ones.

  Dominic stayed quiet. He would allow her to work her way through this. She had been the one who had been there last night and should be the officer to explain the circumstances.

  Zach’s father picked up where Claudia had paused. ‘Secure?’ His voice hitched.

  Claudia’s stomach jumped.

  ‘Secure? How can you say it was secure when you’re here informing us our child is dead?’ The sound in the room was loud and violent. ‘How secure do you think it was, Detective Inspector Nunn?’ Tears were streaming down his face. Fury and grief mingled in a raw emotional telling of his pain.

  Claudia’s breath caught in her chest as she attempted to bring together the words she needed to calm the room and explain the situation as it had occurred. There was no way to explain it, of course. She had failed Zach. It was her fault Zach was in one of Nadira’s refrigerators waiting for her to perform a post-mortem. ‘We . . .’ She used the plural for the police service rather than laying the well-deserved blame at her own door. ‘We don’t know what happened, and that will form a part of the investigation. He was secure when we . . .’ We again. ‘. . . left him. We, as much as you, want to know what transpired and how he ended up leaving his accommodation and being . . .’ She lost the rest of the sentence. She never normally found it as difficult to issue death messages. Although the emotion of the family inevitably washed over her, she usually steeled herself for what was to come before entering a home. Today was different. With the blame firmly planted at her feet, she was fumbling to deal with the family, their pain and finding her words. ‘. . . how we find ourselves here today,’ she finished.

  Zach’s father rose from his chair and exploded, spittle flying from his mouth, his eyes popping from his head. ‘You dare come here and tell us our son is dead, murdered no less, and you have the nerve to tell us you want to know what happened after you had him supposedly safe last night?’

  His wife’s face mirrored his own rage, but shock and grief were the strongest emotions breaking through.

  Claudia was helpless against his righteous anger. How could she defend herself and her team when she placed the blame squarely on her own shoulders? She would have to bear this torrent of fury. Wait him out and allow him his rage. It wouldn’t help him, but it would provide him a release.

  She made no excuses. There were none to give.

  Claudia left the family broken, but with a promise that she would do her level best to bring their son’s killer to justice. A promise that was as vague as it was supportive. She hadn’t promised she would bring him justice. She hadn’t promised his killer would be brought down within any specific timeframe, and she hadn’t promised to never stop hunting him. All she could do was tell them she would try, and she would.

  A family liaison officer, or FLO, would be assigned to the Williamses later today. It would have to be a sensitive posting bearing in mind the difficulties the couple had with the police. But it was a necessary one. Zach’s parents might have information they didn’t realise they were holding on how their son had known his killer. Because, to Claudia, looking at what they had in front of them, he had gone willingly. No one had entered the hotel looking for him. He’d left of his own accord, knowing how dangerous that would be. His family were the people who knew him best. A FLO would work with them to learn as much as they could about Zach and try to paint a picture of the young man and how his actions could have played out last night.

  Claudia desperately needed to know how things had gone so wrong.

  They climbed into their car outside the Williamses’ home, and it was then that Dominic spoke. ‘You can’t shoulder all the blame, Claudia. You made a decision last night that you thought was
the right one. With staffing levels, Zach placed in a safe place, and the killer still outstanding, you decided you needed officers guarding Zach’s home address, where you presumed the killer would automatically think he would be. It was a simple decision, really.’ He turned the vehicle on and it growled. The sun shone through the windows and Claudia pushed the electric button for the window to lower, allowing air to circulate.

  Dominic was talking sense, but it didn’t help her subconscious, which was beating her mercilessly.

  ‘We need to make inroads in this investigation,’ she said. ‘This killer is taking the piss. It’s time we turned the tables on him and showed him this isn’t his game. We’re as capable of playing it as he is.’

  CHAPTER 56

  A few days passed and once again they were struggling with leads. Claudia had taken to running before work to wake her body and mind up. It meant rising early, but she enjoyed that time of the day. The sound of the birds as they talked to each other in the otherwise empty, quiet streets. Only the odd car drove by on the way to a job that demanded a ridiculously early start.

  She enjoyed the peace the time of day gave her and the endless beat the rhythm of her feet provided.

  The investigation ran through her mind as her feet trod asphalt, one foot in front of the other. One breath after the other. Everything even and calm.

  They had two witnesses to the Zach Williams murder, but they were no help in furthering the case. One had found his body, and the other had heard the vehicle that had brought him to his display place and in turn created a timeline. But neither had given them a lead on the killer.

  Claudia’s heart vibrated a little harder against her breastbone as her feet pounded the ground and the Artist’s name ran through her head. A name that continued to rattle her to her core.

  He’d continued to receive near adulation from the press after Zach’s murder, and yet the investigation team had been eviscerated. Not that she could blame them for turning on the police. She shouldered that blame and refused to allow any of her team to accept it. They’d discussed it in a briefing, the first day a paper turned on them asking how Zach was killed under their noses. As a team they’d supported her — in their view, she’d done what she could, and if any of them were going down they’d go down together.

  It wasn’t how it worked, though.

  Not in policing. The powers that be liked to throw someone under the bus. They liked a scapegoat.

  Claudia heard feet coming up behind her. She didn’t flinch. The runner had passed her the last couple of mornings. A fit male who ran with his hood up and his concentration to the floor as he pounded the ground past and away from her until he was out of sight. She never saw him again until he passed her again the following morning.

  Like clockwork, head bent, he ran around her, feet moving easily. Claudia continued forward. It wasn’t a race. She kept her own pace. It would be very easy when travelling in the same direction as another runner to pick up your speed and try to keep up with them, but she was here to ease her mind before a busy day at work, not smooth her ego in a race.

  Sharpe, she mused, had talked to her privately that morning, the morning the press had come down hard on her, knowing she would wonder if she’d be the force scapegoat. She’d told her in no uncertain terms she needed to pull something out of the bag to turn this around. She pulled no punches. Claudia took it in her stride.

  Sharpe would always tell her the truth as she saw it.

  But how was she to pull it out of the bag? This killer was good. She hated to admit that. She hated that he was clever, intelligent. But that’s what they were faced with.

  Her heartbeat stayed steady as she followed her regular route. Her feet and her body in tune with the map she had set out.

  Her head, however, was another matter. Her mind was a tumultuous mess where the failures of the current case vied for attention with her confused thoughts regarding the statement Lawton had made claiming that Tyler had indeed murdered Ruth.

  It didn’t ring true.

  Tyler had not long ago pleaded with her to listen to him. That he had not killed Ruth because she had not had a child. He was punishing women who left children home alone, to follow their own selfish needs. Putting their children at risk, as he’d once been left at risk. With the scars to prove it.

  Claudia had listened to him. She had leaned in to his story and had believed him. She hadn’t known what she would do with that belief, but believe him she did. And now his cellmate, this Lawton, was saying Tyler had quietly admitted to him that he had killed the copper Ruth Harrison, as he had killed the others. The lipstick in the grave went to prove that. How stupid could the cops really be to think he hadn’t killed her?

  But there was one issue with this. One anomaly. There was a lipstick at the place Ruth had been taken from. At her home address blood had been found, signs of a fight. It was Ruth’s blood. And with that blood the signature lipstick, like a note telling cops that the Sheffield Strangler had taken her. But this hadn’t occurred with any of the other women. So why, then, had he left a lipstick there? Wouldn’t it be enough to leave one in the ground, as with the others?

  One foot in front of the other. The rhythm beating up through her body. A regular drum as her mind whirled.

  It was likely Tyler would be convicted of Ruth’s murder with so much evidence against him, plus the latest statement from Lawton. But it didn’t feel right to her. She’d have to find time within this current investigation to talk to her father about it.

  With this ongoing case they hadn’t been able to get together as she wanted. This was important, though. Her own thoughts were a jumbled mess. Heavens knew what her father’s were. He was a stoic man and would keep his thoughts to himself. She would have to prod him to find out, and prod him she would. This was too significant to allow to go unchallenged. Ruth deserved justice but someone was playing games. Be it Lawton or Tyler, she wanted the truth, and she was sure her father would quietly be brooding on the issue as well. Together they would talk it through and see what they could resolve.

  CHAPTER 57

  An email was waiting for Claudia when she sat down at her desk that morning. The results from the tox screen and on Zach’s stomach contents had come through, and Nadira had forwarded them straight on to her. She was obviously an early bird as well.

  Claudia returned the email with her thanks.

  Now she had the attention of the team as the morning briefing commenced. The last few days had been a subdued affair. Not because of a lack of interest, but because no results had been forthcoming. This morning she had something to feed them.

  It would buck them up. Revitalise them.

  She paced in front of the room, printout in hand. ‘It was a challenge to ascertain Zach Williams’s cause of death during the post-mortem,’ she said. ‘It wasn’t as obvious as the previous victims and was made all the more difficult by the fact that the killer—’ she continued to refuse to call him the Artist if she possibly could — ‘changed MO with every kill. Well, this morning we have an answer to that illusive question. Nadira has sent me the results through of his stomach contents and tox screen, and this was where the explanation lay.’

  There were mumblings around the room. She waited for them to quiet again.

  ‘Our killer fed Zach a mixture of alcohol, specifically a large quantity of whiskey, along with pain medication — codeine and diazepam, again, both in rather large quantities. He wanted to make sure they did the job.’

  ‘How easy is it to get hold of these drugs?’ asked Lisa.

  ‘I don’t know. It’s a line of enquiry for someone to follow up. They’re dangerous drugs. You can’t buy diazepam over the counter. You can buy low-level codeine but not in the amounts we’re talking about. So he’s either being prescribed them and has used his own supply or he’s acquired them somehow, and that’s another line of enquiry. How do you buy these drugs when you can’t get them over the counter? I don’t imagine there’s any point looking at
patients who use them. In a city this size I’m thinking the numbers are quite high.’

  Knowing how Zach died was not helping her come to terms with his death. The days between finding him and now had been difficult. The blame had seeped into her subconscious and buried itself deep. There had been no way to dig it out. Not that she had wanted to dig it out. She deserved for it to be there. Now she knew he had been forced to drink whiskey laced with the products of his demise, in all likelihood knowing that was what he was doing — drinking to his death, the fear enveloping him — her own guilt smothered her further. She had been with him, he had thought himself safe. How had this happened?

  Halfway through the briefing, an envelope appeared at Claudia’s side. She recognised it immediately, and she was torn. Should she open it before the crime scene unit processed it to find out what was inside or do as protocol dictated and wait for them to do their thing?

  It wasn’t as though they had ever managed to gather anything of evidential value from the envelopes or their contents when they had been delivered.

  Dominic rose from his chair. ‘It’s him.’

  She admitted it was.

  He dialled for the CSU and requested their immediate attendance. ‘Someone is on their way.’

  ‘This is a bloody quick turnaround for him,’ Graham noted.

  It was, and Claudia didn’t like that he was escalating this way. ‘It feels like something has upset him.’

  ‘You think because we got to his victim before he did?’ Russ asked. ‘It made him change what he was doing. Not many people like having their plans changed.’

  Claudia’s fingers were itching to open the envelope. Instead, she gripped one hand inside the other like she was shaking hands with herself. ‘You could have a point there. But if he didn’t want us to be ahead of him that way, then why would he send us these drawings? It doesn’t make sense.’