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

by Rebecca Bradley

  ‘Nothing about him makes sense,’ said Rhys.

  ‘Open the envelope,’ said Dominic. ‘You’re not going to destroy evidence by opening it. We’ve proved that time and again with the last ones he’s delivered. Just place a sheet of paper below the envelope as you open it so it can catch any debris that may fall.’

  She stared at him, understanding where he was coming from. The instinct to do as he said strong within her. But her training to follow the rulebook was equally as strong, and this time, with a CSI on their way, being a rulebook follower won out. She paced across the front of the room, desperate to open the letter and yet leaving it in place where it lay. ‘I opened the previous envelopes and we didn’t retrieve any evidence from them. Maybe that was because I opened them. If I do it properly this time around maybe we’ll catch a break?’

  Dominic huffed at her but kept his own counsel.

  Eventually a CSI wandered in. She was wearing a Tyvek suit and a large camera hung around her neck. Claudia breathed a sigh of relief and directed her to the envelope sitting on an empty desk at the front of the room, where she had been perched earlier during the briefing.

  She started by photographing it in situ and worked quietly and diligently from there. ‘I wouldn’t normally open the envelope until we were forensically ready to, but we’re aware of the ticking clock involved with this case. So I’m prepared to open the letter for you and work on it afterwards back at the lab. I’ll photograph the drawing inside and email it to one of you if you want to give me an email address to send it to.’

  Claudia looked at the room. ‘Dominic, give her yours. You can put the image on the screen as soon as you get it and then forward it to the rest of the team.’

  He nodded and reeled off his email address. The CSI tapped the letters into her camera screen and proceeded to tentatively open the sealed envelope.

  The incident room collectively held their breath.

  This was another job waiting to be started.

  They hadn’t resolved or moved forward with any of the other three victims that had been their cases so far, and yet here they were waiting for the image of a fourth victim to drop in their laps.

  Claudia could barely stand the tension and paced some more across the front of the room, time slowing to a crawl. Her scalp prickling, she ran a hand through her hair and clawed at her scalp with her nails.

  The folded sheet was finally pulled free of the envelope and the room breathed a light sigh.

  Dominic’s computer screen was on and waiting for the email to come through.

  The process the CSI was working through was slow. Claudia wanted to dash up to her and yank the sheet from her hands and open it so she could see what they had to deal with next. But she held herself back. They had a procedure to go through.

  The envelope was placed into a plain brown paper bag and sealed. An exhibit label was signed and attached. It was secure and ready for proper forensic examination. Now they could move onto the drawing, presuming it was a drawing inside. It had been a drawing all the previous times. It had to be a drawing this time.

  A terrible sickness overwhelmed Claudia as she considered the prospect of the sheet in front of the CSI not being what they were all presuming it to be. Not being a drawing of a victim, but turning out to be something altogether more horrific.

  What that was, she had no idea.

  But making assumptions was not a good look for the task force. She’d learned that the hard way with her presumption that the killer would be unable to get to his last victim at his ‘secure location’. She would talk about it with them after the CSI had gone.

  With gentle fingers the CSI opened up the sheet of paper. Claudia couldn’t see the contents properly from where she was, but it looked to be a drawing.

  She breathed a sigh of relief. But it meant there was another victim, so relief should not be what she was feeling.

  The CSI placed the paper on the desk and photographed it, then tapped at the camera screen and practically at the same time Dominic’s computer pinged with an incoming email.

  She then performed the same process she had with the envelope. Placing it in a plain brown paper bag and sealing it up.

  Dominic was staring at his computer screen, unmoving.

  ‘Come on, Dominic. What’s taking so long?’

  He looked at her, his usual calm demeanour long gone, instead horror paled his skin and enlarged his eyes.

  ‘What is it?’ Claudia asked, a niggle of concern at the pit of her stomach.

  Dominic forwarded the email to the team and then sent the image to the large screen in the room so that everyone could view it at once.

  There was an audible gasp.

  Ice ran down Claudia’s spine.

  For a moment or two she stood on the spot, unable to speak or move.

  The niggle that had been curling at the pit of her stomach was threatening to engulf her and come up in a wave of vomit, in front of her whole staff.

  As she stared at the image she could see out the corner of her eye that they were all staring at her.

  Waiting for a response.

  Breaths were held.

  The image she was looking at on the screen in the incident room, received from the killer they were hunting, was a drawing of Claudia.

  Dead.

  CHAPTER 58

  Suddenly the silent freeze-frame of a scene around her erupted and everyone spoke at once. The one voice she heard over all others was that of her father. No matter what differences they’d had, he was her father, and his voice boomed out over all the others in the room now.

  ‘He is not getting his hands on you, Claudia.’

  She couldn’t respond, her tongue heavy as lead.

  ‘Do you understand me? There is no way on this earth that man is getting his hands on you.’

  The collective agreement was loud and raucous. The team would do everything in their power to identify him.

  They hadn’t managed it yet.

  The location would be identified.

  They hadn’t done that yet either.

  Luckily they had a head start in recognising Claudia.

  She shivered. Zach had had the same head start, and yet he was one of their listed victims.

  The room narrowed. Darkness tunnelled in and constricted her vision.

  It sounded as though she were underwater.

  There was the sense of an arm around her, the word ‘tea’ was barked out, and she was being shepherded away from the spot she was rooted to. Her feet moved of their own volition, following the gentle guidance. A door closed behind her and she was lowered into a chair.

  She was in her office. She looked up at the owner of the arm and was both surprised and unsurprised to find it was her father. Who else would take care of her at a time like this?

  Claudia blinked several times. Adjusting to her new reality. A reality where her life may not be as long as she always thought it would be.

  ‘Stop that,’ her father said, as though reading her mind.

  She blinked some more.

  ‘He will not get his hands on you. Do you understand me, Claudia?’

  He was being her father.

  There was a soft knock on the door and Lisa entered with a steaming mug. She handed it to Dominic and slipped out as quietly as she had arrived.

  Dominic placed the hot tea in her hands. ‘Drink this. You’ve had a shock.’

  Was that what was happening to her? Shock? Seeing her own face drawn so clearly in that image. Knowing, just as it had before, that it was supposed to mean her demise. How was she supposed to react?

  She leaned back in her chair with the tea in her hand. Of course she knew how she was supposed to react. She was a detective inspector leading a team of driven officers on a hunt for a killer who was now making a threat against one of them. How she was supposed to react was with anger and a steady hand.

  She rose.

  ‘What are you doing?’ asked Dominic, standing from his crouched posi
tion in front of her.

  ‘My job,’ she said simply, putting the tea on her desk. Feeling grateful for the support he’d offered when she’d needed it. She looked up at him. ‘Thank you, Dad. But I have to face this head on. I have to take my role as DI and run with it, not run away like a scared little girl to her dad. I’m a grown woman and a police officer of rank.’

  ‘But, Claudia . . .’ He tried, but Claudia held up a hand to quiet him.

  ‘I know. It unnerved me for a minute or two. But it’s time to get back to work.’ She moved around the desk towards the door, giving Dominic no choice but to move out of her way. She wasn’t going to stop.

  ‘What’re you going to do?’ he asked, worry etching new lines on his face.

  ‘I’m going to continue working the case. Come on, Dad. Let’s go get this bastard, shall we?’

  CHAPTER 59

  The drawing showed a woman, Claudia, sitting upright, leaning against something, a blade in her chest. The surroundings were woodland, which is why at first glance she thought the item she was leaning against was a felled tree covered in moss. Dark, lush and green. Or they could presume it was green. It was shaded in dark grey, but he had such a sleight of hand it was easy to know what he wanted you to see. But it seemed from the angle of the drawing to be a little too boxy to be a tree.

  ‘This is the worst drawing he’s given us for identifying a location,’ Graham said. ‘It looks to be a wood of some description, and that could be anywhere. How the hell can we decipher this?’ His mood was grim.

  The overall mood in the room was low and brooding.

  This was the first time Claudia had to be honest and say she couldn’t see the beauty in the art of it.

  But she would say that when it was her face staring back at her.

  A little distorted. From the pain, she supposed. The blade dug straight into her chest.

  Her heart.

  But the intricacies of the flow of the pencil were too much for her to appreciate when she was looking at herself.

  The incident room door opened, and to show how unusual this case was, not for the first time, DCI Maddison Sharpe entered.

  Claudia flashed a quick look around the office space that asked, Who the hell told her? Whoever it was would be in deep shit when she found out.

  She wanted to deal with this as any other job that came in and lead the team, as she would any other time. Now Sharpe was involved they were in a different league.

  Her face was stern. Her eyes like lasers focused in on Claudia. She stood by the doorway, unmoving. ‘Outside.’ She turned her back to the room and disappeared back through the door.

  The team looked at each other.

  Claudia knew where she had gone, where she expected Claudia to follow her to.

  But first Claudia had a question.

  ‘Who the hell informed Sharpe?’ She didn’t care about the reason. Her trust had been severed. She was severely disappointed.

  Dominic rose from his chair. ‘I did. I sent her an email updating her. I thought she should know.’

  Claudia stared daggers at her father. Another reason they shouldn’t be working together. If he wasn’t her father, he wouldn’t have dared to step out of bounds this way. If he’d been a detective on her team unrelated by blood, he’d have been like the rest of them. Worried but following her lead. As it was, he was clearly scared for her and wanted someone of higher rank to know what was happening. To take control and to ultimately protect her.

  ‘How dare you.’ Her face flushed as anger surged through her. ‘This is my investigation. My face on the image. My decision how we deal with this new turn of events. How dare you undermine me like this.’

  She didn’t want to do this in public, in front of his colleagues, but the rage was pulsing through her veins. She couldn’t control herself. Mixed with the fury that he’d put her in this position was the fear of the killer and his incredible skill for getting around the police and obtaining his target, no matter how much of a heads-up he gave them.

  Dominic wasn’t perturbed by her cold, hard anger. But instead of looking like they were going to butt heads again, he kept his voice low and level, allowing Claudia to vent her emotions and keeping his in check. ‘As your immediate supervisor, she should know. You can’t be the next possible victim and also lead the investigation into catching the man responsible.’

  Claudia made to jump in, but Dominic stopped her.

  ‘But if you are, then that is a choice that Sharpe or Connelly have to make.’

  Jesus. She hadn’t even thought of Connelly. How Sharpe would sell this to him. She would have her hands full for the next half an hour talking to Sharpe, trying to keep this in her own incident room. What she didn’t want was someone coming in and taking over the lead. She would have to be good when she followed Sharpe downstairs.

  Claudia stared at her father, because right now he was treating her as a father would his child, not as a detective on her team. She couldn’t scold him. If she thought about it sensibly, how would she react if the shoe were on the other foot? She couldn’t possibly answer that.

  And with that in mind she shook her head and walked past him and out the door. She would have to argue to keep her own position on this investigation.

  CHAPTER 60

  The sun was shining down on the smoking shed, and as expected DCI Maddison Sharpe was waiting for her, high pointy shoe tapping impatiently on the grey concrete, a cigarette already between her lips.

  ‘Ma’am.’ Claudia approached.

  Sharpe stared at the officer in the corner of the shed, shielding from the sun or maybe attempting not to be seen by the DCI. Either way, he took the message that his presence was not required and he quickly stubbed out his cig, discarded it in the bin and stalked away without saying a word.

  All the while Claudia waited on Sharpe, knowing she had something to say.

  As always, she twiddled her thumbs while she waited. She didn’t smoke, but she was becoming used to the smoking shed as a place for Sharpe to have serious conversations with her. A place Sharpe could soothe her nerves while getting on with the business of supervising and policing. And Claudia could imagine Sharpe had some nerves to soothe on hearing one of her staff had been targeted by the latest killer they were investigating.

  ‘How are you?’ Sharpe eventually broke the silence.

  ‘I’m fine.’ And she was. The initial shock had worn off and she had returned to work mode. The panic had been a mere blip.

  Sharpe blew out a smoke ring and seemed to consider this answer.

  ‘I’m going to have to bring in another inspector to lead the investigation.’

  Claudia couldn’t tell if she was confiding in her or complaining that it inconvenienced her. Either way she wasn’t having it. ‘I’m not a victim. I haven’t been injured. It’s a bloody piece of paper with my face on it. I don’t see how it compromises what I can do.’

  ‘I don’t care what you see or don’t see.’ Sharpe was cool. ‘The fact is you pretty much are a victim—’

  ‘Pah,’ Claudia spat at her, for a moment forgetting rank. ‘One drawing does not make me a victim.’

  ‘If not a victim, then a target. We have to follow the rules, Claudia.’ Sharpe was trying to placate her.

  Claudia was not accepting it, no matter the sense of Sharpe’s last comment. She fought back. ‘Where were the rules when you asked me to investigate and interview my own father?’

  Sharpe inhaled and paused before responding. ‘They were specific circumstances that required a bending of the rules to save the life of an officer. But —’ she stared hard at Claudia — ‘the rules were still not broken in that case. As well you know. Otherwise, at this point in time, evidence would be getting thrown out at court, but it’s not. Because you did a great job. Within the boundaries we are allowed to colour within. This is different.’

  Claudia quieted, no more arguments forthcoming.

  Claudia was deeply aware of Sharpe’s scrutiny as her superv
isor took her in. The quivering outline of her boss clearly indicated her feelings on the matter, and her arms crossing her tense upper body underlined them.

  ‘This is not a statement on your handling of the case,’ Sharpe said eventually. ‘It’s a matter of keeping the lines of the investigation clearly delineated. Where you are being investigated—’ she held up a polished finger to shush Claudia’s protestations — ‘we need another body to oversee that part of the inquiry. But I will allow you to be present, as you have intimate knowledge of the overall case.’

  She supposed she couldn’t ask for anything better than that and sagged at the compromise. ‘Who are you bringing in?’

  ‘Do you know Adam Blackwood from Intelligence? DCI?’

  Claudia remembered the brief exchange she’d had with him. In the same place she stood now. ‘Yes, I’ve met Adam. He seems a nice enough guy.’

  ‘I don’t care how nice he is.’ Sharpe flicked ash onto the warm ground. ‘I care about how well he can do his job, and I’ve heard nothing but good things about him. He’s only just moved into his role, but I’m going to ask him to help us out. Or rather, Connelly is. He’s speaking to him as we talk.’

  Claudia ground her teeth. It was a done deal. Nothing she said down here in the grounds of police headquarters would change the outcome of her position. This rattled her.

  ‘If Adam is up for this, expect to see him in the incident room shortly.’

  Claudia rolled her eyes.

  Sharpe flicked her cigarette on the ground, ignoring the bin, and with her pointed toe ground it out. ‘We’ll keep you safe, Claudia.’

  She sounded like her father. It really wasn’t what she was worrying about. What she wanted was to keep her hands on her own investigation, but that wasn’t happening. ‘I’m a big girl. I’ll be fine.’

  ‘We’ll put a close-quarter detail on you until this is over.’

  Claudia shook her head. ‘No. No. No. I’m not having someone trail around after me like a lost puppy.’ She was adamant about this point. It had been difficult enough to be informed a new SIO would be taking the lead on the investigation without the need for close protection screwing up her day. She wouldn’t have it. Under any circumstances. She was trained in self-defence. She could handle herself.