Broken Silence

by Danielle Ramsay

  Ashamed, Brady lowered his eyes.

  ‘When you got shot the following night I couldn’t help but smile at the fact that you had got what you deserved.’

  ‘Bet you did,’ Brady stated quietly as he met her disdainful eyes.

  ‘Oh come on, Jack! When the hell are you going to take some responsibility for your own actions? You fucked up! You, not me. On both accounts. With that girl you screwed and with the drugs case you were working on,’ she pointed out as her eyes sparkled with emblazoned fury.

  Brady slowly swallowed. He looked at her as she stood with her hands defiantly on her hips waiting for him to respond. But he couldn’t. All he could think about was how much his body ached to take hold of her and remind her of why she had been so attracted to him in the first place. But more than that, he ached to touch her again. To breathe in the delicate scent of her soft skin and bury his face in her unruly red hair. He wanted her now more than he had ever wanted any woman.

  Before he had a chance to act, a knock at the door broke the spell.

  Brady cleared his throat.

  ‘Come in,’ he ordered.

  The door opened and Jenkins walked in.

  She stopped when she saw Claudia, stood with her arms folded, clearly annoyed at the interruption.

  ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t realise you were busy. Conrad told me I could find you here,’ Jenkins apologised.

  Brady couldn’t help but feel embarrassed by Jenkins’ intrusion. He didn’t know what she was playing at. The last time he talked to her she had said she was no longer part of the investigation.

  ‘It’s all right, Dr Jenkins, we’re done here, aren’t we?’ Brady said awkwardly as he looked at Claudia.

  ‘Are we?’ asked Claudia caustically.

  Self-conscious, Brady stood up.

  Claudia turned round to face Jenkins and then turned back to Brady, making a play of sweeping her red hair back off her face.

  ‘Well, aren’t you going to introduce us?’

  She didn’t wait for an answer. Instead she turned round and walked slowly and seductively towards the door.

  ‘I must apologise for Jack. He can be so rude at times,’ she said as she held her hand out. ‘Claudia.’

  ‘I’ve heard a lot about you, Claudia. It’s good to finally meet you,’ Jenkins answered, smiling. ‘Amelia Jenkins.’

  Claudia shook Jenkins’ hand, returning the smile.

  ‘Yes, good to meet you, Amelia. I’ve heard a lot about you too,’ Claudia replied.

  She then turned to Brady.

  ‘Don’t keep me waiting, Jack,’ warned Claudia. ‘I think you’ve messed me around enough already. Don’t you?’

  Embarrassed, Brady watched as she turned and left the room.

  ‘So, what brings you down to the station then?’ he asked, getting straight to the point. He wasn’t in the mood for small talk. Especially with his ex-shrink.

  ‘Shane McGuire,’ Jenkins answered, sitting down.

  Brady sat back and tried to focus. His head was still reeling from the shock of Claudia’s unexpected appearance in his life.

  ‘His mother, Trina McGuire, rang me,’ Jenkins explained.

  Brady frowned, curious as to why Trina would be calling Jenkins.

  ‘I gave her my number just before I left The Sunken Ship. I realised Adamson had blown any chances of her coming forward with Shane’s whereabouts and so I thought I’d leave my contact details with her. And it’s just as well that I did. She said Shane knows something that could be crucial to the murder investigation.’

  ‘Then why didn’t she call me?’ Brady asked sceptically.

  ‘Because of that tone that you’re using on me now,’ Jenkins pointed out.

  ‘What tone?’

  ‘That cynical tone you use with people.’

  Brady frowned. He didn’t have time to argue with Jenkins. He was still trying to figure out Claudia. Added to the fact that the last time he had seen Jenkins was in his office and he had thought better of finishing the bottle of Scotch they had been sharing. If Claudia hadn’t been in his life, then maybe that night would have ended differently. She was a very attractive woman after all; something Brady had found hard to ignore.

  ‘What did she tell you?’ he asked, trying to sound interested.

  ‘Are you sure you want to know?’ replied Jenkins.

  ‘Of course I do.’

  ‘Then I think it’s better you hear this from her. Or should I say, from Shane,’ Jenkins said standing up.

  ‘Yeah, sure,’ Brady replied. He stood up and grabbed his jacket off the back of his chair.

  ‘Oh shit,’ he muttered.

  ‘Problem?’ asked Jenkins as she opened the door.

  ‘No … it’s nothing,’ lied Brady as he thought about Claudia.

  ‘Give me a minute will you?’ Brady asked.

  Jenkins nodded. ‘I’ll meet you downstairs.’

  Brady sighed as he watched Jenkins leave. The last thing Claudia was going to want was to be left waiting indefinitely for him to continue the interview with Ellison. He pulled out his BlackBerry.

  ‘Conrad?’

  ‘Yes sir,’ answered Conrad.

  ‘Is Claudia there with you?’

  ‘I’ve just left her in the interview room with Ellison, why?’

  ‘I need you to meet me out front. Shane McGuire reckons he knows something connected to Sophie’s murder so we need to talk to him. I want you to make some excuse to Claudia. I don’t care what it is but just make it sound convincing, yeah?’

  ‘Easier said than done, sir,’ replied Conrad.

  ‘Look, just think of something, quick! And if she asks you, it’s got nothing to do with the woman she met in my office.’

  ‘I’m sorry, sir?’ questioned Conrad.

  ‘Just do as I say,’ ordered Brady.

  He cut the call and wearily rubbed his tired face. Why the hell was his life so damned complicated?

  Chapter Fifty

  ‘Are you sure that’s what she heard?’ Brady questioned.

  Shane McGuire nodded painfully.

  He noted that Shane’s injuries looked worse than yesterday. And that he was still on a morphine drip twenty-four hours later. There was one thing he was certain about, McGuire and his family would get the bastards who had done this to him. That was the way it worked. The lads who had organised McGuire’s beating had overstepped the mark. It was one thing to warn him to keep quiet, it was another thing to actually very nearly silence him for good.

  Brady also had to accept the rules. McGuire was talking off the record. The information he was giving Brady was second-hand. And he had made it clear that Brady would never be able to get it straight from the source. Kids like them didn’t talk to the police; more so when it was a murder enquiry. But Brady was grateful for anything connected to that night. And he trusted McGuire. He knew the lad had been deeply affected by Sophie Washington’s murder, to the extent that he had asked too many questions. He should have kept quiet when they gave him the answers he was searching for; instead he did the wrong thing. He put pressure on them to talk to the police.

  Brady knew that a group of kids must have been hanging about the abandoned farmland that Thursday night. The smouldering bonfire was evidence enough; that and the empty cider and Lambrusco wine bottles. But what Brady hadn’t banked on was McGuire being mates with them.

  ‘Look, the lass may have been pissed, yeah? But she was certain she heard them.’

  ‘Run it by me again. What exactly did she hear?’

  McGuire thought about it slowly.

  ‘She reckoned she heard these two lasses arguing and then later, one of the lasses was talking with this guy …’

  ‘What time was this?’ asked Brady.

  ‘I dunno, she reckoned about one-ish, if not a bit after. But you know she was off her face and like, so she’s not that sure.’

  Brady nodded. The time seemed pretty accurate to him. He glanced briefly at Conrad. If McGuire was right th
en this could be the breakthrough they needed.

  ‘She reckoned it sounded like they were an item, you know? She said she heard her mention the two of them going off to London together but he was having none of it. So she started to get upset and began threatening to tell people about them.’

  Brady stiffened.

  ‘And?’ he pushed, trying to keep calm.

  ‘She said the next thing she heard was him getting angry and threatening her that if she did she’d regret it. But that just made her mad. She started screaming that she didn’t care what he was going to do to her, she was going to go ahead and tell everyone about their relationship anyway. And then she heard her shout out the name “Jimmy” and then … then she started screaming …’ McGuire faltered and stared up at Brady.

  ‘That’s when my mate’s lass got scared and legged it.’

  Brady realised that Sophie must have desperately tried to call Matthews when Ellison had turned violent. It explained the phone call to Matthews, but after what he had just heard it didn’t make him feel any better. He then thought about the time of the call to Matthews which was at 1.31am.

  ‘Did you say this witness was there about 1 am? Could it have been slightly later?’

  ‘Could have been. Like I said she was off her face.’

  Brady nodded.

  ‘It was Sophie, wasn’t it?’ asked McGuire.

  ‘I believe so,’ answered Brady.

  McGuire attempted to reach out for a drink causing him to moan in pain.

  ‘Here, let me help,’ said Brady as he picked up the tumbler of lukewarm water. He inserted the straw between McGuire’s swollen, split lips and held it there until he’d had enough.

  ‘Thanks,’ he muttered as Brady put the tumbler back.

  ‘Did she hear anything else?’ Brady asked.

  ‘No,’ mumbled McGuire as he turned his head away from Brady. ‘You’ll get him? The bastard who did this to her?’

  Brady nodded.

  ‘Believe me, Shane, we’ll get him with what you’ve just told us.’

  ‘She didn’t deserve to die … not like that …’ said McGuire, softly.

  ‘I know she didn’t,’ he quietly agreed.

  Brady turned to Trina who was stood with her arms folded at the back of the room.

  ‘Thanks,’ Brady said.

  ‘Don’t thank me. If it had been up to me you wouldn’t be here,’ Trina coldly replied. ‘But he’s a good kid. Too bloody good,’ she said, worried.

  Brady nodded. He understood her fear. McGuire, despite his hard-ass act, didn’t belong to her world. But the problem was, there was no way out for his sort and Trina McGuire knew it.

  Brady turned and looked back at Shane McGuire. They’d finish off what they’d started if they knew what he’d just told him. It didn’t matter that a fifteen-year-old girl had been murdered. There were two rules; you don’t ask questions and you don’t talk to coppers. Shane McGuire had broken both of those rules. Brady was certain about one thing; if McGuire was summoned to reveal the source of the evidence he’d disclosed to Brady, he would most certainly end up dead.

  Brady tried not to think about what would happen to McGuire. He had other things to worry about now.

  ‘Was it helpful?’ Jenkins asked as they left McGuire’s room.

  ‘Let’s say I owe you a drink,’ Brady replied.

  He absentmindedly rubbed his pulsating left thigh as he thought about his next move. Interviewing Ellison. Conrad had gone to get the car while he stayed behind to thank Jenkins. She had made it perfectly clear that she had to get back to work.

  Not that it bothered Brady, he was equally keen to get back to the station.

  ‘Conrad will fill you in on the details, but it looks fairly certain that a group of us will be having a few stiff drinks in The Fat Ox later,’ Brady said.

  ‘Are you sure you won’t be sharing that drink with your wife?’ Jenkins asked.

  ‘Ex-wife,’ Brady quietly pointed out.

  ‘Didn’t look that way to me in your office,’ Jenkins replied.

  Brady didn’t answer; he couldn’t.

  Jenkins made a move to leave.

  ‘Thanks,’ Brady said, unable to look her in the eye.

  Jenkins waited, expecting more. Neither of them had mentioned what had happened between them in his office in the early hours of that morning. But she realised there that even if he did find her attractive, he had so much to contend with from his past that the likelihood of anything developing between them was low.

  ‘Seriously, Jack. If you need to offload onto someone, you know my number.’

  He watched as she turned and left, knowing that he could never take her up on her offer. No matter how much he would have liked to, it was never going to happen. If there was one thing he had learned from his relationship with Claudia, that was never to mix business with pleasure.

  He pulled out his vibrating phone.

  ‘Look, I’ll be there soon,’ Brady answered.

  ‘You better be, Jack. I’ve got better things to do with my time than wait around for you,’ replied Claudia curtly.

  Before Brady could speak she had cut the call.

  ‘Fuck!’ he grumbled to himself wondering how the hell he had ended up working with Claudia again.

  Chapter Fifty-One

  Ellison stared at Brady numbly.

  ‘I need some time to think,’ he said anxiously.

  ‘The facts don’t lie,’ Brady stated, ignoring him. ‘Like I said we’ve found your hand and footprints at the murder scene and at the opening in the fence where the victim entered the farmland.’

  Ellison shot Claudia a desperate look.

  Claudia signalled for Ellison to relax.

  Brady presumed that Claudia had done what she was paid to do and advised Ellison to keep his mouth shut; the right to silence and all that legal spiel. Ellison had already been given his rights when he had first been detained, but Brady was sure it wouldn’t have sunk in.

  ‘Humour me, will you?’ Brady suddenly said.

  Claudia shot him a look which warned him not to do anything crazy.

  ‘Show me your back?’

  ‘What?’ said Ellison.

  ‘DI Brady, I must object,’ interrupted Claudia.

  Brady opened up a folder in front of him and laid out various photographs of the victim’s tattoo.

  ‘Just for the record I’m showing Mr Ellison photographs of the deceased’s tattoo,’ Brady said.

  He looked at Ellison. His face had paled.

  ‘Recognise it, sir?’

  Ellison didn’t answer.

  ‘Now can you please stand up and show me your back?’ Brady repeated.

  ‘What on earth is all this about, DI Brady?’ questioned Claudia.

  ‘If I’m right, your client has exactly the same tattoo as the victim, but his covers most of his back,’ Brady explained. ‘Isn’t that right, sir?’

  Ellison didn’t know what to do.

  ‘Five weeks ago you took the victim to a place off Westgate Road called Tattoozed. Eddie who owns the place remembers you. Do you know why?’ Brady asked.

  Ellison narrowed his eyes as he stared at him.

  ‘Sure you do,’ encouraged Brady. ‘He said you came back from a trip to Thailand a year ago wanting a jade dragon tattooed across your back. Reckoned it took three days to do, but it was worth every minute. In fact, he even had a photograph of it,’ Brady said as he took the photo out of the folder and laid it on the table.

  ‘Reckons it was one of the best tattoos he’s ever done,’ Brady added. ‘So go on. Let’s see if it’s as good as Eddie says it is?’

  Ellison looked at Claudia, unsure of what to do.

  She shot Brady an unimpressed look before nodding at her client to do as Brady requested.

  Ellison shakily stood up and turned round. He then lifted his T-shirt over his head.

  ‘Just for the record the suspect is showing us the tattoo on his back. Identical, apart from size to t
he victim’s tattoo,’ Brady stated.

  ‘Have to admit it’s a beauty,’ Brady said, admiring the intricate artwork.

  ‘Have you quite finished, DI Brady?’ asked Claudia.

  Brady shot her a grin.

  ‘What do you reckon? Should I get one?’

  ‘Do I look like I’d be remotely interested in anything you did?’ she abruptly replied. ‘Now can we please get back to interviewing my client?’

  Brady folded his arms and sat back and waited for Ellison to sit back down.

  ‘So, do you recognise the tattoo on the victim in the photographs in front of you?’ Brady asked as he looked at Ellison.

  Ellison ran a shaking hand through his messy hair as he looked down at what Brady had laid out in front of him.

  ‘Can you say yes or no?’ Brady prompted, ignoring the fact that Ellison looked as if he was going to puke.

  ‘Yeah,’ muttered Ellison, unable to look at the photographs. ‘I recognise the tattoo … but I … I …’ His voice trailed off as he shook his head. ‘It doesn’t mean I hurt her.’

  Brady coolly watched him.

  ‘That remains to be seen, sir,’ stated Brady.

  Ellison looked at Brady, distraught.

  ‘We’ve traced the emails you sent to the victim.’

  Ellison turned to his solicitor.

  Claudia motioned for him to keep calm.

  ‘Computer forensics found them. In spite of the fact that you deleted them, as did the victim, presumably under your instruction. It seems you’re not as clever as you thought.’

  Ellison anxiously ran his hand over his patchy blond stubble.

  ‘So, do you email all your pupils or just the ones that you shag? From the emails you sent Sophie, you were doing more than just shagging her though, weren’t you?’

  Brady looked down at the emails Jed had sent him until he found the one he wanted.

  ‘You wanted to “fuck her so hard until she screamed for you to stop". Well, I’m sure she did that. Right at the moment when she realised you were killing her. Is that what happened? You fucked her and then buggered her up the arse? But it wasn’t enough for you, was it? Is that how you get turned on? Fucking a minor and choking her to death at the same time?’