BLOOD STAINED an unputdownable crime thriller with a breathtaking twist (Detective Claudia Nunn Book by Rebecca Bradley (rooftoppers .TXT) 📕

Chapter 47

Claudia

With the custody keys in her hand Claudia unlocked Dominic’s cell and looked in. He was on the solid bed in the right-hand corner, back against the wall, feet up on the edge, knees bent in front of him.

‘About time,’ he said. ‘Who knows what’s happened to Ruth in the time you’ve been having a nap.’

He didn’t mean to hurt her, he was angry and hurting himself, but his snide comment sliced through her, cutting deep. She didn’t respond, merely gave him a look that told him he was out of order. He raised his hands, palms forward, and shrugged. It was the most she was going to get from him.

Eventually he asked, ‘How did it go?’ Letting his legs drop and shuffling to the front of the concrete slab. He was talking about the press conference last night.

‘Come on.’ She twitched her head sideways. ‘We need to talk.’

He stood. ‘But how did it go?’

‘We put it out there. We shared the photofit image and we directly asked that she be returned. Now it’s back to you. Come on.’ She was short with him. She had no time for these games. Ruth had no time for these games.

Dominic looked at her, puzzled. ‘I don’t understand. What’s happened?’

‘We need to get you back into interview. Get a move on, will you, or do I need to get Russ to pull you out of there?’ She meant it as well. She didn’t care that this was her father. Sharpe had given her this job to do and she’d bloody well do it. If he was lying to her about something then she wanted to know what it was.

He raised his hands again in surrender.

In the interview room the recording device was switched on and the interview started, Russ going through the introductions and official dialogue.

‘You’re lying to us about something, Dominic, and we want to know what it is.’ Claudia jumped straight in.

His eyes widened. ‘I don’t know what you mean.’

‘We can go round in circles for as long as you want, but we’ll get there eventually. Or you can simply tell us what we want to know straight off the bat.’

‘Where is this coming from? I thought everything was okay when you left?’ He looked from Claudia to Russ and back again. Waiting for an answer from one of them.

They stared back in stony silence, giving him nothing.

The silence stretched on. Eventually Claudia broke it. Silence was seen as oppressive in the courts and Dominic knew this. She was aware he could sit in a silence as well as they could because he was trained the way they were. Your average interviewee hated silences and tended to fill them, but Dominic could sit and wait it out.

‘We’ve had contact from the killer, Dominic.’

His jaw slackened and his face paled. ‘What the fuck? Already?’

She waited again.

‘What does that have to do with me? What did he say? Please, Claudia, tell me what’s going on.’ There was a slight whine to his voice.

‘He doesn’t have Ruth—’

‘No. No. I don’t believe that.’ He was on his feet before they knew what was happening. Backing away from the table, from them. ‘What does that mean for Ruth? If he says he doesn’t have her? I don’t believe him, I don’t believe he doesn’t have her. He does. He’s hiding the fact. He’s biding his time. He’s going to wait until you find her body. He’s going to make us, me, find her body in the ground, desecrated like the others.’ He was shouting now.

Claudia and Kane both rose from their chairs. Claudia had expected him to be upset but this was extreme. He was panicked. Kane put his hands up. ‘Hey, Dom, calm it down. We’re telling you what he’s said. We’re still working on the assumption he has her. We’re still out there searching for her. We haven’t abandoned her.’

Dominic was backed up against the wall. The room wasn’t very large.

‘Please don’t lean back hard,’ Claudia said. ‘You’re up against the panic bar and if you lean on it you’re going to have half of the custody suite barging in here with their asps raised.’

Dominic took a step forward. ‘I’m sorry.’ He looked his daughter in the eye. ‘I’m sorry, Claudia. I’m just afraid.’

‘I know you are. Please come and sit back down.’

He took another step forward. Kane and Claudia hadn’t moved. They were standing in front of their chairs.

‘I don’t want to lose her.’

Claudia seated herself again. Kane followed suit and leaned back in his chair showing Dominic the situation was calm and there was no need for this.

Dominic took another step forward and he was nearly back at the table.

‘He made contact quickly,’ Dominic said.

Kane crossed his legs. ‘He did.’

Dominic sat down opposite them, scraping the chair on the ground as he folded himself into position.

Claudia tapped a finger on the table. ‘We still believe you’re lying to us about something, Dominic.’ She had referred to him by his name again, rather than calling him Dad. She was back in investigative mode. ‘We want to know what that is. It might not be big, it might not even be relevant, but something feels off and we want to know what it is so we can move on from it and focus on what’s important. If you don’t tell us what it is you’re hiding we’re going to think it’s bigger than it is and lay more prominence at its feet than we might otherwise.’ She stared hard at him and tapped a pen on the pad in front of her.

Dominic rubbed at his forehead.

‘Do you want us to go down that rabbit hole?’

He shook his head. His eyebrows furrowing deep down over his