BLOOD STAINED an unputdownable crime thriller with a breathtaking twist (Detective Claudia Nunn Book 1) Read online

  BLOOD

  STAINED

  An unputdownable crime thriller with a breathtaking twist

  REBECCA BRADLEY

  DI Claudia Nunn Book 1

  Joffe Books, London

  www.joffebooks.com

  First published in Great Britain in 2021

  © Rebecca Bradley

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organisations, places and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental. The spelling used is British English except where fidelity to the author’s rendering of accent or dialect supersedes this. The right of Rebecca Bradley to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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  ISBN: 978-1-78931-730-5

  CONTENTS

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Acknowledgements

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  Prologue

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  Fear climbed Ruth’s spine.

  He was standing directly behind her.

  She pulled her hands out of the sink and suds floated into the air. The scent of lavender drifted under her nose, the sweet relaxing smell at odds with the tension taking hold of her body.

  No one spoke or moved for what felt like an age.

  The fear clawed at the base of her neck, sure-footed and certain in its ascent, like some small creature with needles for nails.

  She had the memory of hiding under the covers as a child; if she couldn’t see the monster, the monster couldn’t see her, no matter how large her own outline. She was applying the same logic here. If she didn’t turn around she was still safe. After all, she was in her own home, standing at the sink, clearing up. A mundane task, not something that would put her in the sights of a monster in this way.

  And yet, here they were.

  Ruth took a deep breath in. The fear now gripping her scalp. It had nowhere else to go. She had to do something.

  She had to move.

  He wouldn’t allow her to stand here indefinitely. That was not why he was behind her. He had patience. She knew that. He was confident in what was going to happen and how it would play out. He didn’t need to rush.

  She realised her mind had seized up. She had done nothing but think about the washing up and her childhood bedroom. There had been no thoughts of escape, or of fighting. Though she would. She wouldn’t go down without a fight. But fear had gripped her so tight in its vice that her mind had fled and she had frozen herself to the spot.

  She exhaled.

  And that’s when she heard it.

  He exhaled.

  She spun around with the glass still in her hand.

  She had a weapon. She could fight. She had no choice. She had too much life ahead of her yet.

  His face was impassive. That scared her more than anything.

  She expected to see the monster her mind had conjured up, but his face, it was quiet.

  He took a step towards her, his hand outstretched and open. She turned to her right and ran, a scream about to leave her lips as his hand closed on her hair jerking her back, pulling her feet up from under her. Pain shot through from the roots of her hair to her eyes and she blinked back tears.

  The glass flew up into the air as she landed with a thud on the floor at his feet. Her hip twisted beneath her and she grimaced as the shock vibrated through to her spine. The glass shattered at the side of her head, the sound loud in her ears. Shards embedded themselves into her arm and face, spreading into her skin like it was warm butter. Ruth winced at the one that sliced below her right eye. It could have blinded her had it been a few millimetres higher. Her weapon was now gone and instead turned on her.

  His hand was still tight in her hair. He twisted it, increasing his grip. She cried out, a low complaint in the circumstances. He turned, bent over and straddled her. Face to face, he was so close she could smell the coffee on his breath. There was no coming back from this.

  The fear that had gripped her only moments earlier sank into the pit of her stomach. She reared up, fists and feet flying. She caught him between his legs. He sank down onto her. Knees coming together, a small grunt of air leaving his mouth. It brushed her face, warm and sweet.

  She could do this. She would resist. She would have headbutted him, but he still had such a tight grip of her hair she couldn’t move her head. She punched out again and straightened her hips and pulled her knees up with as much force as she could muster, her breath coming strong and ragged. He leaned down close onto her to protect and gather himself. She continued to punch out and kick and squirm.

  And then it came.

  A blinding blow to the side of her head from a fist she didn’t see coming. The whole side of her vision went dark and a searing flash of red-hot pain slipped behind her eye. She lifted a hand to the spot where damp now trickled down the side of her cheek.

  ‘Stop fighting,’ he grunted, his voice hot on her face and raspy over his throat. The first words to be spoken.

  It would not help her if she stopped fighting. She had known the minute she felt him behind her that this was a to-the-end confrontation. His weight was on her and she was pinned down, unable to do anything to save herself. But she would fight back the minute he gave her room to manoeuvre.

  He raised himself up, pushing his elbow into her shoulder. ‘Stop fighting,’ he growled again.

  ‘Never,’ she said. And she wouldn’t. She wouldn�
�t give in. She would fight to the death.

  Her death.

  Chapter 1

  Claudia

  Nine hours since Ruth’s attack

  DI Claudia Nunn tapped her foot on the grey patch of ground at Snig Hill police station in Sheffield and tried not to show her frustration. Her DCI, Maddison Sharpe, was not the kind of woman who would take kindly to a show of . . . what? What was it exactly she was feeling following Sharpe’s request? Frustration possibly.

  They were standing outside in the roughly put together wooden smokers’ hut. Sharpe inhaled deeply, slim fingers gently caressing the disgusting tube she insisted on keeping a habit. Claudia hated cigarettes and in turn, hated being in the smokers’ hut, but Sharpe had wanted to speak to her urgently and was also in need of a smoke, so they had ended up here. The smell of the cigarette was burning a hole of annoyance in Claudia’s brain.

  The shed was not exactly private. Anyone could come along and join them, though Sharpe would give them a stare and they would soon scuttle away. Sharpe reminded her of Cruella de Vil.

  It was early April and the sky was mirroring the grey concrete below her feet, the very concrete she was tapping her foot against as she tried to think of a response to the request Sharpe had made.

  ‘Don’t you have anything to say, Claudia?’ Sharpe exhaled. The smoke drifted across Claudia’s eyeline.

  She had the urge to wave her hand in the air to clear it away but restrained herself, instead shoving her hands deeper into her pockets.

  ‘I’m not sure I’m the best person for the job if I’m honest, ma’am.’

  Sharpe flicked the cigarette and the ash dropped gently to the ground. Sharpe didn’t care if there were cigarette bins at the side of the shed they were standing in, if she wanted to drop her ash where she was standing then she would.

  ‘I wouldn’t have proposed you do it if I didn’t think you were the right person.’

  Claudia tapped her foot again.

  Sharpe looked at her.

  ‘It’s a sensitive job and there are those above me who are nervous about the whole thing. If anything goes wrong and they end up with mud on their faces they won’t be very happy. They seem to think that you will be the person best suited to do this.’

  She paused. Sucked on the cigarette, inhaled, looked up at the leaden sky, exhaled and peered at Claudia.

  ‘I happen to agree with them. You’re a brilliant interviewer, Claudia. Please don’t sell yourself short.’

  A short sharp laugh burst from Claudia’s lips before she could stop it. Sharpe narrowed her eyes.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Claudia said quickly. ‘It’s not that I don’t think I’m qualified for the job. I’m well aware of my qualities.’

  Sharpe lifted an eyebrow.

  ‘I’m not going to be coy here. We both know I excel at my job, I’m not on the fast-track promotion scheme for nothing. That’s not what this is about and well you know it.’

  Sharpe exhaled one last time and flicked her cigarette onto the ground. She stepped forward and twisted the tip of her pointed shoe onto the stub to put it out, her perfectly made-up face impassive.

  ‘That may well be,’ she said, ‘but qualifications aside, yes, we do think you are still the best person for the job. I think you’re the best person for the job. You’re close to him, you know him, if anything is amiss then you’ll be the one to unsettle him. He’ll not like being interviewed by you. But if nothing is amiss then it won’t faze him and you have nothing to worry about.’

  ‘You don’t really think he could be guilty here, do you? This is Dominic we’re talking about.’

  ‘It’s up to you to prove he’s innocent. Would you rather it was someone else?’

  Claudia looked at the flattened stub end on the ground. ‘And if something is amiss, what then?’

  ‘Then, my dear Claudia, you will be the one who will be leading the charge and I’d imagine that’s where you would want to be.’

  Sharpe let out a breath and paused before she spoke again. Claudia waited for her.

  ‘You’re a stickler for protocol and in an ideal situation you shouldn’t be the one going in there to interview him, but this is far from ideal. Let me be brutally honest with you — we want to get to the bottom of this, you know that. We need to know what has happened and in this case we feel it’s the best way to get results and fast.’ Sharpe looked her in the face. ‘And you want results, don’t you?’

  ‘Of course I do.’

  ‘That’s settled. He’s waiting in the witness interview room for you.’

  The air had a damp quality to it and Claudia shivered.

  ‘You are up to this, aren’t you, DI Nunn?’

  ‘I’m up to this, ma’am. Don’t worry about me. But promise me if this goes tits up there’s going to be no blowback on me. I want it on the record that I’m against this plan. Yes, I’ll go through with it, but I don’t think it’s the best way to deal with it. This could blow up in all our faces.’

  Sharpe smoothed down her suit jacket before looking at Claudia again. ‘Your sentiments on the case have been duly noted, Claudia. But, whatever you may feel about this, trust me when I say I really do think you can get under Detective Sergeant Dominic Harrison’s skin and find out the truth of the matter, and that’s what’s important here.’

  Chapter 2

  Claudia

  With one hand on the interview-room door handle, DI Claudia Nunn took a deep breath. She hadn’t wanted to take this case. It wasn’t one she should be dealing with, but Sharpe had been adamant.

  She would have to put all her personal feelings aside. She would have to put on her most professional face, the one she pulled on in difficult circumstances like interview boards and big cases where the outcome was dependent on how she handled the person in front of her.

  Like now.

  But this was different.

  She didn’t currently work on the same team as this witness but she had a personal relationship with him and there was no way she should be involved. What, for instance, would happen if it all went pear-shaped?

  She shuddered thinking about it and let out the breath she was holding.

  She was a detective inspector in South Yorkshire police, she was up to the task. She could compartmentalise this and do the job she had been tasked with. It was important that she do so. She was pleased that the higher-ups were taking it seriously. She understood why they were. They were concerned about their own culpability in the matter. She’d figured that one out quickly enough. If they wanted her to do this then she’d do it properly.

  Her fingers curled around the handle.

  A young officer walked along the corridor behind her. ‘Morning, ma’am.’

  Claudia was surprised from her thoughts. ‘Oh, sorry, morning, Simon.’

  She turned her attention back to the door, pressed the handle down and walked into the interview room.

  It was a sparse box of a room. A rectangle with dirty cream walls, a dark-blue tiled carpet with a table and four chairs taking up the centre. A window allowed light to leak into the room from high up on the longest wall, too high to see out of. And on one of the chairs facing her was DS Dominic Harrison.

  Dominic was a tall man, greying hair at the sides, and dark eyes that widened as she stepped into the room.

  It was the only indication he was surprised that she would be the one to interview him this morning.

  ‘Morning, DS Harrison.’

  Dominic stayed silent.

  ‘Do you mind if I call you Dominic? I’d much rather that than call you DS Harrison throughout all of this.’

  ‘Not at all.’ His voice was low and gravelly. Claudia marked it as a sign that he was tired. He probably hadn’t slept.

  ‘Have you been offered a drink?’ she asked. ‘I could do with one myself to be honest. We’ve been thrown together, which is unusual — we may as well make ourselves comfortable.’

  Harrison straightened himself in his chair.

  �
�Look, Claudia . . .’ He paused, let out a sigh. ‘Can I call you Claudia? You’re the higher rank here, but, you know . . .’

  She inclined her head. Dominic hated that Claudia was a detective inspector and he was only a detective sergeant, and he’d deliberately brought that up. She wouldn’t rise to it though. It was meaningless right now. Let him have his jab if it made him feel better. She had a job to do.

  He continued.

  ‘I don’t care who interviews me this morning. All I care about is finding Ruth and bringing her home safe.’

  Claudia smiled. ‘So, coffee?’

  Harrison sighed. ‘Okay, yes. Thank you.’

  Claudia hadn’t even sat down yet. She turned on her heel, left the room and made her way to the kitchen.

  So far as first impressions went, she had broken the ice. She had shown him that it was her who would be doing this, that they were in this together. He hadn’t seemed too put out by the prospect. His focus appeared to be on his wife.

  They were all focused on his wife. Sharpe had made that clear. But Claudia didn’t need Sharpe to outline the seriousness of the situation to her. If Ruth was missing then she was all in. Nothing would stop her from pursuing this and identifying where she was or what had happened to her. Ruth would do exactly the same for her and she had no intention of letting her down now it was Ruth in this position.

  She filled up the kettle and pulled a couple of mugs out of the cupboard. As she waited for the water to boil, she remembered the last time she had seen Ruth, which had only been two days earlier. How could it have been that only a matter of days ago she was laughing and drinking a glass of wine with her and now she was the subject of a missing person investigation. Come to think of it, something had seemed kind of off with Ruth that evening. She hadn’t talked about it, which was odd in itself. They usually talked to each other. Confided in each other. And yet Claudia had allowed it to slide. She could kick herself now. What if it had something to do with her disappearance?

  Come on, Ruth, have you left some kind of trace for us to follow? Let us know what happened to you.