homicide. But those kinds of murders rarely made the news, despite the staggering homicide rates. Brady had been involved with enough investigations where the woman had been killed by her current or previous partner, not to be surprised at the Home Office statistic that every three days a woman in the UK was murdered. However, the public interest didn’t stretch to domestic homicides; it was too close to home. The media had it sussed; they knew that the public gleaned vicarious pleasure from their insatiable appetite for lurid sleaze and horrific murders, just as long as it wasn’t on their doorstep.
Sophie Washington’s murder had all the right ingredients; an illicit pupil-teacher relationship that had ended in murder. It was sordid and disturbing enough to make it newsworthy. The end of this investigation could be the making of Gates’ career, Brady concluded.
He ignored the triumphant voices behind him as he made his way to tell Ellison the good news.
Brady walked into the interview room but it wasn’t Ellison who caught his attention; it was the lawyer representing him. Brady caught her eye, turned round and walked straight back out.
Conrad followed suit.
‘Sir?’
‘Did you know that she was in there? Did you?’ Brady asked, trying to keep his voice steady.
Conrad shook his head.
‘No sir, no one told me. I just assumed Michael Travers would be representing Ellison,’ Conrad answered uneasily.
‘But you knew she was back?’
Conrad gave a lame shrug.
‘I heard things …’
‘And you didn’t think to tell me?’ Brady questioned incredulously, unable to disguise his hurt.
‘I presumed she would have told you,’ Conrad answered uncomfortably. ‘Look sir, after everything that’s happened I didn’t want to get involved.’
Brady suddenly remembered that she had tried to contact him. She had left a message with Charlie Turner the desk sergeant asking him to return her call. But he had got so caught up in the investigation that it had slipped his mind. He dragged an unsteady hand through his hair as he tried to get a handle on the situation.
‘Problem, Jack?’ facetiously asked an all too familiar, well-educated voice.
Brady turned as Claudia firmly closed the door of the interview room behind her.
Shaken, he watched as she irritably swept her luxuriously long, wild curly red hair off her face. The first time he had met her she had literally stood out from the crowd. Beforeshe had even turned round, he had known that she was perfect; too perfect for him.
‘Maybe you should check your messages? After all, I did my level best to warn you that I was helping Michael out. He’s tied up with a client at North Shields so I did him a favour by coming here.’ Her provocative green eyes flashed at him in annoyance.
‘Michael?’ asked Brady uneasily. He knew Michael Travers well enough not to trust him. He was a senior partner at the law firm where Claudia worked, or had worked. Even a fool could tell that Michael was desperate about Claudia.
‘Yes, he’s been an absolute rock throughout all of this,’ she replied cuttingly.
‘I bet he has.’
‘I’d expect that pathetic egotistical response from you. That’s where Michael’s different. He’s more than happy to let me stay at his place while I’m back up here, with no strings attached.’
Brady bit his tongue, resisting the urge to warn her not to be so damned naive.
‘I know that’s something you could never understand,’ Claudia replied in response to Brady’s cynical expression.
‘I thought you were in London?’ Brady questioned, changing the subject.
‘I am. I’m just tying up loose ends here. Works both ways, Jack. I’d heard you weren’t due back until Monday. Otherwise if I’d known in advance you were going to be here I wouldn’t have agreed to help Michael out.’
‘Maybe if you’d asked around then you would have found out I started back yesterday.’
‘I might have done if I had been interested. But I’m not,’ she stated acerbically.
‘We need to talk,’ Brady stated, ignoring her jibe.
‘Bit late for that don’t you think?’
‘You know what I mean,’ muttered Brady.
‘Do I?’ challenged Claudia. ‘And what about my client? Surely your personal life can wait? From what I remember you were only ever interested in work?’
It took Brady all his strength not to fall apart. She was as beautiful as he last remembered. Damn it, he thought as he tried to get his head together.
‘I’ll wait for you in the interview room, shall I, sir?’ offered Conrad.
‘Yeah … I won’t be long,’ replied Brady awkwardly, unable to take his eyes off her.
‘My office?’ he suggested as calmly as he could.
‘This better be about work,’ Claudia threatened as she angrily tossed her hair back.
Brady limped over to his desk and sat down. He gestured for Claudia to take the seat opposite.
‘I’d rather stand,’ she answered abruptly.
She then folded her arms and looked him straight in the eye.
‘Look, let’s get something straight, shall we? This isn’t some cosy little chat reminiscing about what we once had, this is about work. So get to the point while I can still stomach being in the same room as you.’
Brady didn’t know what to say or even what to do. He’d gone over this scene a hundred times in his head, but now that it was actually happening he felt numb.
He noticed that she looked taller than her usual five feet four and realised with gut-wrenching clarity that she was wearing heels. Since when did she wear heels to work? His eyes drifted up her pale legs to her well-defined body. Her clothes were as expensive and tasteful as ever. But the dress was also shorter and tighter, emphasising her curvaceous body.
It was enough to make him sweat.
‘I … I didn’t realise you were back …’ Brady muttered. ‘Or I would have kept out of your way.’
‘Really?’ questioned Claudia scornfully. ‘Doesn’t sound like you, Jack.’
‘Maybe I’ve changed,’ he replied quietly.
She contemptuously flashed her green eyes at him.
‘Please Claudia … take a seat? Yeah? Just so we can talk?’ asked Brady, desperate for the atmosphere in the room to change.
‘You expect me to talk to you! For fuck’s sake, Jack! Remember, you were the bastard in all of this! If I hadn’t walked in on you screwing that young, dark-haired slut in our bed then none of this would have happened,’ she angrily pointed out.
She was still furious, enough to want to hurt him badly. And she had succeeded. Brady felt the punch straight to his gut. It was just a desperate, drunken shag. A pointless, senseless, empty, pathetic act that had cost him everything. Even his reputation at the station was destroyed because of it. Admittedly, before he got together with Claudia he had been known for playing around. But there was something so unique and unattainable about Claudia that when they had got together he had never imagined cheating on her. Yet he did with DC Simone Henderson. It was no more than a drunken, egotistical shag, but it had led to the end of his marriage. He couldn’t even remember much about it. Fuelled by a lethal cocktail of alcohol and self-pity it resulted in him destroying the best thing that had ever happened to him.
‘I didn’t know that you’d walked in …’ Brady said uncomfortably, hating himself.
‘Believe me, I could tell!’ she replied sharply.
Disgusted with himself, Brady looked away.
‘Let’s just say that little acrobatic stunt with your juniorcolleague finally did it for me. I always promised myself the day you brought your work home would be the day I walked out!’ Claudia scornfully replied.
Brady kept his mouth shut. There was nothing he could say in his defence.
To know that he had hurt her was more painful than even her most cutting words. She was the only person
