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.
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 the 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?’
‘DI Brady, can I remind you that you still have presented no evidence that my client murdered Sophie Washington,’ Claudia interrupted.
Brady looked at her and nodded.
‘I’ll get to that part in a minute,’ he replied evenly.
Claudia shot him a look which asked what the hell was going on.
Brady knew that he should have disclosed the vital information that Shane McGuire had told him. But he had been so thrown by Claudia’s sudden appearance that he had barely had a chance to get his head together for the interview. As it was, he was grateful he could string two words together with her sat opposite him.
He turned his attention back to Ellison, deciding that he’d worry about Claudia later.
‘So what happened? Got carried away in the moment? And then before you realised it, she had stopped breathing?’
Brady leaned forward.
‘You must have panicked? After all, it was just an accident. You didn’t really mean to kill her, did you?’
Ellison stared hard at Brady as he shook his head.
‘I didn’t kill her …’ he said.
Brady ignored him.
‘You put her clothes back on first. After all, she was just fifteen years old. No one would have expected her to have been having sex, let alone with her teacher,’ Brady slowly said, shaking his head. ‘But you were certain that no one knew about you and Sophie, weren’t you? So confident that you thought you were going to get away with it. You realised then that you had to make her death look like a random attack. So you picked up a chunk of stone and smashed her face beyond recognition.’
‘Someone actually did that to her?’ Ellison questioned, surprised.
‘You should know,’ Brady replied in a low voice.
‘I … I would never have harmed her …’ Ellison replied.
Claudia gripped Ellison’s arm; a firm reminder to keep his mouth shut.
‘No, you just fucked her, didn’t you?’ Brady questioned.
Ellison narrowed his blue eyes and gave Brady a ‘so what?’ look.
