towards Ellison.
‘Enough, DI Brady,’ Claudia interrupted. ‘I think it’s time we had a chat.’
Brady nodded. As he terminated the interview he couldn’t help noticing that Claudia looked angry with him.
Brady got up and walked out of the interview room followed by Claudia.
He heard the door slam behind him.
‘I should bust your balls for that!’
‘Someone’s already tried, remember? Oh, yeah I forgot, you left as soon as you found out that I’d been shot! Maybe you didn’t realise how bloody serious it was!’
Claudia furiously swept her red hair back off her face as she shot Brady a ‘don’t fuck with me’ look. It was a look he’d seen often.
‘You know the rules!’ she stated furiously.
‘And what about you? You’re back? Just like that? No word for six bloody months and then you just turn up at work?’ angrily questioned Brady.
‘Why? Does it bother you?’
‘You know the answer to that.’
‘Do I, Jack?’ Claudia bitterly questioned. ‘I don’t know you any more. I don’t even think you know yourself! And anyway, it’s a bit rich you acting all aggrieved that I’m back. What’s the problem? Am I cramping your style? Is that it?’
‘I’m sorry?’ questioned Brady, confused.
‘Amelia Jenkins? But then again why am I surprised given your history, Jack?’
Before Brady could say anything, Claudia abruptly changed the subject.
‘So, what exactly do you have on my client?’
Brady watched Ellison.
He was speechless.
Brady had just informed him that he had been charged with the murder of his pupil, Sophie Washington. It was to be expected; the evidence was damning. Even Claudia didn’t put up a fight when she’d added it all together.
‘But I didn’t kill her … I swear I didn’t,’ Ellison desperately pleaded.
But no one was listening.
‘Do you hear me? You can’t do this to me! You’ve got the wrong man,’ Ellison repeated frantically.
Brady sceptically looked at Ellison.
‘They all say that.’
‘But I’m telling the truth … I didn’t hurt her,’ Ellison pleaded.
‘That’s a matter for the courts to decide,’ Brady coolly replied.
‘But … but why? It doesn’t make sense! She was just an easy shag, that’s all. She was the one who complicated things by trying to make it something more than what it was!’ Ellison shouted. ‘She was just a fucking slapper! Why would I murder her?’
Brady stared, unmoved at Ellison’s contorted, angry figure.
‘Our witness overheard the victim threaten to reveal your sordid relationship. If she did, then that would have been the end of your profession as a teacher, let alone your band, and the beginning of an indeterminate prison sentence.’
Ellison frantically shook his head. ‘It wasn’t like that.’
‘No?’ Brady questioned. ‘You yourself said that the victim had threatened to expose your relationship. When she wouldn’t listen to reason, I believe you lost your control and attempted to silence her by whatever means necessary. She started screaming. So you choked her until she stopped screaming and finally, stopped breathing.’
‘No!’ Ellison yelled. ‘No!’ He stared at Brady with wild desperation.
‘Why would I do that terrible thing to her face? She meant nothing to me. I wanted to end the relationship for fuck’s sake!’ Ellison retaliated.
‘Exactly,’ Brady answered evenly. ‘The attack on her face was such an act of fury that it could only have been committed by someone emotionally involved with the victim. Someone who had a motive to want her dead.’
Ellison shook his head, his bright, blue eyes fiercely rejecting what Brady had said.
‘You see, a stranger would have just murdered Sophie and then left,’ Brady quietly explained, shaking his head. ‘But you were still filled with anger and hatred at what she had threatened to do to you. After all, she had threatened to take everything you’d worked so hard for from you, sir,’ Brady stated. ‘Your band is all you’re interested in. Being a teacher pays the bills, but what you really want to do is make it big in the music business. What would havehappened to your music career if word got out that you were having a sexual relationship with your fifteen-year-old student? One that you had tired of. Wouldn’t exactly be a great PR stunt, now would it?’
Brady turned and nodded at Conrad to signal the close of the interview.
‘You bastard! This has got nothing to do with Sophie!’ Ellison shouted as he stood up. ‘You’re trying to set me up. Don’t think I don’t know what’s going on. This has more to do with me spending the night with your girlfriend!’ Ellison asserted as he aggressively shoved the table at Brady.
Brady didn’t react. He was too aware of the fact that Claudia was taking note.
Not to mention Conrad.
‘I saw the way you looked at her when she was talking to me. Couldn’t handle the fact that she moved on to me? She told me all about the other night. Fuck! You’re old enough to be her dad, you sick bastard!’
Brady instinctively clenched his fists.
‘It’s not my private life that’s under scrutiny here,’ Brady stated.
‘Yeah? Well it bloody should be!’
He saw Conrad motion to the officer by the door to get help to remove Ellison.
The officer did as he was instructed and left.
‘What’s wrong? You don’t want your colleagues knowing that their boss likes to shag seventeen-year-old girls? Is that it?’ Ellison demanded of Conrad.
‘You know something? You’re not that different from me! You can pretend you’re better than me. But you and I, we’re very alike!’ Ellison stated with bitter satisfaction. ‘And just for the record, your girlfriend was a really good shag. But then, you’d know that, wouldn’t you?’
Brady felt as if he had been punched in the abdomen. He could feel the nausea rising to the back of his throat. He couldn’t look at Ellison, let alone Conrad. And he certainly couldn’t bring himself to look at Claudia. He could feel her burning green eyes weighing him up for the low-life he had become. He couldn’t even face himself without a Scotch.
‘I’m sorry you heard that,’ he muttered in Claudia’s direction as he turned and walked out.
‘Call yourself a copper? You’re a fucking hypocrite, that’s what you are!’ Ellison shouted after him. ‘You’re the one who needs locking up! Not me!’
Brady heard Conrad use some choice words directed at Ellison. He couldn’t look at the two officers who had returned to handle Ellison. He just kept his head down and headed back to his office. Sure, he’d nailed him, but at what price? If there had been any chance of Claudia taking him back Ellison had ruined it. Or if he was honest, he had ruined it. No one else. He swallowed back the pain as he thought of what he’d lost, again.
Brady looked up from his desk distractedly.
‘Good job, Jack,’ Gates congratulated as he stood in the doorway.
‘Thank you, sir,’ replied Brady, accepting that there was a first time for everything.
‘I’m surprised that you’re not with the others,’ Gates said, frowning.
Brady shrugged. ‘Six months of paperwork,’ he lamely offered.
That and he wanted to make sure he kept out of the way of Claudia. He hadn’t seen her since Ellison’s arrest and decided it was best left that way; at least until things had cooled down.
