The room came alive as the team immediately started to talk to each other about this possibility. The rare time a killer might actually set his sights on a police officer.
‘Okay,’ Claudia raised her voice. ‘I know it seems a bit far-fetched, but we follow every lead. I want you to split the team and investigate Ruth as a missing person and also check the work Dominic’s team was doing on the Sheffield Strangler case.’
Graham Dunne, an ex-soldier turned DC, looked puzzled. ‘You want us to investigate the work of another team?’
She waved a hand at him. ‘It’s fine. I’ve run it past Sharpe and it’s anything goes as far as this investigation is concerned. Ruth is one of our own. If checking up on that case can bring us answers then that’s what we’re to do.’
Graham inclined his head. ‘I’ll get access to the file straight away.’
‘Dominic told me earlier that they felt like they were getting close. His team should be trying to ID a potential witness. I want that witness found at all costs today. Do I make myself clear? If this is connected I don’t want to find myself on the back foot.’
Her team had her back. They’d pull out all the stops for her. She was grateful for them. Now she had to gather her strength. She had to go and face Dominic again. This time things were different and Claudia had no idea what to believe or how she was going to get through this.
Chapter 8
Claudia
Claudia walked down the stairs and back to the room that held Dominic Harrison. Again she found herself hovering outside the door, wondering what entering the room would mean for her in the coming minutes and hours. Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined when she got to work this morning that she would be doing this. But Ruth Harrison was missing, possibly murdered if the pool of blood was anything to go by. So now she had to do anything in her power to find answers.
She pushed the door open. Dominic Harrison was slouched down in his chair, head in his folded arms on the table. Exhaustion and defeat overwhelming him. He must have known what she would find when she went to search his house. He must have expected this next part of the process. His despair was visible in the defeated slouch of his shoulders. What Claudia couldn’t figure out was why he hadn’t cleared up the mess in the garage before he had come into the police station this morning. Hadn’t he seen it himself? It didn’t make any sense.
Harrison jerked upright as the door opened. The shadows below his eyes were even darker than they had been when she left. He looked terrible and she found it difficult to muster up any sympathy for him. She wanted to throw herself at him and scream and shout and beg for him to tell her where Ruth was. It was inconceivable to her that a cop could walk into a police station and not expect every other cop in their vicinity to want to pull his eyes out of his sockets if they thought it would help locate a missing, potentially murdered, colleague.
‘Get up,’ she glared at him.
‘What?’ Confusion played across his face.
‘I said, get up. On your feet.’
‘What’s wrong? What did you find? Have you found Ruth?’ His eyes widened.
Claudia took a couple of steps closer to him. ‘I said get up on your feet.’ She couldn’t help her anger with him even though she had not ten minutes ago defended him to Sharpe. The arrest was out of her hands and she was angry she was in this position. Angry at the pool of blood in the garage. Angry she didn’t know where her friend was and angry Dominic Harrison possibly had the answers.
‘Why?’
‘So I can look you in the eye when I arrest you. Now. Stand. Up.’
Slowly Harrison pushed back in his chair, his eyes locked on Claudia. ‘Arrest me? For what? Please, tell me what’s happened.’
Claudia stayed where she was and Dominic unfolded himself out of the chair and came to stand in front of her. ‘Please, Claudia.’
She stared at him, the familiar lines on his face now alien to her. She felt disjointed and disoriented.
‘Dominic Harrison, I am arresting you on suspicion of the murder of Ruth Harrison last night at Green Lane. You do not have to say anything but it may—’
‘Murder?’ he whispered so quiet she had to strain over her own words to hear him.
‘—harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something—’
‘Ruth is dead?’ His eyes were wide, his voice more insistent, though still quiet.
‘—you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence.’
‘She’s dead?’ He asked again.
‘Yes, Dominic, evidence suggests Ruth is dead.’ To her ears her voice sounded dead too. Flat and lifeless. Why had she said she could do this? She couldn’t do this. Any DI could have made the arrest, it didn’t need to be her.
‘I don’t understand,’ he said, stepping back again, arm outstretched behind him, searching for his chair. ‘I don’t understand. She wasn’t there when I left this morning. Tell me what you found.’ His hand caught the chair and he dropped into it with a thud, his eyes unfocused and glassy.
‘Her blood, Dominic. We found her blood.’
‘Ruth, no, oh my God, no.’ His head
