Danielle Ramsay - Broken Silence

‘I’ve done nothing wrong! I want a solicitor! This is a police set-up! Do you hear me? It’s a set-up! I want a solicitor,’ he shouted desperately.

Brady slowly shook his head.

‘You’ve been watching too many films, sir,’ he stated as he stood up.

Brady limped out of the oppressive, dank interview room, ignoring Ellison’s increasingly desperate yelling.

Chapter Forty-Eight

The station was buzzing. Less than two hours after the interview with Ellison and the lab reports had come back, as had the computer forensic findings. Brady had been waiting for enough evidence against Ellison to charge him and now they had it, and more. The anal and vaginal fluid that Wolfe had sent for forensic analysis had found traces of Ellison’s DNA; in both samples. Ellison was screwed; literally, Brady darkly mused.

And that was before they even considered Jed’s findings. He had uncovered emails that the victim had deleted. Sexually explicit emails. And Jed being Jed had managed to source them back to Ellison’s laptop. Ellison had done a good job of opening an email account with false registration details, but it wasn’t good enough to get past Jed’s computing forensics skill. They now had incriminating evidence tying Ellison to the victim. Evidence that also included an email suggesting a drink in The Beacon the night she was murdered.

The evidence was so damning that Brady had granted Ellison legal representation. He had word that the lawyer had already arrived and was currently briefing his client. Not that there was a lot a lawyer could do with the evidencethe police had against Ellison. It was damning, so damning he’d be banged up for years.

Gates already had a press conference arranged. It was all about PR and being seen to be making the right noises; especially in front of the media. It was a coup for Northumbria Police. But things had been shaken up since then and now they were about to make a very public arrest.

It had taken less than thirty-six hours from the discovery of the murder to arresting the suspect. Gates had every right to brag, Brady mused. Such a tight timeframe was unprecedented, apart from cases of spousal 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.

Chapter Forty-Nine

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.