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there was nothing she could do about it. This had happened to Ruth and her dad and she had to deal with what was in front of her. Ruth was banking on her.

‘Does Ruth know?’ Claudia asked.

Dominic shook his head, confused. ‘I don’t understand, what does that have to do with anything? It’s me who has lied to you. It’s that bastard who has her. What do her feelings have to do with this?’

Claudia tapped her own pen on the table. A sign of her impatience with him. ‘It has everything to do with this. You know how an interview works, we cover all the bases and go over all the ground. You never know what might be important so better to cover it than realise you’ve missed something.’

Dominic waited a beat. ‘No, she didn’t know.’ He hung his head again. ‘I was too good at being deceptive. She had no idea. I’m glad that she didn’t know and wasn’t hurt. I’m ashamed of myself and my behaviour. When she’s home I’ll make it up to her. I’ll show her how much I love her. She’ll need so much love and care and I can give it to her.’

‘Okay,’ she said. ‘I can’t believe you did it again, but our focus has to be on finding Ruth.’ She was still furious with him, for doing it again, but they had bigger issues to be dealing with. She would talk to him about his behaviour later when they weren’t being recorded in a custody suite.

‘I’ve been completely honest with you. You can’t believe what that bastard says to you. He has her. You know that from the lipstick we found in the garage. I don’t know how he dare deny it after leaving that behind. I don’t know what game he’s playing but don’t let him screw with you, Claudia. I’ve given you everything. Now please hunt the bastard down.’

Claudia regarded him closely. Never had she been through anything so difficult in her life. Only further examination of the Strangler case would help her sort through this. They had to keep going with the interview. Difficult as it was.

Chapter 49

Dominic

 

Three weeks ago

Nearly six months had passed and the Sheffield Strangler had managed to evade detection and arrest. He had also managed to kill a further three women. These women fitted the same profile. They were in their forties, they had one or more children and were using the Close to Me dating app.

‘We’ve liaised with the undercover team,’ Kapoor said in the morning briefing. The mood was heavy. It had been a long haul and they’d trudged in day after day and pulled their weight for all that time. Putting in the hours and the emotional energy, in an attempt to bring this killer to justice, with no break in the case. The team had expanded. More staff had been brought in to give it fresh eyes and an injection of new blood. ‘We’re going to see how they can help us with this. We can’t let him keep killing this way. It seems that he’s changed his photograph on the dating site, but one that still makes sure he can’t be identified. The app has noted a decline in use but women are still lonely and still using the app, believing it won’t happen to them. But, unfortunately, it has to happen to someone.’

That night was the night Ruth came home and told Dominic she had been assigned the case. She was to be the lone single woman who would start using the site, with a profile that said she was a single mother. This meant she had to go out on several dates as men asked to meet her, because they never knew which men were genuine and which were the killer. This caused tension in the house as she readied herself for her dates. Dominic stressed that she was either on a date with an eligible bachelor or a crazed killer and the tension within the house grew. They were barely speaking to each other by this point. Dominic didn’t know how to talk to her. He was so consumed by the case that life outside of work was meaningless to him.

As far as the investigation went, Ruth was an attractive woman so she had quite a lot of hits on the app. It was a busy time for her. The team were with her every step of the way and she said she was never afraid at any point. If it looked to be a genuine date and not the killer one of the team would text her that there was a problem with her ‘son’ and she would make her escape. The undercover team were prepared to be in it for as long as was needed. They were sure he would connect with Ruth at some point. The way the app worked was you could have conversations through the app for as long as you wanted before you set yourself up on a date. At all times Ruth had multiple conversations going as well as arranging dates. She made it clear on her profile she had a young son and reiterated this in the conversations. Because it was in her profile, she only got hits from men who were okay with this. It seemed it was the expected thing of a woman of her age to have already had their children. It wasn’t as shocking as it might have been had she been dating when she was in her twenties.

Two weeks in and the team thought they might have started chatting to the right man as the image on his profile photo was blurry and his face was hard to make out.

Dominic’s instinct to forbid Ruth from meeting him fought with his desire to catch this monster.

Chapter 50

Claudia

 

Forty hours since Ruth’s attack

‘You’re being bailed.’