Page 13 of Her Deadly Promise

PC Kapoor was already back at her post as Bernard’s team were taking the last of their boxes out of Billie Reeves’s house. While waiting to get the go-ahead, Gina stared into the distance. Most of the residents remained asleep. Curtains were still closed, and the streets were empty, a far cry from what they’d look like in about an hour and a half.

Gina buzzed down the other windows in her car and nudged the empty burger box onto the passenger floor. That had been the extent of her evening meal, eaten in a parking space outside a takeaway, alone. The smell of cold grease made her stomach churn, along with what she’d seen. Rosemary had been coming out of a nearby house with a man. She’d watched the woman in her rear-view mirror as she looked into his eyes as they left, one hand brushing his before the woman had checked her phone and left him. The way her finger tickled his hand was not that of a brother saying a friendly goodbye to a sister. She’d come so close to calling Briggs, but refrained. He’d hate her.

For a moment, she closed her eyes and took in the dawn chorus as she processed everything. The birds had no idea of the tragedy that they were dealing with and continued their morning in their usual way. In fact, the rest of the world would continue to work, play, or do whatever it had planned for the day. But not Gina, Gina needed to find the person who killed Billie and she needed to be there for Briggs when his relationship fell apart. Before she could let the crime scene photos get under her skin, she opened her eyes again. She’d spent all night studying them for the tiniest of clues and all night that word, slut, had played on her mind. The crudeness of it, the nastiness and how it was written – someone hated Billie and they killed her. Her murder was as personal as it got.

She flinched at the bang on the top of her car. ‘Guv, the team are finishing up. We can go in.’ Detective Sergeant Jacob Driscoll stood on the pavement, his hair neatly parted at the side and his face looking brighter than usual.

She stepped out of her car and tried to brush away the slight creases on her black trousers. ‘How did things go yesterday?’

‘Everyone is really pleased at how Jennifer is doing. She’ll be back on the job soon and I know she’s missing it. She hates sitting around at home all day, but I keep telling her, she needs to do everything by the book and return at full strength.’

‘And how are you?’ Gina knew that losing the baby had taken its toll on the couple.

‘I’ve done a lot of thinking and all I know is I love Jen more than anything.’ He took a deep breath. ‘We’ve been planning the wedding so happy thoughts.’ That was her instruction to not ask him any more. He knew she was there for him if he needed to talk. ‘Did you get dressed in a hurry, guv?’

She grimaced and then checked herself. Damn, she’d buttoned her shirt up wrong. Turning around to face the car, she quickly put it right. ‘Thanks for that. It was a long evening, and I spent all night ploughing through the photos that Bernard sent through. On top of that, I have a rabbit to look after. You don’t want a rabbit, do you? Thumper is lovely but my cat isn’t keen on him.’

‘Erm, let me get back to you. I’ll speak to Jennifer.’ He paused. ‘I saw the photos too, nasty.’

She nodded. ‘They’re leaving the house. Right, we need to go in and do a thorough search. Is Wyre on her way?’

‘Yes, and here she is with O’Connor.’

Wyre and O’Connor stepped out with a pair of gloves and shoe covers. ‘Right, are we going in?’

Gina nodded and led the way to the house.

‘Back door’s open, guv. I have the key to lock up after.’ PC Kapoor held it up.

Gina led the way and before entering they gloved up and covered their shoes. Opening the door, the smell hit Gina first. Metallic, mixed with old food and sweat. The blood patch on the kitchen floor looked to be dried around the edges but still sticky in the middle. She stopped and stared at the back wall. Above a photo of Billie and Kayden, that word stood out like a beacon. She leaned in for a closer look at the photo. The young mother had her arms wrapped around her child from behind. Several of Billie’s advertising flyers were piled up on the worktop offering story reading, play production, candy carts. She glanced at the smaller wording and noticed an email address as the main contact.

‘Right, I’ll take her bedroom. Jacob, you take the kitchen. Wyre, take the lounge and O’Connor, the second bedroom and bathroom. Call out if you find anything, especially a phone. I have her number and we’re hoping to be able to get her phone records soon but getting our hands on her phone could get us there sooner.’

As everyone set about their jobs, Gina stepped out of the tiny kitchen to the equally cramped lounge. Against the back wall there was a fireplace and beside it, two recesses that were filled with shelving – again there were more photos of Billie and her son. Boxes of toys leaned precariously at the one end and a two-seater settee almost filled the lounge. She hurried past the front door, stepping over a load of clutter and up the stairs. Straight ahead she could see the open door to the bathroom. She followed the landing, and the first room was Kayden’s. Blue walls were broken up by a castle mural that looked like it had been hand-painted. Gina continued past and pushed open the door to Billie’s bedroom, the place where hopefully Gina was going to discover more about her. Clothes littered every bit of floor space, along with books, belts and bits of costume.

She hurried over to the bed, taking in the unmade state. On the bedside table, several scented candles were lined up, most of them almost burned down. She turned away from the sickly vanilla smell. Opening the first drawer, Gina spotted a large box of condoms that looked to be half used. Underneath it, a book. She slid it out and saw that it was a battered copy of Black Beauty. She flicked the pages in the hope that a clue would drop out, but nothing did. She placed the book back. Feeling around the drawer, nothing was standing out. Several drawers later, Gina started on the first wardrobe. It was bursting full of standard day clothing – jeans, flowery tops, jumpers, shoes and a few dresses. Gina ran her hands over the different materials and in the pockets. The uneasy feeling of invading another’s space during a search never went away. A dead woman’s life was contained in the cupboards, in the house. There was nothing extravagant about Billie, judging by the fraying clothes she owned. She threw a half-open packet of chewing gum onto the bed and a couple of crumpled supermarket receipts.

A pink shoebox caught Gina’s eye. Reaching down, she placed it on the bed and lifted the lid off. Several exercise books were stacked up. Gina eagerly snatched one up in the hope that it was a diary, but it was nothing more than a work ledger where Billie had recorded her incomings and outgoings manually. All the books were the same. Money in, money out. Nothing unusual except that there was more money going out than coming in. Reaching under the bed, she pulled open a drawer that was full of sexy lingerie. After rooting amongst the fancy stockings and bras, she pushed her hands deeper underneath, and she grabbed a pile of paperwork. Flicking through it, she could see the loose pages were bills and lots of them, all outstanding and all with late payment charges added. A wash of sadness came over Gina as she saw the itemised credit card. Billie had been buying food on it from discount supermarkets, not buying luxuries. She popped them in a bag to examine further after they’d been logged into evidence.

She hurried over to the other wardrobe and was greeted with a bright array of costumes and on the top shelf, boxes of stage make-up and accessories. She began to rifle through the pockets and pouches, searching for anything. After going through each one, she placed them on the bed to make sure she didn’t miss any. Nothing in the princess dress, nothing in the Red Riding Hood cape. The mermaid tail was empty, and Rapunzel’s hair held no secrets. She grabbed the crocodile suit and inside there was a tiny zip-up pocket. Sliding it open, Gina stopped when her fingers felt a piece of paper.

Slowly opening up the page, what she saw written on it gave her the chills.

SLUT

NINE

‘Guv. The neighbour has just pulled up,’ Jacob called.

Gina placed the note and the ledgers into an evidence bag and hurried down, passing them to Wyre as she reached the bottom. ‘Could you log this in.’ Wyre nodded and Jacob followed Gina out.

The young woman leaned into the back seat of the car to unbuckle the child. ‘Dev, grab your bag.’ He stepped out onto the pavement, book bag in hand, hair sticking up on the one side like he’d just been pulled out of bed. The boy yawned and rubbed sleep out of his eyes.

Gina hurried over with Jacob on her tail. ‘Hello, I’m DI Harte, this is DS Driscoll. May we speak to you?’

The woman nodded. ‘Of course. I’ll need a minute to sort my son out.’

Nodding, Gina stood to the side as the woman ushered the young boy into her house. ‘Dev, can you go up and play in your room? I’ll be with you in a few minutes, and we can get ready for school together.’

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