Page 20 of Her Deadly Promise

‘What?’ The wide-eyed woman waited for an answer, mouth open and a quiver on her bottom lip.

‘We have two witnesses who said that Nathan Merry was in a relationship with your daughter.’

‘But that’s not right. I would have known. Billie would have told me if…’

‘They named him and described his van being outside her house.’

Kath bit her bottom lip. ‘But he’s seeing Serena, my other daughter. They had a few problems and haven’t spoken for a couple of weeks but that happens a lot. You’re saying that the lying cheat had made a move on Billie?’

‘Sorry.’

‘Did he kill her?’

‘At the moment, he’s only a witness but I will let you know if we find anything out.’

Serena stepped out from behind the patio door. As she went to speak, the words wouldn’t come out. Within seconds she was stomping through the house after hearing everything. Gina listened as the front door slammed. Without hesitation, she ran alongside the house and watched as Nathan locked his van door. He was about to get into the back of Jacob’s car when Serena ran straight up to him and pushed him into the door. ‘I hate you.’ With fists beating against his chest, Kath hurried over and pulled her sobbing daughter away from the man. ‘How could you do that to me and her, how could she? She’s my sister.’ Tears streamed down the young woman’s cheeks.

‘I’m sorry, okay. It just happened. You have to believe me. It was an accident. We just—’ Nathan glanced at Gina and Jacob and stopped mid-sentence.

The girl shook her head. ‘It just happened. You expect me to believe that. I knew there was someone else. You think I couldn’t tell. It was you, you killed her.’

Gina glanced up at the little boy staring out from an open bedroom window. She wanted to pick him up, hug him, protect him from what he was hearing but all she could do was watch as he placed his hands over his ears and sobbed. They needed to get Nathan Merry into an interview room now and away from Serena and Kayden. Gina wasn’t going to let that little boy down.

THIRTEEN

As Gina and Jacob hurried through the station, Briggs stepped in front of her. ‘Can I have that word?’ His usually floppy hair had been trimmed neatly into a short back and sides. That would be Rosemary’s doing. She couldn’t help noticing his well-fitted shirt and that he’d lost a few pounds. He was transforming into a man she didn’t recognise but still, being this close to him made her want him more.

Her heart began to hammer away so hard, she was sure he could hear it thrumming annoyingly. ‘We, err, there’s a witness waiting to be interviewed. The victim’s boyfriend turned up at the parents’ house to do the gardening.’

‘I heard. Come to my office after.’

Exhaling, she tucked her shirt in, relieved that she had a little more time.

‘I wonder what that’s about, guv,’ Jacob said.

She shrugged. ‘It’ll just be a catch up on the case.’ She knew that Jacob could see through that flippant answer. A catch up on the case would be done in the incident room that was being set up as they spoke. O’Connor was happily taking charge of collating all the door-to-door statements and Wyre was chasing up the phone records and arranging all the photos and evidence on the board. ‘Right, we best get our A-game on before we go through this door and interview Mr Merry.’ She took a deep breath before entering.

Jacob sat and placed the file onto the table that divided police and interviewees.

‘Will this take long?’ Nathan Merry slouched back in the chair that had been pulled quite a way from the table.

‘Mr Merry, as you can appreciate, a woman who you were in a relationship with has been murdered. It will take as long as it needs.’

‘Damn, I’m sorry. I’ve been a jerk, I know I have but when you asked me about Billie, I knew her sister was home, and I wanted to avoid the scene that happened. I’m an idiot.’

Gina saw a man who was only worried about himself. He hadn’t expressed any upset on hearing of Billie’s murder. ‘Right, we’re going to be recording the interview. Do you want a drink?’

He nodded. Gina grabbed three bottles of water from one side of the table and passed one to him and another to Jacob. After going through the procedure with him, Jacob hit the record button. ‘For the tape, it’s eleven in the morning on Thursday the sixteenth of June. Detectives interviewing are DS Driscoll, and DI Harte. Interviewee is Nathan Merry.’

Gina leaned forward. ‘Mr Merry, can you confirm your full name and date of birth?’

‘Yes.’ The man continued speaking, his voice in a quiver as he answered her questions.

‘Thank you. Tell us the nature of your relationship with the victim, Billie Reeves.’

‘From when?’

‘From the beginning.’ The more background the man could give Gina, the better. She thought back to what Mrs Pearlman had said. The woman didn’t confirm seeing Nathan at Billie’s the evening before her murder but in Gina’s mind, he might still have opportunity. Maybe he went over a little while later, saw her with another man and came back the next day, still in a jealous rage.

---