Page 58 of Her Deadly Promise

She’d pushed her colleagues away. They could tell she wasn’t right. As soon as she got a moment, she’d go to the doctors and try to sort her hormones out. They could see her burning up every five minutes and maybe they sensed her sadness. Losing Briggs had hit her hard. ‘I think this case is just getting to me. With what we do, you see the world in a whole new light. Other people see the good in folk, I can only see the bad. I see a world full of greed, hate, violence and anger and I know the bad outweighs the good. No one cares about anyone but themselves—’

‘You do, we do. I get where you’re coming from, but I’m lucky. I have Jennifer to talk to, you have no one. When things get bad, we sound off at each other and put the world to rights. We know that we must keep fighting for our victims and we know that once we’ve crawled out of one hole, another ten will appear, but we keep going.’

‘You’re right. Thanks, Jacob.’ She stood and grabbed her car keys. ‘I need to buck up and get to the Andersons’ house while Bernard is still there. Let’s go and search the place. We have a knife to find.’ She hoped that would be the end of it. Her views on the world hadn’t changed but Jacob had warmed her heart with his concern.

‘That’s more like it. Let’s go and find ourselves a knife.’ Jacob stepped towards the door.

That knife might seal their case against Anderson but first they needed to find it, that’s if he hadn’t disposed of it.

FORTY-TWO

CANDICE

Candice cleaned the table on which she groomed the dogs and threw the cloth into the laundry bin. It had been easier once darkness had fallen but it hadn’t taken her mind off Nadia. Nothing would take her mind off her friend. She thought about her business and the new premises. Now, she didn’t want any of it, but she wasn’t going to tell Gavin yet. As she went to turn, she trod on his foot and let out a scream. He held his hands up. ‘I didn’t mean to make you jump. Are you okay? Are we okay?’ How long had he been watching her clean?

She nudged past him and headed out of the house and into their garden where she sat on the bench that she’d lovingly positioned in the rose bed. ‘Is Poppy in bed?’

He nodded. ‘She’s fast asleep. I think the drama of the day tired her out.’ He sat beside her and placed an arm around her shoulders. ‘I really am sorry it took me so long to get to you when you needed me.’

She shrugged. ‘Why did you take so long?’

‘I had a meeting with the app developer, and I had things to sign off on. When you said the police had arrived, I knew you were safe. I’m an insensitive prick. Please forgive me.’ He leaned in closer like he always did and stroked her cheek. ‘Have you heard anything about Nadia, yet?’

She shook her head. ‘I told them.’

‘Who and what?’

‘The police. I told them about the knife, the one I heard Nadia and Ed arguing about.’

‘But you weren’t sure what you heard, you said it yourself. Was that wise?’

She nudged him away and leaned forward. ‘Billie was stabbed.’ In her mind Ed needed blaming for that along with Nadia’s disappearance. He was a lying cheat. Everyone knew he was having an affair, or even affairs, even Nadia, but she put up with him, which always annoyed Candice. Nadia had spilled her fears out about Ed after a few glasses of wine one evening. Once again, Nadia had said too much and she couldn’t even remember, just like at Kayden’s birthday party. A flutter in her chest made her expel a slight gasp.

‘You do know he could get into real trouble for something you’re not sure you heard right?’

‘He did it. You only have to look at him to tell. You saw him tonight. He harboured the look of a guilty man.’ He was guilty of plenty, and he was a liar. She felt her bottom lip begin to tremble. She couldn’t cry, not again, not now. Candice had told Nadia that she and Gavin had been going through a bad patch, Nadia had told Meera and Billie, along with a few mums at the school gate. Candice wished that she’d never said anything now. Her life felt as though it was spiralling downhill and there was no going back. She knew that she too had been party to some of the gossip, especially when she found out about Billie. It had been so easy to join in with the aim of fitting in but not any more. She wanted to be a better person, for Poppy’s sake. From now on, she vowed to be the mother Poppy deserved. ‘Did you see the look on his face as they arrested him?’

‘What I saw was a man who had something to hide, but murder and kidnap? Really? How long have we known Ed for? I’ll answer that, years.’

She folded her arms. ‘Have you ever cheated on me?’

‘Where did that come from?’

‘Everyone is cheating on everyone lately. I want to know if you’ve cheated on me, and I’ll know if you’re lying.’

He gripped her hand. ‘Look at you, look at Poppy and all that we’ve built together. I would never cheat on you. You’re the best thing in my life. I’m not Ed.’

She turned to face him, and he leaned in to kiss her, his lips delicately reaching for hers. She pulled away. ‘I’m sorry. It’s been a long day and I think I just need some sleep.’ She didn’t know who she could trust any more.

‘How was work?’

She pursed her lips and sighed. ‘Quiet. I think I need to rethink how I get more dogs to groom, especially if I’ll be running a bigger place soon.’

‘Great, maybe I can help you this weekend. We’ll sort something. We still need to look at your website.’ He stood and smiled. He’d been promising to help her with her business for ages but as usual, his promises were empty. The weekend would come, and he’d conveniently forget, besides, everything that had happened made it seem so insignificant. ‘I have a couple of calls to make. Will you be okay?’

The story of her life. Gavin always had work to attend to. She needed him yet still, in a minute, she’d be sitting alone on the bench not enjoying the cloying perfume of the roses. She’d once loved that smell, but everything eventually turned to rot. She watched as her husband hurried back into the house, then she heard his office door closing. Always closed, that’s the way he liked it. Always locked, but he wasn’t careful all the time. She knew all his secrets. Each and every one of them. She glanced at her phone and reread the message from Serena, then she replied. Maybe she could meet the woman for a coffee, after all, she’d just lost her sister in a horrific attack. She glanced up and watched as Gavin walked across his office and sat at his desk, the light from the small room spilling out onto the patio.

Her nails dug into her palm as she envisaged barging through his office door, grabbing his computer and bashing it on the tiled floor. How dare he leave her upset like this? She thought of Poppy lying in bed fast asleep and a tear rolled down her face. Everything was hopeless and unless she did something, her whole world was going to come crashing down. But first, she needed sleep. She knew she’d lie in bed for hours thinking of Nadia and all that happened in the garage. She couldn’t get the word bitch out of her head and the red pen it was written in. It was going to be a long night and there was no way she’d be able to rest. From where she was sitting, she could hear her husband pushing his office window open and then he continued tapping away. The piercing sound of a scream filled the air. Foxes always sounded like people being attacked. It was as if Billie and Nadia were in her head. She placed her fingers in her ears, pressing her eyes closed. Go away.

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