Page 75 of Her Deadly Promise

The signal was muffled, then he spoke. ‘Wyre has managed to contact the letting agent. They don’t normally open on a Saturday, but the manager is heading in to assist us. They’ll be at Halston Groves office in Cleevesford in half an hour.’

‘Leaving now. Oh, do a bit more digging on the Brents. I want everything you can find.’

‘Will do.’

She ended the call and looked at Jacob. ‘We need to go.’

‘Wait, is there any news on the animal who did this to my daughter?’

‘PC Kapoor is staying here. As soon as we hear anything, we’ll let you know.’

With that they hurried out of the building, back into the scorching heat. Benedict Carny kept going through her head. Who was this man to Gavin Brent? As they reached the car, her heart began to pound. If this lead didn’t pay off, Candice was a dead woman. If she wasn’t already.

FIFTY-NINE

CANDICE

She held her breath as she listened to Gavin turning the engine. The car chugged and then fired up. As he reversed, it clunked. Please don’t break down. Candice closed her eyes, only opening them when they were back on the winding roads. She exhaled. The car had started, and she had to come up with a plan. Where was he taking her? Think.

There were two places. His mother had a static caravan at a local holiday park. Maybe they were going there. It would be busy, though. Especially on such a gorgeous weekend. No, it was too obvious. She had no idea. She swallowed. If he was capable of driving them into a tree, maybe he’d drive them over a bridge. It could be that he was planning on ending them both today. ‘Let me out,’ she sobbed. Sliding forward, she peered out of the gap and that’s when it hit her. They were near the industrial estate. They were going to the new premises, the one that they were still working on.

He slowed the car down as they turned into the industrial estate and pulled up. She reached around the whole of the boot, in every crevice but there was nothing of any help. Her finger pricked. She lifted the small item up and saw that it was Nadia’s earring. That wouldn’t help. She threw it back down. The hair clip. It was in her pocket. After she’d slid it out of her hair, she’d popped it into the pocket of her jeans. She reached in and pulled it out. It wasn’t long but it tapered, and it was all she had. Gripping it hard, she shuffled back and waited.

She listened as the shutters on the building came up. The click of a key turning in a slightly rusty lock, followed by his returning heavy footsteps. He was coming back. ‘Try anything stupid and I’ll snap your neck.’

‘Please just let me out, Gavin. I won’t try anything. We need talk about this. Poppy needs us both.’

The boot popped. He stared intensely before reaching in and dragging her out. Her body slumped to the pavement, slamming her knees into concrete. She let out a quiet moan. Anything more would give him the excuse he needed to hit her with the bat he was gripping. ‘I think we’re beyond talking.’ For a moment, she’d thought about trying to flag someone down, but she couldn’t. No one else could be involved. Besides, there was no one in the unit next door. She could see through a gap in the foliage that their shutters were down. Theirs was divided by trees and it was the last on the road. No one could see or hear them and screaming wouldn’t make much difference. It would only antagonise Gavin.

‘We’re not,’ she pleaded. ‘We can get Poppy and leave, right now. We don’t need to say anything about this or Nadia or Billie to anyone.’ For a second, she saw the Gavin she’d fallen in love with, then she remembered what he’d done; how he’d deceived her and lied. A slight wash of confusion passing across his face told her that she had to keep him talking. ‘Come on, Gavin. Poppy will suffer if we don’t get through this.’

He glanced in the boot, his gaze following the plastic sheeting. ‘No, there is no other way.’

‘What are you going to do with me? Lock me up in the dog parlour?’

He reached down and grabbed her collar, dragging her into the unit. As he entered the main room, he flung her to the tiled floor. She glanced all over at the candy-pink walls that were waiting to be adorned by the finishing touches she was planning to add. The central island with the stainless-steel bench and noose, just like the smaller version in their garage, shone under the strip light. It was all so shiny and new. Glinting and gleaming, except for what her eye was being drawn to.

She heaved as she saw the ropes on the floor at the one end of the room. The blindfold gave her the shivers as she wondered if Gavin would use it on her. She pictured Nadia bound and lying helpless on the cold floor, vision blocked; the empty bottle of water being slowly poured into her thirsty mouth along with sleeping pills. Had Nadia screamed. Gavin liked to hear women scream, it was something he asked her to do all the time when they were having sex. He’d whisper, scream for me, and she would. Had Billie screamed? Had her husband, the man she chose to spend her life with, paid her friend to scream?

Gavin paced back and forth, shaking his head. ‘No, no, no,’ he repeated.

Now was her chance to escape her psycho of a husband. She grabbed the edge of the unit and as soon as he turned his back, she darted past him.

He reached forward and gripped her in his rock-solid arms, yanking her back. They both tumbled to the floor. It was now or never. She aimed the hair clip at his eyes and went to stab him, right in his eyeball but he turned at the last minute and she caught his cheek. It was too blunt. She couldn’t drive it in deeply.

‘Bitch.’ He rolled on top of her, pinning her down before he aimed a punch at her face. Through dazed vision, she watched as his face contorted while he flung the diamanté clip across the room. He hit her again. She couldn’t run, she couldn’t even stand. She was spent and it looked like he was almost spent if the sweat dripping from his brow was anything to go by. He dragged her across the room leaving her wedged in a corner, stale, hot and bleeding. She pressed her hand to her mouth and almost cried out because of the pain in her tooth.

She tried to lift her bad arm, but it was too stiff. If she tried to fight him or scarper, he’d overpower her again. She watched as he walked over to the ropes. Reaching under the sink unit, she felt something long and cold. She glanced down at the bloodied knife. As he turned to come back with the rope, she slid it up her sleeve. She wasn’t going to fight him again. If she did, she’d lose. ‘Why are you doing this?’

He began to tie her feet together. ‘Poppy. She will live a normal life, one without you. You are going to disappear, never to be heard of again.’

‘What are you going to do with me?’ Tears meandered down her face.

‘I don’t know,’ he yelled, sending her heart racing again. ‘But I won’t have us dragged into a police investigation. I won’t have our faces on the news. I won’t have Poppy growing up with kids calling her the daughter of a murderer. I have money. I’ve always had money set aside. Never thought I’d need to do this.’ He finished tying her feet up.

‘Please don’t hurt me, Gavin.’

‘There’s no coming back from this.’ He pointed at her with the bat and then he pointed at the mess that had been left from Nadia. ‘There’s not much time.’ He threw the bat to the floor and grabbed another length of rope before helping her to a sitting position.

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