Page 16 of Her Deadly Promise

Meera looked out through the patio doors into the garden. ‘I know Billie was in a lot of debt. I shouldn’t have known but I overheard someone visiting the house from a debt collection agency and I think I heard her talking about weekly payments. I feel awful for listening through the open window, as I know what a private person she was. I also saw her at the food bank, queueing outside the church but that was a few weeks ago. She didn’t know I saw her, and I didn’t mention it as I knew how proud she was. I was in the café on the high street when I spotted her.’ She checked her watch. ‘I have to get Dev ready for school, then I have to go to work. I don’t feel like going after what has happened, but I’d be letting my colleagues down. We’re really short-staffed at the moment.’ She blew her nose and rubbed her eyes red. ‘I don’t know how I’m going to get through today.’

‘What is it you do?’

‘I’m a care manager, which is why I need to go in. I have a team to organise.’

Gina pulled a card from her pocket. ‘If you think of anything else that might help, however small or irrelevant seeming, please call me straight away.’

The woman took the card with her slender fingers. ‘Am I safe staying here? I have to ask because I have my boy to think about.’

Gina’s mind flitted to the blood-red writing on Billie’s kitchen wall. Whoever killed Billie had a personal motive, but Gina would never forgive herself if anything happened to the woman standing in front of her. ‘Are you able to stay with your mother for a few more days?’

She nodded. ‘I think I’d rather do that. I’ll pack a few things. Do you need the address?’

Gina nodded. ‘That would be really helpful in case we need to speak to you again.’

The woman scribbled it down on a scrap of paper and handed it to Gina. ‘I didn’t want to say anything as it seems disrespectful. Billie would be really hurt if she knew I was going to tell you this but… Nathan wasn’t the only man in Billie’s life.’

‘Who is the other man?’

‘I don’t know. I just heard footsteps and a male voice coming from the back garden on a few occasions as she hurries him in through the back door. It’s always late at night. Nathan knocks at the front door, so I thought that was odd.’

‘When was this?’

‘I’ve heard this a few times. I can’t remember when. Over the past few weeks, I’d say.’

‘What did you hear them talking about?’

‘I didn’t. Whatever was said was in hushed tones. I just know the voice was male.’ Meera took a deep breath. ‘Please catch whoever did this. Billie deserves justice.’ Meera went to say something, then stopped. ‘I have to get to work.’

‘Was there something else?’

‘No. I have to go, or I’ll be late.’ The look in Meera’s eyes told her that she had something else to say.

‘Meera, someone murdered your friend. If you know something that might help us, please say.’

‘I don’t.’ She looked away and grabbed her handbag.

As they finished up, Gina couldn’t stop thinking about the other man, the caller who came around the back when it was dark. Who was Billie keeping secret from everyone? So secret, he had to sneak in when Billie thought everyone was in bed. Maybe Nadia Anderson or Nathan Merry would have the answer.

‘Guv.’ Wyre held up an opened email so that Gina could read it. Next stop, they were going to Billie’s parents’ house to speak to Kayden. A flutter of nerves made Gina stumble over her words as she wrapped up the interview with Meera. A part of her couldn’t wait to see if Kayden had something to say that might push the investigation forward, but another part of her was picturing this scared and sad little vulnerable dot of a boy who had just found out that his mother was no longer with him. He lived with his mother. He’d see whatever was going on in her life from the inside.

He might know who the other man was, the one who arrived at Billie’s close to midnight on the eve of her murder.

TEN

NADIA

Nadia dropped her keys in the bowl on the sideboard and ran up the stairs into William’s room. Opening up the front to the doll’s house, she sat down cross-legged and took in the scene that her son had left. The crocodile had been left leaning upright against the toy cooker, and the little boy doll was still under the bed sheet. She pulled the cover back, took the doll and held him tight. She could have done so much more but like everyone else, she stood by and watched as Billie went downhill and Kayden was left scared. She closed her eyes and gave a thought to Billie.

She recalled the conversation she had with Billie a while back, just after they’d dropped their children at school. ‘Let me help you,’ Nadia had said to her friend.

Billie shrugged her off. ‘No, I’m sick of people pitying me. I see the way everyone stares when I drop Kayden off, and I can’t handle it. They need to get a life, seriously.’

‘Who’s staring at you?’ She remembered the sinking guilty feeling that had threatened to make her throw her breakfast up, right there and then outside the school. People were staring and Nadia was clearly lying by trying to convince her otherwise. Besides, they’d soon get bored of staring. That’s how rumours work. Next week, it would be something and someone else. Guilt began to reach into her core. The rumours were true.

‘Her.’ Billie pointed to one of the random mums. ‘And her. All of them.’ The mums stared in disgust.

Nadia remembered grabbing Billie’s arm as she turned to hurry away. ‘Billie, stop.’ Billie shrugged her off, but she chased her.

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