Page 17 of Her Deadly Promise

‘They know, they all know. I can tell. You promised you wouldn’t tell anyone. I trusted you.’

‘Billie, you can trust me. It wasn’t me. No one knows, I promise. They were looking because you seem upset, that’s all.’

‘I heard them whispering, thinking that I couldn’t hear. The thing is, I only told you.’

‘Maybe someone saw something. It wasn’t me.’

Billie shook her head as she glanced back and forth, taking on one last stare from someone rushing past with a pushchair. ‘You’re a liar. I should never have trusted you.’

As Billie nudged her to hurry around the corner, Candice almost bumped into them, running late as usual with little Poppy being dragged along. Her friend with the long red nails and fiery hair stopped and stared, open-mouthed.

‘You know too, don’t you?’

Candice was an awful liar. Nadia couldn’t squirm out of the situation now. She knew that Billie would see from the falsely raised eyebrows and pressed lips that Candice knew too.

First, Nadia broke Billie’s confidence and now Billie had been murdered. Her friend died knowing that Nadia betrayed her. Shame burned her cheeks. It was only a matter of time before the police spoke to her and she’d have to face up to what she’d done.

She dropped the little boy doll and left it lying on William’s bedroom floor as she hurried out of the room, slamming the door as she left.

‘What’s going on? I was trying to have a lie-in?’ Ed came out of their bedroom with a white towel wrapped around his middle.

‘I was just tidying William’s bedroom.’

‘Great. I was hoping for a relaxing day off and now I’m up at the crack of dawn. I thought you had clients this morning.’

‘I did but I cancelled them. I can’t go to work, not after what happened to Billie.’

‘No, of course.’ He wrapped his arms around her and stroked the back of her neck. As she laid her head in the comfort of his chest, she felt him harden under the towel. ‘Maybe we could both go back to bed?’

She pushed him away like she had done a lot recently. ‘My best friend has just been murdered. What bit about that don’t you understand?’ It didn’t help that she didn’t trust him.

He held his hands up. ‘I don’t understand why you’ve spent the last couple of weeks bitching about Billie and now you call her your best friend because she’s been murdered. I don’t understand why you always tried to help her when it was clear she didn’t want your help. You interfere, that’s your problem. You talk too much to the gossips at the school gate. You add up two and two and get a total of five.’

‘My adding up was just fine. I think I should tell the police.’

He grabbed her arm, sinking his nails into her skin. ‘Leave well alone, okay.’

She swallowed. ‘But—’

‘Shh.’ He placed his firm hand over her mouth. ‘You know it will be you they’ll come for.’ She landed on the floor as he pushed her backwards onto the landing. Tears began to run down her cheeks. ‘Don’t be such a bloody drama queen.’ He rolled his eyes and walked away. The worst of it was, he was right. The police couldn’t be involved. She had too much to lose. Ed was wrong about one thing. Her adding up of the situation was correct but she wasn’t going to try to convince him of that. It had come straight out of Billie’s mouth, and it should have gone no further. Her heart ached. If only she could go back in time and make everything right.

Nadia swallowed down her sobs. What had she started? Billie was right that day. Everyone had been looking at her. They were all gossiping and sneering, all because Nadia, Billie’s best friend, couldn’t keep her big mouth shut. Now the world knew, and it was only a matter of time before the police did.

She heard the shower creak and then start running, so she ran into the bedroom and grabbed Ed’s work phone. He had been looking at Billie at Kayden’s birthday party, she didn’t care what he said. Even dressed in a crocodile suit, Billie looked hot. Every man there was staring. She tried another password, but it wasn’t right. Maybe she could wait until he was asleep and use his thumb to unlock it. Either she had his thumb or a password. One thing she was certain of, she’d seen a message flash up on her husband’s phone from Billie only yesterday. If she asked him, he’d simply deny it, then delete the message. He couldn’t know that she knew about the message. She had to find out what was in it. What she did know for sure was that Ed was capable of violence and Billie had been murdered. She had wronged her friend but that spurred her on more to do the right thing. She toiled with telling the police, but she had to be certain because Ed would bring her down in an instant. She wasn’t going to let the police go through her things and her life, turning everything upside down when it might all be for nothing. The other mums would never look at her in the same way again if Ed was hauled in for questioning or they found— She put her deepest darkest secret out of her mind. It wasn’t going to come to that as long as she toed the line.

‘I’m sorry, Billie,’ she whispered, dropping the phone back on Ed’s bedside table as he turned the shower off. Her husband was a liar about everything. That hot tub receipt proved nothing.

ELEVEN

George and Kathleen Reeves’s house stood proud on the roadside. Double fronted, with a picket fence, and a neatly mown lawn with flower beds. Gina imagined a young Billie performing plays with her sister in this house, maybe even on the lawn when the sun shone like it was this morning. She pictured the little girl full of creative energy, lighting up the faces of everyone she came across with her zest for life. Then she pictured her bleeding body lying on the cramped kitchen floor.

A hand appeared underneath a cream lacy voile that covered the inside of the large bay window and a slim blonde woman frowned before dropping it again. Jacob pulled up behind her and stepped out into the morning heat, before mooching in the boot of his car. As she waited, she checked her phone and saw another update. The appeal had gone out and anytime now it would hit the radio and TV. Briggs had sent a separate message. She placed her finger on it. Her stomach began to churn as it opened in full.

We need to talk when you get back to the station.

That’s all? We need to talk. About what? About the case? About them? About her work, the vacant look that she’d been displaying for weeks? Maybe he knew about Rosemary meeting up with another man. Could she broach the subject? He might want to confide in her about leaving Rosemary. Don’t get your hopes up, Gina. She shook her head, hating not knowing what the message meant.

There were no niceties in the message, no kisses that she’d become fond of over the years. It hurt more than she could ever have imagined. Wyre had mentioned that they were all a bit concerned for her. Had that concern reached Briggs? She didn’t need his pity. Her face flushed hot. Not now, she couldn’t have a hot flush right here, outside the victim’s parents’ house. She bent over and caught a glimpse of her face in the side mirror. Yes, her cheeks were burning away like beacons and her neck was prickling like mad, a reminder yet again that she could never have given Briggs what he wanted. She opened the car door and got back in, immediately turning on the ignition and air conditioning that had just been pumping out ice-cold air. Thankfully, it was still cold. She leaned back, trying not to panic and make things worse.

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