Page 34 of Her Deadly Promise

‘Yes, she was always with men. You could just tell. Weird woman. Loud too, always over the top. I feel sorry for Kayden.’

‘Does he even have a dad?’

‘I wonder what he thinks of all this. Poor guy.’

‘I hear Nadia even stopped William from going to her house.’

‘Oh, that gossiping cow.’

Dizzy with everything, Nadia pulled William away from the nasty comments and back towards her car. ‘Don’t listen to all that, sweetie. Some people can be mean.’

‘Mummy?’

‘What?’ The car flashed as she opened it.

‘What’s a prostitute?’

‘Nothing. You don’t need to know and don’t say that word, okay?’ She ruffled his hair.

‘Okay, Mummy.’ She strapped him into his car seat and drove to Candice’s. As she pulled up, she could see that Meera’s car wasn’t there. Maybe it was just the two of them.

Candice opened the door as Nadia walked down the drive, William’s hand in hers. ‘Come in. The paddling pool is out if you want to go in with Poppy.’

Nadia nodded. ‘It’s okay, sweetie. You can go in in your underpants.’

Screaming with glee, he ran into the garden. Candice closed the door that led to the garage, the one that had been converted into a huge dog spa where clipped poodle hair covered the floor. ‘Come through. Here, have this unless you want something stronger.’ She passed Nadia a large glass of elderflower cordial.

‘Best not.’ They stepped out onto the decking where Candice had placed the food and a few plates down. ‘I hope you don’t mind me asking Meera too. I thought, we’re all grieving, we’re all worried, and as you said Ed couldn’t come, I’ve told Gavin to stay in his office.’

‘Of course not.’ Glancing at the food, Nadia knew that she wasn’t going to be able to eat anything.

‘Yeah, I don’t think I feel like eating either.’

It was as if Candice had read her mind.

Candice’s bottom lip began to tremble. ‘I keep imagining her in her house and being attacked. My heart feels as though it’s about to stop and… She must have been terrified.’ She turned around. ‘Sorry, I can’t seem to control my emotions at the moment. I’m all over the place, as you are.’ She puffed out a couple of times and turned back to face Nadia.

Nadia wiped the streak of mascara from her friend’s face and hugged Candice. ‘It’s good that we have each other.’

‘It is. What would we do without good friends?’ She sat at the patio table. ‘I saw two suits in a car when I left yours. They looked a bit out of place.’

‘Oh, it was the police.’ She instantly regretted telling Candice, then she reminded herself that she was the woman who couldn’t keep a secret, not Candice. ‘They’re speaking to people who knew Billie, that’s all. I just told them what I knew. I had to tell them about her work.’

‘I see. I hope they catch the bastard quick. Did they say anything?’

‘No. It has to be one of her clients, though. Who else would hurt her?’ Nadia couldn’t keep Ed’s name out of her head. She didn’t trust him one bit. He was having an affair and he had received a message from Billie just before she died. If he was seeing Billie behind her back and Billie threatened to tell, who knows what he was capable of. He was barely around lately, and he wasn’t straight with her whenever she asked when he’d be home but, of course, she had to just put up with it. She’d made her proverbial bed and now she was imprisoned in it.

Candice furrowed her brows and paused. ‘I don’t know but there’s Kayden’s dad. Billie said he was causing a bit of a fuss. She said he kept calling.’

‘Yes, maybe it was him. It’s a coincidence that he came back recently and now this has happened.’ Anything to deflect Billie’s murder as far away from Ed as possible. She wanted to slap herself. A text proved nothing. Another little voice kept repeating itself. He lied about that text. If she couldn’t get into his phone, she had no choice but to stand up to him and demand to see what was on it. Asking might hurt if he had one of his episodes but she couldn’t live with the not knowing.

‘What’s this, love? I found it on the printer.’ Gavin came out, his glasses pushed up against his face as he read what was written on a sheet of paper.

Candice took the piece of paper and read a couple of lines. ‘Oh, that’s Poppy’s poem for Billie. She wants me to read it at the funeral.’ She paused and a tear trickled down her cheek. ‘Kayden’s mummy was pretty and funny. Her hugs were the best…’ Candice passed the poem back to Gavin. ‘I can’t read any more of it right now.’

Gavin pressed his lips together as he looked at his little girl. ‘She’s such a lovely sensitive soul. Terrible news. How are you bearing up, Nadia? You two were so close.’

Candice didn’t know how lucky she was having Gavin’s support. Nadia wished that Ed cared more. ‘We were.’ From nowhere the grief hit her. She would never see Billie again. After going through the motions all day and fulfilling a booking after originally cancelling, she couldn’t hold back any longer. The friend who had been there for the past few years was gone and she’d never see her again.

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