Page 45 of Her Deadly Promise

‘And why were you there?’

He raised his eyebrows. ‘We’re all adults here. I’m not going into detail.’ He paused. ‘Meera and I have a thing.’

‘A thing?’

‘An affair, okay? You need me to say it. I turned up at her place close to ten. I know it was that time as I put my son to bed before leaving my house and he wouldn’t go to sleep. I told Nadia that I had to go back to the office for a while, but I went to Meera’s house.’ He exhaled.

‘What time did you leave?’

His shoulders dropped. ‘About one thirty in the morning. I went straight home.’

‘Did you leave Ms Gupta’s house between nine and one thirty in the morning for any reason?’

He shook his head and loosened his collar. ‘No, we stayed in her bed all that time until I got out to dress around one.’

‘Where did you park?’

‘Charles Street.’ Gina knew that street was in the opposite direction to the library, so he’d have no reason to walk past it.

‘Did you use your phone while walking from your car to Ms Gupta’s house?’

He glanced between Jacob and Gina as if he might be caught out. ‘No, you can check my call log if you like.’ He passed his phone over. Gina scrolled through but could see that no calls had been made around the time that their witness had heard a man passing the library.

‘Do you have another phone?’

He nodded. ‘I don’t have it on me, but I have a company mobile phone. Everyone who works for me has one. I’ll bring that in later and you can see that I didn’t make a call then either. I do only use it for work, though.’

‘Thank you. Where were you on Wednesday from one p.m. to five p.m.?’

He took a huge breath and let it out slowly. ‘That’s easy, I was buying a hot tub and I have the receipt. I was in the shop at that time organising the purchase and the delivery. It was also on my route between the Derby office and the Cleevesford office.’

That would rule Anderson out as a suspect. ‘Do you have the invoice?’

‘Yes, and it’s got a payment receipt attached to it showing the time too.’ He pulled the folded-up invoice from his trouser pocket and handed it to Gina like he’d prepared for that question.

She read all the information. ‘Thank you for that. We need to take a copy before you leave.’

‘Knock yourself out.’

She also knew that they needed to know if it was actually Anderson himself in the shop making the purchase at the time he said he was. She passed it to Jacob, and he made a note of the name. Jimbo’s Hot Tubs.

‘Last night, where were you? You said you couldn’t come in for this interview yesterday as you were staying in Derby all night.’

He ran his fingers through his hair. ‘I was with Meera. I’m sorry I lied but that’s what I was going to tell my wife, so I stuck with it. I thought it didn’t matter as I didn’t hurt Billie. I am a prize arsehole for what I’ve done to Nadia and if my affair gets out I’m right in the shit, but I didn’t hurt Billie. I had no reason to. I barely knew her. She was my wife’s best friend.’

‘On May the fifteenth, there was a birthday party at your house for Kayden.’

‘So? My wife is generous like that. She let Billie use our garden so that Kayden could have a lovely party with all his friends. Her garden was too small. Kayden is a popular lad.’

‘Did you say anything to Billie that day?’

He shook his head. ‘I doubt it. I can barely remember. I’d had a few beers with the other parents while I manned the barbeque.’

‘We have a witness that claims you were watching Billie in a manner that they described as weird or uncomfortable.’

He shrugged. ‘I’d just found out from my wife about what Billie had been doing for money. I guess I couldn’t believe it. I found myself trying to weigh up why she would do a thing like that when Nadia had offered to help her out. I didn’t mean to watch her. I didn’t speak to her or ask her about it. By the way, I wasn’t the only one giving Billie weird looks. Gossip was rife by then and just about everyone at that party knew what Billie was doing, but we all knew not to say it out loud or in front of her. Whoever hurt her was probably visiting her for sex. You should be looking into those pervs, the type that can’t get any and have to pay for it. I’m not one of those.’

‘But you are.’

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