Page 48 of Her Deadly Promise

A hum of no filled the air. Gina could see that the team were a bit despondent, as they’d reached what felt like a dead end in the investigation.

‘We have officers stationed on Meera Gupta’s mother’s street and the same with Shaun Brock’s mother’s place. The poor woman is beside herself. Did Mr Anderson come back with his work mobile?’

Wyre cleared her throat. ‘Not yet.’

‘How about Jimbo’s Hot Tubs? Have we managed to ascertain that it was definitely him purchasing the hot tub?’

‘No. I called the company and spoke to an account manager. She said the owner of the business is out for a couple of days and no one else there has access to the CCTV. She said as soon as he – a man named Jim Bowler – comes back she’ll get him to email it over. She did, however, give us a vague description that could be Anderson. It was too vague to be certain.’

‘But so far, it looks like he’s telling the truth?’

Wyre nodded.

‘Can we match the blood found on the items in Brock’s car to Billie’s? Do we have the results yet?’

‘Not yet.’ Jacob peeled open a pack of pasta salad and prodded his fork in a cherry tomato, which burst up his shirt.

Gina pulled her ponytail tight. ‘We need to go over everything Meera Gupta has said. I don’t know why but I don’t trust her. It feels like she’s still holding something back and it might be just the information we need. What about her other friends? Nadia Anderson – Mr Anderson’s wife?’

Jacob swallowed a mouthful and turned a page in his notebook. ‘No record, guv.’

‘And Candice Brent? What do we know about her?’

‘Friend of Billie’s. Married. Daughter of the same age as Billie’s son. Works as a dog groomer. It appears that she, Nadia, Billie and Meera were all close friends. They spent time in each other’s houses. Their children played together.’

Gina stared at the floor in thought. ‘Yes. Meera is having an affair with Nadia’s husband and all of them were involved in gossiping about Billie. They don’t all seem to be as friendly as they appear. There is so much going on under the surface. We just need to scratch a bit harder. We do have some forensics results back from Billie’s house.’

Wyre scraped her chair a little closer to the table.

‘There were at least fifteen sets of fingerprints obtained throughout the house suggesting that she’d had a fair few visitors. We have Anderson’s prints on file because of his previous conviction and not one of them matches his. We need to start requesting elimination prints from everyone we question. Given that some of the prints will be from men visiting Billie for sex, I’m surprised that more haven’t shown up on the system. As for other evidence, there is nothing more as yet. The words written on the wall and on the note are in capital letters. We can look at handwriting but I’m not sure how far that will get us. The note has been analysed and we got no prints from that either. For now, go through everything again. Any CCTV that has been pulled, I want you to blow it up, look at reflections in windows. Check the registration of every vehicle that passes. The answers are out there, we merely have to uncover them.’

Gina’s heart sank as Briggs entered and stood at the head of the room. She stepped aside, giving him centre stage. He didn’t acknowledge her at all. ‘There’s been a reported incident at Mr and Mrs Reeves’s house. Mrs Reeves has locked the door and Shaun Brock is threatening to smash it down. Uniform are on their way now.’ Briggs’s phone rang. He made a few noises and ended the call before looking at Gina. ‘You have to meet uniform. Brock has taken the boy. He’s on foot so he can’t have got far. He’s also hit Mr Reeves by slamming the front door in his face and an ambulance has been called.’

‘Jacob, let’s go.’ Before her sergeant had a chance to finish his food, they were out the door. There was no way they were going to lose Brock, not now. They were this close to arresting him. Her heart pounded. She couldn’t let him escape with Kayden. The poor child would be terrified. He didn’t even know his father.

THIRTY-FOUR

Jacob pulled up behind the police car and Gina opened the door before he put the handbrake on. The ambulance had already arrived, and a paramedic had led Mr Reeves to the van. Blood meandered down his head as he staggered along. A uniformed officer called out to her. ‘He went that way. Two officers are tailing him.’

Face hot and body starting to go clammy from the sticky heat, Gina waved to Jacob. ‘Follow me.’ She ran as fast as her legs would take her past a row of large houses and down a small path that led to a woodland trail. As she jumped down a step, she caught her ankle in a string of stingers. She trod them away and continued.

‘I’m right behind you, guv.’

At least she had someone to continue forward if she keeled over. Running in temperatures close to thirty degrees was never fun but, she remembered, a child had been taken. Getting Kayden from their absconding murder suspect was her priority. She stopped and panted, trying to listen out for the officers or Kayden, but she could hear nothing except for a couple of frisky pigeons cooing above her.

She spotted a police hat in the distance. ‘That way,’ she called out. As she got closer, she could see the officer was walking back. ‘Where is the suspect?’ she called out to him.

‘We got here too late. He had too much of a head start.’ The officer scrunched his nose. ‘I lost him.’

‘How long by?’ Gina got her breath back as Jacob jogged to her side.

‘Only a couple of minutes.’

She shook her head. ‘He can’t have got much further in this heat, and he has a little boy with him. What’s close by?’ She placed a hand on her sweltering head and turned around on the spot.

‘The woodland comes out at the lake. Another officer has headed in that direction.’ The PC’s radio hissed as it came into life. ‘Found them. They’re in a rowing boat in the middle of the lake. Brock won’t come in.’

Gina began running through the trees until she reached the path. Several minutes later, she felt as though she might collapse on the pavement from heat exhaustion, but she pushed through in her drenched clothes.

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