Page 56 of Her Deadly Promise

‘We do but can you tell me again?’

‘Billie was sleeping with men for money. She found these men online and she told Nadia in confidence. Nadia told a couple of other people and gossip spreads. She didn’t mean it nastily when she told, she was concerned. By the time Billie held Kayden’s party back in May, everyone knew. No one said much to each other or to Billie’s face, but you could cut the atmosphere with a knife. Nadia spotted Ed staring at Billie and their marriage was going down the pan at the time. That man has never been faithful to her. When Billie and the other parents had left, she went mad at him. She didn’t know I could hear them arguing. I was downstairs with the children, but I thought I’d help to tidy up a bit. I left William’s toys on the landing to be put away and I could hear them in the bedroom. Nadia was shouting at Ed, saying that half of the parents at the school had fallen out with her because they felt she could have helped Billie instead of gossiping, but the other half were mean to Billie. Nadia was crying, saying it was all her fault. Ed then piped up, shouting that everything was her fault as she couldn’t keep her big mouth shut and she should keep out of other people’s business. He’s not a nice person. It was like he was getting off on her crying.’ Candice glanced over and saw Ed watching her from right outside the front door. He was too far away to hear but she knew that he was aware it was him she was talking about. Her heart began to pound so she sipped more water. ‘They weren’t happy.’

‘Did you hear anything else?’

‘Yes, Nadia accused Ed of sleeping with Billie. She knew that he’d been seeing someone else. I heard Ed call Billie a slut, which I thought was a revolting thing to say. He said he’d never even look at her twice. That’s when I heard the bedroom door open, so I ran back downstairs. I didn’t want them to know I’d been listening. I still don’t want them to know.’

‘You mentioned the other parents. Did anyone else have a problem with Nadia or want to hurt her?’

‘No. As I say, she had a few issues with some of the parents, but I can’t think why anyone would want to harm her over a bit of gossip.’

‘Anyone else you can think of who might want to harm either Nadia or Billie?’

‘I know Billie didn’t always get on with her sister, Serena. They argued a lot, but I don’t really know why.’ She paused, biting the end of her red nail off. ‘I can’t keep this to myself, and I don’t know what it means.’ She was totally betraying Nadia, and it didn’t feel good, but she needed to be truthful.

‘It might be the information that helps us find your friend.’ The detective placed her notebook by her side and looked into Candice’s eyes.

She felt her insides churning. ‘When they were arguing, Nadia kept begging Ed to tell her where the knife was hidden.’

The male detective hurried over. ‘Guv, I need an urgent word. We have a development.’

‘Excuse me a moment.’ DI Harte walked away with the man and Candice could feel the tension as they spoke.

‘Hey, I got here as fast as I could.’ Gavin looked flustered as he hurried to her side. His creased shirt hung out of his trousers and his tousled hair gleamed with perspiration. ‘Work was a nightmare.’

‘Daddy.’ Poppy left PC Smith and ran as fast as she could to her dad while Candice snubbed him.

‘You took forever. I needed you and…’ She burst into tears, the enormity of the day finally getting on top of her.

Gavin gripped her tightly and pulled her into his arms. ‘I’m so sorry, love. I couldn’t get away, but I came straight here. What’s going on?’

Candice wiped her eyes and looked back at the scene. ‘It looks like they’re arresting Ed.’ She watched as the man shouted and raised his arms. Within moments he was in a police car being driven away. ‘It was him all along.’ Candice shook her head. ‘He killed Billie and he’s done something to Nadia.’

FORTY

‘Right, team. I know it’s late, but we have a breakthrough. I want to get everyone caught up while we give Edward Anderson’s solicitor a chance to turn up. He has exercised his right to have someone present and he’s contacted his family solicitor.’ Gina pointed to the new additions to the board. She watched as Jacob typed out a message on his phone, probably to tell Jennifer that he was running late. O’Connor began munching on a cinnamon bun and he passed one to PC Kapoor. Wyre leaned back in her creaky plastic chair and stretched her hands above her head.

Gina glanced at the photos of Billie and the new board headed up with a photo of Nadia that they’d pulled off her social media. In it, Nadia looked radiant in a glowing post-workout way as she tried to promote her personal training business. ‘Fill us in with what happened with the hot tub lead, Wyre.’ While Wyre spoke, Gina pulled out her packet sandwich and took a few bites.

Wyre flicked through a few pages in her notebook. ‘On finding out that we couldn’t get the CCTV from Jimbo’s Hot Tubs for a few days, I called them back and the administrator had managed to speak to the owner. He agreed that if we could send an officer who was able to navigate the system, we could go and look at the CCTV. I managed to contact a police officer at Derby who was more than willing to head over and check this for us. He managed to find the time stipulated on the receipt and he took a still of the frame that showed the man paying. The man who bought the hot tub was not Ed Anderson. He’s shorter and has jet-black hair. We haven’t yet verified the identity of this man.’

Gina turned to Jacob. ‘Tell us about the message on Anderson’s phone.’ She loved it when a case was coming together. Whether Anderson spoke or not that evening, she was going to sleep well. They had evidence stacking up against him.

Jacob placed his phone down and Gina watched as it constantly lit up. Ignoring it, he spoke. ‘There was a message in Anderson’s bin folder, and it was from Billie Reeves’s phone number. He’d obviously tried to delete it and then thought that we wouldn’t be able to retrieve it. On the afternoon she was murdered, Billie sent him a message saying, “Stop harassing me or I’ll call the police.” We don’t yet know how long he’d been harassing her or what this harassment involved, but it was bad enough for her to threaten him with the police.’

Gina stepped back. ‘Lastly, we have a partial print on the inside sliding lock on Billie’s back gate and it is a definite match to Edward Anderson. He’s been to her house, and he locked the gate from the inside. The circumstantial evidence is plentiful and right now, he’s our prime suspect. There is one other thing. After speaking to Candice Brent, the woman who discovered the scene in the Andersons’ garage, we now know we are looking for a knife that may have been used in another crime and possibly in Billie’s murder, too. Mrs Brent claims that she overheard Nadia begging Anderson to tell her where the knife was hidden. To be able to match the knife with Billie’s wound, we need to find the knife and we need to find out why he was hiding a knife from Nadia. One more thing, Candice Brent claims to have heard Anderson calling Billie a slut, the exact word that was written on Billie’s wall. We should have the search warrant soon. We already have access to the house, but we want to be able to search Mr Anderson’s car, his company vans and his offices. There are four in total and they’re not all local, but we can’t leave anything out. O’Connor, can I task you to chase the warrant up?’

He chomped on the last bit of cinnamon bun and swallowed. ‘Yes, guv. I’ll get onto it now.’

‘One last thing, Wyre, can you investigate Serena Reeves, Billie’s younger sister? They weren’t getting along, and I want to know why. I know the evidence is stacking up against Anderson, but I’m not ready to put all our eggs in one basket. Also, check Nadia’s work schedule. Her social media tells us she uses Cleevesford Leisure Centre to provide training for her clients. We need to check if she had any bookings on that day. It would help if we found the last person she met or spoke to.’

‘Of course, guv.’

‘I’d like to interview Serena tomorrow, depending on how the interview with Mr Anderson goes. If he confesses and the case is closed, then we can all go home and have a good night’s sleep. But for now, I hope you’ll all help in getting through the huge mound of work and leads that have come in. I know you’ve put in a long couple of days, and I know you’re hot and tired, but I fear for Mrs Anderson. She’s out there. She’s hurt and time is against us. O’Connor, could you please catch up with the tech team? See if anyone has come across Billie on any of the websites that we know offer escort services online. Not having any of her tech is making this case harder than it needs to be. Also, have them sifting through Nadia’s social media.’

‘I know they’ve been looking at the escort websites, guv, but they haven’t come across Billie yet. There are so many profiles to go through. No one uses their real names so they’re having to look at the photos.’

Gina swallowed and checked her watch. Her throat was bone dry. ‘When I get home tonight, I’ll keep looking, also. Can we check to see if Anderson’s solicitor has arrived?’ Wherever Nadia Anderson was, she needed them to do everything they could to help her before it was too late.

---