Page 63 of Her Deadly Promise

‘Gavin, when I went to the shops earlier, I saw Serena, Billie’s sister. She told me something and I had to call the police so they’re coming over. Can you please take Poppy to your mum’s? She’s seen enough. I don’t want her here when they arrive. Please ask her if Poppy can stay the night. Tell her we have an emergency but don’t tell her about Nadia. I don’t want her calling every five minutes and fussing.’

‘Okay.’ He stopped wiping crumbs off the worktop and threw the dishcloth into a bowl of soapy water. ‘Yes, I think that’s for the best. You’ve been home half an hour. Why have you only just told me?’

‘I, err, I don’t know. I thought I’d just report what I knew and that would be it. I didn’t think they’d want to come here.’

‘And what do you know?’ He stepped closer to her. She felt his breath on her shoulder and a few goosebumps formed. There was something overbearing about him and his hefty presence.

‘Serena wasn’t at university on the day Billie was murdered. She’s moved back and not told anyone. She was going on about this big argument she had with Billie. She walked in on Billie having sex with her boyfriend and yesterday, it sounds like she was the last person to see Nadia alive. I couldn’t hold it back. I had to tell the police.’ She stared into space.

‘Is there something else?’

‘Only that Serena was at Kayden’s birthday party, back in May.’

‘I don’t remember Billie saying that her sister was there.’

‘I saw her peering over the fence, watching Billie. She’s weird.’

‘And you went to meet her on your own? Come here.’ He pulled her close as he comforted her. She tried to feel a spark for him, anything, but there was nothing at all. As he stroked her back, she wished he’d just stop. That’s what happens when the trust has gone. She’d been silently smug when she’d heard about Nadia’s marriage troubles, never thinking she could be going through the same at any time. ‘Just tell them what you know, and everything will be okay. It sounds like Serena has a lot of explaining to do.’ He pulled away and kissed her before calling Poppy. ‘I see you’re wearing the hair clip.’ He ran his fingers along her head until they stopped on the hair clip. ‘It suits you.’ Turning to the stairs, he hurried up, calling for Poppy to put a few things in a bag. She listened as her little girl happily ran back and forth upstairs, eager to get to her grandmother’s house.

Several minutes later, the front door slammed, and Gavin’s car pulled away. She hurried to the window and waved at Poppy. His office – she had very little time and she needed to get into it. Hurrying through to the utility, she took the door to the extension at the front of the house and she almost gasped. Gavin had left his office door open. She ran straight to his computer. It was turned off. She turned it on and waited for the login to appear and when it did, she typed his password in. It was wrong. She tried another, followed by Poppy’s date of birth, his mother’s maiden name. All of them – rejected. In a fit of rage, she hit the keys. It took ten minutes to drive to Gavin’s mum’s house, so she’d already lost five, maybe more. He didn’t often stop for a drink or chat so he could be back before she knew it. She rooted through the desk drawers, which were full of stationery he’d never used.

She felt underneath his desk, what for? She had no idea. What she really wanted was to look at his computer again. She’d seen the website he’d been using, and his history had led her to the Hi There Horny website. He must have known that she’d been snooping, otherwise why would he have changed his password? What she really wanted was something concrete to confront him with, but that was proving difficult.

She almost slipped in her ballet pumps as she ran over to the sideboard, again it was full of junk. As she rooted through the top drawer, all she came across was work-related paperwork, mouse mats, old bits of tech. That’s when she spotted the mauve coloured box that was wedged against the wall, down the side of the cabinet. She crouched and reached through the cobwebs until her fingers felt the box. Whacking it, she moved as it flew past her feet. She grabbed it and stood. She’d never seen this box before.

Gently, she lifted the lid and noticed that whatever had been sitting on the pillow was no longer there. The slight ingress in the material and the shape of the box led her to believe it was something long and thin. It didn’t have the grooves for a necklace or earrings. She slipped the hair clip from her hair and placed it in the box. It was a perfect fit.

As the car door slammed, she dropped it and a card fell out onto the floor. She grabbed the clip and slid it back in her hair. Heart banging, she knew she needed to get out. Snatching the card, she almost fell into the wall as she read it. She thrust the message into her bra before placing the lid on the box and throwing it back into the corner.

His key was in the door. Just as she skidded out of his office, she noticed the dead flies leading to the box, all disturbed when she plunged her hand into the cobweb. She fought with the sticky spider twine on her wrist as she closed his office door and hurried out. ‘How was Poppy when you dropped her off?’

He popped his keys on the table and took a moment to stare at her. ‘Is everything okay?’

He took a couple of steps closer, and she felt like she needed to run.

Slowly, his hand reached her head, and he adjusted the hair clip. ‘There.’

She forced a smile, hoping that the jitter running through her body wouldn’t reveal itself. ‘I’m going to clean the dog grooming parlour. It’s getting into a bit of a mess.’ That was the truth.

‘I thought it was already clean.’

‘I saved a few jobs for today.’

‘Oh, I signed the lease on the new place. You’ll soon have a proper parlour and a shop. We must celebrate.’

The last thing she felt like doing was breaking out the champagne with all that was happening. ‘Okay, that sounds good.’

‘Right, I’ll make you a drink and bring it in.’

‘I’ve just had one.’ She needed to be alone with her thoughts until the police came.

He scrutinised her further before reaching down to her arm and pulling a clump of spider web from her. ‘I thought the police were coming.’

‘They are.’

‘So, finish cleaning it later. I’ll put the kettle on. They’ll no doubt want a drink.’ He paused and furrowed his brows. ‘You look like you’ve seen a ghost.’

‘It’s Nadia and Billie – what happened to them. I’m scared.’ That was a lie. She was mostly scared of what would happen next.

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