Page 65 of Her Deadly Promise

‘Have you ever met Serena Reeves?’

Gavin scrunched his brows. ‘No and I don’t want to, not after she scared Candice.’

‘Where were you on the evening of Tuesday at around eleven thirty?’

He scrunched his brows. ‘I was here, in bed.’

Candice wiped her eyes. That was the night before Billie was murdered. Why were they asking Gavin that question? He was in his office, that’s what she thought.

‘Mrs Brent. Can you confirm that?’

Candice nodded. ‘Yes, we were definitely in bed, together. I was reading and Gavin was half asleep. Poppy had been a bit fussy that night, so we hadn’t been in bed long. She sometimes struggles to get to sleep. It’s one long round of reading stories, waiting for her to nod off and sneaking out of her room.’ Had she offered up too much information? They wouldn’t question Poppy, would they? No, they couldn’t. Not without her say so and there was no way she would allow them to ask Poppy anything. She was only five. Candice tapped her feet on the floor. She stopped it, immediately.

That deafening silence – again. Candice felt her fingers entwining under the table with Gavin’s, then he gripped her hard. A piercing ringtone made her flinch.

‘Sorry, I have to take this.’ The DI stood and walked to the front door where she left and took the call. Breath held; Candice waited until Harte returned, while the male detective remained seated in his chair. DI Harte burst back in. ‘We have to go. Please stay close by, we may need to speak to you again later.’ She exhaled before she went red.

Within moments, the two detectives were standing by their car on the roadside, hand gestures galore as they spoke. Candice pushed the window open and listened as best she could. She heard the words Nadia and body. They had found Nadia. Stomach churning, she fought the urge to run to the bathroom and allow the panic inside to overwhelm her. Breathe in and out. She had to stay on top of this.

She almost jumped as Gavin came from nowhere and placed a hand on her shoulder. ‘Now we need to talk.’ She didn’t want to talk; she wanted all this to be over. He reached her face with his finger and moved a curl behind her ear. He led her to the office and slammed the door. She couldn’t control the shaking of her legs or the quivering in her voice.

‘We weren’t in bed together on the Tuesday night.’

He grabbed the gift box and held it between them. ‘You want the truth, about this and about where I was?’

She nodded. She deserved every bit of the truth, and she was going to get it, but at what cost?

FIFTY

Gina got into the car as Jacob turned the key in the engine. ‘Nadia is alive. She’s sedated and will be having surgery soon. It’s touch and go as to whether she’ll survive, given the amount of blood she’s lost. They’re working on her as we speak, and Wyre and O’Connor have abandoned everything else to head over to the scene where they’ll meet with Bernard.’

‘Shall we head there, guv?’

‘No, we’ll continue to the leisure centre. The best thing we can do right now is to keep looking for evidence and hope that Nadia wakes up soon. We won’t get any immediate information from forensics.’ She continued to relay what she’d been told. ‘The perpetrator wrote the word “Bitch” on her head and that’s consistent with what was written on her garage wall.’ Gina shook her head. ‘She was left to die at the edge of the woods. One stab wound – just like Billie’s. She was literally dumped close to the road. Tyre flattened grass shows that a car must have backed up to the bushes. Problem is that the ambulance also parked there too when it arrived.’ She paused as her phone rang again. ‘O’Connor? Please tell me you have something we can work with.’

The man blurted out everything at speed, to the point Gina couldn’t make out what he was saying. ‘Slow down.’ She ended the call when he’d finally finished.

‘What did he say?’ Jacob indicated and took a corner.

‘We have two witnesses who heard some commotion going on where Nadia was found. A car engine was running outside the witness’s cottage at around three in the morning. This was followed by a few thumping sounds. She didn’t look out of the window, but she is certain about the time and what she heard. Her daughter was staying too, and she heard it also and has confirmed the time. You know what that means?’

Jacob nodded as he went over a speed bump. ‘Edward Anderson didn’t take his wife and leave her at the edge of the woods.’

‘Yep. We still have a bloody knife but who knows what that will show us. I wish everything worked faster.’ Gina pressed her lips together as Jacob pulled into the leisure centre. She was sticking with her plan. Leisure centre; then speak to Serena.

They still had Anderson. Everything pointed at the man, but they had him in custody at the time one of the crimes was committed. He was guilty of something, but he wasn’t guilty of leaving his wife to die in the woods. She hadn’t forgotten that he’d lied about being in a hot tub shop. They also still had the photo of what could be Nadia’s bruised ribs. Jacob pulled into a space at the back of the leisure centre.

She let her mind whirr over the facts before speaking. ‘When Billie was killed, her death happened almost instantly. With Nadia, the killer missed the mark. They didn’t leave a trace of themselves at the scenes which means, to a certain degree, they’re forensically aware, but who isn’t these days? You only have to watch a few true-life crime programmes and you know it all. They failed the second time. Are there two perpetrators or is one person winging it and hoping for the best? We need a press release, and everyone needs to know that we have found Nadia Anderson and that she’s alive. With that, we need an officer to guard her room. I’ll call Briggs so we can get this out to the press. If the killer knows that they’ve slipped up, they’re going to panic. Nadia would have seen or heard them. She might know who they are, and she will tell all. It’s time to flush the killer out.’

FIFTY-ONE

‘I’ll just get the manager,’ said the girl who was manning the leisure centre reception. Gina leaned on the counter as Jacob checked his messages.

‘Is Jennifer on site today?’ Gina asked.

He nodded. ‘Yes, I was just checking to see how she was. She turned down desk work and managed to wangle being at the scene.’

‘Good for her.’ Gina was genuinely pleased that Jennifer was making such a good recovery.

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