Page 79 of Her Deadly Promise

‘That knife was yours, wasn’t it?’ Gina had no proof of that, but Candice was crumbling.

She yelled out a piercing scream. ‘Yes. I’m sorry. The night before, Gavin wasn’t in. I know I said he was. I kept calling him. I read his messages and I knew he was visiting her. It hurt like nothing I’ve ever experienced. I made him my everything and that’s how he repaid me, paying that filthy slut for sex.’ The solicitor whispered in her ear, but she dismissed him. He shrugged and leaned back.

‘By her, you mean Billie Reeves. Is that correct?’

She nodded.

‘For the tape, Mrs Brent has just nodded in agreement.’

‘He even told Poppy a bedtime story over the phone because she wouldn’t go to sleep without him, and he told me he loved me.’ She balled her fists.

Gina couldn’t help but feel sickened by how calculated Candice Brent’s crimes were. She’d hampered their case by mentioning a knife that she heard Nadia and Edward Anderson talking about, knowing that it would be linked to the case as she knew exactly how Billie had been murdered. She’d also quite happily implicated Serena Reeves. Then, she’d tried to blame her husband. Gina could see where Candice’s reaction had come from with Billie but not Nadia. ‘Nadia Anderson, your other friend. You took her spare house key; you used it to go into her house and rearrange things to unnerve her. Is that correct?’ Clenching everything, Gina hoped Candice would cooperate at this point. She had no proof of this but from what Nadia had said, it looked likely.

‘Yes,’ she said, hands covering her sobbing face. ‘I only wanted to scare her to begin with.’

‘What changed?’

‘A conversation.’

‘Okay, go on.’

Mrs Brent took a tissue and blew her nose. ‘I couldn’t get what I’d heard out of my head. We knew what Billie was doing but Nadia had to go on and on about it to the other parents at the school gates. She said that she only told me and Meera, but she lied. She tells everyone everything.’

‘Were you worried that she was going to gossip about you?’

A fresh stream of tears began to spring from Candice’s eyes. ‘I saw her looking upset and she was sitting with someone on a bench, one of those circular benches around the trees at the school. I had a while to wait for Poppy, so I sat the other side. All I caught was Nadia getting emotional as she said that people had to watch their husbands. That Billie had crossed a line and her secret money earner was going to ruin friendships. I heard the other mother probing her, asking for more information but Nadia said she didn’t want to say anything at that moment, but she supposed that everyone would find out soon. It was only a matter of time. She was waiting for the right moment to bring my family down. I knew she meant Gavin and I couldn’t let that happen. It was her big mouth that started all this. If she hadn’t told me Billie’s secret and I hadn’t told Gavin, this would never have happened. We all caved like a falling card tower.’

Gina knew that when Nadia had said all this she was thinking that her husband was having an affair with Billie. She wouldn’t have known it was Meera and she was obviously toying with what to say and who to tell or confide in.

‘Nadia’s known as a gossip, and I knew she wouldn’t be able to keep her mouth shut about Gavin. I don’t know how she knew.’

‘So, you sent her the messages?’ Gina had seen the messages in Candice’s outbox. The woman hadn’t even deleted them.

‘Yes.’ Her bottom lip trembled.

‘And you stalked her?’

‘It all just went too far.’

‘Then you saw her come home that day. You went in through her utility room door, knowing that she left her gate open, and you hit her with the rounders bat we found at your industrial unit?’

‘I didn’t know what else to do,’ she replied as she bawled.

‘Forensics have been through your car. You went to her house, ready with plastic sheeting in the boot, which shows that you intended to take her. Why didn’t you kill her there and then, like you did with Billie?’

‘Because I didn’t know what to do with her. Billie took my husband and ruined my life. Nadia knew and she would have told everyone.’

‘Nadia didn’t know. She thought it was her own husband who was sleeping with Billie.’

‘What?’ The realisation hit Candice and Gina could see the shock in her face.

‘When she was mumbling on about not knowing, I didn’t believe her. I still don’t. She’s making it up.’

‘Why would she do that?’

‘To make me look bad.’ She brought her bottom lip over her top lip and leaned back.

Gina sighed. ‘To make you look bad.’ She pressed her lips together. The poor solicitor looked like he’d given up. ‘What did you do with Nadia once you had her in your car?’

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