Her Last Mistake - Detective Gina Harte Series 06 (2020)

by Kovach, Carla

  ‘It’s okay. You’re really helping us. I know this is hard.’

  A tear slid down her cheek. ‘I pushed the door open. There was blood smeared on the drawers next to the door and I thought she’d hurt herself. I saw she was in bed so I called her name. She didn’t answer. Then I thought she was asleep but I had to check that she was okay. I went over and shook her but still she didn’t answer.’ Francesca paused and swallowed. ‘I turned the lamp on and saw blood smeared all over her face, and her eyes, they were glassy and staring at me but she wasn’t moving. I ran out to the corridor and screamed for help. No one was around. I somehow managed to reach reception and told them what had happened. I felt really sick again but I passed out. I can’t remember much after that, until the ambulance got here.’

  Francesca tried to stand but fell back onto her bottom. ‘Someone killed Holly. I don’t want to be here. I just want to go home.’ The woman folded her arms and bowed her head.

  ‘I know you don’t and I’m so sorry you’ve been through this tonight. Did you see anyone else in the corridor or around by the stairs?’

  ‘I don’t think so. It was just me.’

  ‘Did you touch anything else apart from the lamp?’

  ‘I can’t remember. I think I touched some of the furniture.’

  Gina glanced at Francesca’s hands. Not a speck of blood on them, but her hands were a little make-up smeared. ‘Francesca? Would you mind if we took some swabs and fingerprints from you for elimination purposes? We also need your dress and shoes. I’m sorry to have to ask you for these but you went into Holly’s room. We need to catch whoever did this to her.’

  She turned to face Gina.

  For a second Gina thought she might object. She had to consider that at the moment they had no suspects and Francesca Carter was the first person to arrive at the scene. She hadn’t seen anyone else on the way there or back.

  ‘’Course.’

  ‘Do you know anyone who would want to hurt Holly?’

  ‘No, she was our friend and she never said she had any problems with anyone. She would have said something. We were all close.’

  ‘We?’

  Francesca wiped her watery eyes. ‘Me, Holly, Kerry and Lilly. We’ve been friends since school. The Awesome Foursome.’ She let out a teary smile.

  ‘Was she seeing anyone?’

  ‘She never said but she hadn’t been spending much time with us lately.’

  ‘Did anything happen tonight that seemed out of the ordinary?’

  She shrugged. ‘No, only that a bit of trouble broke out. Some gatecrashers had got in and were helping themselves to the free bar. Holly wasn’t a part of that. I think I saw her outside. I went outside as I felt nauseous. She was talking to someone but I didn’t see who it was.’ Her brow furrowed.

  ‘Could you tell me anything at all about that person?’

  ‘It was a man. He was wearing trousers and a shirt.’

  ‘Did you catch his hair colour? Colour of his suit or shirt? Height or build?’

  ‘No. I felt really sick. My mind was elsewhere. Charlie, my other half, was a bit fed up with me as I’d been doing shots so I had that on my mind. As I said, I ran out to throw up and the man Holly was talking to faded into the shadows. I only wish now I’d properly looked. Do you think he could have been Holly’s murderer?’

  ‘We don’t know all that has happened as yet. Forensics are still in the room at the moment. You’ve been really helpful but we’ll still need a formal statement off you. PC Kapoor will come back in and talk to you about that.’

  She nodded. Gina waved at Keith from the crime scene crew. He hurried over. ‘Would you be able to take swabs from our witness while I catch up with Bernard? She went into the victim’s room. Take PC Kapoor with you too.’

  ‘Will do.’

  ‘I’ll leave you in the capable hands of the paramedics and our forensics expert, Keith. If you remember anything else, please call me.’ She handed Francesca a card as Keith and the ambulance crew took over.

  Briggs plodded out of the main entrance and headed over to Gina. ‘Anything?’

  ‘From what her friend and fellow bridesmaid, Francesca, says, Holly was seen talking to a man outside on the terrace, the one that opens out from the function room. We need to secure all CCTV. What kind of monster would do this to her?’

  ‘Hopefully, we’ll find out soon.’

  Gina’s gaze met his for a moment more than was comfortable. She almost hated Detective Sergeant Jacob Driscoll for being stuck in an airport when she needed him on a case. ‘I best head back in to speak to the other bridesmaid, Lilly Hill. See what she has to say that’s so important.’

  She glanced at Francesca one last time as Keith took swabs and the paramedics reassured the woman. Could Francesca be their murderer? Francesca caught her eye then looked away quickly. Gina stared in her direction a moment longer but the woman didn’t turn around for another look.

  Chapter Seven

  Gina half jogged back into the manor house. Huddles of people were dotted all over the main ballroom. At the beginning of the night, Gina imagined the room would have looked like every bride’s dream, but now a thick pale green ribbon lay tangled on the dance floor. Vases of carnations had been spilled over the cream tablecloths and food had squashed into most of the carpeted floor. Balloons bobbed along the high ceiling and the cake had been smashed against the window.

  The hoppy smell from the pop-up bar filled the air, that and onions. Gina swallowed as she made her way towards the woman in green. The man sitting beside her clutched his arm around her shoulder and placed his other hand on her knee. Gina slowed down her pace through the chaos as she observed the bridesmaid’s partner sharing a short sharp stare across the room with Samuel Avery. Causing trouble again, that’s what Gina thought. Samuel Avery was always trying to insert himself into the middle of someone’s marriage and Gina didn’t believe the man was capable of change.

  ‘I’m Detective Inspector Gina Harte, Senior Investigating Officer. You wanted to speak to me?’

  The woman blew her nose into a napkin and nodded. Gina recognised her to be the woman who she’d seen with Samuel Avery earlier. She shuddered as she remembered his searching hand on the top of her bottom. The same woman had also come upstairs while Gina was speaking to Bernard. Had she come to speak then about whatever it was she knew?

  ‘Can you give us a minute?’ Gina spotted the wedding ring on Lilly Hill’s hand. The man nodded, kissing her on the forehead as he left.

  She nodded and shivered. Gina eased the cardigan out of the woman’s clutches and draped it over her shoulders. ‘Yes. I don’t know if what I’ve got to say will help but I’ve been friends with Holly for years and I notice things, changes. When this happened, I couldn’t help but wonder…’ She dropped her hands and looked up. ‘I’ve given a statement. Maybe I’ve got this all wrong. It’s just—’

  ‘It’s okay.’ Gina placed a hand on the weeping woman’s shoulder. ‘May I call you Lilly?’

  ‘Yes,’ she said with a squeak as she choked on a tear and took a deep breath.

  ‘What you have to say may be something, it may be nothing, but we won’t know that until you tell me? Would it be easier to start at the beginning?’ Lilly looked to be of a similar age to Hannah, maybe slightly older.

  She wiped her hand on her dress. ‘I’ve been trying to get together for a drink with Holly for weeks but she keeps making excuses and it isn’t like her… wasn’t like her.’ Lilly paused. ‘I can’t believe she’s not here any more. We’ve been friends since junior school. Anyway, I’d been worried about her.’

  ‘Why were you worried?’

  ‘I normally call her before I visit but she hadn’t been answering her phone so I thought I’d surprise her. This was weeks ago and I can’t remember exactly when. Holly had been depressed in the past, shut herself off from the world and, knowing her the way I do, I know the only thing that’s helped is her friends, that’s me, Kerry and Francesca. We’v
e always been there for her, checking on her during bad times, encouraging her to get help.’

  ‘You thought she may have been depressed?’

  Lilly placed her arm on the table, dropping the napkin onto a half-eaten burger. ‘Yes, and normally she’d open the door when she was like that but this time, or should I say the past few times I’ve knocked, I sensed she was in her apartment but not opening up. One time, I’m sure I heard another voice coming from behind the door, just a murmur. I even looked through the letterbox. She has a mirror in the hallway and I caught a reflection in it, just a slither of a blue shirt with some sort of print on it. I knocked and knocked but she wouldn’t open up. It was just bizarre as we’ve never kept secrets. When I finally managed to catch up with her at the dress fitting before we departed for the wedding in Greece, she denied everything, said I must have been imagining that she was in when I called over. I know what I saw.’ She paused. ‘She didn’t seem depressed, not like before. In the past when she’d been going through a rough patch she hadn’t eaten and her clothes would look too loose but this time she looked to be a healthy weight, her skin looked good and she looked happy. I think she was hiding someone from us. I told Brendan, my husband, and he said she wouldn’t do that. I know her better than him though.’

  Gina flipped to a clean page in her pad and began to take notes. ‘You saw someone in her apartment, wearing a blue shirt?’

  ‘Yes, she was definitely hiding someone from us. I mentioned it to Kerry and Francesca but they didn’t know anything either. I know she was seeing someone and something wasn’t right. All day, she’d seemed off. We came earlier and helped to decorate the room for the party and have our hair and make-up done. When I spoke to her, it was as if she hadn’t heard me talking. Her mind was on something else, that’s for sure.’

  ‘Yesterday?’

  Lilly nodded. ‘Yes, we got here about two in the afternoon. The venue had already set the tables up. We just had to receive the flowers and add the final touches.’

  ‘Can you talk me through everything that happened from before the wedding to now?’ Gina knew it was a lot to ask given the environment they were in and the fact that Lilly had started to yawn but she needed as much as she could possibly garner to work with when she got back to the station.

  ‘The Friday before last.’

  ‘Friday the first of May?’

  ‘Yes,’ Lilly replied. ‘That’s when Brendan and I flew to Crete for the wedding. Kerry and Ed were already there as were some of the wedding party. I couldn’t get much holiday and neither could Francesca and Charlie, so we all flew out together on the Friday, ready for the wedding on Saturday. Anyway, the wedding went without a hitch. It was a small gathering, just family and a few close friends. Holly was there too. She’d been there for the whole week. She seemed fine at the wedding, happy even. I tried to talk to her about when I visited her apartment. I said it didn’t matter if she was seeing someone but she wouldn’t say anything. I kept pushing and eventually, on the night of the wedding, she got fed up with me going on and she walked away from me, mid-conversation, and went to bed. She was in the room next to me and I heard her sobbing and telling someone to call her back. It was as clear as anything as we both had our balcony doors open. I don’t think she realised I could hear and I stood there in the dark, hoping that the person she left the message for would call her back. They never did and I was turning into mosquito food so after waiting for the best part of an hour, I gave up and went to bed.’

  ‘Were you on your own?’

  ‘Yes, I was tired. I think Brendan and everyone else was still at the bar. I could hear them all from the balcony even though I couldn’t see them.’

  ‘This is all really helpful, Lilly.’ A lover, that’s who Gina needed to find. The person in the blue shirt.

  ‘The wedding was on the Saturday and we all flew back on the Sunday, that’s Sunday the third of May. Before we knew it, the reception was upon us. I tried to call Holly several times when we all got back but she wouldn’t answer. She was definitely avoiding me. I should have done more. I should have gone over to her apartment again and got it out of her.’

  Gina made a note in her book.

  Who was Holly seeing?

  ‘Is there anything else you’d like to tell me?’

  Lilly shrugged her shoulders. ‘I woke up later that night, back in Crete and I was hot so I opened my balcony door a little and I heard something. It was about four in the morning, I guess. I heard Holly down by the pool pleading with someone. She was saying something like, I can’t keep this to myself any longer. She may have been talking to someone who was there or on the phone. I have no idea. In the background, I could still hear some of the party at the bar too, no one specific, just a hum of voices. Holly must have gone back down after I’d fallen asleep.’

  ‘Did you hear or see who she was talking to?’

  She shook her head and a tear slithered down her cheek, plopping onto the table. ‘Not even a shadow. I wish I did. I should have gone down and checked to see if she was okay. I was so fed up with her for hiding things from me and not opening the door when I went over, I turned my back on her. I could have done more—’

  Gina had seen it all before. People argued and fell out all the time in everyday life and if the worst happened, they were quick to absorb all the blame.

  The young man hurried back over and took Lilly’s hand, helping her up. ‘I think my wife has had enough for tonight.’

  ‘I could have saved her,’ Lilly yelled.

  ‘Come on. We need to get you home. I’ve called us a taxi, we can come back for our things tomorrow when we’re allowed in our room.’

  ‘Could I just take your name?’

  ‘Brendan Hill. You have our full names, address, and phone numbers. We’re both tired and it’s been a long day. We need time to grieve now. Come on, babe.’

  ‘Thanks, Lilly. Here’s my card. If either of you remember anything else, please call me.’

  They’d been interviewed and all their details logged, so she couldn’t keep them any longer. In fact, the whole room had thinned out since she’d started talking to Lilly. The DJ had left, the staff had started sweeping the food off the dance floor and Samuel Avery was packing the bar away with the help of his staff.

  ‘Mr Avery.’

  ‘DI Harte. I hoped we’d never meet again but chance has brought us together. I’m packing up and going and you aren’t going to hold me up. I saw nothing, I know nothing and I’m nothing to do with anything.’ He poured himself half a beer and swigged it back. ‘That was good.’

  The slight tremor in his hand told her he knew more than he was letting on or he had been gasping for a drink. His shirt hung over his middle and his skinny dark jeans reached a pair of brown shoes that had been splattered with beer. His dyed mousy hair was stuck to his forehead, telling of a hot sticky night of hard work.

  ‘Elvis, grab this will you?’ He shoved a box into the younger man’s hand and a woman came along and helped.

  Gina had met Elvis before, known to punters of the Angel Arms as the king himself because of his almost identical voice to the rock and roll legend. He went down well on karaoke night, so Gina had heard. She wracked her brains for his real name, Robin something. She’d find out later from all the statements.

  Elvis nudged a glass off the bar, its fragments spreading far and wide with a crash. ‘Dammit. Cass, get me a dustpan and brush.’ He neatened his brown quiff before picking up the larger pieces of glass.

  A thickset freckly woman pushed her curly brown hair behind her ears and sighed as she went away to get what he’d asked for, her leggings so stretched Gina could see her light coloured pants underneath.

  ‘DI Harte, are you just going to stand around and hold me up all night or have you got something to say?’ Samuel’s thin lips upturned, deepening the smile lines around his eyes. It wasn’t a genuine smile. Samuel didn’t know the meaning of genuine. He said and did what he needed to do in order to get s
ex.

  ‘I saw you with Lilly Hill earlier tonight, when I first arrived.’

  He let out a laugh that sounded like a huff. ‘So, what can I say? She’s a bit of top totty. Thought if I showed her a bit of sympathy, she might be up for a quickie in the bushes after the coast was clear.’

  ‘You haven’t changed a bit.’

  He poured himself another half. ‘And what of it? Being hopeful of a shag isn’t a crime.’

  She refrained from rolling her eyes. ‘Tell me about the gatecrashers?’

  ‘I don’t know anything about any gatecrashers.’

  ‘Did you recognise any of them?’

  ‘I’ll tell you something, Inspector. I recognised near enough everyone in here. I’m from Cleevesford. I run a pub in Cleevesford. Everyone in here has crossed my path at some point. I have given every bit of information I have to one of your officers, the screechy-voiced bird who almost deafened me as she spoke.’

  ‘Please don’t refer to our officers as birds, it’s disrespectful.’ Gina knew he meant PC Kapoor.

  ‘Whatever. It was her, little miss screechy.’ He pointed across the room to Kapoor.

  ‘Have you been here all night? In this room?’

  He pointed at Gina and grinned. ‘Trying to pin things on me again? I’d say this is harassment.’

  She clenched her hands together. He had become embroiled in a few of their cases in the past and she’d never really had anything on him. ‘I just need to know if you left the room.’

  ‘Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t. Screechy has my statement and that’s all you’re getting. Are we off, Elvis?’

  ‘All done, boss. I’m going to wait with Cass in the van. Need to get out of this place.’

  ‘You heard what he said. We need to get out of this place.’ He swigged the last of his beer, grabbed a box of glasses and followed Elvis out.

  Gina slammed her fist onto the empty bar, then noticed the bride being comforted by her new husband and parents.