He shook his head and looked up with glassy blue eyes. ‘It wasn’t that. She wasn’t telling me something. I should have been there more but I just wanted to go back to work. I couldn’t be around all this grief and misery. It’s just not me and not many people understand that. I’m not a tea and sympathy kind of guy.’
His defined jaw and stubble made him look quite ruggedly handsome but his hair really smartened him up. The classic cut gave his dark hair a precise side-parted line. He was older than Francesca by about ten years, Gina could tell that much. She also knew what secret Francesca was holding onto, that of the sexual assault she’d reported, but now wasn’t the right time to upset her bereaved husband even more.
He slammed his fist onto the glass table, making all the fixings underneath shake. ‘I should have been here. I shouldn’t have gone to work. What kind of husband leaves his wife and goes off to work after something so horrible has happened? She must have died hating me.’ He swigged his drink down in one.
‘Would you like us to contact her parents?’
‘I’ve already called her father. Her mother died a few years ago. He should be here in a couple of hours. He’s absolutely devastated, as am I.’
Gina pulled out her pocket notebook. ‘I’m so sorry this has happened but we need to catch the person who did this to Francesca and we need your help. Would you be able to answer a few questions?’
A recurring twitch on his cheek caught her eye. She knew he was grinding his teeth behind his closed mouth.
‘Yes, of course I will. If you find out who did this, I’ll kill him myself.’ He snatched the bottle and poured another drink.
‘Can you please tell me where you were today?’
‘Am I a suspect?’ He tilted his head to the side and scratched his stubble.
‘These questions are just routine.’
He exhaled slowly and leaned back in his chair. ‘I was at the office from nine in the morning. Then I was at court between ten and twelve. Back at the office about twelve thirty as that’s how long it takes me to get from the courts to my office. I left the office about five and came home. Fran wasn’t in. I left her a note in the kitchen.’ Gina remembered what Bernard had said about a note being found in the bath.
‘What did you write?’
His brow furrowed. ‘I can’t remember the exact wording. I just said I was at my mother’s fixing a curtain pole and I told her to come over so that we could all get a takeaway but she didn’t want to come.’
‘What is it you do for a living?’
‘I’m a solicitor. I practise family law, that’s why I was at court this morning and it’s also why I didn’t want any time off. My client was going through a difficult time with not having any contact with her child.’
‘Can you think of anyone who would want to harm Francesca? Any known enemies?’
He leaned forward and placed his head in his hands. ‘I don’t know why anyone would want to hurt her. She was such a sweet person. I can’t imagine my life without her even though we have our petty squabbles. I don’t know what I’m going to do.’
Gina made a few notes. He’d admitted to squabbling with his wife. She needed to know a little more. ‘What did you argue about?’
His hands dropped back to the table with a thud. ‘I didn’t hurt her. I was at my mother’s. I came back and found my wife in the bath, dead. Why is this relevant?’
For a moment, their gazes met, neither wanting to say the next word. Gina gave him a moment. Sometimes silence acted as a prompt.
‘If you must know, we argued about money, that’s all. I earn a substantial sum but Fran, I love her to bits—’ A moment of realisation hit him as he closed his eyes, trying to force away a potential tear. ‘I will always love her, you understand.’
Gina nodded. She had a dead ex-husband and if the hatred she still felt towards him was as strong as Charlie’s love, then yes, she understood.
‘She liked to spend. I could see our bank balance going down all the time. She had no idea how to budget. The clothes, the holidays, it was as if she was constantly trying to keep up with her friends who all seem to be more well off. I’m from working-class stock. My mother had to budget for everything so I suppose the reckless spending worried me. Anyway, I didn’t mind for the first couple of years. When she agreed to go out with me, I felt like the luckiest person in the world. She was funny, beautiful and she made me feel like I was her everything. I’d just come out of a bad relationship myself and I’d hit an all-time low. Drinking, being late for work; I’d lost weight. She saved me. I don’t know what I’m going to do without her. If she was here now, I’d tell her to spend everything. It wouldn’t matter. It’s just money.’ He leaned back and stared up at the ceiling. ‘I can’t do this now. I need time to let this sink in.’ He got up and moved over to the worktop.
‘Thank you, Mr Carter. I promise you we’ll be doing everything to catch whoever did this to your wife. Just to warn you, we will be putting out an appeal on the news. We need witnesses to come forward.’
‘Do it. Do whatever you can. Just catch who did this.’ He began to breathe through his teeth and stood against the worktop as he seethed. He crouched over the sink and let out a roar.
All Gina could see in Charlie Carter was a broken man. Footsteps echoed through the hallway and Jacob peered through the door. ‘Guv, can I have a word?’
She nodded as she removed a card from the small pile she kept in her pocket. ‘Mr Carter, we will need you to make a formal statement as soon as you can. If, in the meantime, you remember anything, however trivial you think it might be, please call me straight away.’
He took the card and stared out of the kitchen window at the garden. Gina glanced out at the back gate. A crime scene assistant was swabbing the catch. ‘Do you keep your gate locked?’
‘We tried to remember to lock it but we never did. This is a safe neighbourhood. We’ve never worried about these things.’ He held his hand out and looked away as if to say that was all she was getting out of him that night. Gina sensed she needed to leave him alone.
