She nodded and fanned a hand in front of her eyes as she forced back her tears. ‘I haven’t stopped thinking about what happened all night. The police knocked a couple of times, telling us that they’d drive-by our house now and again. Am I in any danger?’
‘We hope not but just to make sure, I’d like the drive-bys to continue.’
The young woman stretched her long jumper over her knees as she leaned forward in the huge chair. ‘I don’t know if I’m being paranoid but I keep thinking someone is watching me. I’m the only other living bridesmaid from Kerry’s wedding and I keep thinking I’m going to be next and the worst of it is, I keep mulling over everything. It has to be someone we all know and for the life of me, I can’t work out who would want to kill Holly and Fran. They were both such lovely people and I’m going to miss them terribly.’ She wiped her eyes on her sleeve. ‘Brendan had to go to work today but I wanted him to stay here with me. We’re not like Kerry and Fran. We can’t afford for him to miss a day and his manager hasn’t been so sympathetic.’
‘Where does he work?’
‘He’s an estate agent working for a company in Evesham. My maternity leave will be up soon and I’ll be back at work too.’
‘What is it you do?’ Gina tried to put the woman at ease with some simple questions, while Jacob scribbled a few notes down.
‘I’m a nurse. I’ll miss him when I’m back at work, won’t I, poppet?’
The boy looked up, giving his mother a big smile before falling into her arms.
‘We already have your statement with what happened to Holly and we thank you for being so thorough. I need to ask you a few questions about Francesca. Would that be okay?’
‘Of course. I just want this person caught. I want to feel safe again. I want my friends to be laid to rest so that we can all mourn properly.’
‘Had you heard from Francesca since the wedding reception?’ Gina moved a small toy from under her bottom and shuffled back a little into the soft settee. She almost placed her hand on a patch of dried up milk on the arm of the settee.
‘We’d spoken on the phone. She’d been fed up that she had to go back to work after what had happened and I suppose she just called to vent about that. We spoke about Holly and how much we’d miss her. We didn’t meet up in person after the reception, but then again, we didn’t meet up too often anyway. Occasionally, we would all meet up for a wine and nibbles night at Kerry’s house or somewhere local, but that was it.’
‘We found a receipt for Piccolo’s restaurant dated Saturday the eleventh of April amongst Francesca’s belongings and her husband Charlie Carter didn’t go there with her. Was Francesca seeing anyone that you know of?’
Lilly smiled and let out a nervous laugh. ‘No, definitely not. Let me check my diary. Bear with me.’ She leaned over and pulled out her phone and scrolled. ‘That’s one of the things having a child is good for, you always know where you were and when. Kerry, Holly, Fran and I were at Piccolo’s. We go out every couple of months for a few snacks and drinks, normally on a Saturday lunchtime. We shared a couple of platters, if I remember rightly.’ She paused and opened her mouth as she thought. ‘Oh, I know Charlie wouldn’t have known that time.’
Gina placed her elbow on the arm of the settee waiting for her to continue. The little boy slipped off his mother’s lap and toddled over to Jacob, the legs of his dungarees dragging behind him where the poppers had come apart. Jacob awkwardly smiled.
‘He’d tried to cut her spending down and she didn’t want him to know. We all take it in turns to pay and it had been Fran’s turn. They weren’t short of money, he was just a bit tight so I guess she felt she needed to hide the spend from him. She was in no way having any kind of affair though. She loved Charlie – went on about him all the time.’
That cleared up one mystery. Gina crossed that note from her list.
‘Can you tell me a little about Francesca and Charlie’s relationship?’
‘As I said, they were close. She’d never lie about the big things. It was just lunch. He was a saver, she was a spender. That’s all. I never worried about her or him, not like I do Kerry.’
Gina arched her brows. ‘In what way do you worry about Kerry?’
‘I don’t want her to know I’ve been talking about her. I shouldn’t have said anything.’
‘It may help with the case.’
‘It’s nothing to do with the case.’
‘It may not help us directly but it’ll give us a better picture of everyone.’
Her shoulders dropped. ‘It’s not a biggie. We were all just worried as to how much of a player Ed comes across as. Brendan gets angry when he sees him. Kerry never notices, but he has this way about him that has women flocking towards him. He’s charming and over complimentary. He flirts a lot and he’s good-looking, I get that. But in my view, it’s not on. He says how much he loves Kerry and that’s she’s his everything. I just don’t feel he comes across as genuine, but that’s more my opinion. I don’t want Kerry to know that came from me. She wouldn’t be too happy. She moans about him sometimes, but if anyone were to say a bad word against him she’d give them what for. She’d give me what for.’
‘Thank you. Moving onto you and your safety. Has a community officer come by to talk about home security?’
‘Not yet. I’m not sure if we need that. The garden gate has a lock on it and all our doors are double lockable.’
‘When you open the door to anyone, can you keep your chain on? Any worries at all, call us straight away, even if you think you’re just being silly or that it might be nothing. We need to put your safety first given what’s happened to your friends. Best still, do you have any relatives you can stay with for a short while?’
She shook her head. ‘No. We do but Brendan said we’re not being scared out of our own home even after—’
‘After what?’
