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’ve 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.’
