Guilty Conscious by Oliver Davies (win 10 ebook reader TXT) 📕

“She’d have figured it out,” Lana added.

“Stella didn’t keep things from her,” Judy said. “So, she probably just waited for us to leave.”

Thatcher’s jaw clenched slightly, and he managed to smile politely at the three girls before standing from the table. We rushed through our goodbyes, shaking a few hands, swapping a few details in case they wanted to tell us anything else, then we were outside the house, Thatcher glaring up at the sky.

“If Billie knew that Edward had gone over to Stella…” he grumbled with a shake of his head.

“Let’s go,” I said quickly, striding to the car. I knew what he wanted to say. If Billie had known, what the hell might she have done?

Sixteen

Thatcher

I was aware of my irritation as I drove, gripping the steering just that bit too tight. We’d been lied to, yet again, about the circumstances between Edward and the Helman sisters. This time by Billie. Stella would have told her, I knew it in my gut. She must have known or at least suspected. And she might have done with that knowledge, that suspicion, at the time perhaps it didn’t mean much, she might have put it aside, forgotten it. But after Stella had taken her own life, so soon after she saw Edward in the park, I shook my head. There’s no way Billie would have sat on her hands throughout it all.

“Sir,” Mills’s low voice caught my ear.

“What?”

“Freya said the last time Edward had seen Billie, a week or so before Stella died, he’d been shaken. She’d had to walk him home.”

She must have rattled him then. “Did she say much else about it?” I asked.

Mills shook his head. I bit down my annoyance at that. Freya might know more about that meeting, and we could press her for details, but we had to be careful with our witnesses, not push them too far. I decided that for now, Billie could fill in the blanks.

I drove us over the café, just in time to see Billie and Agnes outside, locking up the front door, their coats and bags on, ready to go. I parked on the street and jumped from the car, jogging across the road with Mills on my heels.

“Billie Helman,” I called.

She jumped, then turned around and frowned as we reached them on the pavement.

“Inspector,” she greeted me, looking rightly confused. “Is something wrong?”

“Somewhat. We’d like a quick word if you have the time.” I tried to keep my voice as diplomatic as I could, but Billie’s eyes narrowed at my gruff tone. She gave a movement that was somewhere between a shrug and a nod.

Agnes looked between us all and handed Billie the keys. “You can use the café, love. Lock up when you’re done. I’ll come up for the keys tomorrow morning.”

Billie nodded, taking the keys in her hand. Agnes gave her a light kiss on the head, gave us an unimpressed glare, and walked across the road to a car on the other side.

Billie sighed and turned to the door and unlocked it, turned the alarm off, and let us in. She flipped on the lights but made sure the closed sign was on the door before leading us to a table near the window, sitting down, her coat and bag still on, arms folded.

“We just came from meeting Stella’s friends,” I told her as I sat, watching how her face twitched at the mention of her sister’s names. She blinked.

“Judy and the girls? Priya and Lana?”

“Those are the ones,” Mills confirmed.

She looked from me to him. “How are they?”

“Seemed well enough. But they told us something that caught our interest.” Mills leant on the table, and Billie shrank back, picking at her nails.

“About what?”

“About the time Edward Vinson spoke to Stella in the park a week or so before she died,” I answered in a stony voice. Billie flinched and looked down, chewing her bottom lip.

“Right,” she mumbled.

“Billie,” I spoke her name in a slightly softer tone, and she looked up at me, tears lining her bright green eyes. “Did you know about the meeting?”

She nodded, a tear spilling over from her eye, trailing down her face. She scrubbed it away. “Stella told me once the girls left. She kept shaking, and I had to call Dr Kumar and ask how to calm her down.”

“Did you tell Dr Kumar what happened?” I asked, remembering that the doctor had made no mention of any meeting.

“No. Didn’t really have the time. I’d called her before when Stella had a panic attack, so she just talked me through it until Stella was alright. It was up to her if she wanted Dr Kumar to know,” she added pointedly, a flicker of guilt and regret dancing over her face.

“You must have been angry,” I said calmly. “That Edward spoke to her, went near her and upset her that way.”

Billie laughed once, humourlessly. “Wouldn’t you be?” she asked dryly.

“Of course, we would,” Mills assured her. “But what we’d like to know is what you did about it.”

“What I did about it? I calmed my sister down from a panic attack, that’s what I did about it!”

“Did you confront Edward?” I asked her, watching her face falter, eyes wide. She looked away, tensing her jaw and gave one short nod. I let out a long breath. “What happened, Billie?”

She wiped another tear as it came from her eye, trembling, but not from sadness, I realised. She was angry.

“Once Stella calmed down,” she spoke in a croaking voice, “I got her into bed, made sure she was relaxed. Then I left her everything she needed and a little note saying I’d gone out to get her some food, which I did. That’s what I left to do, get some dinner. But I was so angry that I just walked and walked until I was at the park they’d gone to. He wasn’t there, so I started looping around when he