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 sex.
‘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.’