He kneeled on the bed, right between her legs and pulled the tie from her hands. They both knew what was coming next. Goosebumps prickled her skin, each bump defined by the subtle lamp on the bedside. He crawled up further, running his large hand firmly up her legs, brushing her hips until he straddled her. She gulped and fixed her gaze on his.
Looping the tie around her neck, he smiled. They were both electrified by what they were about to do. She wriggled beneath him, taking the weight of his body with a slight expulsion of air as he rubbed against her, teasing her senses.
He felt her movements matching his and they knew it was time. She went to grab the tie, to loosen it but he wrenched her hand back, bending it at the wrist until she let it go over the side of the bed. He’d driven all the way back for this and now he was getting his reward.
‘Shush,’ he said as he placed his index finger across her lips and kissed her nose. All she had to do was lie back and let him get on with it, enjoy it, take it all in.
Was this enough?
It was definitely enough for now. It would have to be, but there was someone else. Her time would come soon. He wrenched the tie and watched as her face reddened but she knew better than to resist.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Jacob held the inner cordon tape up as Gina hurried underneath, nodding to the PC who guarded the scene. A couple of teenage girls hung around at the end of the drive and they were quickly joined by a woman wearing jeans and a jumper.
‘What’s going on,’ she called out. ‘I live just over the road. Is Francesca okay?’
Gina took a few steps towards her. Now would be a good time to check out what at least one of the neighbours had seen. ‘Have you been in all evening?’
The woman nodded. The two girls stepped closer. Gina could see the resemblance now. They were her daughters. Both of them had the same dark skin tone and slight build. ‘I’ve been in since about five. Is Fran okay?’
Glancing at the girls, Gina called her to one side. ‘May I have a word with you?’
‘Sally, take your sister in. I’ll be back in a minute.’
The slightly taller girl nodded and took her sister back to their house.
‘What’s this about?’ Her short curly hair bounced as she settled on a spot and stood, arms crossed in front of her.
‘That’s what we’re here to find out.’ Gina didn’t want to say too much. She had no idea if Francesca’s parents had even been told. The last thing she needed was for them to find out that their daughter had been murdered on social media. ‘Have you seen anyone around here acting suspiciously this afternoon or evening?’
She shook her head. ‘No. I came back from work and made dinner. That’s what I do every night. The girls have just got back from swimming so they wouldn’t have seen anything either. They came in and told me that the police were outside.’
Gina had hoped for more.
‘Has someone broken into the place? I keep telling my husband we need to invest in better security.’
‘No, it’s not a burglary. There’s been an incident and we’re investigating at the moment.’
‘Is it something to do with her husband? They’re a funny couple.’
That piqued Gina’s interest. From what O’Connor had reeled off to her, her husband, Charlie Carter, had been at his mother’s fitting a curtain pole earlier that evening but knowing more about them could be of some help. ‘What makes you say that?’
‘I don’t know. When they first moved in a few months ago, I thought they seemed lovely but they shout all the time. She’s always yelling at him about something, often trivial things like how he positions the bins back when they’ve been emptied. Then he will yell at her when they’re coming home from shopping. I think they had money worries. They seemed to be shouting about her spending habits. I don’t think it was just me who heard it all, the other neighbours probably did too – they have been rather loud. My husband keeps saying that Charlie loves himself. Charlie is rather well preened so I think he’s just a bit jealous.’ The woman laughed a little. ‘That was it really.’
‘Well, thank you for your help, err…’
‘Annie.’
‘Thanks, Annie. I best get back to my work.’ Gina left the woman behind the cordon and headed towards the door. She now had something to discuss with Charlie Carter. Their arguments would be a start. Could Charlie Carter have arranged for someone to hurt Francesca on his behalf? He may not have been present at the scene but that did not warrant crossing him off the suspect list, not yet.
She hurried along the drive, past the forensics van and the police cars. Several crime scene investigators huddled around discussing what they would be doing and Bernard towered over them all. Slipping his beard into a beard cover, he nodded her way. Jacob was standing near a well-trimmed hedge, talking to Jennifer. He placed a loving hand on her arm and she smiled as she did up her forensics suit.
‘You got here fast.’ Bernard passed Gina a coverall, gloves, hair and boot covers and she began speaking as she slipped them on.
‘We were only around the corner following up on another lead. No luck with that tonight. Have you assessed the scene as yet?’
He nodded. ‘I’ll take you up in a moment. Two of my team are in the bathroom taking the crime scene photos. The husband is with an officer in the kitchen. He found his wife’s body so I’m sure he’ll have a lot to say to you.’
‘What are your initial thoughts?’
Annie, the neighbour she’d spoken to only minutes earlier, had returned with her husband and several other neighbours and they were beginning to flock around the cordon.
‘I think we should go inside.’ Bernard glanced at the forming crowd.
Gina agreed. A little privacy would make things easier. She followed Bernard through the front door, straight onto the stepping plates in the hallway and up the stairs.
‘We’ll go in the spare room to talk.’ They took a left through the first door.
As Gina followed him, she glanced to the side and saw a woman in a white suit snapping away in the bathroom.
‘Finally, a place with no eavesdroppers. Right, we got here forty minutes ago and sealed the scene off immediately. What we have is the body of a young woman identified by her husband as Francesca Carter. She is lying dead in the bathtub. My initial thought is that she died by drowning.’
‘Intentional or accidental?’
A serious expression washed over his face. ‘Definitely intentional. There are signs of a struggle. The bathroom is soaking wet and there is a lot of red bruising to her chest and neck. A clump of her hair has been pulled out and discarded onto the bathroom floor. Her ankles and feet have bled quite a lot and there is blood on the taps. It looks like she’d been kicking them during the struggle. Everything is leading us to conclude that her death was intentional. The shower curtain and pole are on the floor too.’
‘She or the perp may have grabbed it.’
‘We will need to carry out the post-mortem to confirm exact cause of death.’
Gina felt her head beginning to thump. She wanted to stand in a dark room, just like Briggs had been doing. She wanted the noise of everything to quieten just for a moment so that she could order her chaotic thoughts. ‘Only a few days ago, Holly Long was suffocated to death. Today, Francesca Carter has died in what looks to be a drowning. Both starved of oxygen but both being killed in different ways. Both had been bridesmaids at the same wedding. Can you give me the time of death?’