Blood Line (23 page)

‘Yes, ma’am.’

‘I mean it, Brian.’

‘I will curb my tongue. And besides, with the way this case is going I think he’s going to be an asset.’

He gave a straight-faced small nod and she waved her hand for him to get out. He held up the porno DVDs.

‘I can’t wait to get home.’ He turned to leave the room.

‘One other thing, Brian. Any luck with the CCTV from Asda?’

‘The manager phoned and said he thinks the system was down the day we’re interested in, so . . .’

‘Less talk more action, Brian. Go and see him personally and check it for yourself.’

‘Yes, ma’am.’

After he had left she leaned her head in her hands, resting her elbows on the desk, before eventually sitting back and picking up the phone to talk to Langton. She gave him a brief rundown of all the new information and said they would open the budget because she felt they would need a trip to Cornwall and doubted that it could be accomplished in just one day.

‘Well, let me think about it. That poofter kept it well under wraps, didn’t he?’

She couldn’t believe it. He was almost as homophobic as Brian Stanley.

‘Yes, he kept this other life very secret.’

‘You think that it was maybe some kind of queer-bashing scenario that went on in his flat?’

‘I think it was something a lot more subversive than just—’

Langton interrupted her. ‘They do get nasty, you know – handbags at dawn and all that.’

‘For God’s sake, I have had enough snide crude remarks from Brian Stanley without
you
joining in! If you must know, we are now looking into the possibility of a drug connection.’

‘Ah well, watch you don’t step on too many toes. If it’s drug-related, bring in the Drug Units. Keep them abreast of your investigation and don’t forget to take your bucket and spade.’

‘You are very witty this evening.’

‘Am I?’

‘Do I get that you are okaying the trip to Cornwall?’

‘Mulling it over. You need to get to grips with tracing the dismembered body. Someone had to cut it up and remove it, and whoever that someone was had to know what they were doing. They had to have gone to that flat well-prepared. There was no sign of a break-in, right?’

‘Correct.’

‘Right now you have no sign of a suspect – is that also correct?’

‘Not exactly. I am still keeping Tina Brooks in the frame. It was a bloodbath in that flat of hers, but I am just not certain of the timeframe. She didn’t admit that Alan was missing for two weeks, and even then nobody got onto it at once, so it’s possible if she was involved she had a lot of time to clean up. Without a body we don’t have a time of death.’

‘Can’t they give you one from the congealed blood?’

‘No. It’s a central-heated flat. The blood could have been there for a week or a month. All we have is the date of the last sighting of Alan Rawlins in London; we don’t know if that was the last time he was alive. As we now have him leading a double life, he could have gone anywhere.’

‘Jigsaw, isn’t it?’

‘Yes, but I am getting the pieces. It’s always more difficult finding the ones in the middle, don’t you think?’

‘No. Personally, when I last did a jigsaw – when I was around ten – I enjoyed getting the frame like blue sky and the corners sorted, but then I would get impatient. In fact, my mother once caught me using scissors to make a piece fit.’

‘Well, I can’t cut any on this. It’s painstaking, but we are moving.’

She found it strange that she was having this bantering conversation with him. In fact, he seemed loath to get off the phone.

‘We should have dinner one night,’ he said.

She shook her head. Here it was again, the proposed dinner.

‘Yes, we should. Maybe when I get back from Cornwall. Hopefully we’ll have more pieces by then.’

‘Okay. Keep me updated.’

He hung up. She looked at the receiver in her hand and then dropped it back into place before gathering her things and turning off the office lights. On the way home in her Mini, she couldn’t stop yawning. Rather than watch the DVDs or skim through them, she decided to go straight to bed. She set her alarm for 5 a.m. and after a shower she got under the duvet and drew it up to her chin. Then the unexpected happened. She wasn’t even thinking about Ken or his death when a black cloud engulfed her. She sobbed, not really understanding where the darkness had come from, and cried his name over and over again.

‘Grief has ways of creeping up on you when you least expect it,’ Langton had told her. She remembered him saying it – she couldn’t recall when, but it meant that he had felt the same way. Anna had been so preoccupied recently with her case that she hardly gave a thought to what she had been through – the murder of her beloved Ken. It was as if he was demanding that she didn’t forget, and had reached out and touched a spring that opened her emotions and let them run out of control. She cried herself to sleep.

A
nna was at Tina Brooks’s salon at nine o’clock. She was surprised to see quite a number of customers there already. Tina was expecting her and was acting as the receptionist, rolling her eyes as she said Felicity was late as usual.

‘You look busy,’ Anna commented.

‘Early-bird offers – it’s half-price between eight-thirty and ten-thirty, but that doesn’t include any beauty treatments, just wash and blowdry. I get the women going into work, as you can see.’ She gestured towards the hairdressing section and then turned back to Anna.

‘What’s this about? I had a sleepless night wondering if it was bad news.’

‘I’m sorry, I just called to arrange for us to have a talk. There have been some developments. I also need to take a buccal swab for DNA testing, basically for elimination purposes.’

‘Really? Well, do what you have to do.’

Tina was wearing her salon robe, but had obviously had her hair done, and her make-up was flawless. She looked even prettier than before.

‘I like your hair,’ Anna said, smiling.

‘I’ve had it straightened and had some highlights put through it.’

‘Do you have to stay on the desk? Only I’d like to talk to you in private.’

Tina turned and yelled for one of the juniors to look after the desk and then gestured for Anna to follow her through to the staff cubicle.

Anna was surprised how willingly Tina allowed her to take a buccal swab from her mouth. As Anna placed the small saliva stick into a plastic evidence bag, Tina poured herself a cup of coffee. Anna then took out her notebook. She would have preferred a less public place, as the cubicle had no door, and the noise of the salon dryers and music was very intrusive.

‘So . . . don’t keep me in suspense,’ Tina said, sitting opposite Anna.

‘Well, let me first tell you that we have not as yet discovered the whereabouts of Alan, and we are obviously treating this as a murder because of the evidence discovered in your flat.’

‘I don’t understand.’ Tina leaned forward.

‘The blood pooling has not yet been verified as Alan’s.’

‘What?’

‘We are looking into the possibility that it could be someone else’s. To prove it is Alan’s blood we need his DNA and so far we have been unable to obtain any.’

‘I don’t believe this. Are you telling me that it wasn’t Alan?’

‘No, I am saying we have no positive proof that it was him.’

Tina closed her eyes.

‘There is a possibility that Alan might have been with someone else and—’

‘Another woman, you mean?’

Anna continued to be as diplomatic as possible without revealing that Alan was not the biological son of his parents. She showed Tina the photograph of the surfers, asking if she recognised anyone, and without hesitation Tina identified Alan, but did not know anyone else.

‘How often did Alan go to Cornwall? He was a very keen surfer, wasn’t he?’

Tina sipped her coffee. She obviously recalled the last time he had been away because she had told Anna about it previously.

‘Did he go on a regular basis?’

‘I suppose so. Well, not in the winter, but often if I had a hair competition he would go off then.’

‘Did you ever accompany him?’

‘No. I can’t swim.’

‘Did you know of any hotel Alan would have stayed in?’

‘No, I think he said he stayed with friends.’

‘Would it be possible that he also owned or rented a home there?’

‘In Cornwall?’

‘Yes.’

Tina was nonplussed, saying she doubted it and he had never mentioned it to her.

‘But he did go frequently?’

‘Yes, I suppose so, but I don’t call a few times a year frequent, and like I said it was usually when I was away for competitions.’

‘How long would you be away for these competitions?’

Tina said that it would depend. The big ones she’d spend a few days at as they sometimes ran on for that length of time, so she would travel to the venue and book into a hotel.

‘So that would be what – five days?’

‘Yeah, or maybe less, but I never wanted to stay that long. Liverpool and Birmingham were not that great, but the Blackpool one I’d take Donna with me and we’d have a week out.’

‘Could you give me these dates?’

Tina sighed and said it would take a while, but she had a calendar somewhere. She then asked why Anna was so interested in Cornwall and in her hairdressing competitions.

‘We are trying to discover how many times Alan was in Cornwall so we can trace his friends there.’

‘You think he had a place there, do you?’

‘Yes, it is possible, but we are not exactly sure of the location. We found his surfboards and wetsuit at his father’s home.’

‘Yeah, we didn’t have any room and he was obsessive about his boards, wouldn’t let them stay in the garage at the flats. He sometimes had a couple more at his workplace. Oh, by the way, can I have my car back?’

‘Yes, you can. Tina, you said a “couple more” at the garage where he worked but we only found one there. Do you think he had more?’

‘No idea. When can I move back into the flat?’ She was beginning to sound very impatient.

‘I’ll ask the forensic team if they have finished.’

‘It’s a real inconvenience, this. I’ve got to stay at Donna’s and all my clothes and stuff are still in the flat. Am I allowed to go and get a few more things to wear? I only took a small overnight bag with me to stay at Donna’s.’

‘Yes, I’ll see they allow you to do that. There is something else, Tina, but first I have to ask you this. Did you, after Alan went missing, ever entertain anyone else?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘We found items in the bed.’

‘What?’

‘We believe the bedding we took from your flat had been changed due to the fact there was no blood on it.’

‘I don’t understand.’

‘It’s probable that the bedlinen was changed after the violence that took place, and I am asking you if you brought anyone to the bedroom and had sex with them.’

‘You must be fucking joking! Of course I didn’t have someone in bed with me.’

‘We found a hair and semen stains, Tina. The hair could be yours, or someone else’s.’

Tina was adamant that she had slept alone, that she had never brought anyone back to the flat. Suddenly she pulled some hairs from her head.

‘Here, take it, take it and test it! Christ, I feel sick – it makes me feel sick.’

If Tina was guilty of murder she was an exceptional actress, yet Anna was sure she had to know a lot more than she was admitting.

‘When we found Alan’s surfboards and wetsuit . . .’

Tina got up and helped herself to another coffee.

‘We found other items that I need to discuss with you. Did you ever consider that Alan was homosexual?’

Tina turned, surprised. ‘What? WHAT?’

‘The items were of a very explicit sexual nature. There were DVDs all containing gay sex, and various magazines which had . . . contact ads – you know, and—’

‘You are trying to say you think Alan was
gay
?’

‘As I said, we have found pornographic literature and DVDs. We have also heard from a couple of witnesses that Alan mixed with a number of homosexual men whilst in Cornwall.’

Tina blinked and shook her head.

‘You’ve got it wrong. There is no way! I would know, believe you me. Being in hairdressing, I’m surrounded by gays and especially at the competitions. Alan was not like one of them, so whoever you are talking to are off their heads.’

‘So you and Alan had a heterosexual relationship?’

‘You mean did we have sex?’

‘Yes.’

‘Listen, I’ve been around – I’m not making myself out to be a slapper, but I’ve had a few guys in my time – and I am telling you, Alan was straight. We had a good sex-life, even more so when I had got my hands on him. He was very shy and reserved to start with, but like I said I’ve had my experiences and there was no way I’d stand for a platonic relationship, no way at all.’

‘But you mentioned that you thought he might have another woman. Why was that?’

Tina shrugged and fell silent. Anna persisted.

‘You said that he might have gone missing and left you for another woman. Why did you think that?’

‘Well, it had gone off a bit. I always had to instigate it and he hadn’t been that affectionate with me for a few months, so what else was I to think? We were planning on getting married so we were having sex on a regular basis. It was just he wasn’t . . . nice to me.’

‘Nice?’

‘Yeah. He was a bit short and abrupt, like he had something on his mind. I even asked him outright once if there was someone else and he swore to me there wasn’t, said he was just tired as he was working hard at the garage.’

‘Did you suspect when he said he was working late that he was seeing someone else?’

‘Yeah, yeah I did, because like I said he was a bit off with me, and from being very close it worried me.’

‘Do you think Alan could have been leading a double life?’

‘With someone else?’

‘Yes.’

‘No, because we were always together. It was just sort of recent and I even wondered if me planning all the wedding invites was getting to him, but he encouraged me and said I should start looking for a wedding gown.’