Blood Line

Chapter Five

It took considerable time to gain access to the phone records for both Tina and Michael Phillips, and it was not until 5 p.m. that the team acquired access to Phillips’s bank accounts. Anna had left messages for Langton to call and she was becoming very impatient waiting for him to respond. She constantly badgered Paul for a result, but when he eventually did come up with the information it was disappointing. There were no calls to Michael Phillips from Tina’s landline or mobile phone. Her listed calls were already noted as she had given details to Anna about where and who she had rung in an attempt to find out what had happened to Alan Rawlins. In response, Anna snapped, enquiring where the records of Phillips’s calls were. Paul informed Anna that Michael Phillips didn’t appear to have a landline but only a company mobile phone, so the records would take longer to compile and check. Added to that disappointment came the financial position of their ‘suspect’, as they were now referring to Phillips.

Paul was feeling really frazzled. Nothing had shifted his hangover headache, and spending so much time on the phone and then on the computer had made it feel worse.

‘Okay – quick rundown,’ he said to Anna. ‘This is as much as I’ve got. He did work for Barclays, but was one of the many made redundant. Previously he’d been with two other banks that went under. He’s not had what I’d call a successful career. He lost half a million with the Icelandic Bank, but he got a leg-up with his present employers as his sister is married to one of the chief executives. The Lotus is leased, by the way, he doesn’t even own that. So renting a place in Hounslow is about all he could afford.’

‘So I was right about his shoes,’ Anna said, folding her arms. ‘Does he have more than one mobile?’

‘I’ve not checked that yet. I’m still working on his business card number.’

She glanced at her watch. Paul could feel her irritation.

‘What has Langton got to say?’ he asked.

‘He’s not returned my calls, but you go off and come in first thing in the morning.’

‘Thanks.’

Anna glanced through Paul’s notes and was about to put in yet another call to Langton when the man himself walked into her office.

‘I’ve not got long,’ he said, sitting down. ‘I’m really busy.’

‘Well, excuse me, but I’ve been running around on this Alan Rawlins business and now I need your approval.’

‘For what?’

‘I want to get a search warrant issued to look over Tina Brooks’s flat.’

‘But you’ve been there, haven’t you?’

Anna filled him in on the carpet order and the bleach purchase, and said that although she had interviewed Tina, they had not had a thorough or even part-detailed search of the flat.

‘You didn’t really need my authority, but if you now think that we have a murder then it will have to go through all the usual channels. What’s more, you’ll have to set up a new team as I’ve put the rest onto other cases.’

‘I am aware of that, obviously. But as you oversee all the murder enquiries, do I get the go-ahead?’

He frowned and then stood up, stretching his legs and rubbing his bad knee.

‘You able to cope with this?’ he grunted.

‘What?’

‘You want me to repeat it?’

‘No, I don’t, but what makes you ask if I can cope?’

‘Because as DCI you’ll head the team. I can look over your shoulder, obviously.’

‘When have you not? But I have handled my last case and—’

He turned on her angrily, leaning against the edge of her desk.

‘Don’t you get flippant with me! Just remember, whatever personal relationship we might have had, I am your—’

Equally angry, she stood up to face him, interrupting him.

‘Superior! Well, you tell me if you wouldn’t want a full investigation after what I’ve told you.’

‘You have only circumstantial possibilities.’

She flopped back down into her chair.

‘Oh, wait a minute,’ she fumed. ‘You have been the one wanting more details. Basically it was a Mispers case, but because you insisted I look into it, that is what I have done. And now that it looks like a murder enquiry, you start telling me to back off.’

‘I did not suggest that.’

‘What do you want – to get someone else to do it?’ Anna demanded.

‘I am just concerned about putting too much pressure on you. Right now I need all the people I have, but I can allocate another DCI to make further enquiries.’

‘I see. So what has this all been about – give her something to occupy her mind, nothing too strenuous – because you think I’m not capable?’

‘You are more than capable, Anna.’

‘So what is your problem?’

‘You, Anna. You have been through a terrible ordeal, your fiancé has been murdered, and as far as I can ascertain you have refused to take any time out.’

‘What about the previous case I worked on and got a result?’

‘Come on, it was a cut-and-dried case – of course you got a guilty verdict!’

She was so angry she could hardly look at him.

‘I thought it was best as you had insisted on returning to work,’ Langton went on, ‘but now I am not so sure. I am worried about you.’

‘Well, you don’t have to be. I am fine! And what’s more, I don’t want anyone else taking over the Alan Rawlins investigation. If he is dead, I am damn sure Tina Brooks had something to do with it.’

‘You have to be aware how difficult it is to bring charges without a body.’

‘Give me time and maybe I’ll find one for you!’

He glanced at his watch. ‘I can’t argue about this now. Get the search warrants and see what the outcome is.’

‘Thank you.’

Langton found it difficult to deal with her. She was so rigid and so defensive, and he really didn’t want to force her into taking a holiday. Yet she was suffering extreme emotional anguish of the kind he himself had experienced when his first wife had died, and he wanted to help.

She wished he would go. Now she’d got the permission for moving on with the case, she didn’t want to discuss anything else. She looked at him, and then turned away because she didn’t like the expression in his eyes.

‘Listen to me, sweetheart. You lose someone you love, and no amount of work can help you deal with the loss. It takes a long time,’ Langton advised.

‘You’ve already told me this. Maybe you are projecting your own inability to come to terms with grief. I lived with you, James, and let me tell you, I have no intention of ever allowing myself to form another relationship until I am well and truly recovered from losing Ken. However, what happened with him is over, finished – and I just want to get on with my life, my career.’

He wanted to slap her, the way she stuck out her chin and clenched her fists at her side. He was only too aware of the fact that he had been unable to sustain a relationship with Anna. He had known he couldn’t give her more than what he had to offer, and it had not been enough. Even now, married to his second wife, taking on her daughter, Kitty, and with a son, Tommy, he was still having extramarital affairs. He also still held a passion for Anna. It was not reciprocated and he knew that, but he also knew that, given the opportunity, he would start up seeing her again – and what made it worse, he actually felt no shame even contemplating it.

She stared at him, waiting for him to say something, but he remained silent. She couldn’t tell what he was thinking.

‘I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought up your personal life. Sometimes I forget you are who you are,’ she said quietly, avoiding eye-contact with him.

‘That’s okay, Anna, and I can see you’ve calmed down.’

‘I have, and I want this case.’

He walked to the door and gave her a smile.

‘You have it. Get a team organised. I’ll forward the list of available officers and you can stay on here as it’s the same location.’

‘Don’t I know it. I have to schlepp all the way from my flat at Tower Bridge. I sometimes wish I’d never bought the place – not that I’ve seen that much of it, but it’s home sweet home. As you haven’t arranged the promised dinner, maybe one night I’ll have enough time to cook for you!’

She smiled, making a joke, but he walked out closing the door quietly behind him. The fact that she had the case made her buoyant for a moment, but then she felt the shuddering panic rise and couldn’t get her breath. She broke out in a sweat, gasping before the tears welled up inside her. She rested her head in her hands. She wasn’t over losing Ken, far from it. She’d had the lengthy trial of the killer of John Smiley, and then with only a couple of weeks’ break, had taken on her last case. Almost a year had passed, but the thought of taking time out to dwell on the terrible way she had lost the future she and Ken had planned together made her fearful that she would never be able to recover.

Langton sat in his car. It had been a while since he had felt the twist in his gut like a scorching pain. He had sometimes wondered if he had embroidered on the love he had lost, that perhaps it had not been as perfect as he made it out to be. Inside his wallet he retained the small photographs of his adopted daughter, Kitty, and his son, but he still had the worn photograph of his first wife tucked behind their innocent little faces. Even now, years later, when these moments of grief descended, he felt almost incapable of moving. He looked at his first wife’s photograph. If he closed his eyes he could hear her voice calling out to him that she would see him for dinner. He had been told she had collapsed and died four hours later, the undetected brain tumour that killed her leaving her with not a mark on her beautiful face. When he had seen her in the mortuary she looked as if she was peacefully sleeping.

He had never known with another woman the same deep understanding they had had with each other, and that sleeping face reared up as if to eclipse anyone he felt emotionally drawn to. This combined with a sense of guilt that he could never feel the same attachment to another woman. Even though he had remarried and now had a son, sometimes when he watched his boy sleeping, he felt an overwhelming sense of loss, thinking of what it would have been like to have a child with his first wife. Thinking what it would have been like if she had lived.

Anna had wanted from him commitment, children, and although it had been she who had instigated the end of their relationship, he had in many ways known it was never going to work. She wanted too much of him and he was incapable of giving it. His present wife was intelligent, very attractive, and had wanted stability for her daughter Kitty who adored Langton and now called him Daddy. It was almost a marriage of convenience. She had accepted what Langton could give her, and had not really contemplated having a child with him. Tommy was almost as much a surprise to her as he was to Langton. She had been sure it was the onset of the menopause, but when she discovered she was pregnant, Langton had proved to be very caring. He was a good provider, and although very much an absentee father, being so dedicated to his career, she accepted their marriage for what it was – a stable if unemotional relationship.

Unlike Anna, Langton no longer had the release of weeping; instead he waited for the pain to subside. It was still strong, but thankfully not as frequent or as debilitating as it had been in the past. He drove off and headed to Highgate, thankful that preoccupation with work cushioned the ghost that still haunted him.

Anna opened a bottle of wine when she got home and had two glasses before she made herself something to eat. She finished the bottle before she went to bed, and with the alcohol and the sleeping tablets she was able to get a full night’s deep sleep. She often felt slightly heavy-headed in the mornings, but black coffee heaped with sugar made her feel wired enough to face the day. She was still losing weight and she had made a rather empty promise to herself that she would start to work out, but that had not happened. The thought that she might be running on empty and that it might have repercussions hadn’t even crossed her mind. Instead, she was certain that she was dealing with losing Ken, dealing with it on her own terms.

By the time Anna arrived at the station, Paul was already there. They had a search warrant for Tina Brooks’s flat, but before making use of it they first marked up on the incident board the case-file to date. Alan Rawlins had not been reported missing for almost two weeks after his disappearance. He was now missing for eight weeks. They had no sightings, no movement in any of his bank accounts, and no use of his credit cards. They were unsure exactly what items of clothing were missing and at first Tina had said to his father that she thought she had found his passport, but then changed it to discovering an old out-of-date one. Alan Rawlins’s current passport and toiletries were definitely missing. Anna had also requested an all ports warning to see if Alan had taken a flight, rail or ferry out of the UK, but there was no trace of this being the case. It was not to say that he hadn’t used a false identity to travel but she felt that this was unlikely.

Anna sat on the edge of a desk looking over the details she and Paul had so far accumulated. No witness had seen Alan Rawlins for the entire period he was missing. The occupants of the block of flats had little or nothing to do with either Tina or Alan.

The police had no note, no correspondence of any kind that gave them an indication that he had planned to disappear. The last sighting of him was therefore the day Tina collected him from his workplace at 10:30 a.m. on 15 March. He was unwell and had phoned her to ask her to pick him up and take him home. Tina stated that she had made him a cup of tea and left him to sleep off his migraine.

Underlined on the incident board was the need to check out what medication, if any, he had at the flat, also whether or not he suffered from migraines on a frequent basis, because found in his locker at the garage was a packet of aspirins. Tina Brooks said she returned from work around 6:30 p.m. on 15 March and Alan was not at home. She could not recall if the bed had been remade, but she felt that perhaps it had been. Visits to Tina’s workplace had given no clue as to where Alan might have taken off to. Interviews with his parents and close friends had revealed no hint that he had any intention of leaving Tina. Interviews at the local gym used by both Tina and Alan, and the tenant from flat one, Michael Phillips, revealed nothing untoward, bar the fact that Tina was very flirtatious and over-friendly with a few of the members.

They had no connecting phone calls from Tina to Michael Phillips on her landline, but the pair could have used mobile phones, and the team were still in the process of checking out the possibility that both Tina and Michael Phillips had lied.

Paul stood beside Anna, looking over the mark-up on the board.

‘Not a lot really,’ he said.

‘No.’

‘Just the purchase of the bleach and the carpet stand out as being odd.’

‘Let’s go over there and see what we can pick up from the flat.’

‘I hope the new carpet’s not been laid,’ Paul said.

‘As it was only delivered yesterday, I doubt it.’ Anna picked up her bag and headed out. Paul was still very dubious and nowhere near as certain as Anna that they were now looking for a victim.

Anna was driving as Paul was on the mobile to Tina Brooks. He was very polite, asking if it was possible for her to be at the flat to allow them to enter; if not, they could under the warrant force entry to instigate the search. She was very rude and said that she would have to return from her salon as she was at work.

‘We really appreciate it, Miss Brooks.’

Anna glanced at him and he shrugged.

‘She’s got a mouth on her, but she didn’t seem all that worried about the search warrant.’

‘Didn’t she even ask why?’

‘Nope, just said that it was bloody inconvenient.’

Tina remained belligerent as she let them into the flat.

‘Why do you have to search the place? You’ve already been over it once!’

‘I’m afraid we are considering that Alan Rawlins may be dead so we would like to do a thorough search.’

‘Well, get on with it, but I can’t stay long.’

‘Thank you for your cooperation. When we were last here, the caretaker said you were expecting some new carpet to be delivered.’

‘Yes, it’s in the living room.’

Anna glanced at Paul. This was good. She asked why the carpet was being replaced and Tina rolled her eyes.

‘I am sick to death of this beige colour. It also marks easily so I decided weeks ago to get some new carpet with a bit more colour, but it had to be beige again because it’s in the bloody lease. Anyway, I am not going to stay on here longer than I have to, as it has sad memories.’

‘We will try not to inconvenience you more than is necessary,’ Paul said as Anna headed into the lounge. The new carpet was rolled up and left against the wall. There were a few stains around the coffee table, but they were not very noticeable. Together she and Paul moved around the room, opening drawers and cupboards. Tina was in the kitchen and occasionally walked in to stand in the doorway watching them.

‘Did Alan have any medication for migraines?’

‘No. He would just use paracetamol or codeine tablets.’

‘Did he often have these headaches?’

‘They went if he had a good sleep. I’d draw the curtains, make the room dark and that was about it really.’ She returned to the kitchen.

There appeared to be nothing out of the ordinary in the lounge, not until Paul moved the sofa aside to look beneath it.

‘Anna, come here.’

She joined him and he shoved the sofa even further away. There was a large piece of carpet missing which had clearly been neatly cut out, measuring about two feet by two. The dark black underlay was still in situ.

‘Miss Brooks – Tina – could you come in here for a moment, please?’ Anna called.

Tina came to the doorway.

‘Can you explain why there is a large piece of carpet cut out from here?’

‘Yes, I can. The sofa used to be against that wall.’ She gestured across the room. ‘Alan spilled a bottle of red wine and he couldn’t get the stain out. He must have cut it out, I think.’

She pointed to the roll of new carpet. ‘That’s another reason why we have to leave a month’s deposit with the landlord. If there’s any damage when we leave, he uses it.’

‘So you intended leaving before Alan disappeared?’

‘Yes, I told you. We were looking for a place to buy – we were getting married.’

‘I see. Thank you.’

Tina went back to the kitchen as they finished up the search of the lounge.

‘Do you want a coffee?’ she offered, from where she was sitting on a stool at the breakfast bar.

‘No, thank you, but do you mind if we look in there? Shouldn’t take long,’ Anna said.

Tina picked up her coffee and walked past them to sit in the lounge. They opened the cupboards beneath the sink first, and Anna held up a container of bleach. It was half-empty and no other container was visible. There were scrubbing brushes and a bucket which all smelled strongly of bleach. Anna went into the lounge.

‘You have a container of bleach in the kitchen?’

‘Yes – what about it?’

‘We have a witness who saw you buying a considerable amount of bleach and some carpet cleaner from Asda.’

‘Yes. I use bleach to clean the floor in the salon. I use that one here to clean around the sinks and tiles in the kitchen and the bathroom.’

‘And the carpet cleaner?’

‘I used it to try and clean up coffee and food stains on the carpet so we wouldn’t lose the deposit but gave up and ordered a new carpet.’

Paul finished checking out the kitchen and walked past Anna into the master bedroom. It really was a very nondescript tasteless flat, and the bedroom had the same beige carpet. He searched through the wardrobes and dressing-table drawers; they were as they had been from their first search of the place. There were also two black plastic bin liners filled with Alan’s clothes, all folded neatly, with a tag attached to the bag which said Salvation Army. Paul had to remove each item and check it out.

Anna had by now completed a search of the small second bedroom which was used as an office. She found nothing, apart from the accounts for both Tina and Alan’s mobile phones. As she went into the master bedroom, Tina approached her.

‘Listen, I am going to have to leave. I’ve got appointments for this afternoon.’

‘We won’t be too long. I am taking these statements for the mobile phones. Is that all right?’

‘Take whatever you want.’ Tina went back into the kitchen to wash up her own coffee mug.

Paul indicated the black bin liners, saying, ‘His clothes ready for the Salvation Army.’

‘What?’

‘His side of their wardrobe’s empty.’

‘Miss Brooks?’ Anna said loudly. She pointed at the plastic bin liners. ‘You are sending these to the Salvation Army?’

‘Yes. They’re Alan’s clothes, no use to me, and if he comes back, serves him right.’

Tina walked off again, and Anna shook her head. Talk about lack of emotion! She sighed. They had found nothing. She looked around the room and then back to the bed. There was a bedside table on either side of the bed, each with a matching lamp. Anna noticed old indentations in the carpet on the right side of the bed.

‘The bed and tables have been moved to the left. Push the bed back out to the right.’

Paul heaved at it. It was very heavy and he hadn’t been able to see beneath as it had two storage units under the frame and mattress. It took him all his strength to move the bed, and Anna had to shift the other bedside table so it wouldn’t get in the way.

‘What have we got here?’ Paul wondered, bending down.

‘What is it?’

He pointed to an inserted square of carpet almost the same size as the section they had found missing beneath the sofa.

‘Is it tacked down or glued?’ Anna asked, close to him.

‘Double-sided carpet tape holding it down.’

‘Ease it up.’

Paul carefully drew the carpet up by one corner, pulling it away from the underlay. He sniffed. ‘I can smell bleach.’

As he slowly peeled it back to reveal the dark waffle of the underlay they could see a large bleach-stained area. It was almost circular and had been scrubbed so hard there were bits of damaged rubber and weave exposed.

Anna stood up. She instructed Paul to get the local Scene of Crime officers to the flat to test the stain.

‘There’s no red wine on that bit of carpet you just lifted.’

Next, Anna drew the sheet from the bed, but there was no sign of staining on the mattress, duvet or pillows. Tina came and stood in the doorway.

‘I am going to have to go. Have you finished in here?’

Anna turned to face her. ‘No, Miss Brooks, we have not. We have found something very disturbing and we will need to get people here to ascertain exactly what—’

‘What’s that?’ Tina demanded, coming further into the room.

‘It is obvious that the carpet cut from your lounge has been used to cover damage in here.’

‘Oh my God, I’ve never even seen that before!’

‘I will need to interview you, Miss Brooks, at the station.’

‘Why?’

‘I think the staining on the underlay by the bed is due to someone cleaning it with bleach, maybe because it had Alan Rawlins’s blood on it, so if you would agree to accompany me . . .’

‘I’ve got nothing to do with that! I didn’t even know it was there.’

‘I nevertheless need to ask you to accompany me.’

‘But I’ve got appointments!’

‘You had better cancel them.’

The forensic team moved into the flat an hour later, and quickly ascertained that the underlay stain was bleach mixed with traces of human blood. They proceeded to roll back a wider area of carpet and then underlay, revealing heavily bloodstained floorboards. Due to the extent and density of the stain, even though attempts had been made to clean it with bleach, the Forensic Crime Scene Examiner believed that whoever had sustained the injury could have had a very severe wound. They also began examining the carpet in the lounge looking for any further signs of blood and the so-called wine spillage.

A very distraught Tina Brooks was taken in a patrol car to the station. Anna followed in her Mini whilst Paul remained at the flat to liaise with the forensic team as the premises were now being treated as a possible murder scene. Various items of clothing, the mattress and bedding, along with the neatly tied black bin liners of Alan Rawlins’s clothes were removed to be tested at the lab.

Tina had been asked if she would like representation and she insisted that she wanted a solicitor present. This took a further hour as they waited for a Jonathan Hyde to arrive. Meanwhile Anna was checking if there were any blood samples known to have been taken from Alan Rawlins, in case the stain in the flat belonged to him, then they could match it. She spoke to his father, who seemed in a terrible way to be relieved that at long last there was some kind of result. Even the fact that it was possible his son had met with foul play meant he could stop hoping, he said. He wanted to know for certain, and he agreed that both he and his wife would give blood samples, to be able to prove whether or not the blood discovered beneath the bed was their son’s.

Paul returned to the station to report that the forensic team were still at the flat, and that SOC officers were now doing an inch-by-inch search. This would include the garage and Tina’s car, which they impounded. If Alan Rawlins had been murdered in her flat, then his body would have to have been removed. As Anna banked up the incriminating evidence, her adrenalin kept her going without having lunch or even a cup of coffee. She had not pressed charges against Tina, as at present there was no direct evidence that she had murdered Alan Rawlins.

Anna and Paul went into an interview room first to talk to Jonathan Hyde. They explained that his client was not under arrest as they were awaiting verification that the blood was that of Alan Rawlins and she would, at the present time, be simply assisting their enquiry. They gave details of the length of time Alan had been missing and the discovery of the blood staining. They also provided him with the information of his client’s purchase of bleach, carpet cleaner and the ordering of new carpet.

Hyde then sat privately with Tina, explaining everything to her.

It was not until six-thirty the same evening that Anna got to conduct the first interview.

Paul sat beside Anna as she informed Hyde that she had not as yet received verification that the blood from Tina’s flat was Alan’s, and it would take more time to compare the blood with his parents’ for a positive result. Anna was calm and relaxed, but Tina sat like a coiled spring ready to unwind. Although she was there to assist their enquiries, Tina was cautioned to ensure that anything she did say could be used as evidence at a later date.

‘We really want you to explain the discovery of the blood on the carpet underlay in your bedroom. Do you have anything to tell us?’ Anna asked.

Tina shook her head.

‘But you must have known it was there. The bed had been moved, a section of carpet had been cut out from under it and then replaced by a piece cut from beneath your living-room sofa.’

‘I told you – Alan spilled a bottle of wine so he must have cut out the section of the carpet. He was always concerned what money the landlord would try and get out of us if we damaged anything. We were saving to buy a place of our own.’

‘So did Alan subsequently insert the section cut from the lounge under your bed to cover the bloodstain?’

‘I don’t know. I’ve never seen it before.’

‘How do you explain it then?’

‘He must have done it when I was at work.’

‘Miss Brooks, if we discover that the stain is in actual fact Alan’s blood, how do you explain that?’

‘I don’t know. Maybe he had a nose bleed, something like that.’

‘But surely the section of the carpet being cut out from beneath the sofa would have occurred sometime before you say he might have had a nose bleed. You claim that he spilled a bottle of wine – when did that occur?’ Anna asked.

‘A while ago, maybe a few months.’

‘So when did he cut out the section of the carpet?’

‘I don’t know. As I just said, it could have happened after he had a nose bleed.’

‘Did you cut the section of carpet beneath the sofa?’

‘No.’

‘When did you notice it had been done?’

‘More or less when you showed it to me.’

‘Why did you order new carpet?’

‘Because I want to move and the landlord would make us pay for any damage. I tried a bottle of carpet cleaner but it wasn’t much good.’

‘When did you order the new carpet?’

‘A week ago. It was on special offer.’

At this point Jonathan Hyde intervened. ‘We appear to be going around in circles, Detective Travis. Surely until this stain discovered beneath the bed is actually verified as being Mr Rawlins’s blood, I can see no reason to continue this line of questioning. My client has told you she was unaware of its existence and she did not cut any of the carpet herself.’

‘Could you explain why you purchased a considerable amount of bleach shortly after Mr Rawlins went missing?’

Tina sighed. ‘I told you why. I use a lot of bleach in the salon because it cleans up the spilled hair-dye and we’ve got black and white lino tiles.’

‘The bleach container in your salon is a different make to the ones you purchased from Asda.’

‘They were on special offer so as I was there I took the opportunity and bought them. I kept one at the flat – the rest I used cleaning up the salon.’

Hyde shook his head, saying to Anna, ‘This is really all conjecture. Miss Brooks has explained why she purchased the bleach, for her salon, and some to use at her flat.’

‘Was it not an attempt to clear away the bloodstain?’

‘No, it wasn’t, because I didn’t even know it was there!’

‘But you must have been aware that the bed had been moved – moved to cover the offending bloodstain.’

‘I never noticed. Sometimes when I hoover I move it or Alan does. We try and keep the place immaculate because it’s rented.’

‘So you admit that you move the bed to hoover?’

‘Yes, I just said so.’

‘It’s exceptionally heavy, with two drawers beneath the frame for storage. Did you get any help when you say you moved the bed?’

‘Well, if I did, Alan would help me.’

‘So you have not moved the bed for some time?’

‘No, not that I can remember.’

Paul knew they were getting nowhere. He had remained silent watching Anna work over Tina, but it wasn’t bringing a result. Mr Hyde obviously felt the same way as he tapped the table with his pen.

‘I feel that my client has answered your questions and to be honest, unless you have proof that Mr Rawlins is deceased and not as Miss Brooks claims missing, I think she has assisted your enquiries to the best of her ability. If you have nothing further to add, I suggest that we terminate this interview.’

Anna really had no alternative. She closed her file and thanked Tina for her cooperation, but warned her that she might well want to interview her again when she got the blood results from the lab. She also made it clear that her flat was now a possible murder scene and she should make arrangements to stay elsewhere until the tests had been completed. Paul took Tina and Jonathan Hyde to the reception while Anna remained in the interview room, irritated because she knew she had perhaps jumped the gun. However, she hoped that putting Tina under pressure might produce a result as by now the woman must be aware of the seriousness of the findings in her flat.

Anna found Paul sitting on a chair facing the incident board.

‘That was a bit of a waste of time,’ he said.

‘Maybe, but it might put the skids beneath her. Tomorrow we’ll go over to the lab and see what they have for us.’

‘I tell you what we need – a body.’

‘You think I don’t know that?’ she snapped.

‘Question is, where the hell is it?’ Paul went on. ‘If he was killed in the bed she couldn’t have carried him by herself. He was a big guy, muscular, and must have weighed at least seventeen stone.’

‘I know.’

‘Which means she would have had to have help. The other scenario is, whilst she was at work someone else entered the flat, killed him and moved the body before she got home.’

‘I don’t buy that. Are you saying that this other person cut out the carpet, laid it under the bed, moved the body and she didn’t know about it?’

Paul shrugged. ‘I dunno, but if the blood is Alan Rawlins’s . . .?’

‘Not if. I am damned sure it is, and we’ll be able to prove it when they get the results from the comparison with his parents’ blood.’

‘Well, until we are positive there’s not a lot we can move on with.’

‘I’ll see you at the lab first thing in the morning.’

With that, Anna went into her office. She wrote up the report of the interview, but felt disinclined to contact Langton. Tina was obviously her prime suspect. Although she had thought about Michael Phillips being a part of it, they had not a shred of proof that he was involved.

Anna used the wine and sleeping tablets combination to get another good night’s sleep. She did make herself an omelette the next morning, but hardly touched it. By nine she was waiting at the forensic lab in Lambeth for Paul to arrive. Meanwhile work was still continuing at Tina’s flat as the team searched every inch for further bloodstains and any evidence that Alan Rawlins was murdered inside the bedroom. Tina had given the address of Donna Hastings, the girl she was staying with until she could move back into the flat.

Whilst waiting, Anna went over and over in her head the possible scenario. There was no sign of forced entry, so did Alan know his killer? Whatever had occurred in the flat must have been very traumatic. It was possible that Alan had been bludgeoned whilst leaning over the bed. Had it been an argument that got out of control? Or was it a planned murder?

To dispose of a body was no easy feat. She surmised that Tina would have had to have help, but if it had been some argument that resulted in murder, why not call the police and explain that it was an accident? The financial gain for Tina was the seventy-odd thousand in the joint savings account, plus Alan’s life-insurance policy. Surely that was not enough to commit murder? Tina’s salon was on the surface successful, but Anna knew it was also in debt; nevertheless she had to be making a good living.

Anna rubbed her head and tried to think of the alternative scenario. Tina, with an accomplice, planned to kill Alan. The motive could be that she wanted out of the relationship and wanted the joint bank account for herself. That would mean it could possibly be a passionate relationship, but with whom? So far they had found no evidence to prove she was having any kind of affair. Okay, there had been some flirty behaviour at the gym, but nothing had surfaced from their interviews, to the contrary. Tina had claimed she was suspicious that Alan was leaving her for another woman, but so far there was no evidence of any other woman in Alan’s life.

She was going around in circles again and she physically jumped when Paul tapped her shoulder.

‘Sorry I’m late. The bloody tubes were up the spout.’

They headed into the forensic lab, where Liz Hawley was just arriving, also complaining of a tube strike. She was a middle-aged, rather rotund woman with straggly grey hair caught in a knot on the top of her head. She was also a very experienced scientist. As she put on her white coat she led them to her section of the lab.

‘Right. First I’ll deal with the cut-out area beneath the sofa in the lounge. We’ve examined the underlay that was left in place there, and there does not appear to be any wine staining. The section of carpet inserted by the bedside is not wine-stained and most probably came from beneath the living-room sofa. It looks like both areas were originally cut out with a Stanley knife, but the uneven ragged edges on the bedroom insert suggests scissors were used to re-shape it so it would fit.

‘Now, onto the blood distribution under the inserted piece of carpet by the bed. I would propose that the victim may have suffered a severe head injury or possibly stab wounds causing heavy blood loss, as some areas of staining were so dense. Although attempts had been made to clean it up, the blood had soaked through the underlay onto and between the floorboards where it pooled and congealed underneath. The victim could have been on the left side of the bed when initially attacked, as ultra-violet light testing revealed some minute traces of blood spatter on the bedside wall. It would appear that a bleaching agent was used to wipe the wall and we also found some minute bloodstaining on the edge of the mattress. The sheet we removed from the bed has no blood on it so it’s likely the original bloodstained one was destroyed or laundered. The pillows also have minute traces, but not the pillowcases.’

‘What kind of weapon do you think would have caused the injury?’ Anna asked her.

‘Well, my dear, that is really for you to find out. It could have been a blunt instrument, knife or even a gun, but without a body for a pathologist to examine it’s impossible to tell you. We have removed a few items from the flat for testing – a golf club, a baseball bat and hammer, but we haven’t recovered any trace evidence from them.’

‘So you wouldn’t say all that blood could have come from a severe nose bleed?’

‘No, definitely not with the heavily stained and pooled areas, but the staining on the pillows and mattress could have done. It would appear that whoever sustained the injuries lost a large volume of blood, which without immediate medical attention would probably result in death. Also, for this amount of blood to be found in one area, your victim must have been in a dormant position for quite some time, possibly lying over the edge of the bed or on the floor beside it.’

Liz moved along the workbench. ‘We have recovered two hairs from one pillowcase and a semen stain on the bedsheet.’

This pleased Anna. ‘That’s good. We’ll need to test if the hairs are Tina’s.’

Liz picked up her notebook. ‘We have received the blood samples from the parents, Mr and Mrs Edward Rawlins, for genetic DNA comparison to the scene stains.’

Anna waited, eager to know if their suspicions were correct and that Alan Rawlins was probably dead.

‘There are a couple of problems though. Firstly, the doctor who took Mrs Rawlins’s blood failed to secure the container properly, causing it to leak – which raises not only health and safety issues for my staff but also possible contamination. I will need another sample from her. In respect of Edward Rawlins’s profile, I’m not entirely happy with the result. Sometimes things can go wrong and the results can be misleading, but I can’t say at this stage that the blood from the flat did belong to their son.’

‘What do you mean by misleading?’

‘Well, in the past this type of DNA testing has sometimes revealed that the offspring is not the biological child . . .’

‘What, you mean like adoption?’

‘Possibly, but in this case the result of the genetic profile from the scene stains, when compared to Mr Rawlins’s DNA, is questionable. He may not be the father.’

‘I don’t believe it! It’s going to be difficult to find out.’

‘Why is that? I have enough of Mr Rawlins’s blood to run further tests, and once you get another sample from Mrs Rawlins . . .’

‘I meant find out who is the biological father. The mother has Alzheimer’s and didn’t recognise her son most of the time, or her husband.’

‘Well, to be certain either way, I will need to run some further tests for genetic markers on Mr Rawlins’s blood sample. As I said, sometimes mistakes can be made and you need to be one hundred per cent sure on victim identification for your investigation.’

Anna was about to leave, disappointed, when Liz tapped her arm. ‘I’m not finished yet. There’s something else.’

She led them to another section. Laid out were Alan Rawlins’s clothes from the black bin liners.

‘We didn’t find any blood on any of the clothes, but we have retrieved a single head hair and the colour does not match the two hairs recovered from the bedlinen.’

Anna knew this was a very positive step.

‘Can you get DNA from these hairs?’

‘None of the hairs recovered have a root attached, but our best bet is to attempt to raise a mitochondrial profile for comparison. You inherit this type of DNA from your mother. However, the process is very time-consuming and can take a few weeks. Basically we have a very small cut strand of blonde hair from Mr Rawlins’s clothes, but the two hairs from the bedlinen are reddish and possibly dyed.’

Liz checked her clipboard. ‘We have also compared the DNA from the semen stain against the blood pooling and they do not match.’ She gave a bark of a laugh. ‘Looks like somebody else has been sleeping in his bed.’

Anna patted Liz’s arm. ‘This is fantastic, Liz. Thank you.’

‘Sadly, there’s no trace on the national DNA database for the blood or semen stains. There’s some further scene examination I’d like to do and I don’t want to proceed without your permission as there’s a risk of losing evidence by this chemical testing.’

Liz produced photographs of Tina’s bathroom: white bath, white tiles on the wall, white washbasin, and the floor covered in more white tiles.

‘It was just a tiny speck in the grouting between the tiles on the far side of the bath – and when I say tiny, I mean less than the size of a pinhead.’

‘What?’

‘Blood. Although the use of bleaching agents is common in a bathroom and the speck of blood could have got there for a number of reasons, the smell of the bleach was very strong, considering Alan Rawlins has been missing for two months now.’ Liz showed them the photograph of the pristine bathroom, indicating with a pen where she had found the minuscule bloodstain.

‘There is the possibility that bleach has been used to clean up blood in the bathroom, and I want to use Luminol to detect any remaining specks that are not visible to the human eye. It’s a chemical spray that has to be used in darkness and which reacts with the haemoglobin in diluted bloodstains, causing them to glow a bright blue. It’s more commonly used in the US. However, the problem is it can damage genetic markers and also give false reactions to a number of things, but further tests to determine blood on anything recovered can be done in the lab. I personally only like to use it as a last resort, but have had positive results in the past – and as they say, nothing ventured, nothing gained.’

‘Do it,’ Anna said confidently.

‘Jolly good, I will get onto that.’ Liz closed her notebook. ‘Now then, last but not least. This is just my intuition from experience on a previous case. I think the victim was killed in the bedroom, possibly subsequently wrapped in the sheet and carried into the bathroom, then placed in the bath to be dismembered, as it’s easier to dispose of body parts rather than the whole corpse. We found no saws or knives that may have been used for this, but it is a possibility. Using Luminol might help us to determine if this scenario is correct, but for now it’s over to you to see if you can find anything that might have been used to kill or dismember the victim.’

‘Christ, that was some session,’ Paul said as they headed back to the station with Anna at the wheel.

‘She’s one of the best and it sort of makes you . . .’

‘Sick?’

‘No – more and more aware of what went on inside the flat. What I can’t get my head around is the motive. It can’t be money, it’s just not enough.’

‘I dunno – about a hundred grand would see me right.’

‘But would you kill for it?’

Paul frowned, clearly finding it hard to come to terms with what they had just been told.

‘Why kill him? Why not just leave?’ he said. ‘They weren’t married – it doesn’t make sense to me.’

‘It’s got to be passion.’

‘Passion? Jesus Christ, that doesn’t work for me. Passionate enough to beat the guy over the head, maybe dismember him in the bath and then go out and dump whatever remains they have? That’s not passion: to me, that’s cold-blooded murder. And like we keep saying, the motive isn’t there.’

‘I think it’s passion,’ she insisted.

‘Well, all I can say is what kind of passion have you been involved with because I can’t see it.’

‘All right, think: they have DNA from the semen, plus hair from the bed which was not the victim’s. So whoever it belongs to has to have had sex after Alan was murdered. That’s passion, sick as it sounds.’

They drove in silence for a while and then Paul sighed. ‘You know we still don’t have a positive that the blood was Alan Rawlins’s? Well, I’ve got another scenario. What if . . . no, no, it wouldn’t work.’

‘Go on,’ Anna prompted.

‘Okay. What if we discover that it wasn’t Alan Rawlins’s blood by the bed? What if he was involved in the murder instead, and he cleaned it all up and then went missing afterwards?’

‘That’s impossible.’

‘Yeah, that’s what I thought, but Liz said the blood was not a match for the semen found on the bedsheet – so what if the hair and semen in the bed were Alan Rawlins’s, but the blood on the floor under the carpet was someone else’s.’

Anna digested what he had said, mulling it over in her mind.

‘He was fair-haired, right? Liz said the hair found in the bed was reddish-dyed. It could be Tina’s, but either way we have to get him identified,’ she said quietly.

‘Well, if the genetic blood comparison doesn’t give it up we don’t have Alan Rawlins positively identified. There’re no hairbrushes, combs or razor to help us either. That in itself is odd, but not if he packed them up and took them away with him.’

‘Shit,’ Anna muttered under her breath.

‘Added to this,’ Paul went on, ‘it could mean that Tina genuinely wasn’t aware of what went on in the flat, that she didn’t know about the blood under the bed nor about the cutting up of the carpet.’

‘What about the bleach?’

‘She uses it at the salon, we know that.’

Anna bit her lip. ‘So what you are saying is that Alan Rawlins committed the murder, cut up the body, moved

it and then, knowing what he had done, went on the run?’

‘Yeah. Is it possible?’

‘You are the one suggesting it,’ she snapped.

‘Well, what do you think?’ Paul asked.

‘I think,’ Anna hesitated, ‘that before we get into this mad conjecture we need verification that the blood was Alan Rawlins’s. If the further tests on Edward Rawlins’s blood reveal he is not the biological father, we revisit Mrs Rawlins. Maybe she can remember if she had an extramarital fling that resulted in the birth of Alan.’

‘We need to arrange for a police doctor to get another blood sample from her anyway,’ Paul said, yawning. ‘It doesn’t make sense.’

‘Well, as Liz said, there can sometimes be a blip in the blood testing, so again we have to wait for confirmation.’

‘This is a big step up from looking for a missing person, isn’t it, ma’am?’

‘You said it. We’ve got us a full-scale murder enquiry.’