Blood Line (28 page)

Langton nodded, wondering where she was going with her carefully chosen words. She was very tense – he could feel it.

‘I think you brought up this old case you worked on because you believe that I am going in the wrong direction by widening the trace and interview of Rawlins’s contacts to such a degree that it is removing suspicion from Tina Brooks, who
you
believe should be the prime suspect.’

‘Correct.’

‘In your case, James, you had a body. I don’t. I have blood pooling and we have been unable to get a positive DNA result so my victim remains unidentified. As far as I can ascertain, the only similarities with your case were that your victim went from being a nice young woman with a small child to you uncovering that she did have quite a voracious sexual appetite. So she led a somewhat double life, changing sexual partners frequently.’

She sipped her coffee. He stared at her, refusing to interrupt, but becoming irritated by her appraisal of his old case.

‘My investigation is only similar in that one aspect. To all intent and purpose, when we first looked at Alan Rawlins as a missing person, no one had a bad word to say against him. He was a handsome, dedicated, hardworking and caring man. He was consistently described as shy, introverted and a man who loathed confrontation of any kind. It appeared that this gentle, decent and respected man had no enemies and it was possible that his girlfriend, Tina Brooks, had killed him in some kind of rage. The blood distribution was so extensive that even without a body, it was deemed by forensic experts unlikely that anyone could have survived the attack. It is also suspected by Forensics that the victim was dismembered, and again this is supported by the blood spattering and various blood samples taken from the victim’s bathroom.’

Langton sighed and crossed his legs.

‘I’m sorry to take so much time, but I think this all needs to be said because you implied that I was not managing the investigation, but allowing it to spiral out of control.’

‘Correct,’ he said. To make even more of a point he glanced at his watch.

‘I have subsequently discovered that my possible victim, Alan Rawlins, led a double life. He was a liar, he was also homosexual and favoured what can only be described as sado-masochistic one-night stands from men he contacted through the internet or erotic male magazines. He was able to continue this double life by leaving London whenever the opportunity arose to spend time in Cornwall. He was very athletic and an experienced surfer. We now have information that he also accumulated a considerable amount of money, cash payments for vintage cars he customised and sold. We believe he has purchased, for cash and using the name of his old schoolfriend, a sea view property in Cornwall worth over half a million. He also used schoolfriends’ names when he paid for sex. He was able to hide this double life from his girlfriend also. She believed they were to be married, they had a joint bank account for seventy thousand pounds and he had only a small life-insurance policy for fifty thousand. Alan Rawlins lied to Tina Brooks, who had no knowledge of his homosexuality nor that he had substantial cash savings.’

Langton looked on with surprise as Anna opened her desk drawer and took out a packet of cigarettes; she opened it, but then before taking one out she tossed the pack down. He had never seen her smoke. In fact, he didn’t even know that she did.

‘From the files on his computer we have learned that Alan Rawlins was also making more money, again in cash, and he was also paying out large chunks of money whilst living in Cornwall. These are in payments of five to ten thousand pounds and on a regular basis. I think that he was possibly involved in dealing in drugs and the purchase of the house and other cash transactions are a means of laundering the money.’

Langton closed his eyes and shook his head.

‘Also missing is a known drug dealer called Sammy Marsh. He’s got a police record so it’s hoped we may get a DNA match from his profile to ascertain if
he
is actually the victim we first believed to be Alan Rawlins. We have semen and a single strand of reddish-coloured hair recovered from the bedlinen at Tina Brooks’s flat. As yet we have not had confirmation that the hair belonged to Tina, but I’m waiting for the forensic team to get back to me as I personally took a buccal swab test from her. We have been unable to find a razor, hairbrush or toothbrush that belonged to Alan Rawlins to test for his DNA. It would appear that he was more than aware of forensic testing, as his computer files show extensive research into forensic science. Also, the internet search history, believe it or not, shows he has been looking at numerous cases of people changing their identity. These cases range from the UK to the USA. Alan Rawlins, I now believe, planned his disappearance.’

Langton took a deep breath.

‘James, he planned it and perhaps whoever died in that flat is either this Sammy Marsh or the person he has changed identities with. What Alan Rawlins didn’t believe was that his hidden life would be uncovered. He must have been planning this for some considerable time and I think we might be able to prove it by checking out the person living in his property in Cornwall.’

Langton rested his elbows on his knees, looking at the floor. Anna waited for him to speak, but he kept his head down.

‘I need to go to Cornwall,’ she insisted. ‘I totally refute your insinuations that I have allowed this case to run out of control. I
am
in control and I have
not
got tunnel vision. I think the detective work done by myself and my team cannot be faulted. It may appear extensive, but we are still on budget and—’

‘Shush, shush,’ he said softly, still looking down. Eventually he sat upright and stretched his legs out in front of him, then began to speak.

‘Tina Brooks lived in that flat and she agreed to her boyfriend or fiancé being reported missing after two weeks, after he was last seen leaving work early because he had a migraine. She says she left him in bed and when she returned from her work he was not there. He hasn’t reappeared since. You have had almost two weeks whilst you handle the investigation into whether or not he is murdered. You come to the conclusion that he has met with foul play because carpet has been cut from beneath the sitting-room sofa and then used as an insert to replace a damaged area beside the bed. This, you believe, was obviously done to conceal heavy blood-staining.’

‘Yes, I know that, but—’

‘Don’t interrupt me,’ he snapped. ‘You also discover as yet unidentified semen and head hair from a sheet that may have replaced the original one, which would have undoubtedly had bloodstains on it. You subsequently discover further blood pooling and blood-spattering in the bathroom that was cleaned with bleach you know was bought by Tina Brooks. You also know she ordered a roll of new carpet, her excuse being that the landlord would keep the initial deposit if he discovered any damage to the old one.’

Anna sat listening tight-lipped.

‘You have a young man living right next door – a suspect, who has refused to give you a DNA sample – correct?’

‘Yes.’

‘You have so far been unable to make a connection between these two – Tina and what’s his name?’

‘Michael Phillips.’

‘You have her landline records and her mobile ones and there has been no contact between the two of them – correct?’

‘Yes.’

He stood up and rubbed at his old injured knee.

‘You believe that Tina Brooks was unaware of her boyfriend’s predilection for homosexual one-night stands. She never went to Cornwall, she claims she has no knowledge of Alan Rawlins’s other life. They planned to marry and she did wonder if there was perhaps another woman as . . .’

Langton paced the office. No matter how irritated Anna was by him, she still had to be impressed by his retentive memory.

‘I think she said he had become distant and tetchy with her, and she wondered if she had been pressing too hard for wedding dates and so on. Yes?’

‘Yes.’

He sat down again. ‘I don’t believe it. I think she’s a liar. You want a motive? What if she discovered what her boyfriend was up to? Found out he was leading this double life and added to that was awash with money?’

‘Money she couldn’t or wouldn’t be able to get her hands on,’ Anna said, getting very edgy.

‘Believe me, people have killed for a lot less than what she’s got in their joint bank account, but your motive is there: betrayal and rage. She is also, according to one of your reports, very strong. She works out in the local gym and she flew at you – right?’

‘Yes.’

‘Think about it, Anna. She was the last person to see him alive, and unless you have proof that she did not return to that flat, and did not, as she claimed, come back the same night he left work with a migraine, but stayed away for a week or two weeks even,
someone
picked up that blood-drenched bedding,
someone
replaced the blood-soaked carpet,
someone
used bleach to clean that flat or attempt to clean it up.
Someone
had to carve up the body and remove it, and you believe that she is Miss Innocent? Clean linen was put on the bed, Anna; someone had sex in that freshly made bed. Who else is living there?’

Anna swallowed and looked down at the mass of files and statements on her desk.

‘Now you are bringing up Christ knows how much evidence that opens up this double life Alan Rawlins lived. How many drug dealers are you going to question? How many surfers, estate agents and ex-boyfriends, when what you have is your prime suspect throwing a punch at you. You have to crack her open, Anna, you have to find the key that’ll make her tell you the truth because in my estimation she has been lying and leading you by the fucking nose.’

Anna said nothing. Langton glanced at his watch again.

‘I have to go. Break her, Anna, break that flash neighbour of hers too and find out if he’s involved or not. In the meantime, just drop this Cornwall escapade. It’s proof of only one thing: that Alan Rawlins was a man scared to get out of the closet and who hid his homosexuality.’

‘It’s more than that,’ she said churlishly.

‘No, it isn’t. Better still, Anna, try and find the fucking body. It has to be somewhere, it has to have been dumped somewhere.’

‘I don’t agree with you.’

‘What?’

She stood up to face him. ‘I said, I don’t agree with you. I will focus on Tina as you have suggested and the neighbour, but if I don’t get a result I want to go to Cornwall.’

‘Christ,’ he muttered.

‘I agree with much of what you have said with regard to Tina, but at the same time I think that there is another scenario that I want to look into.’

Langton rubbed his head. ‘Anna, if Alan
was
planning to do a runner, planning to change his identity, why leave his computer with the hard drive for you to find?’

‘I think he planned it, but then something happened and he couldn’t or didn’t have the time to carry it through in the way he had wanted. And added to this, I don’t believe that Alan knew he was not the biological son.’

‘All right, all right. Go another round with Tina, put the pressure on her. It has to be done that way because as it stands this is circumstantial evidence. That said, it’s pretty thickly laid on and a jury would find it hard to believe that she lived in the flat at Newton Court and didn’t have anything to do with the murder. So you have to break her into admitting what part she played. See what you can get in the next two days. Then let’s have another talk and I will decide whether or not it is necessary for you to go to Cornwall.’

‘What if whoever is living in this property gets tipped off? You know we’ve had to go through numerous estate agents, and as it was a cash deal, they could have had a kickback and might make contact.’

‘All right, go to fucking Cornwall! But you’ve only got until the end of this week. You have to get a result – understand me?’

‘I think you’ve made it abundantly clear.’

‘Don’t get sarcastic with me, Anna. I’ve got a job to do and this isn’t in any way personal, so don’t make it out to be anything but my professional take on the way you are handling this enquiry.’

She wouldn’t back down. ‘I think I have handled it to the best of my ability. If you want to replace me . . .?’

He turned on her angrily. ‘Don’t think it’s not on the cards – and you
can
take that personally because I want you to succeed. I believe in you and I am trusting you to do as I have asked.’

‘Thank you.’

He gazed at her with her chin up and that stubborn glare, and he had never seen her looking so attractive. The window behind her desk gave a light to her red hair and made her eyes bluer than blue.

‘Thank you, too,’ he said softly, walking out and closing the door quietly behind him.

Anna slowly sank into her desk chair, opened her cigarette pack and lit up. Her hand was shaking. In case she set the smoke alarm off in her office, she opened the window. Puffing on her cigarette, she observed Langton crossing the station yard below towards his erratically parked old Rover, which was never locked. He yanked the driver’s door open, and then for some reason he paused and turned to look up at her window, smiled and gave her a small salute. She watched as he drove out.

She hated the taste left in her mouth after smoking, she thought as she stubbed out the cigarette on the sill before closing the window. She would do exactly as he had requested. She would go in to tell the team that they would arrest Tina Brooks before they travelled to Cornwall.

First, however, she had to sort out all the files that littered her desk. She’d just begun on the task when Helen rang to ask if she could see her for a moment. Anna opened the door, saying, ‘I was just coming to speak to you all.’

‘I wanted to apologise about something I had overlooked – my call to Donna at the hair salon. I didn’t think, but now in retrospect I should have paid more attention. You were right.’

‘Right about what?’

‘I spoke to Donna again. I didn’t want to make it too obvious, but I just said that when I had last talked to her about the competition dates, she’d mentioned that Tina was not in the salon as she’d gone out to make a call.’