Blood Line (31 page)

Anna nodded, not wishing to get into how she felt about Tina.

‘Could you manage to get some lunch brought up to my office?’ she asked.

‘Canteen might be closed, it’s almost three.’

‘Just a sandwich and coffee will do. Thank you.’

By now Anna had a headache. She was just taking a couple of aspirin when Paul called through to say that the duty solicitor was now with Michael Phillips, and had also asked to see her. Sighing, she asked for Paul to give her fifteen minutes and by the time Helen had brought her lunch she was feeling a little better. Still the headache persisted so she took two more aspirin before she agreed to speak with Rhaji Simonie, now representing Michael Phillips.

‘Hello again,’ he said, smiling as he entered her office. Anna stood up to shake his hand, having no recall of ever meeting him previously. He was very young, with tawny skin and gleaming black hair combed straight back from his angular face.

‘Well, I’ve talked with Mr Phillips, or should I say he talked at me, and I think we need to establish a few things.’

He sat down, opening a very beaten-up bulging leather briefcase, and rooted around to bring out some loose pages. He then had another search around and Anna offered him a sharpened pencil from a jar on her desk. He shook his head, patting his jacket pockets and finally smiled as he took out a biro. He clicked it open and closed as he looked over his scrawled notes.

‘Right, my client is not officially under arrest but had agreed to come here voluntarily to assist your enquiry. You have previously interviewed him at his place of work requesting information with regard to the disappearance of someone called Alan Rawlins.’ He glanced up at Anna and gave her yet another wide smile. She was impatient, and his irritating click-clicking of his biro didn’t help.

‘Mr Simonie, your client is the neighbour who lives in the flat opposite.’

‘Yes, yes, to a Miss Tina Brooks. He claims that he had no contact with the missing chap and that he has only recently become friendly with Miss Brooks.’

‘Your client has refused to give a DNA sample.’

‘Yes, yes, I am aware of that, and as he has not been formally arrested that is his prerogative.’

‘The reason why I have requested Mr Phillips to assist us is to basically eliminate him from my enquiry. It is far more serious than whether or not he knew Mr Rawlins. We know that it is possible Alan Rawlins was murdered in Miss Brooks’s flat and we have recovered DNA evidence from the bedding in Miss Brooks’s bedroom.’

‘Wait – just let me make a note . . .’

‘I don’t have very much time, Mr Simonie. Basically, if your client’s DNA does not match the evidence we have then he could be eliminated as a suspect.’

‘Hang on a second, I don’t quite follow . . . you have DNA from bedlinen that is connected to the possible murder of er . . . well, do you have a positive identification of who the victim is?’

‘No, we do not. But let me explain. We have substantial blood pooling beside the bed, blood on the edge of the mattress, and the bedlinen was freshly laundered and obviously replaced the bloodstained set. Are you following me?’

‘Yes, yes, just jotting it all down.’

She watched him scribble away and sighed.

‘It is obvious, Mr Simonie, why we suspect that your client may have been involved with Miss Brooks for a considerably longer time than he has admitted. He could therefore be . . .’

‘In cahoots with her?’

‘Yes.’

‘Is Miss Brooks a suspect in the murder of persons unknown?’

‘Yes.’

‘Ah, the plot thickens. Could you give me an indication of why you believe she is connected to the murder of whoever bled on the bed?’

‘There was blood on the floor and in the bathroom, leaving us to suspect that a body was dismembered inside Miss Brooks’s flat.’

‘Bloody hell! Right – and my client has denied knowing anything about this awful situation, correct?’

‘Yes.’

‘But you believe him to be connected?’

‘You tell me, why does your client refuse to assist us? By not giving a DNA sample it is reasonable to suspect his involvement.’

‘No, no, no, I disagree. My client does not realise the seriousness of why you have been questioning him. If, however, you have evidence that proves him to be connected . . .’

Anna sighed and shook her head.

‘Mr Simonie, it is a very simple request. He has lied, he has denied knowing Miss Brooks or having any kind of relationship with her, yet we have a series of phone calls between them.’

‘These calls, how did you get them?’

Anna tensed up and explained that they had acquired them after Miss Brooks had left her salon to place calls to Mr Phillips, first at his office and then to a mobile phone.

‘Ah yes, but these calls have only recently taken place. He admits that he has become friendlier with Miss Brooks, but this has only occurred over the past few days. Miss Brooks was in his apartment for one occasion only and not since. Do you have any evidence that disproves this?’

‘He can resolve the situation by agreeing to give a DNA sample,’ she snapped, exasperated by Simonie.

‘Do you see his predicament?’

‘What?’

‘Well, it’s obvious, isn’t it?’

‘The only thing obvious to me is that your client’s continued refusal to assist my investigation is because he is withholding evidence.’

‘My client is guilty of nothing, Detective Travis. His refusal to comply with your request for a DNA sample is, as I have already stated, his prerogative – unless, of course, you have evidence that proves he is connected to your murder investigation. As his legal representative I will also refuse to encourage my client to—’

Anna stood up, angrily suggested that he leave and crossed to open her door to usher him out.

‘If we find that your client is lying and perverting the course of justice, he will be arrested and charged. You may take him out of the station.’

Simonie stuffed his loose papers back into his briefcase and, clicking his pen, walked towards her.

‘I will inform my client he is free to go. Thank you so much.’

She wanted to slam the door behind him, but she restrained herself and closed it firmly before kicking out at the chair he had just vacated. Then she rang through to Brian Stanley.

‘Brian, have you got the results on Michael Phillips’s mobile and office calls yet?’

‘I think that’s already in progress,’ he said.

‘I asked you personally to do it and I need them urgently. See how far they go back, then let me know the dates ASAP.’ She banged the receiver back and drained the dregs of her cold cup of coffee.

Fifteen minutes later she was heading down the corridor to the interview room as Mr Hyde had finished talking to his client.

By now, Michael Phillips had left with the irritating Rhaji Simonie, who may have been wet behind the ears, but had won round one. Anna had no doubt that she would be seeing him again.

T
ina Brooks was very subdued. She sat with her head bent down and her hands clasped in her lap. Anna seated herself opposite Hyde, who had moved his chair as far from his client as possible. His legs were crossed beside the table rather than beneath it. In front of him he had his leather-bound notebook open and his pen placed beside it. Paul had the stack of case-files beside him, leaving Anna space to have her notes in front of her. Quietly she cautioned Tina and reminded her that she was under arrest on suspicion of murder.

Hyde coughed, clearing his throat.

‘Let’s begin with clarifying that my client is suspected of murdering someone as yet unidentified. The possibility that the victim was Alan Rawlins, with whom she cohabitated in flat two Newton Court, Hounslow, has as yet not been proven. So there is also the possibility that the victim was in fact killed
by
Mr Rawlins, who has since absconded after disposing of the body.’

Anna met his cold flinty eyes and nodded.

‘So taking on board this rather confusing scenario, let us now discuss why my client is here.’

Anna looked directly at Tina.

‘Your client, Mr Hyde, is under suspicion of murder. Miss Brooks, could you please describe the last time you saw Alan Rawlins.’

Tina kept her head down as she replied.

‘I got a call at about ten in the morning. Alan said he was feeling ill and that it was probably a migraine. He had driven into work, but I agreed to pick him up and take him back to the flat in case anything happened while he was driving. He said he was really feeling bad and went straight to bed. I closed the curtains, made him a flask of tea and I went into work.’

‘And that was the last time you saw him?’

‘Yes, it was. I did call home later, but I didn’t get an answer so I presumed he was sleeping.’

‘How frequently did Mr Rawlins have these migraines?’

‘Not often, but he had one or two before that I can remember, and he always slept them off.’

‘Taking no medication for them?’

‘Not all the time, no.’

‘What time did you return to the flat?’

‘It was after I finished work – maybe six or quarter to seven.’

Anna flicked through her notebook.

‘Take me through what happened when you got home.’

‘Alan wasn’t there. He had been working a few nights until late so I presumed he must have felt better and gone back to the garage. I rang them, but no one answered. Well, they wouldn’t because he would have been outside where he worked on his own car.’

‘Go on.’

‘How do you mean?’

‘When he didn’t come home, what did you do?’

‘Oh, I see. I went to bed.’

‘In your bedroom?’

‘Yes.’

‘Okay, so what happened the next day?’

‘I went to work and I did phone home again, but there was no reply. I began to think that Alan had left me. He had been very distant with me for a while, non-communicative, and I started to think he had someone else. I rang his work again and they told me he hadn’t turned up there either.’

Anna watched the way Tina was acting, demure and upset. She constantly glanced towards Hyde, never looking at Anna.

‘I really believed he’d left me for another woman. His father phoned wanting to talk to him, and I asked him if
he
had seen Alan and he said he hadn’t.’

‘You remained alone in your flat?’

‘Yes. It was horrible because I didn’t know what was going on. He had never done this before, but I still thought he had maybe taken off with another woman or gone to Cornwall. He often went there whenever he had spare time.’

‘Without telling you?’

‘Yes.’

‘But also not informing his boss at the garage?’

‘I don’t know – maybe he did tell him. Mr Smedley never mentioned it when I called, but that was sort of why I felt suspicious – you know, that maybe Alan had told him and asked him not to tell me.’

‘How long was it before you became concerned about Alan’s disappearance?’

‘Well, it may sound awful, but not until about a fortnight had elapsed. This was because his father kept on calling me as he expected Alan to make contact as they were going to go to the cinema. Well, that’s what he told me. He then said he was going to report him missing so I agreed and that’s what we did.’

Anna paused, flicking the pages of her notebook back and forth.

‘During all this time you slept in the flat?’

‘Yes.’

‘Was there anyone else sleeping there?’

‘No.’

‘Do you have a cleaner?’

‘No.’

‘So did you change the bedlinen on your bed?’

‘I can’t really remember, but yes, I suppose I did. I usually change the bed every Monday and take the used stuff to the launderette for a service wash.’

‘We have been to the laundry you use and they have no record of you bringing in anything for the period of time when Alan Rawlins was missing. How do you explain that?’

‘I dunno. I said every Monday, but sometimes I’d skip a week or so if we’d been away.’

‘But you weren’t away, so what did you do with the sheets left on the bed when Alan was at home with a migraine?’

‘I can’t remember.’

‘You can’t remember?’

‘I just said so.’

Paul passed over the photographs taken at the scene of crime. They showed the blood pooling, under the floorboards and the removed segment of carpet. Anna handed them across to Tina.

‘As you can see, we discovered dense blood pooling beside your bed.’

Tina stared at the photographs.

Next, Paul produced the print of the staining to the edge of the mattress.

‘This bloodstain was on your mattress.’

Again, Tina just stared at the photograph.

‘We also know that you purchased four large containers of bleach and carpet cleaner, but we found only one container of bleach in your flat. Forensics have ascertained that bleach was used in an attempt to clean up. The blood must have soaked through the original carpet, through the underlay and down onto and under the floorboards.’

Paul got out the forensic shots. Again Tina stared at them, but remained silent. She turned to hand them to her lawyer, but he shook his head, having already been shown them.

‘Do you have anything to say about the findings, Tina?’

‘No.’

Anna nodded to Paul as she explained the use of Luminol in the bathroom and hallway.

‘As you can see, although there had been an attempt to clean the bathroom and the surrounding areas, we were able to uncover further blood-staining.’

Tina chewed at her lips. Again she turned to her lawyer, almost as if
he
could give her an explanation, but he said that he was already privy to the photographs.

‘We have, as you know, been unable to identify the blood recovered as that of Alan Rawlins, but it stands to reason that as he has been missing for over nine weeks now it is very possibly his,’ Anna went on. ‘And that he was murdered in the bedroom then carried into the bathroom, due to the amount of blood-stains discovered in both rooms.’

‘I don’t understand any of this,’ Tina said, and placed her hands over the offending photographs.

‘It’s very difficult for
us
to understand, Tina, especially as you claim that the last time you saw Alan Rawlins was—’