Blood Line (46 page)

Paul stood at the incident board by the lists of phone calls written down in the order they were made.

‘So he gets off work because he says he’s got a migraine. Tina collects him and leaves him in bed. But we can tell he had to have made all these calls on the same day. That would mean that Sammy Marsh was still alive, so we should pass that on to the Cornwall crowd.’

‘Are there any numbers that you’ve not traced?’ asked Anna.

Brian pointed to five long-distance calls which were underlined. They had been unable to get a trace on who they were to as they were all abroad, but they were still trying. Three were to Antigua, one to Los Angeles and one to Florida.

After the briefing Anna made the decision to rearrest Tina Brooks early the following morning. For now, she was tired out and couldn’t wait to go home and get some sleep. Jonathan Hyde, Tina’s brief, would be contacted as soon as they had her in custody at the station. If, as usual, he kept them waiting and then demanded a lengthy disclosure of their new evidence, Anna reckoned it would be around midday before questioning could begin.

Anna was prepared for a restless night, but she fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. No sleeping tablets or even a few glasses of wine were involved. She was mentally and physically exhausted.

On the other side of London, Liz Hawley didn’t often work half the night, but she and her team knew the urgency of the case. They had already double-checked their DNA match. They were now working on the microscopic speck of blood taken from the axe-handle shaft. Because it was so small she had instructed her team to attempt Low Copy Number on the sample and replicate the DNA cells over and over again so as to create a sufficient quantity for analysis. By morning she hoped they would have enough to test for a DNA match with Alan Rawlins’s profile.

*

Anna was dressed and ready for action by seven. She drove to the station and already waiting for her were Paul and Brian. They used a patrol car to drive to Newton Court. Tina opened her door wearing a dressing-gown, her hair in large green rollers and a piece of toast in her hand. Without make-up she looked much older. She didn’t put up any resistance, just asked if she could call her brief, but Anna said they would do that at the station. It took over half an hour for her to get herself ready. She had dressed in a demure, but tight-fitting dark maroon woollen dress with a white Peter Pan collar, her hair was gleaming and brushed up into a loose flattering coil and her make-up was thicker than she had worn before, with a dark red lip gloss.

During the ride to the station Tina sat in the back beside Brian Stanley, but as far away from him as possible, staring out of the window. Anna recognised her strong perfume, Shalimar, which permeated the patrol car. Paul took sly glances at her in the driving mirror. One time she caught him looking and outstared him. Her composure was unexpected; she didn’t appear to be in the slightest concerned. The only things that seemed to be of interest to her were her manicured fingernails, which she constantly looked at and then patted the suede clutch bag she held on her knee.

Paul and Brian escorted her into the station and after she was booked in, a uniformed officer led her to a cell to await the arrival of her brief. In the incident room Helen asked if Tina had created a fuss when they arrested her and Brian shook his head.

‘She’s hardly said a word. Got all dressed up, stinks of some awful perfume that turned my stomach. She just sort of accepted it all, calm as a cucumber. Am I right, Paul?’

‘Yeah. I’ve never arrested anyone who appeared to be getting ready for a cocktail party. She’s freaky. The only time she got a bit rattled was when she wasn’t allowed her handbag in the cell with her and we also took off her high heels. I reckon Travis was a bit side-tracked by her attitude. It took us all by surprise.’

‘You think she knows it’s curtains?’ Helen asked.

Paul glanced at Brian and shrugged. ‘You know the saying it’s not over until—’

Brian was interrupted as Anna walked in to say that Jonathan Hyde was in reception and could one of them please bring him to her office.

Helen noticed that Anna was very tense.

‘The guys say that Tina is very calm and didn’t create when you arrested her,’ Helen remarked.

‘That’s right. It wasn’t as if she was expecting us – at least I don’t think so – but she’s certainly got her feelings under control.’

‘Did she look scared?’

‘No, Helen, she didn’t.’

‘She will be when she knows what we’ve got against her,’ Paul predicted as he saw Brian bringing in Jonathan Hyde.

‘Good morning, Mr Hyde – would you come into my office?’ Anna said pleasantly and gestured for him to go ahead of her.

They all watched as Anna’s office door closed behind them.

It was three-quarters of an hour later when Anna called through to Brian to bring Tina Brooks up from the cells and to put her into interview room one.

‘With or without her shoes?’

‘With, Brian, and she can have her handbag. It was checked, wasn’t it?’

‘Yes. It contained a compact, lipstick, credit cards and purse. That’s it.’

‘In five then.’

Paul straightened his tie. He was very nervous, knowing this was make or break, but at the same time couldn’t think how Tina Brooks was going to be able to walk free again as she had done on two previous occasions.

Jonathan Hyde requested time to talk to his client and Anna agreed that he could be taken down to the interview room. Brian led him out and Anna emerged from her office. She looked at Paul.

‘You ready for this?’

‘Yes, ma’am.’

They spent some time arranging the files and photographs, and checking that there was a television set in the interview room so they could show the CCTV footage from the store. Another monitor screen would be up and rolling in the adjoining room to allow members of the team to watch the interview, which would also be audio-and video-recorded. It was later than Anna had calculated – now coming up to one o’clock – but she didn’t feel like eating any lunch, nor did Paul. They sat ready and waiting for Hyde to finish conversing with his client.

At 1.45 p.m. a uniformed PC came into the incident room to say that Mr Hyde and his client were ready. Anna collected a heap of files, Paul carried the rest, and together they walked down the stone steps to the floor below and along to the interview rooms.

‘Good luck.’

Anna turned to see Langton entering the corridor. She didn’t need this and she stopped in her tracks.

‘I’ll be in the monitor room,’ he said, almost cheerfully. She gave a brief nod and continued to the door of interview room one. She could see through the small window that Tina was sitting beside Hyde.

‘Here we go,’ she whispered to Paul.

They walked in and the door closed behind them. In the monitor room Langton sat on a chair and eased another closer to prop up his leg, before picking up the remote to turn on the monitor screen. Part of him would have liked to be in on the action, but instead he would watch it – watch it very closely as he was concerned that Anna had lost her ambition, lost what he had believed her capable of. He hoped she would prove him wrong. Her promotion had been very much down to him, but he was not a man to ever allow any personal feelings or previous relationships to interfere in his professional assessment. He could very easily make sure the next step of her career was to a desk job rather than heading up a murder enquiry.

A
nna cautioned Tina and informed her that they would be videoing and audio-taping the interview. Tina had remained impassive, staring at her folded hands resting on the table.

‘We have acquired some new evidence that concerns you, but I would like to give you the opportunity of repeating exactly what occurred on the day of March the fifteenth. This would be when, as you have stated, you were phoned by Alan Rawlins, as he was suffering from a migraine and you drove him from his workplace to your flat.’

Tina sighed.

Anna had the statement from Tina in front of her. She continued.

‘You have stated that you subsequently returned home at around six-thirty in the evening and discovered that Mr Rawlins was not, as you had expected, at home. Do you have anything you would like to add to this statement?’

‘No.’

‘You yourself did not report Alan missing, but stated that you felt he might have left you for another woman. We were subsequently approached by a Mr Edward Rawlins who was greatly concerned for his son’s safety. This was two weeks after the day Alan Rawlins had left work suffering from a migraine.’

Tina continued to look down, scraping at the cuticle of one of her manicured nails.

‘Yes,’ she agreed without looking up.

‘Due to the fact there had been no movement from your joint bank account with Mr Rawlins, no credit-card transactions, and that by now it was almost eight weeks since he had last been seen, it was thought that something untoward might have happened to him. You allowed myself and Officer Paul Simms to search your premises and during this search we discovered that a section of carpet had been cut from under your living-room sofa. You stated that Alan had cut that section of the carpet as some wine had been spilled and he was concerned that the landlord would ask for damages to be paid.’

Paul passed over the photograph of the lounge showing the cut-out area. Tina glanced at it and then Paul took out the next photograph.

‘During the search of your premises we subsequently discovered that a second area of carpet had been cut out. This was to the left side of the double bed in the main bedroom. That section would appear to have been replaced with the piece of carpet from under your sofa. Please look at the photograph, Tina.’

Tina stared at the photograph and pushed it back across the table.

‘Forensics found no wine stain on the carpet removed from beneath the sofa or the underlay. However, when the inserted piece of carpet was lifted from beside the bed they discovered a bleach-washed bloodstain. The blood had in fact seeped through the underlay into and under the floorboards. Due to the extent of the blood pooling it was doubtful that whoever had sustained an injury resulting in this amount of bloodloss would still be alive.’

Paul passed Tina the scene of crime photographs showing the bloodstained floorboards and the congealed blood underneath them. Again she stared at the photographs, but gave no reaction or reply.

Anna continued, her voice quiet and steady.

‘Subsequently, to determine if there were other bloodstained areas that had been cleaned, the forensic team used a solution of Luminol which reacts to cleaned, or non-visible blood, by glowing in the dark.’

Paul showed one photograph after another of the Luminol reaction glowing in the hallway and on the bathroom tiles and floor. Tina didn’t seem interested, but her brief scrutinised each photograph and then made notes.

‘We now know through DNA testing that all the blood pooling, spattering and blood swipes recovered or revealed with the aid of Luminol belonged to Alan Rawlins.’

This was the first time Tina looked towards Anna. It was hard to detect what she was thinking or feeling as she quickly lowered her eyes.

‘Do you have anything you want to say about this, Tina?’

‘No.’

Anna nodded to Paul and he produced the receipt for four large containers of bleach purchased by Tina the day after Alan Rawlins had returned home with a migraine.

‘It was determined that an extensive clean-up had been done in your flat. Bleach had been used to wipe around the walls and the bathroom. You have admitted purchasing containers of bleach and we have the receipt and CCTV footage dated the sixteenth of March confirming this. You have maintained that you bought it for use in your beauty salon, however we were unable to find three of the containers.’

Tina sighed, but still remained with her head down. ‘I used them in the salon.’

‘Did you also use this?’

Paul passed over a still from the CCTV. Tina frowned and picked up the photograph of her at the checkout till.

‘You can obviously see what it is, Tina; it’s you buying an axe.’

Paul passed across the second series of photographs – this time Tina at the returns desk with the axe.

‘March the nineteenth, two days after purchasing the axe you are on camera returning it to the store to claim a refund.’

There was a pause. Tina crossed her legs and glanced at her brief, but remained silent.

‘Would you please explain what this item was purchased for?’

‘No comment.’

Anna leaned back in her chair.

‘No comment? Then let me tell you what I think you used this axe for, Tina. To hack up Alan Rawlins. Having dragged his body into the bathroom you used this axe to slash him and dismember him to enable you to remove his body with ease.’

Hyde tapped the table with his pen.

‘My client does not wish to answer this allegation, and without proof that indeed this axe was used in the manner you have suggested, she wishes to remain silent in the event she might implicate herself.’

‘As your client has admitted that no one else was living at her flat on these dates, the implication is not just obvious, but shows she must have murdered Alan Rawlins,’ Anna insisted.

‘Then we reach an impasse because my client does not wish, as is her right, to answer questions relating to the purchase or return of the axe.’

‘If there is an innocent reason then I’d like to hear it.’

‘I have advised my client not to answer.’

‘Why don’t you advise your client to start telling me the truth? She has lied from day one. Alan Rawlins was murdered in the flat she shared with him.’

‘If you have evidence to show that this axe was used to kill or dismember Alan Rawlins, then kindly present it, but it seems clear to me it was returned unused to the store and my client was given a refund. Is that correct?’

Anna leaned close to Paul and whispered. He opened another file and passed her the photographs and reports.

‘I must inform you that we have identified and recovered the axe and it is presently with the Forensic Department who have discovered some blood on it. We are awaiting verification that it’s Alan Rawlins’s.’