Blood Line (48 page)

Tina asked if there was any more water left and Paul passed her one of the half-filled plastic bottles. She took two gulps and then held it out for him to take from her. She looked at her handcuffed wrists and gave a strange half-smile.

‘Broken a couple of fingernails.’ There was a pause as she remained silent, staring at her hands.

‘If you are ready to proceed then, Tina?’ Anna prompted.

‘Yeah, yeah.’

‘Previously you used the word “they” when referring to the axe?’

‘Correct. He wanted it to split open the board.’

Tina glanced at Anna and then at Paul. She gave that strange smile again.

‘You don’t know what I’m talking about, do you? The surfboard – Alan’s surfboard – that’s how he was moving the drugs around, shipping them in and shipping them out.’

‘Are you saying that Alan hid drugs in his surfboard?’

Tina gave a long resigned sigh. She then explained that along with Silas Douglas and Sammy Marsh, Alan had used the boards to hide drugs on trips back from Florida. Pure cocaine was made into a hard paste and then packed into the centre. They would then soak it, dry it out and mix it for distribution all over Cornwall.

‘But then Silas met some heavy-duty drug dealers in Miami and the next shipment was heroin.’

‘You are referring to
Silas Douglas
as being party to this?’

‘Party to it? He was running the show. First along with Sammy, but then Alan got himself involved and started sharing the finances. He was making money hand over fist, but Sammy tried to screw Sal. He got his hands on one of the boards, took out the heroin and started dealing, but he didn’t know what he was doing; the stuff was lethal. Alan got scared shitless. Kids had been overdosing on the stuff and so he wanted out. He was also scared of Sal, so he brought one of the boards back with him and hid it in our garage. He also had two hundred thousand in cash – Sammy’s money. He said that he would pack up and leave England. He was certain that they’d never come after him because he’d always used other names.’

Anna held up her hand. ‘Tina, I need to understand what exact part you played in this drug-dealing.’

Tina’s voice was quiet and drained as she explained that her relationship with Alan was, for the past year, more or less non-existent. She had found out about his homosexual partners and had first wanted to simply kick him out, but he had persuaded her that he would split his profits so that she would be financially secure. There was one condition, which was that she keep up the front of their so-called intended marriage. She knew about the property, she knew about his other bank balances, but because she also knew how he was making the money, she was certain that he couldn’t back out because if he did, she would tip off the police.

‘He got scared. He knew he didn’t have all that much time, and he was planning to leave England and go into hiding. He’d got Sammy’s cash and he’d also got a surfboard full of heroin.’

‘Did he intend dealing it?’

‘I dunno. He was so crazy around this time. To be honest I don’t think he really knew what he was going to do with it – he just didn’t want any more kids dying. He was snorting up coke so that made him even crazier.’

‘Take me back to the morning of the phone call to you when he said he had a migraine,’ Anna prompted.

‘Well, he rings me up and says that Sammy had somehow got onto him, that he was gonna have to do a runner. He was shaking, and when we got home he said that he would pack up his stuff and be gone. I had to take the suitcase with the money to a locker at the salon and I left him at the flat and went to work in the salon.’

Tina continued to explain that she had put two fake clients into the appointment books. Often her clients would enter the salon via the car park and back door entrance, going up the rear stairs to where she did her treatments. The girls knew she worked up there and that her clients liked privacy so she was never disturbed. She was therefore able put the money into a locker and leave the salon without any of the girls seeing her. She subsequently returned to her flat around midday, not as she had previously admitted, at six-thirty.

Tina started to cry, pressing her hands to her eyes. She said that as soon as she had returned she knew something terrible had happened because Silas Douglas was there and so was Sammy.

‘They grabbed hold of me, really terrified me, and they wanted to know where the board was and where the money was, but all I kept asking was where Alan was. I kept on saying that I didn’t know what they were talking about and Sammy slapped me around. He really hurt me.’

Tina was shaking as she described them pushing her into the bathroom where Alan was in the bath, tied up, gagged and covered in blood with the bedsheet under him.

‘Was he alive?’

‘No, he was dead. He had this terrible gash over his face and head and they must have been beating him because there was blood everywhere.’

She went on to describe how she couldn’t stop crying, repeating over and over that she didn’t know what they were talking about, but did eventually tell them that the board was in the garage. They still didn’t leave and instead they began to clean up the mess, making her help them wipe down the walls in the bedroom. Sammy had cut out a section of living-room carpet to cover the bloodstain in the bedroom.

‘They said if I talked to anyone or told anyone, I would end up the same way as Alan. They got rid of the bloodstained sheet and pillowcases, and I made up the bed again so it looked as if nothing had happened. They were there all night, questioning me and mopping up, and the following morning they said I had to go and buy more bleach, which I did.’

‘Where was the body?’

‘I don’t know. I never saw what they did with him.’

‘Did you tell them about the money in the locker at your salon?’

‘No. They said I had to go to work as normal, that they would finish cleaning the flat. They were still there cleaning up when I got home, and then they told me to go and buy an axe in the morning so they could split open the surfboard which was still in the garage. They were worried about anyone seeing them take it out, so wanted to wait until it was dark.’

‘And they remained inside your flat all this time?’ Anna asked, incredulous.

Tina nodded. ‘I thought they were gonna kill me. I was terrified that someone would think I’d done it, so that was why I took the axe back.’

‘And you just continued to go to work at the salon during all this?’

‘Yes. It was unreal because the flat looked back to normal. It was all clean and neat, and it was as if it had never happened.’

She sniffed and Anna passed her a tissue.

‘Oh God, then Sammy left and it all kicked off.’

‘What happened?’

‘Silas. I came home from work and Sammy wasn’t there but Silas was still inside the flat and I thought he was going to kill me. He said the surfboard had been split open and it was empty.’

‘So Sammy took the surfboard from your garage?’

‘Yes, like I said. What I told this bastard Silas was that maybe Alan had picked up the wrong one. They were all decorated with customised stuff. Then he asked about the money again.’

She started to cry once more, sniffing and wiping her cheeks with the sodden tissue.

‘He said that he would teach me a lesson and that if I was lying he would keep on coming back. He dragged me into the bedroom. I wouldn’t even go in there because of what had happened and he raped me – the bastard raped me.’

‘Did you tell him about the money?’

She gritted her teeth and shook her head.

Anna took a few moments to digest everything they had just been told, but Tina continued.

‘Alan’s father kept on calling and asking about him and where he was, and in the end I said to him that I didn’t know and that I thought he’d left me. That’s when he contacted Missing Persons and then you came round. That’s the God’s honest truth about what happened.’

‘All right, Tina. You’ve really explained a lot, but one thing I can’t quite understand is the fact that two men stayed in your flat and, as you said, removed a body and a surfboard from your garage, and yet nobody saw or heard anything.’

‘You come in there at night and there’s no one around. Most of the tenants go to bed at nine, they don’t ever go out even. There’s also a fire exit that leads into the back area and you could come and go that way. As I’m on the ground floor nobody would see you.’

‘But they must have had vehicles to move the body and drove in and out with a surfboard.’

Tina shrugged and said that however they came and went, she never saw what they drove or how they got the body out.

‘Did they dismember Alan’s body?’

‘I don’t know. I wasn’t there.’ Her voice was shrill.

‘Have you taken the money out of this locker you say you used?’

‘No, I just left it locked up at the salon. It’s my money. Alan give it to me – it’s mine.’

Anna decided that they would continue to question Tina the following morning and that she would remain in custody overnight in the holding cell.

‘But I told you everything. I’VE TOLD YOU.’

‘We need to check out your statement, Tina. Mr Hyde, do you have anything to say, as it’s obvious your client has withheld vital evidence.’

‘Because I was scared they’d kill me. I was raped, for God’s sake! You can’t keep me here.’

Hyde stood up and said quietly that it was within the law to hold her. Tina looked as if she was going to create havoc again, but instead she crumpled and sobbed, repeating over and over that it wasn’t fair as she’d done nothing.

By the time Tina was taken back to the cell, Anna had already organised an arrest team for Silas Douglas. Langton had been waiting for her in her office.

‘Owe you an apology?’ he said quietly.

But she didn’t feel elated, only exhausted from the lengthy interrogation.

‘Maybe I owe
you
one. Bloody Silas Douglas was here and questioned at his car wash – he’s got long red hair tied in a ponytail; we all screwed up. I didn’t even notice what colour because he had this skull scarf around his head. Now to make matters worse, I think we might have lost Mr Douglas.’

‘What about Sammy Marsh?’

‘I would say that Mr Douglas had a hand in his murder, but that will be over to DCI Williams. Let’s just hope we can pick him up.’ Anna sighed.

‘Did you believe everything she said?’

‘Funnily enough I do, but it’s hard to conceive that they were able to murder and probably torture Alan Rawlins in her flat and no one heard or saw anything, let alone how the hell they got his body out without anyone seeing them do it. He was a big guy.’

‘Stranger things have happened,’ Langton pointed out.

‘I guess they have, but if you don’t mind I’ve got a lot of sorting out and double-checking to do before we have another interview with Tina Brooks tomorrow.’

He stood up and ruffled his hair, then lightly touched her cheek.

‘Good work, Travis. Your instincts always were that this case was connected to drugs and you’ve proved me wrong.’

‘Not altogether. You always maintained it was connected to Tina, but if I hadn’t gone on the trail to Cornwall we wouldn’t have been privy to so much information. I did make a big error with Silas Douglas.’

‘You may be able to verify the rape if you pick him up.’

‘If – and I would say he was also responsible for ripping the Mercedes apart, looking for the drugs.’

Langton looked puzzled.

‘It was a car Alan Rawlins was working on for his boyfriend’s twenty-first birthday,’ Anna explained.

‘Ah yeah.’ He nodded.

She was eager for him to leave, but he still hovered with his hands shoved into his trouser pockets.

‘Anything else?’ she asked.

‘Nope, but I’d throw the book at her and see if even more pressure gains further results. Right now she’s saying she lied because she was frightened, but she’s some bloody liar, and claiming that she had nothing to do with this drug-dealing doesn’t quite ring true.’

‘You suggesting we discuss this with the Drug Squad here?’

‘I’m not suggesting anything, but I still think there’s more to get out of Tina Brooks. She did a good job of lying to me about how she had always made a bad choice of previous boyfriends and was near to tears about Alan Rawlins disappearing.’

Langton paused before eventually walking out, leaving Anna to wonder if he was simply annoyed at being proven so wrong.

Silas Douglas’s car wash was closed. They had a search warrant, but found nothing connected to their murder enquiry. His desk had been cleared of papers, and left charred inside an oil drum were fragments of magazines and what may have been receipts. They knew he owned the small block of flats adjacent to the building, one of which was his London base. They used the search warrant to force entry, but like his car wash the flat was devoid of anything of interest. It appeared to be very basic: a bedroom with en-suite bathroom, living room and kitchen-diner. They did, however, take numerous fingerprints, even though most of the flat had been very well cleaned.

Anna contacted DCI Williams to give him an update, at the same time asking if the Newquay police had anything further on the murder of Sammy Marsh. They had not, but Williams said they would put out a warrant in Cornwall for Silas Douglas, especially as Anna felt he would have been the prime suspect in Sammy’s murder. They knew he had an apartment in Newquay, plus a workshop where he customised the surfboards, so both places would be searched for evidence. They also had the licence-plates of a motor bike owned by him and a Ford van, which he used to transport the surfboards. However, there had been no recent sighting of him.

Late that afternoon, Liz Hawley gave Anna the result from the axe-shaft. They were unable to get a DNA profile from the minute dot of blood. She said it might have occurred if someone with blood on their hands had held the axe, but no fingerprints were found on it, nor did it appear to have been used. She also by now had the DNA result from Sammy Marsh, and it did not match the semen sample they had from Tina Brooks’s bedlinen.

If Tina was to be believed, she had been raped by Silas Douglas, and so Anna knew it would probably be his DNA. She felt very dissatisfied. Although they now had the jigsaw pieced together via Tina’s statements, without Silas Douglas in custody it could not be 100 per cent verified. Nor did they have a corpse or any evidence of how the dead man’s body had been removed from the flat or where it was dumped.