‘I also think I jumped the gun by bringing her in for questioning, as we didn’t really gain anything from the interview bar the fact she denied any involvement.’
‘She also had Jonathan Hyde representing her – a good operator. Did she bring him on board herself?’ Langton asked.
‘No. She lucked in as he was the duty solicitor.’
‘Motive? What are your thoughts on that?’
‘Well, we have discussed the joint bank account and the life-insurance policy; added together it’s quite a substantial sum, around a hundred and twenty thousand, and although her business is doing well now, she’s admitted to being up to the limit on her overdraft. Somehow I don’t buy money as the motive.’
‘You checked it out? If she’s in debt, she might be getting in deeper.’
‘No, but I have been there and it looks like she’s got a good turnover and employs quite a lot of staff.’
‘Check it out.’
‘Will do. The other motive that I’ve been toying with is that perhaps Tina was having an affair with someone, and whoever that was could be implicated. But to date we’ve not found any evidence that she was seeing anyone else. We know she had quite a reputation at the local gym, but we’ve checked with all the instructors.’
‘There was a semen stain found in the master bed – right? Tina said, didn’t she, that Alan was possibly seeing someone else? So it could be his?’
‘Yes. But we also know it doesn’t match the DNA from the blood pooling. So the victim might not be Alan Rawlins. I am checking out if the semen could belong to the neighbour, Michael Phillips, who is single and very handsome.’
She hesitated because the single hair also discovered in the bed was not the right colour match for the dark, glossy-haired Phillips. She scrawled a note to remind herself to get a hair sample for DNA from Tina, plus recent photographs.
‘Any witness that saw them together?’
Anna looked up and Langton repeated the question.
‘No,’ she replied. ‘But there’s one odd thing that sort of takes away from Alan being the submissive non- confrontational type. A neighbour saw him kicking out at the wall close to their flat and punching it. This was a few days before he went missing.’
‘Or was cut up.’
‘Right.’
Langton stood up, taking out the chewed gum and dropping it into her waste-basket.
‘You know, we have a result over in Highgate – brought charges last night. Bastard’s a real psychopath, but whether or not he’ll be fit to stand trial is another matter.’
‘Congratulations.’
‘Thank you. I think what you need to do is obviously get the ID of the victim ASAP and dig around into any sexual deviancy. Old Brian reckons Mr Rawlins was homosexual. One of his close friends you interviewed was gay, right?’
‘Yes, but I disagree. I don’t think Alan was gay.’
‘Well, you never know, and if he was, he maybe didn’t want it known. Anything come from Forensics from Tina Brooks’s car?’
‘No. We’re waiting on Liz to get back to us.’
‘You know what’s interesting?’
She cocked her head to one side and smiled, saying, ‘I am sure you are about to tell me.’
‘The fact that after a murder was committed close to or on the bed, someone had sex in it. Now that’s deviant . . . Look along those lines, Anna, and uppermost try to find out what happened to the body.’
‘I intend to.’
‘Good.’
He stood staring at her for a moment and then went to open the door.
‘Good work.’
‘Thank you.’
He hesitated and turned back.
‘Just one more thing. As we’re on top of this case I’ve been overseeing I was wondering if you’d like Mike Lewis transferred over to your investigation.’
‘No. I want to see how the team I’ve got pans out before bringing in anyone else.’
He gave her a small smile and opened the door.
‘Well, you know where I am.’
Anna was left irritated by his offer. As a DCI she didn’t need another one of her rank looking over her shoulder. Langton was enough.
‘By the way,’ she said, ‘you have what looks like an egg stain on your tie.’
He lifted it up and swore, walking out scratching at the stain.
Her desk phone rang. It was Edward Rawlins returning her call, very concerned about his wife giving another blood sample.
‘She was very distressed about having it done the last time. Is it necessary?’
‘Yes, I’m afraid it is.’
‘But surely you can determine whether or not it is Alan.’
‘Unfortunately the first sample taken from your wife leaked, and the genetic combination of the blood from both parents is required for examination by the scientist.’
‘I see. In that case, I suppose you have to do what you have to do, but I don’t understand why.’ He couldn’t continue. She heard him give a muffled sob.
‘It’s possible, Mr Rawlins, that it might not be your son’s blood,’ Anna said gently.
‘Jesus God, this is all dreadful. I am leaving work at three today so I will be at home for when the doctor comes to take the sample, but as I said, my wife is very distressed. She doesn’t understand what is happening. I told her it was for some new medication to try and calm her.’
‘The police doctor will endeavour to make your wife feel as relaxed as possible,’ Anna assured him.
She then rang Liz Hawley to say the further sample from Mrs Rawlins would be taken late afternoon and she would have it brought up to the lab as soon as possible.
‘The fingerprint team have finally finished,’ Liz told her, ‘so I will be starting on the Luminol testing first thing in the morning.’
‘Did you find anything from Tina Brooks’s car?’
‘That’s not my department, but I’ll check for you.’
‘Thank you.’
Before she hung up, Liz asked if Anna would be bringing in any suspects’ DNA samples for a comparison with the hair and semen.
‘It’s on the cards. I’ll let you know.’
Anna replaced the phone. They would require a mouth swab and hair sample from Michael Phillips. She decided that she would handle that personally as it was imperative they either implicate or eliminate him. However, as they had no evidence against him, he would have to agree to the tests and he’d be entitled to refuse.
Anna sat with Brian Stanley at his desk and explained that he was to make further enquiries at the Body Form gym used by Tina, Alan and Michael Phillips. She was about to walk away when he held up the offending finger.
‘You know, we really need to get that crime-scene blood identified, because if it wasn’t Alan Rawlins it’s gonna shed a whole different light on our enquiry.’
‘I am aware of that and it’s in the mix for today.’
‘Another thing, we need more updated photographs of Alan Rawlins. If it isn’t his blood, then he’s missing. I’ve got onto Mispers about it and they have a couple of shots they are sending over. They were given to them by Tina Brooks, but I wondered if we had his driving licence.’
‘We don’t. We didn’t find one.’
‘Wouldn’t the DVLC hold double photographs nowadays if he had a recent new licence?’
‘I believe so.’
