‘Thank you again, love. I hope it all goes well with the birth. Just one more thing . . . you described a flashy car driven by the man in the photograph. Can you think what colour it was, soft top or hard top, modern or . . .’
‘I dunno. It was low down with the roof off. Dunno what make it was, but it was silver-ish.’
As Helen left, Sandra hooked the safety chain across the door.
Paul was very quiet as they drove back to the station. Helen had suggested they stop off and get a bite to eat, but he had refused, saying they should get the new information back to the incident room.
‘Okay by me,’ Helen agreed. ‘Do you think Sandra was straight with us?’
‘You want my honest opinion?’
‘Yes, of course.’
‘I think that woman would lie her way out of anything. She’s a slag and with two kids already, now about to have a third and all on the social services, living in that hovel of a flat.’
‘Well, taking all that into consideration,’ Helen smiled patiently, ‘did you think she had more to tell us?’
‘I dunno, but what we do know is that Mr Clean and everybody’s best friend, Alan Rawlins, had another side to him.’
‘A gay one.’
‘For chrissakes, just because that slag says he knew Sammy Marsh doesn’t mean that he was also sexually involved with him.’
‘Maybe not, but it does give us an insight into the fact that he may have been using drugs with Marsh. It’s just showing a different side to Alan, and one I think we’re going to have to dig into.’
Anna sat in her office sifting through Alan’s magazines and checking out the personal ads. A number had red rings around them as if they were of interest. They were mostly gay men seeking partners and a few were of a more explicit nature, but none of the bondage adverts were ringed. It meant they would now have to get in touch with all the advertisers who were possibly contacted by Alan Rawlins.
Brian Stanley was also going through the magazines and making similar notes. The pornographic DVDs were stacked to be checked out, and the homophobic or obscene remarks flying around the incident room as Brian constantly read out various sections were becoming tedious.
By the time Helen and Paul had caught up with the new developments and were able to add theirs, it was obvious that Alan Rawlins led a double life. Top priority was the need to trace Sammy Marsh, for which they would need the assistance of the Devon and Cornwall Drug Squad. Meanwhile, the computer taken from Alan’s room was still being assessed by the Tech Support team. They had reported back that many files had recently been deleted, not that it mattered as they would still be able to gain access and reproduce whatever material was on them as they had the hard drive.
Anna called for a briefing update towards the end of the afternoon. Although they now had a lot of new material, plus the contacts to be sifted through, they were still no closer to identifying the victim. But they now knew that Alan Rawlins’s double life was centred on his time in Cornwall. Anna realised they would have to go there, to search Sammy Marsh’s flat, and his studio, and to start questioning everyone who might have known Alan Rawlins.
‘First thing tomorrow we start the round of calls connected to the gay magazines’ adverts. Also, I am certain that Alan had money stashed somewhere and it could be a considerable amount. We have the sales and receipts from his vehicle business and we can assume he rented a place in Cornwall so we need to check that out.’
Stanley did his finger gesture.
‘You think that maybe he was in league with Sammy Marsh? From what we’ve gathered, Marsh was a drug dealer; what if Alan was also involved? We know that Marsh was a nasty piece of work; according to the Cornwall Drug Squad he’s done a runner somewhere. As we still don’t have the blood identified as Alan’s in his flat, it could be someone else’s – maybe even Marsh’s.’
‘He’s got a criminal record so his DNA should be on the national database. Get Liz Hawley to check it out.’
Anna had even considered this herself, but they had been so snowed under with all the new developments, it had slipped her mind.
Helen asked if Anna believed Tina Brooks was aware of the double life Alan was leading.
‘To be honest, I don’t. That is not to say we shouldn’t talk to her about it. So we line that up for tomorrow, and do a buccal swab for DNA. I also want to talk to Mr Rawlins again, just in case he removed other material from his son’s room.’
Stanley had his finger in the air once more.
‘Cash . . . Do you know if Rawlins was making cash deals with his sale of cars? That would be a nice way to offload it, paying cash for drugs. I don’t mean for his own use, but what if he went into business with Sammy Marsh?’
‘It’s possible, but we have not as yet uncovered this cash. We have no other bank account details or bank statements except for the ones we removed from his flat. From his receipts he had listed at least four hundred thousand over a period of five years, plus . . . Paul, didn’t the woman Sandra Fallow say he also drove a flash car in Cornwall?’
‘Yeah. She was also very certain he had a relationship with Marsh; saw them together at the Smugglers cafe.’
Anna asked if the Tech Support had come through with anything, but was told they were still working.
‘We might get lucky with the files and documents on his computer,’ she said.
Stanley swung back in his desk chair.
‘Yeah, probably more sicko gay stuff like his disgusting DVDs. I’m not gonna watch them – they turn my stomach. Paul, you might like to take a bunch home.’
Before Paul could rise to the bait Anna turned on Stanley.
‘That’s enough from you, but we do need to check these DVDs out.’
‘I’ll do it,’ Helen said.
‘No, we can all spend time on them, so split them up between you all – and that includes you, Brian, all right?’
There was a moan around the incident room.
‘Listen up, everyone,’ Anna snapped. ‘A body was cut up in Tina Brooks’s flat. Right now we have found no murder weapon and, in case you are unaware of it, no body. It has to have been dumped somewhere and this has to also be a priority.’
‘We got a negative result from Forensics on her car. She was asking to get it back or said could she charge us for a rental,’ Helen reported.
Stanley gave a wide-armed gesture.
‘She’s a cheeky cow, but do we release her car back to her or not?’
‘Yes, as long as Forensics have finished with it.’
Anna checked her watch and then turned to look at the incident board. It was a display of names and contacts, arrows linking one person to another with Cornwall underlined.
‘Tomorrow I’ll arrange for a trip to Cornwall, but in the meantime we’ll see what the Newquay police can give us to trace where Alan Rawlins lived whilst he was there. As yet we have no address.’ She scanned the board again. ‘How could he hide his double life and give no addresses of rented flats or hotels, even?’
‘We’ve underestimated him,’ Paul said quietly.
‘You can say that again.’
Paul stared at the board. ‘Maybe he used another name when he was there?’
‘Maybe he did, but we don’t even have details of how often he went there. Was it once, twice or three times a year – or just a couple of weeks in the summer?’
‘I’ll check with the garage he worked in and see what holidays he took, going back a few years.’
‘Good, yes – do that, Paul.’
‘What about Tina? She must have been aware of how often he went so I’ll also check with her.’
‘No, I’ll do that first thing tomorrow, and I’ll also call in on Mr Rawlins. I’ll check with him about Alan’s holidays, hotels, guest houses et cetera.’
Anna instructed the team to break for the evening. She made a point of picking up three porno DVDs for
