Blood Line

Langton closed his eyes and shook his head.

‘Also missing is a known drug dealer called Sammy Marsh. He’s got a police record so it’s hoped we may get a DNA match from his profile to ascertain if he is actually the victim we first believed to be Alan Rawlins. We have semen and a single strand of reddish-coloured hair recovered from the bedlinen at Tina Brooks’s flat. As yet we have not had confirmation that the hair belonged to Tina, but I’m waiting for the forensic team to get back to me as I personally took a buccal swab test from her. We have been unable to find a razor, hairbrush or toothbrush that belonged to Alan Rawlins to test for his DNA. It would appear that he was more than aware of forensic testing, as his computer files show extensive research into forensic science. Also, the internet search history, believe it or not, shows he has been looking at numerous cases of people changing their identity. These cases range from the UK to the USA. Alan Rawlins, I now believe, planned his disappearance.’

Langton took a deep breath.

‘James, he planned it and perhaps whoever died in that flat is either this Sammy Marsh or the person he has changed identities with. What Alan Rawlins didn’t believe was that his hidden life would be uncovered. He must have been planning this for some considerable time and I think we might be able to prove it by checking out the person living in his property in Cornwall.’

Langton rested his elbows on his knees, looking at the floor. Anna waited for him to speak, but he kept his head down.

‘I need to go to Cornwall,’ she insisted. ‘I totally refute your insinuations that I have allowed this case to run out of control. I am in control and I have not got tunnel vision. I think the detective work done by myself and my team cannot be faulted. It may appear extensive, but we are still on budget and—’

‘Shush, shush,’ he said softly, still looking down. Eventually he sat upright and stretched his legs out in front of him, then began to speak.

‘Tina Brooks lived in that flat and she agreed to her boyfriend or fiance being reported missing after two weeks, after he was last seen leaving work early because he had a migraine. She says she left him in bed and when she returned from her work he was not there. He hasn’t reappeared since. You have had almost two weeks whilst you handle the investigation into whether or not he is murdered. You come to the conclusion that he has met with foul play because carpet has been cut from beneath the sitting-room sofa and then used as an insert to replace a damaged area beside the bed. This, you believe, was obviously done to conceal heavy bloodstaining.’

‘Yes, I know that, but—’

‘Don’t interrupt me,’ he snapped. ‘You also discover as yet unidentified semen and head hair from a sheet that may have replaced the original one, which would have undoubtedly had bloodstains on it. You subsequently discover further blood pooling and blood-spattering in the bathroom that was cleaned with bleach you know was bought by Tina Brooks. You also know she ordered a roll of new carpet, her excuse being that the landlord would keep the initial deposit if he discovered any damage to the old one.’

Anna sat listening tight-lipped.

‘You have a young man living right next door – a suspect, who has refused to give you a DNA sample – correct?’

‘Yes.’

‘You have so far been unable to make a connection between these two – Tina and what’s his name?’

‘Michael Phillips.’

‘You have her landline records and her mobile ones and there has been no contact between the two of them – correct?’

‘Yes.’

He stood up and rubbed at his old injured knee.

‘You believe that Tina Brooks was unaware of her boyfriend’s predilection for homosexual one-night stands. She never went to Cornwall, she claims she has no knowledge of Alan Rawlins’s other life. They planned to marry and she did wonder if there was perhaps another woman as . . .’

Langton paced the office. No matter how irritated Anna was by him, she still had to be impressed by his retentive memory.

‘I think she said he had become distant and tetchy with her, and she wondered if she had been pressing too hard for wedding dates and so on. Yes?’

‘Yes.’

He sat down again. ‘I don’t believe it. I think she’s a liar. You want a motive? What if she discovered what her boyfriend was up to? Found out he was leading this double life and added to that was awash with money?’

‘Money she couldn’t or wouldn’t be able to get her hands on,’ Anna said, getting very edgy.

‘Believe me, people have killed for a lot less than what she’s got in their joint bank account, but your motive is there: betrayal and rage. She is also, according to one of your reports, very strong. She works out in the local gym and she flew at you – right?’

‘Yes.’

‘Think about it, Anna. She was the last person to see him alive, and unless you have proof that she did not return to that flat, and did not, as she claimed, come back the same night he left work with a migraine, but stayed away for a week or two weeks even, someone picked up that blood-drenched bedding, someone replaced the bloodsoaked carpet, someone used bleach to clean that flat or attempt to clean it up. Someone had to carve up the body and remove it, and you believe that she is Miss Innocent? Clean linen was put on the bed, Anna; someone had sex in that freshly made bed. Who else is living there?’

Anna swallowed and looked down at the mass of files and statements on her desk.

‘Now you are bringing up Christ knows how much evidence that opens up this double life Alan Rawlins lived. How many drug dealers are you going to question? How many surfers, estate agents and ex-boyfriends, when what you have is your prime suspect throwing a punch at you. You have to crack her open, Anna, you have to find the key that’ll make her tell you the truth because in my estimation she has been lying and leading you by the fucking nose.’

Anna said nothing. Langton glanced at his watch again.

‘I have to go. Break her, Anna, break that flash neighbour of hers too and find out if he’s involved or not. In the meantime, just drop this Cornwall escapade. It’s proof of only one thing: that Alan Rawlins was a man scared to get out of the closet and who hid his homosexuality.’

‘It’s more than that,’ she said churlishly.

‘No, it isn’t. Better still, Anna, try and find the fucking body. It has to be somewhere, it has to have been dumped somewhere.’

‘I don’t agree with you.’

‘What?’

She stood up to face him. ‘I said, I don’t agree with you. I will focus on Tina as you have suggested and the neighbour, but if I don’t get a result I want to go to Cornwall.’

‘Christ,’ he muttered.

‘I agree with much of what you have said with regard to Tina, but at the same time I think that there is another scenario that I want to look into.’

Langton rubbed his head. ‘Anna, if Alan was planning to do a runner, planning to change his identity, why leave his computer with the hard drive for you to find?’

‘I think he planned it, but then something happened and he couldn’t or didn’t have the time to carry it through in the way he had wanted. And added to this, I don’t believe that Alan knew he was not the biological son.’

‘All right, all right. Go another round with Tina, put the pressure on her. It has to be done that way because as it stands this is circumstantial evidence. That said, it’s pretty thickly laid on and a jury would find it hard to believe that she lived in the flat at Newton Court and didn’t have anything to do with the murder. So you have to break her into admitting what part she played. See what you can get in the next two days. Then let’s have another talk and I will decide whether or not it is necessary for you to go to Cornwall.’

‘What if whoever is living in this property gets tipped off? You know we’ve had to go through numerous estate agents, and as it was a cash deal, they could have had a kickback and might make contact.’

‘All right, go to fucking Cornwall! But you’ve only got until the end of this week. You have to get a result –