Blood Line

‘I hero-worshipped him, if you want the truth. I’d have done anything for him.’

Anna nodded to Paul to indicate he was to take over the questioning.

‘What other things did you do for him, Daniel?’

‘I did his washing for him sometimes.’

‘His washing?’

‘Yes. When he’d been away I’d take his laundry and wash and iron it for him.’

‘So this would be when he returned from Cornwall?’

‘Wherever, but I hadn’t done it recently.’

‘Did you do drugs with him?’

‘No. I just don’t understand what you are trying to get me to say. You want me to admit I had a sexual relationship with him, but I didn’t – in my dreams maybe, but Alan was always straight and . . .’

His eyes filled with tears and he took off his glasses yet again.

‘I find this very distressing because I just can’t come to terms with the fact that you say he might be dead. If he is, then that’s the reason why he’s not contacted me for so long.’

‘This washing you did for him . . . why do you think he brought it to you rather than take it back to his own flat?’

‘He was very particular. He said she couldn’t iron.’

‘So when you’d done his laundry, did he have a suitcase or a bag to take it home?’

‘He had a laundry bag and I’d fold it all into that.’

‘What type of clothes did he bring to you?’

Daniel sighed and described T-shirts, jeans and underwear. He mentioned that Alan would sometimes keep the items at his flat for collection. He would then call in to pick them up and take them back to his own flat.

Anna jotted down that this was yet another part of Alan Rawlins’s double life. These were probably the clothes he wore when away from home. She also believed that the so-called Will Alan Rawlins had asked Daniel to sign was some kind of document appertaining to the purchase of the property in Cornwall reverting the ownership back to himself. Anna again interjected.

‘Did you know that Alan Rawlins used contact magazines for dates with gay men?’

Daniel looked astonished.

‘He often used his schoolfriends’ names to hide his own identity. He used your name, Daniel.’

Daniel stared at Anna in disbelief.

Anna closed her notebook, and gave Paul a small nudge to his knee beneath the table. Paul cleared his throat.

‘Listen to me, Daniel. You may think that we are questioning you in an attempt to blacken Alan’s name, but the truth is we are trying to find out if someone brutally murdered him. We found extensive blood pooling beside his bed at Newton Court. Our forensic expert believes that whoever the victim was, they would not have survived such an injury. The blood seeped down under the floorboards below into a deep pool, where it congealed. Added to this we have also discovered further bloodstains in the bathroom of the flat he shared with Tina. We can only surmise, because we have found no body, that the victim was dismembered in the bathtub and the body parts dumped. All we are attempting to do is get to the truth, discover anything that can help us trace whoever did this murder, and find the killer. Whatever secrets you had between you both might help us. You can’t protect him, but what you might be able to do is give us something that’ll help solve this terrible crime and lay him to rest.’

Paul had kept his voice low and gentle, holding Daniel’s frightened eyes with his own. Anna now remained silent, watching as Paul reached over and took the young man’s hand.

‘He protected you from bullies at school; you say you owe him, you hero-worshipped him – then do this for him, Daniel. If you have anything that might help us, now is the time to be honest. Help us get to the truth and find out who killed him.’

Anna was impressed. Paul didn’t release Daniel’s hand, but continued to hold it tightly.

‘If you feel that you might say something that could implicate you, then we can arrange for a solicitor to be present. We’ll protect you. All we want is for you to help us.’

Daniel’s voice dropped to almost a whisper. ‘He made me promise never to tell anyone.’

‘You kept that promise, I know you did, but now it is time to tell me what you know.’

Daniel sighed and slowly withdrew his hand from Paul’s to wipe away his tears.

‘I loved him. It seems as if I have loved him for my whole life. My father was very violent – well, it appeared that way to me. He just couldn’t come to terms with his only son being gay. He threw me out of the house and I went to stay with Alan’s family. They took me in and his mother was so lovely and different to mine.’

Anna, impatient for Paul to get to the truth, bit her lip knowing that any interruption might undo the bond that Paul was forming. Daniel took a deep breath and leaned back in his chair, Anna knew that at last he was about to unburden himself to Paul.

‘I went to college and got a place of my own. As much as I detested my parents, I did have an allowance and they also left me well off so I used to give Alan money. I also paid a substantial amount for his cars as his father didn’t have enough to finance their purchase. We were very close and he always knew how much I loved him. In retrospect, I always sort of knew that he used me. It wasn’t just laundry; he’d ask me to cover for him when he went to auctions, and he had a number of garages where he would leave the cars until he was ready to work on them.’

‘Did he give you a cut of the money when he sold these cars?’

‘Sometimes, but usually he’d only give back what I’d put in. He was very secretive about what he actually made from the sales. In fact, he was almost obsessive about money. I saw his personality change about four years ago. I think by this time he was living with a girl called Alison and we had a couple of dinners, but I wasn’t seeing that much of him. He was as obsessive about surfing as he was about his cars. He was working out and I think he was using steroids. He could be very quick-tempered, and that was when I found out he was seeing Tina on the side. I said to him that Alison was a really nice person and he dismissed her as being a waste of space. I can’t remember the exact words we had, but Tina had started to put highlights in his hair to make it more blonde and I said something stupid.’

Daniel went silent. Paul reached out and patted his hand.

‘Go on, what happened?’

‘I said something like he should be careful in case someone might think he was gay, and . . . he almost killed me. He was terrifying and wouldn’t stop no matter how much I screamed, punching me and squeezing my throat.’

Daniel was hardly audible as he sobbed that he was raped, and how the next morning Alan had begged for forgiveness, saying that he hadn’t meant to hurt him, that Dan was his best friend and that he loved him more than Tina, more than anyone else.

‘It was after that we separated. Months would go by and I’d not see or hear from him, and then he would turn up with his bag of dirty washing. Sometimes I was scared not to do it. He would leave it for weeks on end with me. Then he came round to tell me he had made out this Will and that he wanted me to be the executor of it, just in case anything happened to him. I joked with him, saying that I knew he could take care of himself, but he got very serious and said he was doing some business with people he didn’t trust.’

‘In Cornwall?’

‘Yes. He said he was making a lot of money and intended going to live in Florida eventually; that he planned to leave Tina as he couldn’t stand her.’

‘What business do you think he meant when he said he was making a lot of money?’ Anna intervened, and Daniel flinched as if he had forgotten she was in the room.

‘I don’t know. I didn’t dare ask him.’

‘You think it was drugs?’

Daniel hesitated and then nodded. He explained that he had found a number of packets in his laundry bag. It was cocaine. Alan had joked that he was laundering them for him and took them back.

‘I never saw him again. I didn’t know where he was until I was interviewed and told that he was missing. I didn’t say anything because I just thought that he had done what he said he was going to do – go off to Florida.’