Blood Line

seated herself opposite Hyde, who had moved his chair as far from his client as possible. His legs were crossed beside the table rather than beneath it. In front of him he had his leather-bound notebook open and his pen placed beside it. Paul had the stack of case-files beside him, leaving Anna space to have her notes in front of her. Quietly she cautioned Tina and reminded her that she was under arrest on suspicion of murder.

Hyde coughed, clearing his throat.

‘Let’s begin with clarifying that my client is suspected of murdering someone as yet unidentified. The possibility that the victim was Alan Rawlins, with whom she cohabitated in flat two Newton Court, Hounslow, has as yet not been proven. So there is also the possibility that the victim was in fact killed by Mr Rawlins, who has since absconded after disposing of the body.’

Anna met his cold flinty eyes and nodded.

‘So taking on board this rather confusing scenario, let us now discuss why my client is here.’

Anna looked directly at Tina.

‘Your client, Mr Hyde, is under suspicion of murder. Miss Brooks, could you please describe the last time you saw Alan Rawlins.’

Tina kept her head down as she replied.

‘I got a call at about ten in the morning. Alan said he was feeling ill and that it was probably a migraine. He had driven into work, but I agreed to pick him up and take him back to the flat in case anything happened while he was driving. He said he was really feeling bad and went straight to bed. I closed the curtains, made him a flask of tea and I went into work.’

‘And that was the last time you saw him?’

‘Yes, it was. I did call home later, but I didn’t get an answer so I presumed he was sleeping.’

‘How frequently did Mr Rawlins have these migraines?’

‘Not often, but he had one or two before that I can remember, and he always slept them off.’

‘Taking no medication for them?’

‘Not all the time, no.’

‘What time did you return to the flat?’

‘It was after I finished work – maybe six or quarter to seven.’

Anna flicked through her notebook.

‘Take me through what happened when you got home.’

‘Alan wasn’t there. He had been working a few nights until late so I presumed he must have felt better and gone back to the garage. I rang them, but no one answered. Well, they wouldn’t because he would have been outside where he worked on his own car.’

‘Go on.’

‘How do you mean?’

‘When he didn’t come home, what did you do?’

‘Oh, I see. I went to bed.’

‘In your bedroom?’

‘Yes.’

‘Okay, so what happened the next day?’

‘I went to work and I did phone home again, but there was no reply. I began to think that Alan had left me. He had been very distant with me for a while, non-communicative, and I started to think he had someone else. I rang his work again and they told me he hadn’t turned up there either.’

Anna watched the way Tina was acting, demure and upset. She constantly glanced towards Hyde, never looking at Anna.

‘I really believed he’d left me for another woman. His father phoned wanting to talk to him, and I asked him if he had seen Alan and he said he hadn’t.’

‘You remained alone in your flat?’

‘Yes. It was horrible because I didn’t know what was going on. He had never done this before, but I still thought he had maybe taken off with another woman or gone to Cornwall. He often went there whenever he had spare time.’

‘Without telling you?’

‘Yes.’

‘But also not informing his boss at the garage?’

‘I don’t know – maybe he did tell him. Mr Smedley never mentioned it when I called, but that was sort of why I felt suspicious – you know, that maybe Alan had told him and asked him not to tell me.’

‘How long was it before you became concerned about Alan’s disappearance?’

‘Well, it may sound awful, but not until about a fortnight had elapsed. This was because his father kept on calling me as he expected Alan to make contact as they were going to go to the cinema. Well, that’s what he told me. He then said he was going to report him missing so I agreed and that’s what we did.’

Anna paused, flicking the pages of her notebook back and forth.

‘During all this time you slept in the flat?’

‘Yes.’

‘Was there anyone else sleeping there?’

‘No.’

‘Do you have a cleaner?’

‘No.’

‘So did you change the bedlinen on your bed?’

‘I can’t really remember, but yes, I suppose I did. I usually change the bed every Monday and take the used stuff to the launderette for a service wash.’

‘We have been to the laundry you use and they have no record of you bringing in anything for the period of time when Alan Rawlins was missing. How do you explain that?’

‘I dunno. I said every Monday, but sometimes I’d skip a week or so if we’d been away.’

‘But you weren’t away, so what did you do with the sheets left on the bed when Alan was at home with a migraine?’

‘I can’t remember.’

‘You can’t remember?’

‘I just said so.’

Paul passed over the photographs taken at the scene of crime. They showed the blood pooling, under the floorboards and the removed segment of carpet. Anna handed them across to Tina.

‘As you can see, we discovered dense blood pooling beside your bed.’

Tina stared at the photographs.

Next, Paul produced the print of the staining to the edge of the mattress.

‘This bloodstain was on your mattress.’

Again, Tina just stared at the photograph.

‘We also know that you purchased four large containers of bleach and carpet cleaner, but we found only one container of bleach in your flat. Forensics have ascertained that bleach was used in an attempt to clean up. The blood must have soaked through the original carpet, through the underlay and down onto and under the floorboards.’

Paul got out the forensic shots. Again Tina stared at them, but remained silent. She turned to hand them to her lawyer, but he shook his head, having already been shown them.

‘Do you have anything to say about the findings, Tina?’

‘No.’

Anna nodded to Paul as she explained the use of Luminol in the bathroom and hallway.

‘As you can see, although there had been an attempt to clean the bathroom and the surrounding areas, we were able to uncover further bloodstaining.’

Tina chewed at her lips. Again she turned to her lawyer, almost as if he could give her an explanation, but he said that he was already privy to the photographs.

‘We have, as you know, been unable to identify the blood recovered as that of Alan Rawlins, but it stands to reason that as he has been missing for over nine weeks now it is very possibly his,’ Anna went on. ‘And that he was