her high heels. I reckon Travis was a bit side-tracked by her attitude. It took us all by surprise.’
‘You think she knows it’s curtains?’ Helen asked.
Paul glanced at Brian and shrugged. ‘You know the saying it’s not over until—’
Brian was interrupted as Anna walked in to say that Jonathan Hyde was in reception and could one of them please bring him to her office.
Helen noticed that Anna was very tense.
‘The guys say that Tina is very calm and didn’t create when you arrested her,’ Helen remarked.
‘That’s right. It wasn’t as if she was expecting us – at least I don’t think so – but she’s certainly got her feelings under control.’
‘Did she look scared?’
‘No, Helen, she didn’t.’
‘She will be when she knows what we’ve got against her,’ Paul predicted as he saw Brian bringing in Jonathan Hyde.
‘Good morning, Mr Hyde – would you come into my office?’ Anna said pleasantly and gestured for him to go ahead of her.
They all watched as Anna’s office door closed behind them.
It was three-quarters of an hour later when Anna called through to Brian to bring Tina Brooks up from the cells and to put her into interview room one.
‘With or without her shoes?’
‘With, Brian, and she can have her handbag. It was checked, wasn’t it?’
‘Yes. It contained a compact, lipstick, credit cards and purse. That’s it.’
‘In five then.’
Paul straightened his tie. He was very nervous, knowing this was make or break, but at the same time couldn’t think how Tina Brooks was going to be able to walk free again as she had done on two previous occasions.
Jonathan Hyde requested time to talk to his client and Anna agreed that he could be taken down to the interview room. Brian led him out and Anna emerged from her office. She looked at Paul.
‘You ready for this?’
‘Yes, ma’am.’
They spent some time arranging the files and photographs, and checking that there was a television set in the interview room so they could show the CCTV footage from the store. Another monitor screen would be up and rolling in the adjoining room to allow members of the team to watch the interview, which would also be audio-and video-recorded. It was later than Anna had calculated – now coming up to one o’clock – but she didn’t feel like eating any lunch, nor did Paul. They sat ready and waiting for Hyde to finish conversing with his client.
At 1.45 p.m. a uniformed PC came into the incident room to say that Mr Hyde and his client were ready. Anna collected a heap of files, Paul carried the rest, and together they walked down the stone steps to the floor below and along to the interview rooms.
‘Good luck.’
Anna turned to see Langton entering the corridor. She didn’t need this and she stopped in her tracks.
‘I’ll be in the monitor room,’ he said, almost cheerfully. She gave a brief nod and continued to the door of interview room one. She could see through the small window that Tina was sitting beside Hyde.
‘Here we go,’ she whispered to Paul.
They walked in and the door closed behind them. In the monitor room Langton sat on a chair and eased another closer to prop up his leg, before picking up the remote to turn on the monitor screen. Part of him would have liked to be in on the action, but instead he would watch it – watch it very closely as he was concerned that Anna had lost her ambition, lost what he had believed her capable of. He hoped she would prove him wrong. Her promotion had been very much down to him, but he was not a man to ever allow any personal feelings or previous relationships to interfere in his professional assessment. He could very easily make sure the next step of her career was to a desk job rather than heading up a murder enquiry.
Chapter Twenty
Anna cautioned Tina and informed her that they would be videoing and audio-taping the interview. Tina had remained impassive, staring at her folded hands resting on the table.
‘We have acquired some new evidence that concerns you, but I would like to give you the opportunity of repeating exactly what occurred on the day of March the fifteenth. This would be when, as you have stated, you were phoned by Alan Rawlins, as he was suffering from a migraine and you drove him from his workplace to your flat.’
Tina sighed.
Anna had the statement from Tina in front of her. She continued.
‘You have stated that you subsequently returned home at around six-thirty in the evening and discovered that Mr Rawlins was not, as you had expected, at home. Do you have anything you would like to add to this statement?’
‘No.’
‘You yourself did not report Alan missing, but stated that you felt he might have left you for another woman. We were subsequently approached by a Mr Edward Rawlins who was greatly concerned for his son’s safety. This was two weeks after the day Alan Rawlins had left work suffering from a migraine.’
Tina continued to look down, scraping at the cuticle of one of her manicured nails.
‘Yes,’ she agreed without looking up.
‘Due to the fact there had been no movement from your joint bank account with Mr Rawlins, no credit-card transactions, and that by now it was almost eight weeks since he had last been seen, it was thought that something untoward might have happened to him. You allowed myself and Officer Paul Simms to search your premises and during this search we discovered that a section of carpet had been cut from under your living-room sofa. You stated that Alan had cut that section of the carpet as some wine had been spilled and he was concerned that the landlord would ask for damages to be paid.’
Paul passed over the photograph of the lounge showing the cut-out area. Tina glanced at it and then Paul took out the next photograph.
‘During the search of your premises we subsequently discovered that a second area of carpet had been cut out. This was to the left side of the double bed in the main bedroom. That section would appear to have been replaced with the piece of carpet from under your sofa. Please look at the photograph, Tina.’
Tina stared at the photograph and pushed it back across the table.
‘Forensics found no wine stain on the carpet removed from beneath the sofa or the underlay. However, when the inserted piece of carpet was lifted from beside the bed they discovered a bleach-washed bloodstain. The blood had in fact seeped through the underlay into and under the floorboards. Due to the extent of the blood pooling it was doubtful that whoever had sustained an injury resulting in this amount of bloodloss would still be alive.’
Paul passed Tina the scene of crime photographs showing the bloodstained floorboards and the congealed blood underneath them. Again she stared at the photographs, but gave no reaction or reply.
Anna continued, her voice quiet and steady.
‘Subsequently, to determine if there were other bloodstained areas that had been cleaned, the forensic team used a solution of Luminol which reacts to cleaned, or non-visible blood, by glowing in the dark.’
Paul showed one photograph after another of the Luminol reaction glowing in the hallway and on the bathroom tiles and floor. Tina didn’t seem interested, but her brief scrutinised each photograph and then made notes.
‘We now know through DNA testing that all the blood pooling, spattering and blood swipes recovered or revealed with the aid of Luminol belonged to Alan Rawlins.’
This was the first time Tina looked towards Anna. It was hard to detect what she was thinking or feeling as
