Blood Line (12 page)

Paul was feeling really frazzled. Nothing had shifted his hangover headache, and spending so much time on the phone and then on the computer had made it feel worse.

‘Okay – quick rundown,’ he said to Anna. ‘This is as much as I’ve got. He did work for Barclays, but was one of the many made redundant. Previously he’d been with two other banks that went under. He’s not had what I’d call a successful career. He lost half a million with the Icelandic Bank, but he got a leg-up with his present employers as his sister is married to one of the chief executives. The Lotus is leased, by the way, he doesn’t even own that. So renting a place in Hounslow is about all he could afford.’

‘So I was right about his shoes,’ Anna said, folding her arms. ‘Does he have more than one mobile?’

‘I’ve not checked that yet. I’m still working on his business card number.’

She glanced at her watch. Paul could feel her irritation.

‘What has Langton got to say?’ he asked.

‘He’s not returned my calls, but you go off and come in first thing in the morning.’

‘Thanks.’

Anna glanced through Paul’s notes and was about to put in yet another call to Langton when the man himself walked into her office.

‘I’ve not got long,’ he said, sitting down. ‘I’m really busy.’

‘Well, excuse me, but I’ve been running around on this Alan Rawlins business and now I need your approval.’

‘For what?’

‘I want to get a search warrant issued to look over Tina Brooks’s flat.’

‘But you’ve been there, haven’t you?’

Anna filled him in on the carpet order and the bleach purchase, and said that although she had interviewed Tina, they had not had a thorough or even part-detailed search of the flat.

‘You didn’t really need my authority, but if you now think that we have a murder then it will have to go through all the usual channels. What’s more, you’ll have to set up a new team as I’ve put the rest onto other cases.’

‘I am aware of that, obviously. But as you oversee all the murder enquiries, do I get the go-ahead?’

He frowned and then stood up, stretching his legs and rubbing his bad knee.

‘You able to cope with this?’ he grunted.

‘What?’

‘You want me to repeat it?’

‘No, I don’t, but what makes you ask if I can cope?’

‘Because as DCI you’ll head the team. I can look over your shoulder, obviously.’

‘When have you not? But I have handled my last case and—’

He turned on her angrily, leaning against the edge of her desk.

‘Don’t you get flippant with me! Just remember, whatever personal relationship we might have had, I am your—’

Equally angry, she stood up to face him, interrupting him.

‘
Superior!
Well, you tell me if you wouldn’t want a full investigation after what I’ve told you.’

‘You have only circumstantial possibilities.’

She flopped back down into her chair.

‘Oh, wait a minute,’ she fumed. ‘You have been the one wanting more details. Basically it was a Mispers case, but because you insisted I look into it, that is what I have done. And now that it looks like a murder enquiry, you start telling me to back off.’

‘I did not suggest that.’

‘What do you want – to get someone else to do it?’ Anna demanded.

‘I am just concerned about putting too much pressure on you. Right now I need all the people I have, but I can allocate another DCI to make further enquiries.’

‘I see. So what has this all been about – give her something to occupy her mind, nothing too strenuous – because you think I’m not capable?’

‘You are more than capable, Anna.’

‘So what is your problem?’

‘You, Anna. You have been through a terrible ordeal, your fiancé has been murdered, and as far as I can ascertain you have refused to take any time out.’

‘What about the previous case I worked on and got a result?’

‘Come on, it was a cut-and-dried case – of course you got a guilty verdict!’

She was so angry she could hardly look at him.

‘I thought it was best as you had insisted on returning to work,’ Langton went on, ‘but now I am not so sure. I am worried about you.’

‘Well, you don’t have to be. I am fine! And what’s more, I don’t want anyone else taking over the Alan Rawlins investigation. If he is dead, I am damn sure Tina Brooks had something to do with it.’

‘You have to be aware how difficult it is to bring charges without a body.’

‘Give me time and maybe I’ll find one for you!’

He glanced at his watch. ‘I can’t argue about this now. Get the search warrants and see what the outcome is.’

‘Thank you.’

Langton found it difficult to deal with her. She was so rigid and so defensive, and he really didn’t want to force her into taking a holiday. Yet she was suffering extreme emotional anguish of the kind he himself had experienced when his first wife had died, and he wanted to help.

She wished he would go. Now she’d got the permission for moving on with the case, she didn’t want to discuss anything else. She looked at him, and then turned away because she didn’t like the expression in his eyes.

‘Listen to me, sweetheart. You lose someone you love, and no amount of work can help you deal with the loss. It takes a long time,’ Langton advised.

‘You’ve already told me this. Maybe you are projecting your own inability to come to terms with grief. I lived with you, James, and let me tell you, I have no intention of ever allowing myself to form another relationship until I am well and truly recovered from losing Ken. However, what happened with him is over, finished – and I just want to get on with my life, my career.’

He wanted to slap her, the way she stuck out her chin and clenched her fists at her side. He was only too aware of the fact that he had been unable to sustain a relationship with Anna. He had known he couldn’t give her more than what he had to offer, and it had not been enough. Even now, married to his second wife, taking on her daughter, Kitty, and with a son, Tommy, he was still having extramarital affairs. He also still held a passion for Anna. It was not reciprocated and he knew that, but he also knew that, given the opportunity, he would start up seeing her again – and what made it worse, he actually felt no shame even contemplating it.

She stared at him, waiting for him to say something, but he remained silent. She couldn’t tell what he was thinking.

‘I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought up your personal life. Sometimes I forget you are who you are,’ she said quietly, avoiding eye-contact with him.

‘That’s okay, Anna, and I can see you’ve calmed down.’

‘I have, and I want this case.’

He walked to the door and gave her a smile.

‘You have it. Get a team organised. I’ll forward the list of available officers and you can stay on here as it’s the same location.’

‘Don’t I know it. I have to schlepp all the way from my flat at Tower Bridge. I sometimes wish I’d never bought the place – not that I’ve seen that much of it, but it’s home sweet home. As you haven’t arranged the promised dinner, maybe one night I’ll have enough time to cook for you!’

She smiled, making a joke, but he walked out closing the door quietly behind him. The fact that she had the case made her buoyant for a moment, but then she felt the shuddering panic rise and couldn’t get her breath. She broke out in a sweat, gasping before the tears welled up inside her. She rested her head in her hands. She wasn’t over losing Ken, far from it. She’d had the lengthy trial of the killer of John Smiley, and then with only a couple of weeks’ break, had taken on her last case. Almost a year had passed, but the thought of taking time out to dwell on the terrible way she had lost the future she and Ken had planned together made her fearful that she would never be able to recover.

Langton sat in his car. It had been a while since he had felt the twist in his gut like a scorching pain. He had sometimes wondered if he had embroidered on the love he had lost, that perhaps it had not been as perfect as he made it out to be. Inside his wallet he retained the small photographs of his adopted daughter, Kitty, and his son, but he still had the worn photograph of his first wife tucked behind their innocent little faces. Even now, years later, when these moments of grief descended, he felt almost incapable of moving. He looked at his first wife’s photograph. If he closed his eyes he could hear her voice calling out to him that she would see him for dinner. He had been told she had collapsed and died four hours later, the undetected brain tumour that killed her leaving her with not a mark on her beautiful face. When he had seen her in the mortuary she looked as if she was peacefully sleeping.

He had never known with another woman the same deep understanding they had had with each other, and that sleeping face reared up as if to eclipse anyone he felt emotionally drawn to. This combined with a sense of guilt that he could never feel the same attachment to another woman. Even though he had remarried and now had a son, sometimes when he watched his boy sleeping, he felt an overwhelming sense of loss, thinking of what it would have been like to have a child with his first wife. Thinking what it would have been like if she had lived.

Anna had wanted from him commitment, children, and although it had been she who had instigated the end of their relationship, he had in many ways known it was never going to work. She wanted too much of him and he was incapable of giving it. His present wife was intelligent, very attractive, and had wanted stability for her daughter Kitty who adored Langton and now called him Daddy. It was almost a marriage of convenience. She had accepted what Langton could give her, and had not really contemplated having a child with him. Tommy was almost as much a surprise to her as he was to Langton. She had been sure it was the onset of the menopause, but when she discovered she was pregnant, Langton had proved to be very caring. He was a good provider, and although very much an absentee father, being so dedicated to his career, she accepted their marriage for what it was – a stable if unemotional relationship.

Unlike Anna, Langton no longer had the release of weeping; instead he waited for the pain to subside. It was still strong, but thankfully not as frequent or as debilitating as it had been in the past. He drove off and headed to Highgate, thankful that preoccupation with work cushioned the ghost that still haunted him.

Anna opened a bottle of wine when she got home and had two glasses before she made herself something to eat. She finished the bottle before she went to bed, and with the alcohol and the sleeping tablets she was able to get a full night’s deep sleep. She often felt slightly heavy-headed in the mornings, but black coffee heaped with sugar made her feel wired enough to face the day. She was still losing weight and she had made a rather empty promise to herself that she would start to work out, but that had not happened. The thought that she might be running on empty and that it might have repercussions hadn’t even crossed her mind. Instead, she was certain that she was dealing with losing Ken, dealing with it on her own terms.

By the time Anna arrived at the station, Paul was already there. They had a search warrant for Tina Brooks’s flat, but before making use of it they first marked up on the incident board the case-file to date. Alan Rawlins had not been reported missing for almost two weeks after his disappearance. He was now missing for eight weeks. They had no sightings, no movement in any of his bank accounts, and no use of his credit cards. They were unsure exactly what items of clothing were missing and at first Tina had said to his father that she thought she had found his passport, but then changed it to discovering an old out-of-date one. Alan Rawlins’s current passport and toiletries were definitely missing. Anna had also requested an all ports warning to see if Alan had taken a flight, rail or ferry out of the UK, but there was no trace of this being the case. It was not to say that he hadn’t used a false identity to travel but she felt that this was unlikely.

Anna sat on the edge of a desk looking over the details she and Paul had so far accumulated. No witness had seen Alan Rawlins for the entire period he was missing. The occupants of the block of flats had little or nothing to do with either Tina or Alan.

The police had no note, no correspondence of any kind that gave them an indication that he had planned to disappear. The last sighting of him was therefore the day Tina collected him from his workplace at 10:30 a.m. on 15 March. He was unwell and had phoned her to ask her to pick him up and take him home. Tina stated that she had made him a cup of tea and left him to sleep off his migraine.

Underlined on the incident board was the need to check out what medication, if any, he had at the flat, also whether or not he suffered from migraines on a frequent basis, because found in his locker at the garage was a packet of aspirins. Tina Brooks said she returned from work around 6:30 p.m. on 15 March and Alan was not at home. She could not recall if the bed had been remade, but she felt that perhaps it had been. Visits to Tina’s workplace had given no clue as to where Alan might have taken off to. Interviews with his parents and close friends had revealed no hint that he had any intention of leaving Tina. Interviews at the local gym used by both Tina and Alan, and the tenant from flat one, Michael Phillips, revealed nothing untoward, bar the fact that Tina was very flirtatious and over-friendly with a few of the members.

They had no connecting phone calls from Tina to Michael Phillips on her landline, but the pair could have used mobile phones, and the team were still in the process of checking out the possibility that both Tina and Michael Phillips had lied.

Paul stood beside Anna, looking over the mark-up on the board.

‘Not a lot really,’ he said.

‘No.’

‘Just the purchase of the bleach and the carpet stand out as being odd.’

‘Let’s go over there and see what we can pick up from the flat.’

‘I hope the new carpet’s not been laid,’ Paul said.

‘As it was only delivered yesterday, I doubt it.’ Anna picked up her bag and headed out. Paul was still very dubious and nowhere near as certain as Anna that they were now looking for a victim.