Lynda La Plante: Blood Line

‘He’s taking a big interest in this, isn’t he?’ Helen observed.

‘He and Travis were an item a few years ago. To be honest, rumours were flying around that he’d pushed her promotion through. I think he’s looking over her shoulder. This is the first Category A murder enquiry she’s handled solo.’

‘Well, the body count is mounting. It’s gone from a missing person to a murder and then the guy in Cornwall, and . . .’

Brian was reading an email when he suddenly turned to Helen.

‘Fuck, the condo in Tampa, Florida, is occupied by a Mrs Wanda Douglas. It’s the suspect’s wife, isn’t it? Can you check with the General Registrar’s Office for births and marriages?’

‘I’m doing it, I’m doing it.’

Anna once again cautioned Tina and informed her that the interview would be recorded. Tina looked dishevelled and wore the same clothes as the previous day. Her eyes were red-rimmed as if she had been crying, her face devoid of make-up. Even her hair looked as if she hadn’t bothered to comb it.

‘You feeling all right, Tina?’

‘Not really. I couldn’t sleep. The place stinks and they gave me food that was disgusting.’ She jerked her thumb towards Jonathan Hyde, saying, ‘He got out of here so fast, he didn’t make any arrangements for me to get a change of clothes. I’ve not got my make-up and . . . so how do you think I feel?’

‘Let’s see then if we can get through this as quickly as possible. It will be entirely up to you, Tina.’

She shrugged and sat back in her chair. Paul, seated beside Anna, had all the files beside him in order and ready to take out for Anna when required. He was looking very smart and, unusual for him, was wearing a dark-grey suit with a white shirt and navy tie.

‘Now this may sound repetitive, Tina, but I need for clarity’s sake to know exactly the timeframe, going from the moment you received a call from Alan at his place of work which would have been the fifteenth of March of this year.’

‘I was getting ready for work when he rang and said I had to collect him. He sounded in a right state. I asked if he was feeling okay and he said – well, he snapped at me – to get over to Metcalf Auto and pick him up, so I did.’

Anna nodded and Tina looked at her.

‘You want me to go on? He was very anxious all the way home, said he would have to get out as some people were threatening him. He told me to take a suitcase and put it in a locker at the salon, that he couldn’t stay at the flat and that he might go to his parents’ and make arrangements from there.’

She rubbed her face tiredly.

‘He was scared stiff, and I was worried about him, but he insisted I go to work. Anyway, I didn’t get back home until, as I’ve told you before, around six-thirty or a bit later. I knew something bad had happened as soon as I walked in. The sofa was overturned, I remember that, and then this guy came at me from out of the bathroom. He grabbed me and pushed me back into the lounge. Next this other man, huge bloke with a ponytail, came out and he said the name Sammy and told him to leave me alone. He said that Alan had taken something that belonged to him and I thought he was talking about the money I’d put in the locker. I heard Sammy call the other man Silas and I realised from what Alan had told me who they both were. I got frightened and said I didn’t understand what they were talking about. Sammy was screeching and swearing, and the big guy Silas had to hold him back. He kept asking me about a surfboard, where was Alan’s surfboard. It was all so crazy and I said it was in the garage. Then Sammy left and Silas told me that if I wasn’t telling the truth I’d get what Alan . . .’

She swallowed and down came the tears as she described being pushed towards the bathroom, how she had seen Alan in the bath with his head caved in and blood everywhere.

‘I started screaming and he hit me across the face hard which knocked me over and he said to shut up so I went back into the lounge and just sat there.’

Tina continued to describe Sammy returning to say he wasn’t going to carry the board in as he was worried about someone seeing him, so they said they’d wait until it was dark. They had asked her about money and she had pretended that she didn’t know anything about it, and she’d remained sitting in the lounge. She saw them taking bloodsoaked sheets out of the bedroom, rolling them up, and then they told her she had to help them.

‘All the time I knew he was dead in the bathroom and I was terrified. They started cleaning the carpets, then they cut some out and they were in and out of the bedroom.’

‘What time did they leave?’

‘They didn’t. They sat around until it was dark and then Sammy went and got the surfboard from the garage and brought it in. He started using a hammer, but it was just making dents and then they sent me out in the morning to get carpet cleaner and bleach for washing down the walls and the bathroom.’

‘That was on March the sixteenth and you say you were kept in the flat that night as well?’

‘Yes, they made themselves something to eat.’

‘The body was still in the bathroom?’

‘Yes, and then early next morning they wanted me to go and buy an axe. So they could cut open the surfboard. This time Sammy drove me to get it ’cos I was so scared they didn’t think I’d come back. We went back into the flat but by this time Silas had used a hammer and screwdriver and he was in a terrible rage ’cos he said it was not the right board and again they came at me, but I swore I’d told them the truth and that I didn’t understand what they were talking about.’

Tina sniffed and was passed a tissue. She blew her nose.

‘They said I had to go to work and that if I told anyone about what had happened, I would be killed like Alan.’

‘So it was now two days since you brought Alan back from his garage?’

‘Yes. They made me help clean up with the carpet cleaner and bleach, scrub and turn the mattress, and change the bed and put a fresh set of bedlinen on it. They cut out the bloodstained bedroom carpet and put the other piece from the lounge over it. They moved the bed and I just had to do whatever they told me.’

Again the tears came down.

‘I thought it was all over. I was just hoping and praying they would leave, and I was gonna go to the police, I was. Sammy went out and left me with Silas. He came onto me all nice and quiet and said I’d done very well, and then he dragged me into the bedroom and he raped me.’

Anna tapped her notebook. ‘This was now the seventeenth, two days after you had returned with Alan?’

‘Yes, but they had moved his body. It wasn’t in the bathroom ’cos we’d been cleaning it with the bleach. I think they did it whilst I was at work.’

‘Why didn’t you call the police when you were at work?’

‘I was too scared. They knew where I was and they said that if I didn’t do what they told me to do they’d make sure I’d be implicated in the murder and that I’d be sorry.’

‘What about the surfboard?’

Tina looked confused and then shrugged.

‘I don’t know. It wasn’t left in the flat. When they took the body out they must have taken that as well. They did come in and out at night, but as I was at work in the day I didn’t know what they got up to.’

Anna paid close attention to her notes. She turned one page forward and backward and then tapped the book with her pencil, repeating from her notes what Tina had said to her.

‘“I couldn’t have done anything about it. I was that scared. It was Alan’s father who reported him missing and so I had to go along with it.” You seem to have gone along with an awful lot of things, Tina.’

‘I was raped. I saw the state of Alan, the blood in the bathroom. I knew what these two maniacs could do. I was terrified.’