Lynda La Plante: Blood Line

Tina’s part in the whole hideous scenario began to take shape as she continued to talk. It sickened Anna. Alan had rung her to collect him from work because he’d had a threatening call from Sammy and he was scared. What he didn’t know was that Tina, through Silas, had been the one stirring it up. She knew they would both be there at the flat because she’d left the fire exit open and the front door on the latch for them to gain entry easily and unseen. Silas and Sammy wanted their drugs and the money; they didn’t believe Alan when he said it had gone. Whilst Tina went to work at her salon, as she had admitted, and returned from there at the time she had always maintained, Alan was still alive, but he had been tied across the width of the bed, gagged and beaten. His head was over the edge of the bed and Sammy had put a pillow case over it to stop the blood splashing about when he hit him with the club hammer. Silas would then remove it to un-gag him and ask again and again where the drugs and money were and the blood from his head injuries flowed onto the carpet. Alan kept saying that he didn’t know where the money was and he hadn’t taken the drugs, so Sal would replace the gag and pillow case and Sammy then beat him again. Eventually Alan passed out and they left him there while they discussed what to do next. The pool of blood on the carpet got bigger and bigger.

‘That crazy guy Sammy was using crack – he was totally out of it, irrational and gibbering – and Silas tried to calm him down. They had drunk the place dry – vodka, gin, anything they could find – then they’d taken it in turns to beat up Alan.’

She bent her head, and sniffed loudly. Anna passed her a tissue and she blew her nose.

‘I didn’t lie about the carpet, they did cut the piece out ’cos the carpet in the bedroom was so heavily bloodstained.’

‘And you did absolutely nothing to help him?’

‘How could I? Sammy forced me to watch Alan being beaten and said I would be next if I grassed on him or didn’t do exactly what I was told.’

Tina continued, saying that she was genuinely scared. When she went to work the following day Alan was unconscious, and had still not told them where he had stashed the drugs. It was during the first night that Sammy went crazy and used the club hammer to beat Alan around the head.

‘Sal knew that Sammy was too drugged-up to know what he was doing and he insisted he leave, saying he would do the clearing-up. That’s when I went out to get the bleach because there was so much blood that needed to be cleaned up.’

Tina described how between them she and Sal had carried Alan’s body into the bathroom using the duvet cover, and hoisted him into the bath whilst they cleaned up the bedroom. Tina had taken off the bloodstained sheet and winter fleece undercover which, she said, had prevented most of the blood soaking through to the mattress and in her haste had not seen the specs left on the edge. The duvet had been on the floor at the end of the bed and was not bloodstained so she removed the cover to use it to drag Alan to the bathroom. Tina had then placed all the bedlinen into a black plastic bag, which Sal later disposed of, and she then remade the bed with a fresh sheet and duvet cover. Sal had turned the taps on to wash away some of the blood from Alan’s head. Sal had been driving his pickup truck, but had left it parked a few streets away. The main problem was how to get Alan’s body out to his truck without being seen . . .

And then the most shocking part of her statement came when Tina realised that for all the punishment he’d taken, even with his immense loss of blood, Alan was still alive.

‘He was lying in the bath and suddenly came round and started thrashing about like mad. The water must have revived him because Sal thought he was dead. The blood was going everywhere, up the walls and on the floor. Sal put his hands round Alan’s neck and started to strangle him but he didn’t have it in him to finish him off. He was unconscious again but there was a faint rasping of air from his mouth so Sal suggested using the axe to finish him off and then chop him up, but when I said go on then he bottled it again.’

It was so incongruous; Tina gave a strange laugh, which made her telling of the murder even more repellent.

‘I gave him a mud wrap – well, it’s called seaweed wrap but it’s a mix I prepare. He was always so prissy about his legs and his bit of extra weight and I kept jars of it as he would do it on his own thighs.’

It was hard not to show disgust as Tina giggled when she described how she and Sal had covered the dying man with the thick solution and then wrapped the big wide bandages all over him. Even his head and face were tightly wrapped.

‘He was finally dead so it meant Sal could carry him out into the truck and leave no tracks, ’cos Alan wasn’t bleeding like a stuck pig any more! Bandaged up there was nothing. Then when it was done we had another clean-up. When the mixture had dried out, Sal carried the body out. He’s as strong as an ox – carried Alan all by himself, ’cos I was still cleaning.’

She had a strange almost euphoric look on her face as she went on.

‘I didn’t lie about the rape. After all we’d just done together, he suddenly turned on me and threatened to kill me if I ever told anyone. He said he would take care of Sammy, but he would also take care of me if I double-crossed him. He then dragged me into the bedroom and he raped me. I swear to God that I am telling you the truth. I was raped.’

No one spoke. There had been far too many hideous details to take on board. But the silence was broken when Tina suddenly gave a soft laugh.

‘You want to know how dumb I am? For a while I sort of wondered if me and Sal could get back together. I asked him about his wife and he said he never saw her – that he was divorced from Wanda. He even lied to me again about that. I am such a fucking idiot.’

Anna felt that she was anything but, and her cold-hearted revenge on Alan Rawlins beggared belief. However, Anna was now convinced that Tina had told them the truth at last.

Returning to her office, Anna slumped into her desk chair. Tina Brooks was to be held in the station cells and taken before the magistrates the following morning, when she would be charged with the murder of Alan Rawlins.

Silas Douglas was arrested at Dublin airport about to board a plane to Florida. DCI Williams said he would come to London and interview Silas after Anna had finished interviewing him about Alan Rawlins’s murder.

Silas was represented by a very high-profile solicitor, and refused to answer any questions, responding to everything with ‘No Comment.’ But thanks to Tina’s statement and the forensic evidence, Silas Douglas was charged with the murder of Alan Rawlins. When DCI Williams, who’d come up to London as soon as Anna had finished her interrogation, interviewed him, he again refused to answer anything, and with no substantive evidence against him, he was not charged with the murder of Sammy Marsh.

As with most cases, the winding-down always felt tiresome, a form of drudgery that had to be got through. The adrenalin of the hunt and enquiry were gone and the team were left with the wretched conclusion of a sickening murder. The two surfboards in Alan’s room at Edward Rawlins’s house had been removed and sent to the forensic lab for examination. As expected a large quantity of raw heroin was found concealed within the boards and its street value, when mixed with cutting agents, was estimated at nearly two million pounds. Tina was not granted bail by the court and was sent to Holloway Women’s Prison to await trial. Silas was also denied bail and sent to Wandsworth Prison. Although Tina had never admitted to any part in the murder of Alan Rawlins, she was without doubt accessory to it. The CPS had decided to accept her plea of guilty to involuntary manslaughter and then they could use her statement as evidence against Silas at his trial for Alan’s murder. She would get a more lenient sentence for turning Queen’s evidence, but her appearance in the witness box would help prevent Silas putting all the blame on the late, unlamented Sammy.