Blood Line Read Free

to collect his car from the garage. At around ten or ten-thirty she called his mobile again, but got no answer and left a message. She eventually went to bed and waited.
    ‘I must have fallen asleep because it was about three o’clock when I realised he had still not come home. I came in here, thinking that maybe he had slept on the sofa so he wouldn’t disturb me. I waited until around seven-thirty in the morning to call his work, but he was not there and the other mechanic who worked with Alan told me he hadn’t returned there or collected his car.’
    Paul lifted his pencil to indicate he had a couple of questions. He first asked if the bed had been remade when Tina had come home from work and she said that she thought the covers had just been put back, but it wasn’t exactly made up. He then asked for the name, contact address, and phone numbers of the mechanic and the garage Alan worked for.
    ‘Stanley Fairfax owns the garage but he’s never there, and the sort of head mechanic’s name is Joe, although I’m not sure of his surname.’
    Tina gave the phone numbers and Paul wrote them down as Anna looked around the rather bare room. Tina told them how she had contacted Alan’s father to ask if Alan had gone round to see him, but Edward said he hadn’t heard from him. She then explained to Anna and Paul that she had continued to phone around all his friends, the garage again, and that his father had rung her a few times.
    ‘Nobody had seen him or heard a word from him,’ she concluded.
    Anna leaned forward. ‘Mr Rawlins said that you had found his passport, but according to Missing Persons you said that it was not here at the flat.’
    ‘Right. I looked in the drawers in our bedroom and I saw Alan’s passport and I told his father it was still in the flat. It wasn’t until I spoke with the Missing Persons officer that I looked closer and realised it was an out of date one and his current one was actually missing.’
    ‘Did Alan go abroad a lot?’
    ‘Maybe once a year. We went to Spain for a holiday and Turkey once, but he didn’t go frequently. He did spend a lot of his free time in Cornwall surfing. Most of the time we didn’t have the money because we were saving up to get married and buy a place. We only rent this flat.’
    She wrinkled her pert little nose. ‘I suppose it’s obvious, but we didn’t want to waste money doing this place up.’
    ‘Has Alan ever left before without leaving you a contact address?’
    ‘No, never. I agreed with his father that this was totally out of character for Alan, since he was always very caring and thoughtful. But …’ She licked her lips.
    Anna waited and eventually Tina gave a sigh.
    ‘I had been a bit worried about him. I mean, not too much, but he’d stayed late at work a lot recently and one time I phoned when he said he’d been at work, but the garage was closed so it wasn’t the truth.’
    ‘So what did you think?’
    ‘Well, I started to wonder if there was someone else, another woman, but he only did it once or twice, and when I asked him about it he said that he was working on his own car. It’s a 280SL Mercedes—an old one—and he was always doing this and thatto it. He planned to do it up and then sell it to make a big profit as he’d got it cheap.’
    ‘This was the car he used to go to work in?’ Paul asked.
    ‘Yes, but the bodywork needed respraying and the engine was a bit dodgy—well, that’s what he told me. It’s a convertible, and I know he was getting a new soft top as the old one was damaged.’
    Tina went on to say how she had gone to Alan’s garage and was told that if he didn’t show up for work, Mr Fairfax would have to replace him. Alan’s car was still parked there and they had not heard from him. His mobile phone had been left inside the glove compartment.
    ‘Which is why he didn’t answer when I called,’ she said, and got up to open a drawer in a side table. She took out the mobile and handed it to Anna,