Blood Line Read Free Page A

adding, ‘It’ll need recharging.’
    ‘Tell me about his friends.’
    ‘Alan’s?’
    ‘Yes.’ Anna found it strange that Tina was so unemotional—helpful, yes, but she showed no sign of distress. Everything was very matter-of-fact. She had left the room to return with Alan’s address book and passed it to Anna.
    ‘He didn’t have that many close friends, and we didn’t really socialise that much as we were saving up. We spent most of our time together watching DVDs and didn’t go out a lot.’
    ‘Did he drink?’
    ‘Not really, just the odd glass of wine.’
    ‘Drugs?’
    ‘Good heavens, no. Alan was very straitlaced; he didn’t even like taking the medication for his headaches as he said it made him feel woozy.’
    ‘What about enemies?’
    ‘What do you mean by that?’
    ‘Did anyone have a grudge against him?’ Anna then glanced at Paul, indicating she was leaving any further questions to him.
    ‘No. You only had to meet him to know that he was a really nice guy. He hated confrontation of any kind—took after his father. They were very close.’
    Tina then went at some length into how good a relationship Alan had with his parents, and how caring he was towards his mother, often phoning her two or three times a week and visiting her.
    ‘She’s in another world, doesn’t really know who anyone is. It’s very sad, but he adored her and he was an only child. He reckoned he owed his parents a lot. They’d paid for his education, and I think his dad had given him the money for the Mercedes.’
    ‘What about his bank balance?’
    Tina got up again and crossed to the same drawer, taking out copies of their bank statements. They had a joint savings account—of just over seventy thousand pounds.
    There was a current account that was used to pay the rent, and into which Alan’s wages were paid directly, so it was clear how much he withdrew to live on. Not a lot. Tina also had a separate account for her beauty salon; this was overdrawn by thirty-five thousand.
    ‘We saved the seventy thousand between us. Alan did well out of doing up and selling on old classic cars and the salon had a good turnover being in Hounslow High Street.’
    ‘Your salon looks in trouble,’ Anna said quietly.
    ‘Yeah, well, it’s the recession. We do hair, nails, and beauty treatments, but when money is short, women don’t make appointments. I think the business is picking up though—thank God, as I’m on my overdraft limit, and the bank doesn’t like it.’
    ‘Do you own the salon?’
    ‘No, I only rent it—but on a five-year lease. I work hard, but like I said, it’s been a bit worrying, which is why I’ve been spending so much time there and taking a cut in wages. I really want to make it successful.’
    ‘How long have you had the salon?’ Anna asked, still glancing over the bank statements.
    ‘Almost two years. Before that I was a beautician at Self-ridges in Oxford Street. I employ two good hairdressers, one a stylist, and the other can do beauty treatments as well as hair. I’ve also got two trainees plus a girl on reception, and business is picking up. Well, you can see that from the accounts.’
    Anna suspected that Tina’s business probably had a far bigger turnover than she wanted to reveal and she was using the overdraft as an excuse to hide the fact.
    Tina told them all about her salon, about buying the equipment and redecorating, and how Alan had helped, spending many nights working there before she was ready to open. When she ran out of things to say, Anna spoke again.
    ‘Let’s go back to your feelings that Alan may have been seeing someone else.’
    ‘Well, like I said, it was just because I caught him out lying about working in the garage. I never found out if he
was
seeing someone else—it was just a suspicion, and now obviously I think it could have been more.’
    ‘Why is that?’
    ‘Because he’s disappeared,’ Tina said, tight-lipped with impatience.
    ‘When you discussed these