Read Online Blood Line by Lynda La Plante - Free Book Online Page B

back to the station. Anna was really irritable, twice snapping at him to take another route as they were heading into rush-hour traffic.
    ‘Why don’t you like her?’ Paul persevered.
    ‘Maybe because I can’t believe a word she says, and after everything I’ve heard about Alan, it’s no wonder he took off. Another thing, I wouldn’t like to get into a confrontation with her. In fact, I find it really difficult to imagine the pair of them as a couple.’
    ‘Love is blind.’
    She made a derisive sound.
    ‘You know, Anna, sometimes people under pressure and stress act in different ways, and by now she must be sort of getting used to the situation.’
    ‘What do you mean by that?’
    ‘Just that if he did take off, which now I’m beginning to think he did, then she’s taken it on the chin and she’s getting on with her life.’
    ‘Doesn’t work that way,’ she said quietly.
    ‘Okay, now it’s your turn: what do you mean by that?’
    ‘I don’t want to go there, Paul. Just drop it.’
    Since Ken’s death, so long as no one brought up his name or his murder she was able to control the tide of emotions that welled up inside her, but whenever the subject was broached, grief would sweep over and drown her.
    The incident room at the station was almost empty apart from a couple of clerical staff still clearing up from the previous murder enquiry. Anna went into her office where virtually everything was now packed up and sat at her desk. She typed out a quick report of the day’s interviews, and having split the work with Paul, it took only half an hour. When he tapped and entered with his sheets it was just after six.
    ‘You mind if I take off?’ he asked as she stacked her sheets together with his.
    ‘No, go ahead.’
    ‘We on for tomorrow?’
    She said that she wasn’t sure as she would need to talk to Langton.
    ‘You want me to take them over?’ Paul offered. ‘His station’s not far from where I live, and I don’t mind.’
    ‘No, I’ll drop them off to him. You got a hot date?’
    Paul, who very rarely showed any campness, flicked his wrist, saying, ‘Could be. So you’ll call me?’
    She nodded, placing the pages into an envelope.
    Left alone, she picked up her briefcase, but in reality she didn’t feel like going home. The conversation in the car with Paul had niggled at her, but the reason wouldn’t rise to the surface. Maybe it was just frustration, but the fact remained that they still had no clues as to Alan Rawlins’s whereabouts. Nor had they discovered any evidence to suggest that a crime had been committed.
    Part of her felt that they had reached a dead end and she wanted to get onto another case, but there was that niggle. Perhaps it was her intuition, or as Langton would always ask, ‘What’s the gut feeling?’ Truthfully, bar her dislike of Tina Brooks, she didn’t have anything else that she felt would justify the continuation of her enquiries.
    Anna left the station and drove to Highgate, where Langton was heading up a murder team. It was almost seven when she reached the local police station and parked in the private section reserved for patrol cars and police vehicles. She saw that Langton’s rusted old brown Rover was as usual erratically parked, taking up two spaces. It looked as if it had even more dents than usual, and passing it she saw, left in the back, a child’s booster seat. As always, whenever she caught a tiny piece of his private life it surprised her. She never found it easy to connect Langton with a whole world that didn’t include her or their past relationship, and yet it was years now since they had been lovers.
    The Duty Sergeant suggested she go straight up to the incident room. It was one of the new stations with all mod cons, unlike the one she was attached to. It was very different also in that even at this time of the day it looked busy; a couple offemale DCs passed her in the well-lit corridor as she made her way along to double doors,