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wagged his finger, smiling.
    ‘So last night you did have the same feelings as I have?’
    ‘No, last night I was hesitant, but after talking to Mr RawlinsI came to the conclusion that, given the circumstances, Alan Rawlins has simply taken the easiest route out of all the pressures.’
    ‘What pressures?’
    ‘That he had maybe made the wrong choice of girlfriend and that his parents were too needy and he’d just had enough.’
    ‘You think.’
    ‘Yes, that is exactly what I think, and to be honest, if I’d been in his situation I might have been tempted to do the same thing.’
    ‘But you don’t know for sure if that is what he would have done. You are just surmising or putting yourself in his situation.’
    ‘Don’t make me repeat myself, Paul, but yes, that is exactly what I’d have done. There is not a scrap of evidence that gives us probable cause for a murder, and I don’t know if you checked about any life-insurance policies …’
    ‘I have.’
    ‘And?’
    ‘Alan Rawlins had a life-insurance policy for fifty thousand pounds,’ Paul stated.
    ‘Well, you know it takes years before someone can be declared dead after disappearing, and I can’t see Tina as the type to hang around waiting.’
    ‘Why should she when she’s got their joint bank account?’
    Anna headed towards her office. Over her shoulder she told Paul to book out a CID car so they could get started.
    ‘Already done—your carriage awaits you downstairs, ma’am.’
    Irritated, she turned back to him. ‘Just give me a minute, all right?’
    The first place they went to was Metcalf Auto in Staines Road. It was a small business, but it looked as if they were busy. There were four cars for sale on their forecourt, two workshopswith cars waiting for repairs, and inside the main garage, a Volvo was up on a ramp being checked out by two mechanics. Inside the small office cubicle, which contained just a desk and swivel chair, was the head mechanic, Joe Smedley. He was well-built and dark-haired with a thick beard that made him look like a gerbil. He had an equally thick growth of chest hair that spouted from the open neck of his overalls.
    Anna introduced herself and Paul, and having nowhere to sit they both stood in the doorway. Joe got up to shake their hands and showed himself to be surprisingly short.
    ‘Is this about Alan?’
    ‘Yes. We’d like to ask you a few questions; hopefully we won’t take up too much of your time.’
    ‘You take as long as you need to. We’ve all been worried sick about him; he was one of my best mechanics. I’ve already had to replace him—couldn’t keep his job open any longer as we’re so busy. Since the recession began we’ve had a lot of work, as customers who used to change their cars regularly now just keep the old ones and get them repaired. It’s been good for us.’
    ‘Tell me about the last time you saw Alan, Mr Smedley,’ Anna said as she glanced around the rows of documents pinned up on a cork board.
    ‘It’d be the Monday, a good few weeks ago now. I’ll have it in my diary, the exact date. He came to work as usual—always on time he was, sometimes he’d be here a lot earlier to work on his own car—but if I remember correctly, he was over at the fridge in the garage taking out a bottle of water. He looked a bit wan. I asked him if he was feeling okay and he just said he had a bad headache.’
    Smedley scratched his thick beard and opened a drawer in his desk, taking out a diary.
    ‘About a couple of hours later he came in here and said he was feeling really bad and could he use my phone. He said he felt he should go home, but didn’t want to drive himself. He called Tina, asking her to pick him up. Then he went out and sat on the forecourt with the bottle of water.’
    Joe passed over his work diary to show Anna the exact date, and where he had written that Alan had left work.
    ‘Tina arrived, he went over to her car and got in, and that was the last time I saw him. When he