‘Nichols was going to kill her. It scared the shit out of her, but she’s a tough cookie. She’ll come through it.’
Teflon didn’t want anyone to know the real reason behind her troubled state of mind.
‘Lucky you were there, then,’ the DI remarked.
‘Yeah, I guess so.’
Teflon got in the car and said her name, but she didn’t respond. He gently shook her arm.
‘Jane?’
She slowly turned her head and looked at him.
‘He said it was in the pit.’
‘You have to stop thinking about Carl, Jane. You’re in shock and need someone to look after you. Murphy wants me to take you to your family. Where do your parents live?’
‘I don’t want to go there,’ she said, sounding more coherent.
‘Murphy said—’
‘I don’t care what Murphy said. Carl’s last words were: “It’s in the pit.” If he knew where George and Smudge hid it, then it makes sense it was at their house or the garage.’
‘It could be anywhere, Jane. Murphy is having every suspect’s house and work premises ripped apart by search teams. If the money’s there they’ll find it.’
‘What do you think he meant by “the pit”?’
Teflon shrugged. ‘If he’s a mechanic then it could be the vehicle examination pit in the garage.’
Jane nodded as it suddenly all fell into place.
‘Nichols came here for the garage keys because he knew Carl had a set. He was going to take the money for himself... We need to go to George’s garage right away.’
‘Murphy’s in charge of the searches and has the garage under control.’
‘Carl wanted me to find the money.’
‘I’ll go and get the keys from Carl’s flat.’
He shook his head in disbelief at what he was doing.
When the Colonel saw the Luger next to O’Reilly’s body, he realized why he’d run. He didn’t want to be caught with a gun that ballistics would match to the bullets recovered at Woodville Road after he’d shot one of the police officers in the patrol car.
Tommy Ripley said nothing and didn’t resist arrest. When he was being booked in at the station he demanded to see his solicitor. His jaw nearly hit the ground when he saw a bloodied and beaten Tony Nichols brought into the custody suite in handcuffs. The PC who’d brought Nichols in told the custody sergeant he’d been arrested for the murder of Carl Winter. Tommy exploded with rage and before anyone could stop him, he lunged at Nichols, punching him so hard it broke his nose and knocked him unconscious.
The other man in Tommy’s office at the time of his arrest had an Irish accent. He told the Colonel his name was Danny Grogan and he was just having a friendly chat with Tommy and Aidan. There was something about Danny the Colonel didn’t like, so he arrested him. As soon as they arrived at the station, Dabs took a set of fingerprints from Danny and checked them against Patrick O’Dwyer’s — they were a match.
Graham Smith was out for a drive in the countryside with his wife when Stanley and his team forced entry to his house. Smith returned home just after 3 p.m., casually parked his car in the driveway, got out, and with a look of disdain said, ‘How can I help you, officers?’ When they arrested him, just like Tommy, he said nothing.
Teflon unlocked the servicing garage, opened the large metal sliding door and switched the lights on. There was a green Ford Transit van over the inspection pit with keys in it. As Teflon got in and reversed it out, Jane saw some mechanic’s disposable gloves in a box on a worktop and pulled four out. She handed Teflon a pair.
‘We’d better put these on, so we don’t leave our prints on anything.’
They stood side by side and looked down into the long, eight-foot deep inspection pit. It had a concrete base and small drainage hole, with sheet metal sides. Teflon grabbed a crowbar, a hammer and some screwdrivers from the toolbox.
‘If it’s hidden down there it’ll be behind the metal. Ladies first,’ he said with a grin.
Jane climbed down the steps and started knocking on the metal on one side of the pit while Teflon did the same on the other side. At the far end Jane noticed a change. It suddenly sounded hollow.
‘I think it’s hidden behind this section.’
The piece of sheet metal was three feet square and held in position by Phillips screws. Teflon handed Jane one of the screwdrivers and they undid the screws together. When they removed the sheet there was a square hole. Teflon picked up the inspection pit lamp, turned it on and handed it to Jane.
‘Carl wanted you to find the money.’
She held the light by the entrance and could see a large open area to the right that stretched back a good six or seven feet. She felt nervous; it was as if she was about to enter a tomb looking for hidden treasure. She crouched down, moved forward a few inches, then stopped and looked back at Teflon.
‘Do you think it might be booby-trapped?’
He shrugged and Jane moved forward, then held the lamp up and her eyes opened wide at what she saw. She was overjoyed, yet filled with sadness, knowing how Carl had led her here. She unzipped one of the duffle bags, which was filled with banknotes. After a quick look in a smaller duffle bag she shuffled backwards out of the hole.
‘It’s an Aladdin’s cave in there. There’s duffle bags filled with cash, balaclavas, guns, a priest’s outfit, a fake beard and coveralls.’
She handed the lamp to Teflon to have a look.
His voice echoed from inside.
‘There’s a sawn-off shotgun in a plastic bag and some screwed-up Security Express van logos as well — they must have put them on the van they used at the Shoreditch job.’
Jane was grinning from ear to ear.
‘We got them, Teflon. George, Tommy and the rest of the gang will be going to prison for a long time.’
Jane and Teflon went to see Murphy at Leytonstone. He was over the moon when he heard what they’d found at the garage.
‘Well done, you two. We’ve got those bastards bang to rights now.’
‘Would you like us to help with the interviews?’ Jane asked.
‘It’s all right, me and DI Kingston will do them. You two can go back to Rigg Approach and write up your statements, then have the bank holiday Monday off.’
Jane realized that Kingston, having arrested George Ripley, couldn’t have been involved with him or Tommy, as any connection to them would have been exposed by the brothers. It was also clear he was not involved in the death of Fiona Simpson. She was glad she’d been wrong about him, and realized that subjective suspicion is worthless without objective evidence to back it up. She didn’t think the Colonel was corrupt, but he was a tad dishonest when it came to paying an informant a small amount of money and she decided to tell him not to do it again.
As Jane and Teflon walked out of the front of the station, they saw Maureen Ripley getting out of her car. As soon as she saw Jane, she exploded with rage.
‘You fuckin’ bitch! My son is dead because of you! I ’ope you rot in ’ell!’
She ran forward and spat in Jane’s face. Jane wiped the spit off with her jacket sleeve and walked on.
‘Don’t walk away from me, you cow!’ Maureen screeched, grabbing Jane by the wrist.
Jane pulled free of her grip, spun around and pushed Maureen up against the wall with the palm of her hand.
‘I’m not proud of what I’ve done, but your son is dead because of George, not me. Tony Nichols stabbed Carl to stop him telling us where the money from the robberies was hidden. I watched a decent, kind man die because your husband is a filthy criminal. Carl told me you did nothing to stop the beatings he suffered from George — all because you liked the high life. Well, now you’ve got nothing but misery and shame ahead of you.’