‘And I thought Play-Doh was just for kids.’
‘Actually, I made this myself, with flour, water, salt, boric acid and mineral oil.’
‘Have you got enough detail from the plate to identify the registration and owner?’
He handed her a bit of paper on which he’d written down the information on the chassis plate.
‘The details provide information on things like the manufacturer, country of origin, body style, engine type, model year, assembly plant, and production number.’
‘And the owner is...?’ Jane asked, wanting him to get to the point.
‘I’m waiting for Traffic Control to radio me back with that. There are eleven figures in the code, and the last six are a number unique to that vehicle, which control are checking out.’ He pointed to the Cortina, then the chassis plate he was holding. ‘The first five figures break down like this. B is the country of origin, obviously Britain in this case. The second letter A is the assembly plant and the code for Dagenham. The next two numbers are for body and gear change type, then the following two are the year and month of manufacture, which is February 1976.’
‘Oscar November two, from control, receiving... over?’ a voice said over the traffic car radio.
PC Turner picked up the radio. ‘Oscar November two, receiving. Go ahead... over.’
‘We’ve got a match to the chassis plate number. It comes back to a brown 1976 Mark 4 Ford Cortina sedan reported lost or stolen two weeks ago by a Mr. Frank Braun of 19 Mount Pleasant Road, Tottenham N17. He’s owned the vehicle from new.’
‘Did you get all that?’ the PC asked Jane, who nodded as she jotted down the details in her pocket notebook. ‘All received, control, out.’
She flicked back a page in her pocket notebook.
‘The plate of the car seen outside the bank was SLM 273R, with a registered keeper in Sussex.’
‘If, as it would seem, the burnt-out car is the one they used during the robbery, then they must have changed the plates to a matching Cortina just after the car was stolen. That way it wouldn’t come up as LOS if you did a check on it.’
She had already considered the possibility but didn’t say so.
‘Thanks for your help, PC Turner. Identifying the owner of the Cortina so quickly is a step forward for the investigation.’
‘There is something else of interest I noticed about the car I’d like to show you.’
‘Certainly.’ Jane followed him to the driver’s side of the vehicle.
‘I examined what’s left of the car’s steering column and couldn’t see any signs that the ignition system was bypassed to steal it.’
‘Do you mean it wasn’t hot-wired?’ she asked.
‘Yes. The plastic covering around the ignition barrel has melted in situ and that means it wasn’t removed, which you’d need to do to get access to the wires. To be sure, I cut away what was left of it and there were no signs that any of the wires connected to the ignition barrel had been cut or tampered with.’
‘Are you saying the Cortina wasn’t actually stolen?’
‘It’s possible, but you can easily start these types of cars by pushing a screwdriver into the ignition keyhole and turning it.’
‘Has that been done in this case?’
‘Because of the fire damage it’s hard to say without physically removing the ignition barrel.’
‘You have my permission to do that.’
‘Thanks, but I’ll need to take it back to the station where I can clean it up and take it to bits, so I can examine it under a microscope for any damage or screwdriver marks. Then I can give you a definitive answer.’
‘That would be great, thanks. If it turns out the ignition is undamaged, then whoever was driving the Cortina must have had a key, which also suggests the owner of the car may have made a false report about it being lost or stolen.’
Chapter Six
Jane helped Dabs hold the garage door while PC Turner removed the rivets from the front of the lock.
‘You should button up your coat. Your clothes are getting soot on them from the garage door,’ Dabs told her.
She looked down and saw black streaks on her white blouse, blue jacket and skirt. She knew there was no point in trying to brush them off as it would only make the marks worse. She’d have to wait until she got back to the station to try and clean them off.
‘It’s about time the job issued some sort of protective clothing for this type of work,’ she remarked.
‘As Scene of Crime Officers, we’re issued with waterproof leggings and a coat, but they make you sweat so much it’s not worth the bother of wearing them. I always keep a change of clothes at work in case I get dirty at a crime scene.’
‘As this is my first day on the squad I didn’t think to bring in any casual clothes.’
‘I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Apart from the governors, no one dresses smart on the squad — it’s not the type of work where you want to stand out as a detective.’
‘Do they have a women’s locker room at Rigg?’
Dabs laughed. ‘There’s a locker room, men’s toilets and a shower in the basement, as well as a small gym area with some weights, a punchbag and boxing gloves. Some of the lads like to keep fit with an early morning workout, especially the Colonel, as you probably noticed from his physique. Personally, I’m not into all that keep fit stuff. Snooker’s my sport and I play for the Met team.’
‘No ladies’ toilets then?’ she asked, not relishing the thought of sharing with the men.
‘There’s a loo on the top floor that KP has labelled “ladies only”.’
‘Who’s KP?’
‘Katie Powell, the office clerk, also known as “Nuts”. She thinks it’s because her initials are the same as the peanut brand, but some of the lads think she is nuts.’
‘Why’s that?’ she asked, deducing KP was the woman she’d spoken to over the intercom when she first arrived at the squad office that morning.
‘KP’s pedantic about the office being neat and tidy, she checks every bit of paperwork to make sure it’s written up, filed and labelled correctly. If you’re one penny out on your weekly expenses claim, she’ll make you type the whole form out again instead of just using Tipp-Ex to correct the error. You’d think the money was coming out of her own bank account, not the Commissioner’s.’
‘A good filing system isn’t a bad thing if you’ve got a big investigation running; it makes the paperwork easier to find.’
‘Don’t get me wrong, she’s good at her job but likes to think she knows best all the time — and she’s a bit of an arse-licker around the governors.’
‘How do you mean?’
‘Yes, sir, no, sir, three bags full, sir — especially with Kingston, who she worked for as the CID clerk when he was at Tottenham nick.’
‘How long’s Kingston been on the squad?’
‘Since he was promoted to DI, which was just over a year ago, but he was also a DC and DS on the squad before that. He’s as hard as nails, knows his stuff and is well respected. He was a good boxer in his day and won the Met’s Lafone Cup.’
‘To be honest, I’m not into boxing. I don’t see the point in two men trying to knock each other out.’
‘Are you the first woman to be attached to the Flying Squad?’ PC Turner interjected.
‘Yes, and no doubt you are amazed as everyone else seems to be — but please, I’m not in the mood for any more wisecracks about it.’
‘Actually, I was going to say you’ve done well for yourself.’
Jane was surprised. ‘Oh, thank you...’
‘My wife’s a WPC in the job at Plaistow on K division. She was in the Women’s Police before it became integrated with the men in 1973, so I know first-hand how hard it is for women to get on in the police force. She’s applied three times for the Advanced Driver Course and been turned down. I’m an advanced driver myself and have given her lessons, so I know for a fact she’s up to it, and as capable as any male drivers — it’s just prejudice because she’s a woman.’