Jane smiled. ‘I’ve no doubt you’re right, PC Turner.’
‘Well, for what it’s worth, I say give as good as you get. My wife does — even at home!’ He laughed as he prised the garage door lock off and handed it to Jane. ‘Good luck with your investigation and I’ll ring your office in the morning with the result of my examination on the Cortina’s ignition barrel.’
She and Dabs thanked PC Turner for his help. As he left, the low-loader turned up to take the burnt-out Cortina to the car pound. While Dabs spoke to the truck driver, Jane decided to have a look in Selsdon and Felstead Road, to see if there were any parking restrictions and if the robbers could have parked a changeover car there.
As she walked off the estate into Blake Hall Road she noticed a four-storey block of flats opposite, called the Mallards, of which at least forty overlooked the entrance to Edgar House. Similarly, there was also Harley Court, next to the Mallards, which was a three-storey block of about forty flats on the corner of Blake Hall Road and Selsdon Road. She could see that some of the flats also overlooked part of Felstead Road and realized that the house-to-house enquiries would have to be widened, in case anyone in the other flats had seen the two men with a duffle bag or anything suspicious that might help the investigation. She made some notes in her pocket notebook to give PC Murray, beginning to wonder why he had been told by Kingston to organize the house-to-house enquiries.
Jane crossed over into Selsdon Road and saw there were fourteen garages at the rear of Harley Court, and none of them were numbered. She spoke to a middle-aged male resident she saw coming out of the rear of the flats, who said the council owned the garages and rented them out, some to people who didn’t even live in Harley Court. Jane made another note in her pocket notebook that this would also need to be followed up with the council, as any changeover car could have been left in one of these garages.
As Jane crossed Blake Hall Road towards Felstead Road she noticed the position of the bus stop, and an island in the middle of the road. She thought to herself that if the two men had parked a changeover car at the rear of Harley Court, they would have crossed the road before passing the bus stop and not been in the position they were when the elderly lady saw them. The first five meters on either side of Felstead Road had double yellow lines and then the parking was unrestricted. The sides and back garden fences of numbers 21 and 23 Blake Hall Road ran along Felstead Road for about thirty meters on either side, which meant that stretch of the road was not really overlooked, other than through a couple of side windows at 21 and 23 Blake Hall Road. Jane thought it seemed a likely place to leave a changeover car parked inconspicuously, as a short distance up the road there were rows of large semi-detached Edwardian style houses with driveways and street parking that was overlooked by the residents.
She remembered the sergeant mentioning the witness thought one of the men was smoking a cigar, and looked around for any recently discarded cigar and cigarette butts. There was no sign of any cigars, only a few butts from different cigarette brands that looked quite old.
‘I thought you wanted me and my officers to do the house-to-house in Felstead Road.’
Jane looked up and saw the sullen-faced uniformed sergeant and three of his officers standing behind him.
‘I do — I was just checking out the street to see what it was like for parking access as it’s possible the robbers had a changeover car.’
‘Some of my lads needed to get off home, so there’s just the four of us left to do the house-to-house until the late turn lads show up. It might take a bit longer than three hours’ overtime—’
She knew what he was after.
‘All right, make it four hours, but just do as much as you can at Edgar House and the houses on this side of Blake Hall Road for now. I’ll need to speak to DI Kingston about extending the house-to-house to cover the flats at the Mallards and Harley Court. I take it you’ve finished at Edgar?’
‘Not yet, and there’s been no reply at quite a few flats.’
‘Did anyone say anything of interest or that’s worth following up?’ she asked, wondering if the sergeant was being intentionally difficult.
‘Nope — except for an old woman who saw the two men in Blake Hall Road...’
‘I know, you already told me about her. Did no one you spoke to know who owned garage twenty-nine?’
‘Yeah, a lady one of the lads spoke to said she thought the man at number forty owned it, but she hadn’t seen him about for a while.’
‘Did anyone knock on his door?’
‘I don’t know—’
Jane was amazed at the sergeant’s incompetence.
‘You don’t know? Did you even bother to get a description of the man at number forty?’
‘If you’d let me finish, I was going to say I told ADC Murray about him—’
‘It’s PC Murray. Where is he now?’
He held up a blue folder. ‘I don’t know. If I did I’d have given him these completed house-to-house forms.’ He handed Jane the folder. ‘I’m not responsible for Murray. He’s on your squad — so you are... Unless there’s anything else I can help you with, I’ve work to do.’
Jane was getting frustrated by his nonchalant attitude. She looked at her watch and saw it was nearly two o’clock.
‘Seeing as the late shift officers should be here soon, we’ll make that two hours’ overtime, Sergeant. Just do the houses in Blake Hall Road — late shift can do Felstead and Selsdon.’
As she walked off towards Edgar House, a disgruntled PC shook his head.
‘Well done, Sarge. A poxy two hours’ overtime is hardly worth the effort.’
Approaching Edgar House, Jane could see Murray sitting in the squad car. She tapped on the window, but he wafted the radio mike in his hand at her to indicate he was talking to someone. She went around to the passenger side, and as she got in the car she recognized DI Kingston’s voice over the radio.
‘Well done, Cam — the lads have finished taking the statements from the Securicor crew, so we’ll head back to Rigg. Tell Tennison to get the uniform lads to continue with the house-to-house for now and I’ll decide what more needs to be done down there after the office meeting.’
‘Will do, Guv... out.’
‘What was that about?’ she asked, wondering why Kingston said she was to speak to the uniform officers.
‘The woodentop sergeant was getting a bit stroppy with me giving him orders, so the Guv thought it’d be better if you spoke to him.’
‘I just did that, and he said he hasn’t seen you since you went into one of the ground floor flats.’
Cam looked flustered. ‘I spoke to him before that... Anyway, I’ve updated the Guv about the owner of garage twenty-nine—’
‘Who said...?’ She was eager to hear what Cam had found out.
‘He was pleased I’d traced the owner and wants us to return to Rigg for an office meeting,’ he said with a smug grin.
‘I meant what did the owner of the garage say.’
‘He wasn’t there — he’s in hospital recovering from a cataract operation. I spoke to his wife, Mrs. Helen Clarke, who’s in her late sixties. She said they’ve lived at the flats for six months, but since his eyesight problems Mr. Clarke couldn’t drive and she hasn’t got a license. They stopped using the garage just after they moved in.’