‘DCI Murphy gave me your file earlier to enter your personal details in our squad address book. I’m not responsible for the behavior of the rest of the team.’
Jane sensed Katie knew about the addition of ‘Treacle Tennison’ to The Dirty Dozen poster but decided not to pursue it.
‘Is DCI Murphy in his office?’ she asked, changing the subject.
‘Yes, it’s the one on the left I just came out of. DI Kingston’s is next to it.’
‘I’ll just nip to the ladies’ and freshen up. I’ve been helping Dabs and got a bit dirty.’
‘Yes, I did notice,’ Katie said with a frown. ‘DCI Murphy doesn’t like to be kept waiting, so I wouldn’t take too long if I were you.’
‘Which desk is mine?’ Jane asked, wondering why Katie was being so cold and unfriendly.
‘That one over there.’
She pointed to a single desk in the corner of the room, next to another one on which there was a large police radio, a teleprinter and a computer for doing vehicle and name checks.
Although the squad room wasn’t as large as the CID offices Jane had worked in before, she noticed that all the other desks, apart from Katie’s, were organized in two groups of four and abutted each other. Stanley was seated in one group, with DC Baxter, DC Gorman and ADC Murray, and in the other group there was only Teflon and three empty desks, which were clearly in use as they had filing trays full of paperwork and case files on them. She knew that some of the team were out on another case but thought, as the only other DS on the team, she would have been given a desk with the others. She wondered if she had deliberately been put on her own to ostracize her.
She put her coat on the rack by the door and looked around the room. The large wall behind Katie’s desk was covered with artists’ impressions of robbery suspects, wanted posters and mugshots, as well as an array of surveillance and robbery crime scene photographs. There was also a large wallchart of the date, time and venue of all the cases they were currently investigating, and in the corner next to it there was a flip chart easel.
On the left-hand wall there was a large map of the north-east London area that the Rigg Approach Flying Squad team covered; it ran from Tower Hamlets in the East End to Enfield, Chigwell in Essex and Upminster, which was an area of nearly a hundred square miles. The map was covered with red, yellow and green pins, which, according to the handwritten guide beside it, signified where armed robberies on banks, building societies, betting shops and cash-in-transit vehicles had taken place. Jane was struck by the fact that the clear majority were red pins, which signified that firearms had been discharged, as opposed to yellow pins, which meant they hadn’t. Green pins, of which there were about half a dozen, meant someone had been shot. On the right side of the room there were several filing cabinets for case files and bookshelves with box files and clip folders relating to ongoing investigations. Jane recalled Dabs saying that Katie was fussy when it came to office tidiness, and could see that everything was laid out neatly and well labelled, making it clear what was contained in everything on display.
The squad room, like the rest of the building, was painted a bland green and the carpet was cheap, thin and worn, but there was plenty of natural light entering through a row of large windows that looked out on to the front and rear of the building. The desks were old wooden ones with a locking drawer and side lockers, and each officer had some filing trays full of folders and paperwork.
She went to the ladies’ toilet, brushed her hair and tied it back, then using some damp tissues she managed to get some of the soot streaks off her jacket and skirt. She tried to get one of the marks off her white blouse, but it smudged and ended up looking worse, so she buttoned up her jacket to hide them. Her mouth felt dry and she went to the small kitchen area to get a glass of water, where she found Teflon making some toast and coffee. He was a handsome man in his early thirties, five feet ten inches tall, with short Afro hair and a smooth complexion. Although dressed casually in dark grey slacks and a blue and white striped shirt, his clothes accentuated his slim body and he looked smart.
‘Would you like a coffee?’ he asked, with a friendly smile that was very welcome.
She smiled back. ‘No thanks, a glass of water’s fine, please. I’m Jane Tennison, we actually haven’t met yet.’
She put her hand out and he shook it with a firm grip.
He poured her a glass of water.
‘Pleased to meet you. I’m DC Lloyd Johnson, or Teflon as the team like to call me.’
‘Do you mind being called Teflon?’ she asked cautiously, unsure if “Teflon” was a reference to the color of his skin. She knew that life as a black police officer could be tough, and sometimes it was easier to just deny the existence of racism if you wanted to be accepted by your white colleagues.
He looked surprised. ‘You think they call me Teflon ’cause I’m black?’
She blushed. ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean any offence...’
He laughed. ‘None taken. It’s because I was chasing a robbery suspect with a pickaxe handle and it slipped out of me hands when I swung it at him.’
‘Sorry, but I don’t get the analogy—’
‘It’s not that complicated. Teflon is non-stick, you see?’
‘OK, so nothing to do with your color.’
He grinned. ‘If it was about me color I’d hit them with a bloody pickaxe handle.’
The kitchen door opened, and Katie looked in.
‘DCI Murphy is wondering where you are. Get a move on as he wants to speak to you right now.’
Jane knew she was going to have to do something about Katie’s manner, but it wasn’t the time or place.
And besides, Katie had walked off before Jane could think of a suitable retort.
‘Is Katie like that with everyone?’
Lloyd nodded. ‘Pretty much, unless you’re inspector rank or above. She’s probably jealous of you,’ he said, pouring hot water into his cup.
‘Jealous of me — what on earth for?’
‘KP likes attention, and being the only woman in the office, apart from the cleaner, she gets plenty of it — especially from DI Kingston. Now you’re on the scene she’s got some competition.’
‘I can assure you I’m not an attention-seeker. I’ve also learned from experience not to mix business with pleasure,’ she added wryly. She finished her water, swilled the glass under the tap and put it on the draining board. ‘I’d better get a move on, then, before Katie gives me a detention.’
Lloyd chuckled as he put some sugar in his coffee.
‘Just be careful what you say around her as it will get straight back to Kingston and Murphy. And don’t let the Colonel niggle you. He likes a bit of confrontation and winding people up — but he doesn’t like it when he’s the butt of the joke.’
‘There was certainly a bit of tension between the two of you earlier,’ she remarked.
‘I got a lot of stick when I first came on the squad a year ago, especially as I was the first black officer to join the team, but I treated it as banter and gave back as good as I got — that way it didn’t bother me. The Colonel and me don’t always see eye to eye, but he knows not to push things too far — and he’s a good man to have on your side in a dodgy situation.’
‘From the size of him and his Marines background I don’t doubt that,’ she said as she opened the kitchen door.
‘Nice to meet you, Sarge. Now you’re on the squad I won’t be the odd one out any more,’ he said with a cheeky grin and a wink.
Jane knew there were not enough black and ethnic minority officers in the force. She had certainly never worked in uniform or the CID alongside a black officer. She was also aware that despite efforts to encourage black people to join the police force, the response had been poor. Many in the Afro-Caribbean community believed, with reason, that if they joined the police they would be subjected to racism within the force as well as opposition and hostility from friends, relatives and members of the community.