‘Can someone grab the flip chart and felt pens?’ Murphy asked.
Seeing she was nearest, Jane went to get it but, as she picked up the two pens, Katie suddenly snatched them out of her hand.
‘DCI Murphy likes me to write the salient points on the flip chart at office meetings since I’m the only one with legible handwriting.’
Jane was taken aback by her petulance.
‘I was only going to carry it over, not write—’
‘That’s kind of you,’ Katie said, scampering off to position herself next to Murphy.
‘Stupid bloody woman!’ Jane muttered, shaking her head in disbelief.
Murphy coughed to clear his throat.
‘Right, I’d like to go through this morning’s robbery step by step. I don’t normally have to remind you of this, but for the benefit of our new arrival, DS Tennison — what is said within these four walls remains within these four walls.’ He looked at Jane, who nodded.
Murphy continued, ‘DI Kingston has already briefed me on what the landlady of the Crown told him. It would seem she’s our best witness as she at least got a look at the driver of the Cortina. Anyway, Stewart, can you tell us what she saw and give us the description of the driver?’
Kingston got out his pocket notebook but said he’d yet to take a full statement from Fiona. The artist’s impression of the driver was being done at 5 p.m., so it should be with them in the morning for circulation. He went over what Fiona had told him and when he gave the description of the driver he spoke slowly, so Katie could write it on the flip chart. As Kingston was about to continue the Colonel spoke up.
‘You might like to add “shit-hot driver” to that description—’
‘Why would that be, Colonel?’ Murphy asked.
‘I spoke to the driver of Juliet 1 before he was carted off in the ambulance. He’s an experienced Class 1 driver himself and said the driver of the Cortina knew how to handle the car at high speeds.’
Katie wrote ‘shit-hot driver’ on the flip chart, which made the Colonel chuckle.
‘‘Good driving skills’ would have been fine,’ Kingston told her with a smile.
Katie looked flustered. ‘I assumed those were the exact words the police driver used.’
Kingston continued, ‘The landlady said the driver was late thirties to mid-forties. The collar on his donkey jacket was pulled up and he wore a gray cloth cap, pulled forward as if trying to conceal his face. When the three men got out of the car they walked in an “A” formation. She thought the man at the front was about five foot ten, and the one behind on his right was about the same — he carried the sawn-off in his right hand. The third man, who got out of the front passenger seat, was about six foot two, wearing a light-colored stocking mask and had some sort of gun in his right hand.’
Jane flicked through her pocket notebook. Abby had said the tall man was wearing a mask over his face, but when Jane asked if it was a balaclava she said yes. Of course, being distressed at the time, she might have been mistaken.
‘Can any of the guards help us with a detailed description of the handgun?’ Murphy asked, but there was no immediate reply.
Dabs raised his hand. ‘DS Tennison found some spent nine-mill cartridge cases before I got to the Woodville Road scene. The stamp on the cases revealed they were made in 1943.’
‘So, we’re maybe looking for a World War Two semi-automatic?’ DC Baxter asked.
‘Not necessarily — the bullets may be old, but the gun could be newish and capable of firing old nine-mill bullets. Tennison and I also recovered two bullets that were in reasonable shape and had rifling marks for comparison testing against any guns we recover. Once the firearms section at the lab have done their forensic examinations, I should be able to tell you more.’
‘What else was on the cartridge case, Dabs?’ the Colonel asked.
‘ST+ and DNH.’
‘ST+ is for improved steel cases and DNH means the casings were made in Germany — but don’t ask me what part,’ the Colonel added.
Dabs looked impressed. ‘I don’t doubt your knowledge as an ex-soldier, Colonel, but I’ll get the lab to double-check.’
The Colonel frowned. ‘Ex-Marine, thank you, Dabs.’
‘Good job, Dabs, and it’s something for the lab to work on,’ Murphy said.
It was considerate of Dabs to mention her work at the scene but Jane felt Murphy had deliberately avoided acknowledging her part in assisting him. Murphy asked the three detectives who had taken statements from the security guards to read out the salient points.
The Colonel, who had interviewed the van driver, spoke first. Jane found it chilling to hear how the robber with a sawn-off shotgun said, ‘You so much as twitch and I’ll blow your fucking head off.’
‘How did the driver describe his voice?’ Murphy asked the Colonel.
‘He thought it was a London accent and at first the voice was deep, but high-pitched after he shot the off-duty officer and said, “The fucking idiot tried to get the gun off me.” He said the robber’s eyes were dark colored and the bits of eyebrow he could see were light brown. He was about the same height as the off-duty PC who got shot, which according to his police file is five foot ten—’
‘Good, that’s two people putting him at the same height,’ Murphy said.
‘Anything about the way the robber walked?’ Kingston asked.
‘No, Guv, the driver didn’t see him approaching and when the robber shot the PC he wound up the window and lay across the front seats shitting himself that he was next.’
Kingston went over what the off-duty PC had told him about tackling the man with the sawn-off shotgun: how the officer thought he was going to die when he heard the gun go off and felt what he thought were lead pellets hit his stomach.
‘Poor lad’s lucky to be alive, but at least he’ll think twice before doing something like that again,’ Kingston said.
‘I expect he won’t be having the egg fried rice next time he has a Chinky takeaway,’ the Colonel added, raising a few chuckles.
Murphy asked who’d dealt with the guard in the back of the van and DC Baxter raised his hand.
‘There was nothing of real value from him as he didn’t look out of his viewing window while the robbery was going down. He put the first box in the chute and thought it was being delivered to the bank. He was reading a paper while waiting for the second coded knock on the van, which means it’s safe to send out the next cash box. When he heard his colleague say, “You can send out the other case” without knocking, he knew something was wrong and set off the van’s alarm. He then heard the shotgun go off and stayed where he was until the lids arrived.’
‘Lids’ was a CID term to referring to the uniform officers who were first on scene.
‘Well, you’ve had an easy day, Bax,’ Murphy joked.
‘I tried to string his statement out to three pages, Guv, but I didn’t think you’d want to know about him spewing his breakfast up all over the back of the van.’
Murphy laughed. ‘Who interviewed the guard who was carrying the cash box?’
Stanley raised his hand and waved a lengthy statement he was holding.
‘This poor guy literally shit himself when the barrel of the gun was put against his forehead—’
‘Just take us through what he saw and heard, Stanley, not his bowel movements, thank you,’ Murphy said, to general laughter.
‘Couldn’t he give a good description of the gun?’ the Colonel asked.
‘Not really, other than the barrel was round, black and had what he described as a fin on the tip of it — understandably he closed his eyes when it was first put to his forehead...’
‘That might be a Luger,’ the Colonel commented. ‘A Luger barrel is round and has a sight tip on the end, whereas with many semi-automatics the barrel is an oblong shape. Dabs also mentioned the 43 and DNH stamps on the cartridge case, meaning the ammunition was German. A Luger can also fire nine-mill ammo. Don’t take my word for it, though, Dabs.’