Walking to her car she mulled over the information she had gathered. Surely it was more than just coincidence that four men, all with similar builds to the robbers, should be seen on or near the estate shortly after the robbery and close to the time the fire was discovered. Most striking for her was the fact that one of the men was wearing a newsboy cap like the one described by Fiona Simpson, who had seen the driver of the Ford Cortina.
Chapter Eleven
Jane decided to return to the office and tell Kingston what she’d learned from Rita Brown. En route she dropped in to Leytonstone Police Station to collect the house-to-house folder and spoke to the duty sergeant. He informed her that all the flats in Edgar House had been visited, as well as the houses in Blake Hall Road and the first six houses on either side of Felstead Road. He had also debriefed the officers who made the enquiries, and no one reported seeing anything of interest to the investigation.
It was 7 p.m. when Jane got back to Rigg Approach and parked her VW in the street outside the squad offices. She couldn’t remember the key code, and was flustered for a moment, until she remembered to look in the back of her pocket notebook and quickly entered 1066 to open the door. Upstairs the squad room was empty. She knocked on Kingston’s office door, but there was no reply. She knocked again, but still there was no answer, so she opened the door and peeked in, but he wasn’t there, though his jacket was over the back of his chair. She then tried DCI Murphy’s office, only to find it empty as well.
Having seen Kingston’s jacket on the chair, Jane wondered if he might be in the gym working out and decided to go down to the basement to see. As she got near the locker room she could hear a male voice grunting and the rhythmic sound of squeaking metal from gym equipment being used. She entered the locker room and was about to say, ‘Excuse me, Guv,’ when the sight that greeted her froze her to the spot.
Kingston was standing with his back to the door and his trousers down by his ankles, while Katie knelt in front of him on a weightlifting bench that rocked and squeaked in time to Kingston’s thrusts.
Jane was no prude, but this was a situation she didn’t want to get caught up in. She’d never in her life seen another couple having sex, apart from a brief glimpse of a porn movie she’d caught her male colleagues watching in the snooker room on night duty when she was a probationer at Hackney. Thankful she hadn’t disturbed them, Jane crept back up the stairs as quickly as she could and grabbed her coat and shoulder bag, but as she went out of the office onto the landing she could hear Kingston and Katie talking as they walked back up the stairs. She darted into the ladies’ toilet across the hallway and sat down to wait for their voices to subside so she could sneak out to her car. She recalled DC Lloyd Johnson saying Katie liked attention and got plenty of it from Kingston, but she’d never imagined they were in a relationship. She heard Katie’s voice just outside the toilet.
‘I just need to freshen up after that workout.’ She giggled.
Jane slowly pushed the slide catch on the door to lock it.
‘Fancy a glass of Scotch?’ Kingston asked as he opened the squad room door.
‘No thanks, I’m warm enough already,’ Katie said, trying to open the toilet door. ‘Is someone in there? It better not be you, Stanley, or so help me God I’ll rub your nose in anything you’ve left on the seat!’
Jane was in two minds about keeping quiet, hoping Katie might think the door was jammed and give up, but then decided she shouldn’t have to skulk about because of their outrageous behavior.
‘It’s me, Jane Tennison — is there a problem?’
‘Oh, right, I thought it was Stanley. How long have you been in there?’ Katie asked sheepishly.
‘I just got back and was desperate for the loo. I’ll be finished in a minute if you’re waiting.’
‘It’s all right, take your time.’
She grabbed her hairbrush and went into Kingston’s office.
‘Tennison’s in the loo.’
‘What’s she doing back here?’
Katie started brushing her hair. ‘I don’t know... I think she may have heard what I just said to you about being warm already.’
‘So what? She doesn’t know what we were up to, but she will if she sees you all flustered. Just calm down and act as if nothing’s happened.’
Katie returned to her desk, sat down and started typing.
‘Toilet’s free now, Katie.’ Jane walked into the office but Katie didn’t seem to hear her. ‘Are you all right, Katie?’
‘What makes you ask that?’
‘You seemed to be in another world, that’s all.’
‘The heating’s playing up again — it’s so stuffy in here it’s making me feel nauseous.’
‘Is DI Kingston in?’
‘Yes, he’s been in his office all evening doing paperwork,’ Katie replied as she hurried off to the toilet.
Jane thought that even if she hadn’t seen Katie in the gym with Kingston, she’d have guessed something was up. Guilt was written all over Katie’s face. She might be good at filing, but she was a lousy liar. Jane would have loved to have made a sarcastic comment but bit her lip, knowing it could backfire on her if Katie said anything to Kingston. When she entered his office, he was sitting at his desk writing, with a glass of whisky next to him.
‘I didn’t expect to see you back here tonight, Tennison. Something of interest come up?’
‘You could say that, sir,’ she said, reflecting wryly on what she’d witnessed a few minutes ago. She suppressed a smile. ‘Mrs. Brown saw another two men leaving the Edgar House estate just before the fire, and one was wearing a cap similar to the one Fiona Simpson saw the driver of the getaway car wearing. Also, Mrs. Brown thinks she saw the man carrying the duffle bag in a gold Mercedes sports car, possibly a 450SL convertible.’
Kingston put his pen down and stopped writing.
‘Take a seat and tell me exactly what she said. You want a Scotch?’
This time she couldn’t help herself.
‘Thanks, sir, it’s cold out so that should warm me up.’
As he poured the drink she got out her pocket notebook and went over her meeting with Rita Brown, and what Mrs. Clarke had said about the garage keys and the purchase of their flat.
‘Bloody hell, you’ve had quite a productive evening, Tennison.’
‘Would you like me to make follow-up enquiries with the estate agents who dealt with the sale of 14 Edgar House?’
‘Yes. Do it tomorrow morning after the office meeting and speak to the housing association about Mrs. Smith. They may have some useful information we can work on. Get a photo of a Merc 450SL convertible and show it to Mrs. Brown. If she says it’s the same type of car she saw, stick it on the office wall. Also buy a newsboy cap of the same color and claim the cost back on an expenses chitty.’
‘Is it worth speaking to Fiona Simpson again to get a more detailed description of the cap the driver of the getaway car was wearing?’
Kingston reached into his desk in tray and pulled out two pieces of A4 paper with drawings on them.
‘This was dropped off earlier by the police artist.’
He stood beside Jane and put the drawings down in front of her; one was a profile and the other full face. Jane could smell Katie’s perfume on him as he leaned over and pointed to the profile.
‘There are no triangular panels on the cap Fiona Simpson described to the artist, but there is a button on top.’ He tapped his finger on it.
He went over to his jacket, which was still on the chair, reached in the side pocket and pulled out a beer mat. Jane wondered what he was doing until he picked up his desk phone and started to dial a number which was written on the mat.