He handed the sheet to Murphy, who squinted at the photo of O’Reilly.
‘This mugshot looks old and the fax is blurry,’ Murphy complained.
Stanley wasn’t fazed. ‘I know, but I can tell you it’s him — and Dabs reckons the prints match, too.’
Dabs held up the sheets. ‘I can’t make a full sixteen-point identification — the prints aren’t clear enough on the faxes.’
Stanley frowned. ‘Are you now saying they’re not a match?’
‘From what I’ve got in front of me I can only identify twelve points that are the same, so—’
‘That doesn’t answer my question, Dabs.’
‘Calm down and let me finish, will you? What I can say is that the source of the fingerprints on the glass is a highly probable match to the prints held on file by the RUC...’
‘Christ! So they are a match!’ Stanley snapped.
‘In my opinion, yes,’ Dabs explained patiently. ‘But I need a second fingerprint expert to confirm it for any arrest or court purposes. A decent copy of the prints from the RUC would help.’
Murphy held his hand up. ‘All right, stop bickering... For now I’m happy with your “expert opinion” that the prints are a probable match. Get the RUC to send a decent copy to the fingerprint bureau at the Yard, then another expert can examine them. What sort of criminal record has O’Reilly got?’
Stanley looked at the rap sheet. ‘Not a lot, and mostly when he was a teenager — just theft and a couple of burglaries. There’s one for reckless GBH when he was eighteen, though. He did three years for that.’
‘Doesn’t exactly sound like the headcase we’re looking for, though,’ Cam remarked.
Stanley picked up another faxed page marked ‘confidential.’
‘It’s what he hasn’t been convicted of that’s more interesting. According to his intel file he’s a bare-knuckle fighter with a reputation as a hard man and “fundraiser” for the UDA.’
‘Who the fuck are they?’ Bax asked.
The Colonel shook his head in disbelief.
‘Christ, you’re an ignorant fucker, Bax. The Ulster Defence Association — they’re a paramilitary loyalist group who protect Protestant districts from IRA attacks. The reality is both sides are just a bunch of murdering thugs.’
Stanley continued, ‘O’Reilly was suspected of running a protection racket in Belfast, where he blackmailed and extorted money for the UDA from construction firms, building sites, pubs and shops.’
‘Now that does sound more like the guy we’re interested in,’ Cam remarked.
‘It gets better,’ Stanley said. ‘In 1978 three businessmen decided to testify against him on the condition their identities remained hidden. Someone leaked it to O’Reilly and one of them was shot dead by a masked gunman in front of his wife and children. The others then withdrew their allegations and the case against him collapsed.’
He handed Murphy the intel fax.
‘Was O’Reilly arrested for the murder?’ Teflon asked.
‘Yes, but he was given an alibi by two of his henchmen, which the RUC couldn’t disprove, so they had to release him.’
‘Why did he come to London?’ Teflon asked.
Stanley shrugged. ‘Don’t know. The intel report doesn’t mention it, so the RUC may not even know he’s here.’
‘Could be he needed to lie low for a while,’ Bax suggested.
‘Or he was worried the RUC would fit him up.’ The Colonel grinned.
Murphy handed the fax back to Stanley.
‘O’Reilly could have come to London for any number of reasons; it’s what he’s up to right now that we need to focus on. He’s clearly a dangerous criminal who will undoubtedly be surveillance conscious.’ He paused for thought, then looked at Teflon. ‘Print off the PNC hits on George Ripley for me, and the recorded convictions.’
‘Yes, Guv,’ Teflon replied, thinking he meant later.
‘Now, please. I want to see if he has any joint convictions and who with.’
Teflon went over to the PNC terminal, sat down and started to type in George Ripley’s details while Murphy continued with the meeting.
‘You’ve all worked hard today and proved that good teamwork produces positive results. I think we can all agree there’s evidence, albeit circumstantial, that the Ripley brothers, Aidan O’Reilly and most probably Graham Smith, are involved in the Leytonstone robbery. We need to find out who Carl is as he may be part of the gang; likewise the man in the camel hair coat, and what was in the envelope he handed to George Ripley.’
‘Are we gonna nick ’em, Guv?’ Bax asked.
‘Although Rachel Wilson appears to be a credible witness and her evidence is enough to arrest and interview them on suspicion of robbery, I believe—’
Cam interrupted. ‘I’m not so sure about the Wilson sisters being credible, Guv.’
‘Why?’ Murphy asked.
Cam went to Katie’s desk to get the notes of the conversation he’d had about the twins.
‘I spoke to a nun at St. Cuthbert’s children’s home, who remembered young twins coming there in 1958 after a car crash, but their names were Emira and Rasheda, the children of Mehmet and Emine Osman, Turkish Cypriots who came to the UK in the early fifties and lived in Wood Green.’
‘Are you saying the Wilson twins are those two girls?’ Jane asked.
‘Yes. The nun told me Rasheda became deaf as a result of the crash and Emira had a deformed left hand.’
Murphy turned to Jane. ‘Does Emma Wilson have a deformed left hand?’
‘Yes, she does, she injured it in the car crash when her parents died,’ she replied.
‘OK, carry on, Cam.’
‘Emine Osman didn’t die in a car crash — but I’ll get to that in a minute. I managed to speak to a home beat PC at Wood Green who’s been there nearly thirty years. He told me Mehmet Osman used the name Micky Osbourne, and had a fearsome reputation in the Turkish community as a loan shark and slum landlord. He exploited and harassed his tenants with physical violence and threats to get what he wanted. Sometimes he’d kill their domestic pets and hang them from a lamp post with their entrails dangling out. No one was prepared to stand up to him, but then he went overboard with his fists and put Emine in a coma. He told the hospital she fell down the stairs, but the doctor told the police her injuries were not consistent with a fall and she wasn’t expected to live, so Osman was circulated as wanted. Two days later a patrol car stopped him on the A20 heading towards Dover. The radio operator approached on foot and was standing by the driver’s door when Osman stuck a gun in his stomach and shot him dead. A pursuit followed and Osman crashed head-on into a truck, went through the windscreen and died instantly. No one knew his daughters were in the back of the car until afterwards.’
‘Bloody hell, our star witness is the daughter of a cop killer,’ Bax said.
‘Looks like you might have been lied to, Tennison,’ Murphy said with a hint of a smile.
‘But surely you can understand why they might want to hide their past...’ she argued.
‘Did those girls ask for any favors in return for making a statement?’ Murphy asked.
She was in two minds about whether to lie, but she’d already spoken to Kingston about helping the twins get a move off the Broadwater, and he might have told Murphy.
‘Emma’s manager at the Co-op told me that she and Rachel were being harassed by local youths. He’d helped her write some letters to the council to get a move, but nothing happened—’
‘You’re not answering my question, Tennison,’ Murphy interrupted. ‘Did either of them ask you to help them?’
Jane knew she was in a corner.
‘Emma asked if I could write a letter to the council. I advised her it was best to report the abuse incidents to Tottenham CID, as the local police would be in a better position to assist them.’