She looked at him uncertainly. ‘Betty was adamant that neither she or Fiona Simpson told anyone they saw the driver’s face—’
He pointed his finger at her. ‘Whoa! Stop right there before you dig a big hole for yourself. I’ll give you ten out of ten for tenacity, but you’re way off base if you think I or anyone else on this squad is a leak or has anything to do with Simpson’s death.’
‘I never said that.’
‘No, but you’re insinuating it. For your information I told Murphy about Betty straight after I first spoke to Simpson. He agreed with me about keeping her out of it — if you don’t believe me go and ask him.’
Jane was taken aback. ‘I’m sorry—’
‘Look, I was shocked to discover Fiona Simpson was dead — and of course it’s crossed my mind that it might be connected to our investigation — but I’m on the fence until we get the post mortem result and Lawrence finishes examining the scene.’
‘I shouldn’t have doubted you.’
‘You’re not the first and you won’t be the last — but at least you were up front with me.’
Jane felt a sense of relief, mixed with shame, that she’d jumped to the wrong conclusion.
‘I heard the money I gave the Colonel was well spent,’ he said.
‘Sorry, what are you talking about?’
‘The money from the informants’ fund for his snout.’
‘Yeah, looks like Gentleman Jim was talking about Aidan O’Reilly.’
She was now certain the Colonel had stolen a ten-pound note.
There was a knock on the door and Cam looked in.
‘Guv is ready to start the meeting.’
Jane was not the only one eager to hear what Murphy had to say.
‘As you all know, our witness Fiona Simpson is dead. Her post mortem is scheduled for three p.m., but whatever the outcome, Division will deal with the investigation and keep us informed. If her death is deemed to be suspicious, only me or DI Kingston will speak to Division, as there is obviously sensitive information that I don’t want disclosed at this time. Before I speak about the surveillance operation, has anyone anything further to add about our suspects?’
The Colonel raised his hand.
‘DI Kingston told me about your snout’s information — it looks promising, but we need more,’ said Murphy.
‘He’s working on it. I also got an address from Companies House for George Ripley—’
‘How’d you get that on a Sunday?’ Murphy interrupted.
‘You don’t want to know, Guv.’
‘I do, Colonel.’ He frowned.
‘I told the security guard I was Commander Drury from Scotland Yard and needed to check some files urgently.’
‘Drury’s in prison,’ Stanley said.
‘Then he won’t know I used his name, will he?’ The Colonel grinned.
‘George Ripley’s got a big house in Gravel Lane, Chigwell, called Farthings,’ he continued. ‘Which is ironic as a farthing was worth a quarter of a penny. We did a drive-by recce and the house has big iron gates and a high wall at the front with a long gravel driveway. There’s woodland at the back and a field opposite, so the only way you can do surveillance on the place is in an observation van, but it’s a country lane and you’d stand out like a sore thumb.’
Murphy wrote down the details in his pocket notebook.
‘What about setting up road or gas works?’ Kingston asked.
‘Again, a bit obvious. You can only go left or right out of the property, so a surveillance vehicle at either junction could pick up the target.’
‘Problem is, without a fixed OP on the house we won’t know when Ripley leaves,’ Murphy reflected.
‘You could stick a CROPS officer in the field opposite the gates or woodland in the grounds,’ Stanley suggested, referring to highly trained Covert Rural Observation Post Surveillance officers.
‘Good thinking, Stanley,’ Murphy said. ‘You ever do CROPS work when you were on the surveillance squad?’
‘Thankfully I wasn’t trained to that level — I never fancied living in a hole for days with my own piss and shit to keep me company.’
‘That’s not true — I remember your room in the section house before you got married,’ the Colonel quipped, to a roar of laughter.
‘All right, enough of the jokes!’ Murphy barked. ‘Anything else on George Ripley?’
Bax had some information. ‘All Saints Church is at one end of Gravel Lane, so on the off chance we popped in and had a quick word with the vicar about any forthcoming marriages. We struck lucky — Tina Ripley is getting married there this Saturday at three o’clock, but the vicar didn’t know where the reception is being held. I also got George and Tommy Ripley’s home phone numbers from the PO.’
Murphy looked pleased. ‘Excellent work. You two have been busy.’
‘Did the vicar ask why you wanted to know about that particular wedding?’ Kingston asked.
‘Yes, but we didn’t say who we were interested in and assured him we wouldn’t disrupt the service or reception. He gave us his word he wouldn’t tell anyone we spoke to him.’
‘Is Tina Ripley marrying our suspect Carl?’ Jane asked.
‘No, it’s a bloke called Duncan Sharpin, who we’ve found no trace of in the CRO.’
‘Hope he knows what sort of family he’s marrying into,’ Teflon joked.
Murphy asked Stanley how he’d got on regarding observation points for the other suspects. He said he had secured a suitable observation point in a two-storey house, owned by an elderly couple, in the next road down from GR Motors. He’d been in the house and from the back bedroom there was an unobstructed view of the car sales front, offices and repair garage.
Murphy made some more notes, then asked Stanley to continue.
‘Cam made some enquiries yesterday on Maria Fernandez’s address in Stamford Hill. She doesn’t live there anymore, but the mail forwarding address she gave the Post Office is twelve Connington House, Chingford, which is where Tommy Ripley lives. I couldn’t find a suitable OP there, but an OBO van with two other surveillance vehicles should be enough to follow him to and from the premises. I also secured an OP in a flat above an off-license that overlooks O’Reilly’s place in Seven Sisters Road. There are side streets for the surveillance vehicles to park up and wait for the signal from the OP. It’s a busy area, so if he travels on foot or by bus it will be easy to follow the target. I checked out the view from the newsagent’s opposite the Bluebird — it’s a good one that takes in the snooker hall as well. That covers all the addresses we have so far.’
‘Good work. We can tail Graham Smith when he leaves GR Motors, and hopefully we’ll get a sighting of the suspect Carl and can then tail him. Any more on the man in the camel hair coat, Tennison?’
‘Rachel Wilson identified a vehicle in Exchange & Mart. I’ll let Teflon tell you about it as he’s the car guru.’
‘She picked out a silver Jensen Interceptor Mark 3, but said the one she saw was maroon. She was confident it was the car and said it was possibly a convertible, but she wasn’t sure. The company folded in ’76, but they only sold a few hundred a year, so we might be able to backtrack on maroon ones sold to London residents.’
‘That’ll take a long time,’ Cam remarked, knowing he’d have to do it.
Murphy agreed with him.
‘Let’s try and pick up the Jensen on surveillance first. The surveillance operation will commence at six a.m. tomorrow and the targets will be followed until it’s safe to assume they’ve gone to bed. I’ve got other CO11 units to assist us with the surveillance and permission for wiretaps on the Ripleys and Aidan O’Reilly’s home and work phones. DI Kingston and I just need ten minutes to finalize the details of who will be in the static OPs, or armed in vehicles on the ground, then I want you all to go home and get some rest before tomorrow. You’ll be working long hours for at least the next four weeks, then the squad commander will review the surveillance operation. The bottom line is we don’t know if, when or where our suspects will carry out another robbery, but if they do, we have the element of surprise on our side. Some Level 1 officers from D11 Firearms Command will be working with us, but as you all know, our suspects are trigger-happy and will be armed with handguns and sawn-offs — so don’t hesitate to shoot the bastards if you feel your life is threatened. Just make sure you hit the bloody target!’