Bax laughed. ‘If it is, the whole squad will be back pounding the beat. Luckily Stanley and the Colonel were watching our four suspects play golf when it went down.’
‘That’s a relief. What happened at the depot?’
‘All I know so far is four tooled-up blokes with dodgy Irish accents forced their way in there, tied up the guards and stole the money from the vault.’
‘How much?’
‘Four or five million, they reckon — in non-traceable notes.’
Jane let out a whistle of surprise. ‘That’s twice as much as they got away with in the Great Train Robbery. Is anyone with Murphy?’
‘Just Teflon,’ Bax said.
‘Do you think they’ll need some help?’
‘I wouldn’t bother. It happened on our patch, but Murphy said he’s going to hand the job over to the Tower Bridge team since we’re tucked up with the Ripleys.’
‘I may as well catch up with my paperwork, then.’
Jane went to her desk while Bax did the vehicle check.
‘The Jensen’s registered to Nichols. The address is fourteen Westbury Lane, Buckhurst Hill, which isn’t far from George Ripley’s house.’
Murphy and Teflon returned to the office just after midday.
‘Well done on identifying our Camel Hair Coat Man.’
She looked at Teflon, realizing he must have said something to Murphy.
‘Could I have a word with you in your office, please, sir?’
‘Yes, if you make me a black coffee first.’
She was putting the coffee powder in a cup when Teflon came over for a quiet word.
‘He asked me what happened at the wedding on the way to the Shoreditch robbery. I told him you’d ID’d Nichols, but I didn’t mention he might have sussed who you are.’
‘I’m now positive he did.’
She poured the hot water in the cup.
‘Shit. Why are you so sure?’
‘Six years ago he was the defense barrister in a murder trial when I gave evidence. He’s changed so much I didn’t recognize him.’
‘Then the Ripleys definitely know we’re on to them.’
Jane nodded, picked up the coffee, and took it into Murphy’s office. He was on the phone, but waved her in and pointed to a seat as he continued the conversation.
‘One of them was dressed as a bloody priest and all the guards said they had Irish accents, which might have been faked. It was clearly well planned and executed, and they had insider information as they clearly knew the guards’ routine. Anyway, I’ve got some statements I’ll fax over to you now, then you can get one of your team to pick up the originals.’
Murphy put the phone down.
‘That was the DCI at Tower Bridge. Tell me all about the wedding, then, and how you got the name of our Camel Hair Coat Man.’
Jane got straight to the point and told him about Anthony Nichols being a disbarred QC who knew she was a police officer.
‘I had to come out when I saw Nichols speaking to George Ripley. Ripley was looking daggers at me.’
‘I appreciate you being up front and honest, Jane. If I was in your shoes and a lone officer among the Ripley gang, I’d have been out of there in the blink of an eye.’
‘I’m sorry if I’ve ruined the whole operation, sir.’
‘Look, Jane, you did your job and got the information I asked for. Against the advice of some members of the team, it was my decision to send you in there alone, so the reality is I’m responsible for what happened — not you.’
What he said was reasonable, but she still didn’t understand why he wasn’t more pissed off about the way things had gone. They were never going to nick the gang on the pavement now.
‘I’ve got an address for Nichols in Buckhurst Hill.’ She handed him the details.
‘As I see it, we’re left with two options,’ Murphy said. ‘Nick them all now, or carry on with the surveillance for a few days and see what happens.’
‘Paul Lawrence said the fingerprints on the Chubb keys matched a UDA man called O’Dwyer.’
‘I know, I spoke to the DI investigating. His team are trying to locate O’Dwyer, but even if they do, I can’t see him implicating O’Reilly in anything.’
‘There’s always Betty, the old woman who saw the getaway driver close up.’
Murphy nodded. ‘DI Kingston spoke to me about her.’
‘She’s sharp as a tack and would make a good witness despite her age. I’m convinced she’d pick out Smith on an ID parade. Then there’s Abby Jones...’
‘That’s a non-starter after the fiasco with her father.’
‘But if we arrest the suspects and you spoke to him, he might be more willing to let Abby be a witness.’
‘I’m aware of all the ifs and buts, thank you. I need to speak to the Commander. In the meantime, get Bax to call everyone in and ask Teflon to fax the statements over to Tower Bridge.’
Bax was gloomy as he picked up the phone.
‘Sounds like he’s going to arrest them today if he’s calling everyone in. If we don’t find some solid evidence connecting them to the Leytonstone robbery, I can’t see how Murphy can charge them.’
‘How’d he take the news about Tony Nichols?’ Teflon asked her.
‘I thought he was going to scream blue murder, but he basically said it was his fault.’
‘Bloody hell, that’s a first. I take it you didn’t tell him about the date with Carl?’ he whispered.
‘No, and I’m not going to,’ she whispered back. ‘Carl Winter’s not involved and doesn’t have a clue about what George or the others have been up to. Can I have a read of the statements for the Shoreditch job after you’ve faxed them?’
He nodded. ‘Wait till you see what they did to the supervising guard — it’ll give you nightmares.’
Jane was sitting at her desk reading the statements in chronological order when Bax answered the phone.
‘Jane, it’s Paul Lawrence for you.’
He transferred the call to her.
‘Hi. You still mad at me?’
‘I wasn’t mad... just bloody knackered. I made some enquiries about Anthony Nichols with a QC who’s prosecuted a few murders I’ve given evidence in. He didn’t know him personally, but made some phone calls. Apparently Nichols is working for a dodgy firm of solicitors—’
‘I thought he was disbarred?’
‘He was, but that doesn’t stop him from overseeing cases or attending a police station as a suspect’s advisor. He just can’t appear in court as a legal representative.’
‘The law’s an ass. Did your friend know which firm?’
‘Russell and Cartwright — they’re in Curtain Road, Shoreditch.’
‘Did you say Curtain Road?’
‘Yes.’
‘OK. Thanks, Paul.’
Jane grabbed the office Yellow Pages. She flicked through the directory to the solicitors section and found the address for Russell and Cartwright, then phoned City Road Police Station and spoke to the duty sergeant. Her hunch was right: the offices of the solicitors’ firm Tony Nichols worked for overlooked the Security Express depot.
She read through the statements slowly, making notes as she went. She thought the statement lacked fine detail and realized a local detective must have taken it, as the officer’s name wasn’t familiar to her. She wrote down the heights of the robbers as given by each guard. They all fitted within the range of the Ripley brothers, Graham Smith and, most notably, Aidan O’Reilly, who was six feet four. The supervisor said the man who threatened him had a deep voice, like George Ripley.
‘Teflon, I need your help.’
He walked over to her desk. ‘What with?’
‘These statements. There are details here that make me think the Ripley gang may have done the Shoreditch job.’
Teflon laughed. ‘You’re becoming obsessed with them, Jane. They were all playing golf.’