‘The heights of the men all fit, one had a deep voice and repeatedly used the word “son” in a colloquial manner — just like George Ripley does.’
‘So do lots of people, Jane.’
She wasn’t going to be put off.
‘The supervising guard said in his statement that the tall man who was watching the TV monitor kept scratching his face through the balaclava. At the wedding I was in a group photo. Tommy was standing next to me and Smith and O’Reilly were directly behind me. O’Reilly had a red rash all over his face and Smith made a joke about it, then Tommy said, “Now we know why he prefers the soft touch of nylon.”’
Teflon looked bemused. ‘What’s your point?’
‘We know Aidan O’Reilly wore a stocking mask in the Leytonstone robbery — stockings are made of nylon and balaclavas of wool,’ Jane explained. ‘If O’Reilly’s allergic to wool, he would get a rash on his face.’
‘So why would he wear a balaclava this time?’ Teflon asked dismissively.
But Jane knew she had the answer to that.
‘He had a cut to his head that would be visible through a stocking mask. A balaclava doesn’t give away any features apart from eye color, and both the supervisor and the guard, Archie, said the man with the sawn-off had blue eyes... just like—’
‘Tommy Ripley,’ Teflon said.
‘Bax, how long did it take our suspects to play their round of golf?’
Bax looked in the observation log.
‘They teed off at seven a.m. and were on the eighteenth at 10:50. Stanley said Smith was a shit golfer, so I would have thought they’d take a bit longer than that.’
‘That’s if they were actually playing golf,’ Teflon said, catching on to Jane’s idea. ‘Does the Royal Epping golf club have woodland on it?’
‘It’s called the Royal Epping Forest — the clue’s in the name,’ Bax replied sarcastically.
‘Can you look in the A-Z and see if there’s any roads by the course that you could get to through the woods?’ Jane asked Teflon.
‘I’m on it.’
‘What are you two doing?’ Bax asked.
‘Jane’s on to something big,’ Teflon said as he opened the A-Z.
‘What?’
‘I think the Ripley gang did the Shoreditch job,’ she said.
Bax started to laugh but Teflon was on her side.
‘She’s serious, Bax, and there’s evidence in the guards’ statements that backs her theory up.’ He looked at Jane. ‘There are three roads with sections of woodland that lead to the course where they could have left and returned.’
‘I reckon it would take about thirty to thirty-five minutes to get from the course to the Security Express depot in Shoreditch on a Saturday morning at seven o’clock,’ Jane said.
‘How could they leave the course and return nearly three hours later without other golfers seeing them?’ Teflon asked.
Bax grinned. ‘Easy. You just need to make sure there’s nobody playing behind you when you go back on. When I was younger, we used to sneak on and off the local course and never got caught once.’
‘Then they must have had someone in a vehicle parked up nearby waiting for them,’ Teflon said.
‘That makes five robbers, and the guards all said there were four,’ Bax remarked.
‘The driver would have stayed in the van while the others did the robbery,’ Jane suggested. ‘If they did, my guess is it’s a guy called Patrick O’Dwyer. He’s connected to O’Reilly and his prints were on Fiona Simpson’s keys.’
Jane did some calculations on a piece of paper.
‘The robbery started at eight o’clock, when the guard arrived at the depot. If they cut through the woods and got in a van on the second hole it would be about 7:15, which means they’d get to Shoreditch before eight and had at least two hours to do the robbery. If they left the depot at ten, they’d be back at the course by, say, 10:30 at the earliest to 10:45 latest.’
‘Which would mean they’d have to sneak back on the course at the seventeenth or eighteenth to finish at 10:50,’ Bax said.
Jane looked on the back of the supervisor’s statement to check the provider’s address and phone details. She picked up the phone and called him.
‘Hello, is that Mr. Bridge?’
‘Yes, speaking.’
Jane turned on the speakerphone for Bax and Teflon to listen in.
‘It’s WDS Tennison from the Flying Squad. Some of my colleagues were with you this morning.’
‘What can I do for you, officer?’
‘I’m sorry to bother you after such a traumatic experience. I just need to ask you a couple more questions about the robbery.’
‘Certainly — I’ll do whatever I can to help catch those bastards.’
‘You said in your statement that the man with the deep voice, the one who threatened you, had a gold-colored lighter in his hand.’
‘Yes, that’s right.’
‘Was it butane gas, or a fluid lighter like a Zippo?’
‘Definitely gas — I watched the bastard light it in front of me,’ he said, a tremor in his voice.
‘How did he light it?’
‘The way you do any lighter — by flicking the spark wheel with your thumb.’ He sounded bemused by the question.
‘And was the spark wheel on the top or side of the lighter?’
‘The side.’
‘Could you see if it had any writing on it?’
‘No, his hand was covering it.’
‘Can you describe the lighter to me in detail?’
‘It was about two or three inches long, an inch wide and chunky-looking.’
‘Thanks for your time, Mr. Bridge.’ She put the phone down.
‘What was that about?’ Bax asked.
‘I’ve seen George Ripley use a gold lighter with his initials in the cafe.’
‘That doesn’t mean the man who threatened the supervisor was him,’ Bax replied.
‘George’s lighter also had a spark wheel on the side.’
‘It’s just a bloody lighter — it doesn’t prove anything.’
‘I know it was George Ripley,’ Jane said tersely.
Bax sighed. ‘No, you don’t. They all wore masks, so none of the guards can identify them. Everything you’ve said is valid, Jane, but it’s guesswork — not bloody evidence.’
‘Bax is right, Jane. If no one saw them leave or return to the golf course, then Stanley and the Colonel have unwittingly given them the perfect alibi.’
Chapter Thirty-Five
By midday the Rigg Approach office was filled with another fifteen detectives from the Tower Bridge Flying Squad, who had been called in to assist the arrest operation. Most of them were carrying revolvers in side holsters and everyone in the room was tense, waiting for Murphy to address them.
Jane had already spoken to Murphy about the Ripleys, and explained why she thought they were responsible for the Security Express robbery. He agreed there were parts of her analysis that pointed to them being responsible, but he felt her theory was based on conjecture and worried that she was making the suspects fit the crime. He told her that, although he had decided to arrest the Ripleys, Smith and O’Reilly, the only way they could prove the Ripleys themselves were responsible for both robberies was to find some actual physical evidence, at their homes or work premises, connecting them to the robberies.
Jane realized she was the only female in the room and overheard one of the Tower Bridge officers say he hoped he wasn’t with the ‘plonk’ when they made the arrests. It made her hope she would be the one to arrest George Ripley or Tony Nichols.
Murphy came out of his office with the Tower Bridge DCI and DI Kingston. The room went quiet.
‘Firstly, I’d like to thank the Tower Bridge officers for coming out to assist us with the arrests.’