‘Yes, and you were the DI at Tower Bridge and involved in the investigation of all three robberies. You recovered a Smith & Wesson .39 automatic pistol with a walnut inlay on the grip.’

Murphy shook his head. ‘I’ve been involved in hundreds of investigations in my time on the Flying Squad, and seized hundreds of guns, so don’t expect me to be able to remember every one of them.’

‘You submitted a model .39 to the lab, then booked it out for an interview and never returned it to the lab.’

Murphy laughed, then, moving quickly, reached out and placed his pudgy right hand on Jane’s chest between her breasts and moved it down towards her crotch.

Jane stood her ground, glad that she’d secreted the microphone so well inside her bra. She kept her voice low. ‘The only wire on me, sir, is the stuff in my bra holding up my tits.’

In the obo van, Elliott was on his feet, checking his gun in his holster. He inched open the door and could see Jane and Murphy at the hamburger van being handed their orders. He gave a radio signal to the two men working on the drains to be on alert.

‘If you’re not wearing a wire, then why are you really here, Tennison?’ Murphy asked with a glare.

She smiled. ‘Payback.’

He leaned forward so his face was nearly touching hers and whispered in her ear, ‘Listen, you stupid little girl, you’ve got nothing on me and you never will have. I didn’t return the gun to the lab because I gave it to the armorer at Tower Bridge to destroy. I’ve still got the paperwork to prove it.’ He bit into his burger, leaving a residue of tomato ketchup at the corner of his mouth. He wiped it with a napkin.

‘Paperwork can be forged,’ she said. ‘It’s the same gun I found at the Ripley garage.’

‘Then the fucking armorer must be bent and he gave it to a bank robber. Now fuck off back to the hole you crawled out of.’

Jane decided to go for broke. ‘I know you arrested Harry Burton in ’76 on suspicion of the Express robbery and released him without charge so he’d work for you. You helped plan his robberies and gave him the Smith & Wesson.’

Murphy turned sharply to face Jane again. ‘In case it slipped your mind, I shot Harry Burton dead after he tried to kill you.’

‘That’s right. You were scared the gun from the Express robbery could be traced back to Burton and he’d grass on you. That’s why you set him up on a robbery and used it as a way of murdering him.’

Murphy’s eyes started to bulge. ‘Well, he can’t help you now he’s dead, can he?’