‘Maisie was woken at 2 a.m. by a noise that she said sounded like someone standing on the creaky floorboard just outside her bedroom. She sat up in bed and, in the mirror of her open wardrobe door, she saw the outline of a man. From the description, which wasn’t bad actually for a scared young girl, he was of medium build and over six feet tall. She guessed his height based on looking at me. He got away with a diamond engagement ring and £500 in cash.’

Gifford looked over Jack’s shoulder at his small team of six men and women. Jack followed his gaze. ‘Why don’t you introduce me before curiosity kills them?’

In the squad room they sat low in their seats, arms folded, ready to be told how to do their jobs by ‘the man from the Met’. But Jack’s opening words instantly threw them off-balance. ‘Thank you for welcoming me to your patch. Don’t get me wrong, I’m the one in charge now and I’ll lead from the front until this gang is behind bars. But I recognise that I’m coming to this case with all of the excellent groundwork already done. So, thank you.’ Then Jack went in for the kill. ‘This gang will not move on and disappear for good. They will not escalate to murder, which I know is your biggest concern. We will get them. And you will have your moment.’

A hand reached out for Jack’s. ‘Thank you, sir. It’s good to have you here.’ Oaks spoke with all the maturity of a seasoned detective constable. Jack took his hand and, with that single act, he was accepted into the Chipping Norton team.

Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6

The next morning, half of Jack’s new team were at their desks wading through all of the evidence, specifically looking for people or vehicles present in the vicinity of all of the burglaries, while the other half were out taking fresh statements and asking all known burglary victims if they knew of anyone else who’d been targeted and not actually reported it.

The pinging of Gifford’s mobile could be heard two seconds before he himself appeared in the squad room carrying a mixture of hot and cold breakfasts for everyone. He was clearly surprised to see only three of his officers at their desks. ‘The others are re-interviewing, sir,’ Jack explained quickly. He knew Gifford would be unhappy that this order had been given without being run past him first. ‘We know that some burglaries have not actually been reported and that’s no use to us. We need the whole picture, so we can see the pattern – if there is one. We’ll get nowhere by being reactive; we must be proactive. And any pissing off of bigwigs we do now will be forgotten once we catch this gang.’