Jane was certain Katie had given the report to Murphy and not told her about it to deliberately annoy her. As she walked back into the office, she was determined not to let Katie’s behaviour get to her, but she knew there might come a point where she would need to heed Teflon’s advice and reprimand her.

Katie put Murphy’s roll and tea on his desk.

‘Just a dab of tomato sauce and lots of pepper, the way you like it, sir.’

Murphy grunted his thanks. ‘Is there a problem between you and Tennison?’

‘No, sir, I just felt she should have had the decency to ask before she moved her desk, that’s all.’

‘You don’t like Tennison, do you?’

‘I don’t really know her yet, but it I suppose it would be fair to say she’s not someone I’d necessarily socialise with.’

Murphy nodded. ‘I’d like you to do something for me but keep it between the two of us.’

‘Yes, sir, you can trust me to be discreet.’

‘While I’m in here, and Tennison’s out there, I want you to keep an eye on her for me. When she puts a report in to be indexed, go over it with a fine-toothed comb and let me know if there’s anything she hasn’t done she should have done.’

‘Will DI Kingston still be going over her reports after I’ve indexed them?’

‘Yes, but I don’t think he’ll be as thorough as he should.’

‘Why not?’

‘He seems to like Tennison and thinks we should give her a chance to prove herself.’

‘He said that?’ Katie asked, her brows furrowed.

‘Yes, but as far as I’m concerned she should be treated the same as everyone else. If her work’s not up to scratch or the standards I expect, I need to know for her first monthly review as a new member of the team.’

Katie smiled. ‘Would you like me to eavesdrop on her telephone calls as well?’

Murphy hesitated. ‘When you can, but don’t make it too obvious. Like I said, this conversation is just between the two of us. It would be good if you were nice to her as well – that way she won’t suspect anything untoward.’

Katie sighed. ‘I’ll do my best.’

He picked up an envelope. ‘This is addressed to Tennison; someone must have put it on my desk by mistake. Can you give it to her?’

‘That was me, sir – a Traffic Division officer delivered it late last night.’ She explained what the report was about. ‘I realised how important the information might be and thought you might like to see it first thing and decide what action needed to be taken before the meeting. I also ran a criminal record check on Mr Braun, who reported the Cortina stolen, but there was no trace of him.’