Within a few seconds the Colonel reappeared, took off his cap and waved it to signal the area was safe. As Cam drove into Woodville Road Jane noticed that the Colonel was totally bald, which surprised her for his age.

Cam pointed down the left side of the street.

‘Bloody hell, Juliet 1 has crashed into the front of that house.’

Jane could see a plume of steam rising from the badly damaged police vehicle. Its sirens had stopped, but the blue light on top was still flashing and the front half of the vehicle was covered in brick and rubble from the bay window of the Victorian terraced house it had crashed into. A small elderly man was attempting to lift the unconscious driver out of the car but having difficulty. Kingston was by the front passenger door, trying to pull it open and get to the injured officer.

‘Bring the jemmy from the motor, Cam!’ he shouted.

Cam jumped out of the car. ‘I’m on it, Guv!’ he shouted back, and ran to the boot of the car.

It was the first time Jane had got a proper look at Cam, who had a badly pockmarked face and receding dark brown hair. As he ran across the road to Kingston with the jemmy and a first aid box, the Colonel opened the passenger door and picked up the radio mike.

‘Central 888 to MP. We are on scene in Woodville. Suspects have left in the Cortina and Juliet 1 has crashed into a house – the crew are injured and we’re attempting to extract them from the vehicle. Do you have an ETA for the ambulance?’

‘About two minutes,’ MP replied.

Jane got out of the car and surveyed the scene.

‘Juliet 1 must have hit the bay window at high speed to cause that much damage.’

‘No shit, Treacle,’ the Colonel replied.

‘I’d prefer “no shit, Sergeant”, Detective Constable Gorman,’ Jane said lightly, to remind him of her rank and knowing ‘treacle tart’ was cockney rhyming slang for ‘sweetheart’.

‘There’s a woman with a baby sitting on a wall over there.’ He pointed across the road near the crash site, but Jane couldn’t see her due to a parked car. ‘She looks pretty distressed and might have seen what happened. It would be helpful if you could have a chat with her . . . Sergeant,’ he said pointedly, then ran across the road to assist Kingston and Cam.

Jane was frustrated by the fact that even seven years on from integration, many male officers still thought their female colleagues should only deal with women and children. She didn’t like the Colonel’s attitude but didn’t feel it was the time or place to challenge him about it. She was glad that DS Stanley was an old acquaintance as he would be able to tell her more about the officers on the squad, especially as the few she’d met so far seemed rude and intimidating.