‘Or M1 might not have been talking about the Leytonstone bank robbery. You need to be open-minded and consider alternative possibilities.’

‘I know, but this morning at the cafe, M1 said, “Yesterday was a total fuck-up” and “Riley was a hothead”. We know that an off-duty PC got shot and the man in the front passenger seat of the Cortina fired at the area car with a handgun – maybe that’s what M1 meant by a fuck-up.’

‘Again, it might not have been a robbery he was referring to, but there’s something else M1 said that could arguably link to our investigation. He said he’d have to get a loan for Tina’s wedding as a monkey wasn’t enough. Two grand was in the Securicor cash box they got away with – which, divided by four, is a “monkey” each.’

‘Rachel thinks M2 might be connected to a snooker hall opposite the cafe. I’ve got some names from Companies House, which are all connected to the hall, and one of them has a criminal record.’

Jane looked in her pocket notebook and told him about her enquiries at Tottenham Police Station and the conversation she had with the collator there, and at Chingford Police Station, then finally her flying visit to Wood Green.

‘Bloody hell, you have been ferreting away today.’

‘Rachel may have been wrong about the name Riley. I think M1 might have said O’Reilly, and it’s reasonable to assume Tommy may be Thomas Ripley. Aidan O’Reilly lives at 94A Seven Sisters Road, which is where Ripley used to live. Ripley also has a conviction for GBH – admittedly it was just over twenty years ago, but it shows a propensity for violence. I’ve ordered his case file and it should be here by Monday.’

‘Any CRO records for O’Reilly or Maria Fernandez?’

‘There’s a load of possibles for O’Reilly and nothing on Fernandez, but she’s shown as a secondary keyholder for the snooker club. Obviously, I’ll need to do more work on all the names I’ve got so far. Finding out who M1 is is key as it may reveal further connections to Ripley and O’Reilly. The collator at Tottenham knows the cafe owner and said he’s an honest man who’s given him information before.’

‘Is the collator still Kevin Bottomley?’

Jane nodded. ‘Yes, and the cafe owner’s called Nick.’

‘Kevin was the collator when I was the DI at Tottenham – he’s reliable and trustworthy. It might be worth asking him to speak to the cafe owner, without giving too much away – or you could get Kevin to introduce you to him and do it together.’

‘He did offer to speak to Nick, but I said not at the moment. Bottomley is off over the weekend, but I’ll speak to him on Monday morning.’