‘You’ve all worked hard today and proved that good teamwork produces positive results. I think we can all agree there’s evidence, albeit circumstantial, that the Ripley brothers, Aidan O’Reilly and most probably Graham Smith are involved in the Leytonstone robbery. We need to find out who Carl is as he may be part of the gang; likewise the man in the camel hair coat, and what was in the envelope he handed to George Ripley.’

‘Are we gonna nick ’em, Guv?’ Bax asked.

‘Although Rachel Wilson appears to be a credible witness and her evidence is enough to arrest and interview them on suspicion of robbery, I believe—’

Cam interrupted. ‘I’m not so sure about the Wilson sisters being credible, Guv.’

‘Why?’ Murphy asked.

Cam went to Katie’s desk to get the notes of the conversation he’d had about the twins.

‘I spoke to a nun at St Cuthbert’s children’s home, who remembered young twins coming there in 1958 after a car crash, but their names were Emira and Rasheda, the children of Mehmet and Emine Osman, Turkish Cypriots who came to the UK in the early fifties and lived in Wood Green.’

‘Are you saying the Wilson twins are those two girls?’ Jane asked.

‘Yes. The nun told me Rasheda became deaf as a result of the crash and Emira had a deformed left hand.’

Murphy turned to Jane. ‘Does Emma Wilson have a deformed left hand?’

‘Yes, she does, she injured it in the car crash when her parents died,’ she replied.

‘OK, carry on, Cam.’

‘Emine Osman didn’t die in a car crash – but I’ll get to that in a minute. I managed to speak to a home beat PC at Wood Green who’s been there nearly thirty years. He told me Mehmet Osman used the name Micky Osbourne, and had a fearsome reputation in the Turkish community as a loan shark and slum landlord. He exploited and harassed his tenants with physical violence and threats to get what he wanted. Sometimes he’d kill their domestic pets and hang them from a lamp post with their entrails dangling out. No one was prepared to stand up to him, but then he went overboard with his fists and put Emine in a coma. He told the hospital she fell down the stairs, but the doctor told the police her injuries were not consistent with a fall and she wasn’t expected to live, so Osman was circulated as wanted. Two days later a patrol car stopped him on the A20 heading towards Dover. The radio operator approached on foot and was standing by the driver’s door when Osman stuck a gun in his stomach and shot him dead. A pursuit followed and Osman crashed head-on into an HGV, went through the windscreen and died instantly. No one knew his daughters were in the back of the car until afterwards.’