Murphy asked Stanley how he’d got on regarding observation points for the other suspects. He said he had secured a suitable observation point in a two-storey house, owned by an elderly couple, in the next road down from GR Motors. He’d been in the house and from the back bedroom there was an unobstructed view of the car sales front, offices and repair garage.

Murphy made some more notes, then asked Stanley to continue.

‘Cam made some enquiries yesterday on Maria Fernandez’s address in Stamford Hill. She doesn’t live there any more, but the mail forwarding address she gave the Post Offices is twelve Connington House, Chingford, which is where Tommy Ripley lives. I couldn’t find a suitable OP there, but an OBO van with two other surveillance vehicles should be enough to follow him to and from the premises. I also secured an OP in a flat above an off-licence that overlooks O’Reilly’s place in Seven Sisters Road. There are side streets for the surveillance vehicles to park up and wait for the “off” shout from the OP. It’s a busy area, so if he travels on foot or by bus it will be easy to follow the target. I checked out the view from the newsagent’s opposite the Bluebird – it’s a good one that takes in the snooker hall as well. That covers all the addresses we have so far.’

‘Good work. We can tail Graham Smith when he leaves GR Motors, and hopefully we’ll get a visual sighting of the suspect Carl and can then tail him. Any more on the man in the camel hair coat, Tennison?’

‘Rachel Wilson identified a vehicle in Exchange & Mart. I’ll let Teflon tell you about it as he’s the car guru.’

‘She picked out a silver Jensen Interceptor Mark 3, but said the one she saw was maroon in colour. She was confident it was the car and possibly a convertible, but she wasn’t sure. The company folded in ’76, but they only sold a few hundred a year, so we might be able to backtrack on maroon ones sold to London residents.’

‘That’ll take a long time,’ Cam remarked, knowing he’d have to do it.

Murphy agreed with him.