She already suspected what his answer would be.

‘No, I want you in the office where you can’t screw things up. Tell Cam you’re replacing him and he can drive Kingston and the Colonel, then book off duty and go home.’

‘I need to write up my report.’

‘Do it tomorrow. Now get out of my sight before I really lose my temper.’

Jane bit back an angry retort and walked out of Murphy’s office, silently fuming. She picked up her jacket and shoes, then slung her bag over her shoulder.

‘Murphy said you’re back driving the car and I’m in here, as from tomorrow morning.’

‘Why, what you do?’ Cam asked.

‘My fucking job!’

She stormed out of the office.

*

Jane’s anger hadn’t abated by the time she got home. In fact, if anything she was even more furious. She went straight to the fridge and poured herself a glass of wine. She took a large mouthful, then banged the glass down on the kitchen counter and went to her bedroom. She opened the wardrobe and looked through her dresses, then took one out and held it up against her body as she looked in the mirror.

‘Fine, I won’t go to the bloody wedding. But nobody said anything about going out for a drink, did they?’

She turned one way and then the other.

‘Nope, too dowdy.’ She threw the dress on the bed and grabbed another one. ‘Too short.’ She threw it on the bed, said, ‘Out of fashion’ with the next, until finally, after taking out six dresses, she decided on the one to wear.

*

George Ripley closed up GR Motors at 6 p.m. and drove home. His daughter Tina had not been seen at work by Teflon, who’d been keeping observation on the garage. However, the CROPS officer in the field had seen Maureen Ripley and a young woman, who was assumed to be Tina, leaving and then returning to Farthings in a green Range Rover. Murphy guessed that Tina had the week off work before her wedding and was shopping with her mother. Graham Smith was tailed to a three-bedroom semi in Enfield. The CO11 officers following him remarked that he drove his Capri ‘like a madman’ but knew how to handle the car. Carl was followed to a one-bedroom flat in Stoke Newington. And a subsequent check in the electoral register revealed his surname was Winter and he had no criminal record. Murphy stood the firearms officers down at 5 p.m. as the banks were all closed. Tommy Ripley left the snooker hall at 6 p.m. with Maria Fernandez and returned home to his flat in Chingford, while Aidan O’Reilly remained at the snooker club, which closed at 10 p.m. on weekdays.

‘Can you fucking believe it? Going to the wedding with Carl Winter? Either she’s mad or she thinks I am.’