He’d called her by her Christian name for the first time.

I’m finally doing something right, she thought.

*

As Dabs entered the snooker hall he saw the Ripley brothers, Smith, O’Reilly and the man in the camel hair coat by a table at the far end of the room. Maria Fernandez was behind the bar. Dabs approached her with a smile and his chequebook in his hand.

‘I came in the other day and decided I’d like to join.’

She picked up a membership form and handed it to him.

‘Fill this in and make the cheque for twenty pounds payable to Bruce Grove Snooker Club.’

‘Is it all right if I do it here?’

‘Sure.’ She handed him a pen. ‘Do you want a drink?’

He asked for a half of lager and leant on the counter to fill in the form. The suspects were too far away for him to hear what was being said, but he deliberately took his time so he could glance up occasionally and see what they were doing. After a few minutes he’d seen enough and returned to the OP, where he called the office. Jane answered and handed the phone to Murphy. She wanted to listen in, so pointed to the headset and Murphy nodded. He was concerned that Dabs hadn’t been in the snooker hall very long.

‘I thought it was best to leave as O’Reilly looked over, but I think it was because he’d met me the other day when I was in there with Stanley. Anyway, I said I wanted to join the club and Maria gave me a form and—’

‘For God’s sake, Dabs, I don’t care about that. Did you hear what they were talking about?’

‘No, but from what I saw they were clearly planning something. While I was filling in the form, I—’

‘Just tell me what they were bloody well doing!’ Murphy barked.

‘They were all stood around a snooker table. George Ripley was moving some of the balls and talking to the others.’

Murphy sighed. ‘So, they were just playing snooker?’

‘No, none of them had a cue in their hands. George was picking up different coloured balls and placing them in a pattern on the table, just like he did with the condiments and sugar cubes in the cafe last week. I think he was demonstrating how the robbery would be carried out.’

‘You little beauty, Dabs, well done.’ Murphy beamed.

‘Thank you, sir. The man in the camel hair coat does look like Bela Lugosi, by the way – he’s even got the greased-back hair.’

‘Make sure you get some good photos of him when he comes out.’

Murphy put the phone down.

‘You think they’re going to do the robbery this afternoon?’ Jane asked.