Jane got straight to the point and told him about Anthony Nichols being a disbarred QC who knew she was a police officer.

‘I had to come out when I saw Nichols speaking to George Ripley. Ripley was looking daggers at me.’

‘I appreciate you being up front and honest, Jane. If I was in your shoes and a lone officer among the Ripley gang, I’d have been out of there in the blink of an eye.’

‘I’m sorry if I’ve ruined the whole operation, sir.’

‘Look, Jane, you did your job and got the information I asked for. Against the advice of some members of the team, it was my decision to send you in there alone, so the reality is I’m responsible for what happened – not you.’

What he said was reasonable, but she still didn’t understand why he wasn’t more pissed off about the way things had gone. They were never going to nick the gang on the pavement now.

‘I’ve got an address for Nichols in Buckhurst Hill.’ She handed him the details.

‘As I see it, we’re left with two options,’ Murphy said. ‘Nick them all now, or carry on with the surveillance for a few days and see what happens.’

‘Paul Lawrence said the fingerprints on the Chubb keys matched a UDA man called O’Dwyer.’

‘I know, I spoke to the DI investigating. His team are trying to locate O’Dwyer, but even if they do, I can’t see him implicating O’Reilly in anything.’

‘There’s always Betty, the old woman who saw the getaway driver close up.’

Murphy nodded. ‘DI Kingston spoke to me about her.’

‘She’s sharp as a tack and would make a good witness despite her age. I’m convinced she’d pick out Smith on an ID parade. Then there’s Abby Jones . . .’

‘That’s a non-starter after the fiasco with her father.’

‘But if we arrest the suspects and you spoke to him, he might be more willing to let Abby be a witness.’

‘I’m aware of all the ifs and buts, thank you. I need to speak to the Commander. In the meantime, get Bax to call everyone in and ask Teflon to fax the statements over to Tower Bridge.’

*

Bax was gloomy as he picked up the phone.

‘Sounds like he’s going to arrest them today if he’s calling everyone in. If we don’t find some solid evidence connecting them to the Leytonstone robbery, I can’t see how Murphy can charge them.’

‘How’d he take the news about Tony Nichols?’ Teflon asked her.

‘I thought he was going to scream blue murder, but he basically said it was his fault.’

‘Bloody hell, that’s a first. I take it you didn’t tell him about the date with Carl?’ he whispered.