‘I’m waiting for Traffic Control to radio me back with that. There are eleven figures in the code, and the last six are a number unique to that vehicle, which control are checking out.’ He pointed to the Cortina, then the chassis plate he was holding. ‘The first five figures break down like this. B is the country of origin, obviously Britain in this case. The second letter A is the assembly plant and the code for Dagenham. The next two numbers are for body and gear change type, then the following two are the year and month of manufacture, which is February 1976.’

‘Oscar November two, from control, receiving . . . over?’ a voice said over the traffic car radio.

PC Turner picked up the radio. ‘Oscar November two, receiving. Go ahead . . . over.’

‘We’ve got a match to the chassis plate number. It comes back to a brown 1976 Mark 4 Ford Cortina saloon reported lost or stolen two weeks ago by a Mr Frank Braun of nineteen Mount Pleasant Road, Tottenham N17. He’s owned the vehicle from new.’

‘Did you get all that?’ the PC asked Jane, who nodded as she jotted down the details in her pocket notebook. ‘All received, control, out.’

She flicked back a page in her pocket notebook.

‘The index of the car seen outside the bank was SLM 273R, with a registered keeper in Sussex.’

‘If, as it would seem, the burnt-out car is the one they used during the robbery, then they must have changed the plates to a matching Cortina just after the car was stolen. That way it wouldn’t come up as LOS if you did a check on it.’

She had already considered the possibility but didn’t say so.

‘Thanks for your help, PC Turner. Identifying the owner of the Cortina so quickly is a step forward for the investigation.’

‘There is something else of interest I noticed about the car I’d like to show you.’

‘Certainly.’ Jane followed him to the driver’s side of the vehicle.

‘I examined what’s left of the car’s steering column and couldn’t see any signs that the ignition system was bypassed to steal it.’

‘Do you mean like ‘hot-wired?’ she asked.

‘Yes. The plastic covering around the ignition barrel has melted in situ and that means it wasn’t removed, which you’d need to do to get access to the wires. To be sure, I cut away what was left of it and there were no signs that any of the wires connected to the ignition barrel had been cut or tampered with.’

‘Are you saying the Cortina wasn’t actually stolen?’

‘It’s possible, but you can easily start these types of cars by pushing a screwdriver into the ignition keyhole and turning it.’

‘Has that been done in this case?’

‘Because of the fire damage it’s hard to say without physically removing the ignition barrel.’

‘You have my permission to do that.’