She remembered the sergeant mentioning the witness thought one of the men was smoking a cigar, and looked around for any recently discarded cigar and cigarette butts. There was no sign of any cigars, only a few butts from different cigarette brands that looked quite old.

‘I thought you wanted me and my officers to do the house-to-house in Felstead Road.’

Jane looked up and saw the sullen-faced uniformed sergeant and three of his officers standing behind him.

‘I do – I was just checking out the street to see what it was like for parking access as it’s possible the robbers had a changeover car.’

‘Some of my lads needed to get off home, so there are just the four of us left to do the house-to-house until the late turn lads show up. It might take a bit longer than three hours’ overtime . . .’

She knew what he was after.

‘All right, make it four hours, but just do as much as you can at Edgar House and the houses on this side of Blake Hall Road for now. I’ll need to speak to DI Kingston about extending the house-to-house to cover the flats at the Mallards and Harley Court. I take it you’ve finished at Edgar?’

‘Not yet, and there has been no reply at quite a few flats.’

‘Did anyone say anything of interest or that’s worth following up?’ she asked, wondering if the sergeant was being intentionally difficult.

‘Nope – except for an old woman who saw the two men in Blake Hall Road . . .’

‘I know, you already told me about her. Did no one you spoke to know who owned garage twenty-nine?’

‘Yeah, a lady one of the lads spoke to said she thought the man at number forty owned it, but she hadn’t seen him about for a while.’

‘Did anyone knock on his door?’

‘I don’t know—’

Jane was amazed at the sergeant’s incompetence.

‘You don’t know? Did you even bother to get a description of the man at number forty?’

‘If you’d let me finish, I was going to say I told ADC Murray about him—’

‘It’s PC Murray. Where is he now?’

He held up a blue folder. ‘I don’t know. If I did I’d have given him these completed house-to-house forms.’ He handed Jane the folder. ‘I’m not responsible for Murray. He’s on your squad – so you are . . . Unless there’s anything else I can help you with, I’ve work to do.’

Jane was getting frustrated by his nonchalant attitude. She looked at her watch and saw it was nearly two o’clock.

‘Seeing as the late shift officers should be here soon, we’ll make that two hours’ overtime, Sergeant. Just do the houses in Blake Hall Road – late shift can do Felstead and Selsdon.’

As she walked off towards Edgar House, a disgruntled PC shook his head.