Cam handed her four completed forms.

‘Is that it? You’ve only visited four flats since we’ve been here?’

‘A couple of them were elderly residents who needed reassuring that everything was fine, so I had a cup of tea and a chat with them.’

She couldn’t help noticing the crumbs around his mouth.

‘And a few chocolate digestives by the looks of it. I’ll go and get Dabs – then I’d like to go back via Barclays Bank in the High Road.’

‘Why? The team and scene of crime are all finished there and gone back to Rigg, so there’s nothing to do—’

‘Well, there’s something I want to check out – so just do as I ask, please, and don’t question my decisions.’

Cam gave a grunt of disapproval, making it clear he didn’t think she’d last long on the squad if she started throwing her weight about like that.

*

He pulled up outside the Crown public house, where Jane got out of the car and crossed over the road to the bank. The Securicor van had returned to its depot and life had returned to normal in the street, with several people out shopping. Jane stood on the steps and looked around, surveying the scene of the robbery and the short distance to Aylmer Road, where the four robbers in the Cortina had parked.

‘Can I help you, madam?’ a well-spoken male voice asked.

She got out her warrant card as she turned around and saw a man in his forties, smartly dressed in a three-piece grey pinstripe suit, white shirt and tie. She suspected he was something to do with the bank and introduced herself as WDS Tennison from the Flying Squad.

‘Ah, I’m the manager of this branch. Is there something I can help you with? I’ve already been interviewed by a DI Kingston and I also made a statement to a DC, whose name I can’t remember, but everyone else referred to him as the Colonel.’

‘That’ll be DC Gorman,’ Jane told him.

‘Would you like to come in and have a coffee or tea?’ he asked with a polite smile.

‘Thank you, but I’m a bit pressed for time as I have to get back to the office for a meeting.’

‘It was a relief to hear that the officers in the police car and the off-duty one who got shot here are all all right. The men who did this are the dregs of the earth. I suspect if they knew it was an off-duty officer who tried to stop them they would have shot him with a real bullet as well.’

‘You’re probably right, sir, but thankfully they didn’t and he’s alive . . .’

‘If somewhat shaken, no doubt. You can still see the rice that was in the shotgun cartridges on the pavement.’