She would like to have chatted more with Lloyd and wondered when he said Katie liked attention, ‘especially from Kingston’, if he was implying that something was going on between the two of them. She’d noticed that Kingston wore a wedding ring and Katie didn’t have any rings on her left hand, but realised it was none of her business if they were in a relationship. She’d made a big mistake as a probationer when she’d had an affair with a married DCI, followed by a disastrous relationship with a self-centred bomb squad officer. Since then she’d vowed not to get involved with another police officer ever again.

*

Jane knocked on DCI Murphy’s office door and a gruff voice shouted, ‘Come in!’

She quickly brushed herself down and entered the room. DCI Murphy was sitting behind a wooden desk, which had a green leather inlay and was twice the size of any in the squad room. The walls were covered with green and white damask-style flock paper and lined with photographs relating to Murphy’s police career, from his joining class at training school, CID and senior officer’s courses, as well as some from the three times he had served on the Flying Squad. Several framed Commissioner’s commendations he had received for bravery and detective ability were also on the wall. A picture of his wife and teenage twin daughters took pride of place on his desk, next to several different types of ball-shaped paperweights, which he liked to collect. Like the squad room, his office was bathed in daylight streaming through the large windows.

DI Kingston was sitting opposite Murphy, and both men were smoking and sipping on whisky from crystal tumblers. Murphy was a burly-looking man with a mop of swept-back ginger hair and a neatly trimmed beard. He was smartly dressed in a dark blue three-piece pinstripe suit, white shirt and dark blue tie with the Flying Squad eagle printed on it. Although Jane had never met DCI Murphy before she had gleaned a little about him from her former boss at Peckham, DCI Nick Moran, who was a pal of Murphy’s and had approved her application for the Flying Squad. According to Moran, Murphy was a man ‘married to the job’, who didn’t suffer fools gladly and, having served on the Flying Squad at all ranks, was respected by his colleagues and feared by many in the criminal underworld.

‘I was about to send out a search party for you!’ He frowned as he sipped his whisky.

‘Sorry I’m late, sir.’

Kingston finished his drink, said, ‘Thanks, Bill’ and left the room, without acknowledging Jane’s presence, let alone introducing her to Murphy. It left her with an uneasy feeling.

Murphy looked at his watch. ‘It’s half past three and I’ve had to delay the office meeting because you’re late – five and a half hours late, to be precise.’