‘If it’s an empty coffin, there’s no harm in moving it.’

‘I told you, I ain’t touching it.’

‘You’re frightened, aren’t you?’ Barry scoffed.

Dermot went to the builders’ hut and returned a couple of minutes later with Lee, the site foreman.

Lee looked at the coffin and sighed. ‘That’s all we bloody well need.’

‘I think we should move it or at least have a look inside,’ Barry suggested.

‘I don’t know . . .’ Lee said hesitantly.

‘If you do, I’m having no part of it,’ Dermot said firmly.

‘All right, Dermot, calm down. You two wait here while I go speak with Mr Durham. And don’t touch the coffin.’ Lee headed towards the walled gardens of the old convent.

Dermot waited until Lee was out of sight before walking off.

‘You going back to the hut?’ Barry asked.

‘No, I’m going to the phone box down the lane to call the police.’

‘Tosser,’ Barry muttered under his breath. He watched as Dermot got in his Vauxhall Astra and drove towards the lane. Barry nipped to his van and looked in a toolbox. ‘You’ll do the job nicely,’ he smirked as he pulled out a crowbar.

CHAPTER TWO

Detective Sergeant Jane Tennison was sitting at her desk in the Bromley CID office, reading the night duty detective’s report about the arrest of two young men trying to break into a house in Beckenham. As she got to the part where the two burglars were disturbed, she couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

‘What’s so funny?’ Detective Inspector Stanley asked Jane as he walked in.

Jane had known Stanley since she’d joined the force and had worked with him on a number of cases, but his Christian name was still a mystery to her and, like everyone else, she just called him Stanley – or ‘guv’, now that he was a DI. When she had first met him, he was a long-haired, scruffy-looking undercover officer, who not only looked like a tramp, but smelt like one as well. With promotion to DI, he had tidied up his appearance and now had short combed-back hair and dressed smartly in a dark blue two-piece suit, white shirt, and Flying Squad tie with its swooping eagle emblem. Present and former members of the elite ‘Sweeney’ proudly wore the tie which symbolised the way its officers would swoop swiftly on armed robbers.

Jane smiled. ‘Morning, Stanley. This night duty report is funny. Two lads broke into a house at two in the morning and disturbed the owner, who just happened to be a police dog handler. His Alsatian, Rumpus, bit one of them in the arse and he needed twelve stitches. The other lad jumped up a tree in the back garden fearing he was next on the dog’s menu.’

Stanley laughed. ‘That’ll teach the little shits.’

‘They’re still in the cells awaiting interview and their home addresses need to be searched. Me and DC Boon can deal with—’

Stanley shook his head. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll sort them out. The duty sergeant just informed me a coffin has been dug up on a building site in Bickley and they don’t know what to do. I need you to deal with that.’