Murmuring the Judges

28

Detective Chief Superintendent Martin opened the door of the small room opposite the CID suite. ‘How’s the viewing going, Sammy?’ he asked.

Young Constable Pye looked up at him, bleary-eyed. ‘I’ve got nothing so far, sir,’ he answered, quickly. ‘The fact is, I’m still working out how to tackle it. I’ll tell you now though, unless I get lucky, this is going to be a long job.’

‘I’m under no illusions about that. How will you go about it?’

Martin’s assistant pointed to the television screen on the table at which he sat. ‘Well, sir, as you can see from that, there are a lot of people on these tapes.’

‘Which bank is this?’

‘This is Dalkeith, where the first robbery took place.’ He pressed the pause button on the video player, and stood up to face the Head of CID. ‘I’ve decided to run through each bank’s tapes at least twice, to familiarise myself with the faces. That’s not as bad as it sounds, I can fast-forward, and I can cut out obvious non-runners. . old people, young girls delivering shop takings or getting change, handicapped people and so on.

‘My reasoning is that we’re looking for a male, probably in his thirties or forties, somebody with the potential to scare a guy like Nathan Bennett into silence. On my first run-through of each tape, I’ll note down all the possibles by date and time reference, then go through them again, concentrating on their appearance.

‘If I see the same face at more than one bank, that’ll ring an alarm bell.’

Martin nodded. ‘That sounds like a pretty fair plan. But are you sure you’re happy to tackle this on your own? I could give you a team of watchers if you thought it would it help.’

Pye shook his head. ‘No, sir. You and Mr Skinner are right. We could fill this room with people, yet everyone would still have to look at all the tapes. I’ve always had a good memory for faces. I’m confident that if there is a lead in here, I’ll find it.’

‘Okay, Sammy,’ said the Head of CID. ‘I’ll go with that. Have you got any feel for timescale yet? I don’t have to tell you how important this is.’

‘I know, Boss. Let’s see.’ He looked at his watch. ‘It’s mid-day Tuesday. If I find a suspect quickly, I’ll give you a shout at once. Failing that, how would it be if I report progress at close of play on Thursday?’

‘That’s acceptable.’ The DCS stepped towards the door. ‘I’ll let you get on with it.’

‘I’ll tell you one thing, sir,’ said DC Pye just as he reached it. ‘After this I won’t be wanting to watch telly for a long, long time.’