for a vacant table. Done it about six times so far. Why are you eating pizza? You always say you don't like it when we send out for some.'
'Good for Maggie,' I said. 'Set a woman to catch a woman. We've too many old-fashioned ideas about villains; we'd have been watching the blokes. I don't like pizza the girl behind the counter looks like Steffi Graf.'
'Speak for yourself, I'm younger than you. How long have you been a Steffi Graf fan?'
'About half an hour.'
'You should try the roast beef stall, I always go there.'
'What's the waitress like?'
'Henry Cooper, but the beefs good.'
Sparky took me to where DC Margaret Madison was looking at a closed-circuit television monitor, focused down on to the corner of the restaurant where the action was.
'Hi, boss,' she whispered, somewhat unnecessarily, and gestured with an inclination of her head. 'They're back, and they're sitting behind that woman who's put her handbag on the floor.'
The three girls were at a table in the corner, facing outwards. They had a commanding view of the immediate vicinity, but could not be observed themselves. Except by us.
'Can you record this?' I asked Maggie.
'It's in the can, sweetie. Sorry, boss film producers' jargon.'
A middle-aged woman was at the next table to the girls, with her back to them. Maggie juggled with the camera's remote control and showed me the woman's handbag on the floor. As we watched, the bent end of an umbrella came into view and slowly hooked itself through the strap of the bag. Maggie pulled the camera back into wide angle. The girl on the left gently drew the bag towards her. When it was within reach she picked it up and put it over her shoulder and all three of them stood up and calmly walked away.
'Dave, you go up and collar the woman, and radio the others to join us at the ground-floor exits.' I was speaking as we dashed out of the monitor room. We were already on the ground floor. A couple of the mall's own security people were with us. I told them to get to the Ladies' toilets in case the girls went there with their spoils. Maggie and I stood at the foot of the staircase, from where we could also watch the escalator. We tried to look natural.
'God, you've got beautiful eyes,' I told her. 'Why don't you let me take you away from all this?'
'You say the nicest things, Charlie. What will we do about Robin?'
'There's always a snag. We could poison him, does he like mushrooms?
Don't answer that, they're coming down the escalator.'
We walked to the foot of the escalator and it delivered the three girls, as pretty as a postcard, right on to our doormat.
'Police,' I said. 'You're under arrest for sus.'
The front one's face registered horror for a split second, then she burst between us and fled. The second girl tried to follow but I grabbed the sleeve of her baseball jacket. The other one turned back up the escalator with Maggie in hot pursuit. The girl I'd grabbed tried to slip out of her jacket and run, but I managed to hold her arm.
She started to thump me with her free hand and kick me.
'Help!' she yelled. 'Help me! He's attacking me! Rape!'
I managed to get her in a bear hug. She was kicking and spitting and still shouting for help. From up the escalator I could hear her pal yelling: 'Get off me, you cow. Let me go!' A crowd started to gather.
It looked as if they might join in on the girls' side.
'I'm a police officer,' I shouted above her screams. 'She's under arrest for suspicion of theft.'
'Do you have to be so rough with her?'
'Bastard pigs, that's all you're fit for.'
Maggie appeared with her girl in handcuffs, closely followed by Sparky and the lady with no handbag. We got the cuffs on my girl, but not without a struggle.
'Take them in,' I told Maggie and Sparky, loosening my tie and brushing the hair from my eyes. 'I'll try for some Brownie points in PR.' I turned to face the crowd and held up my hands. A big youth with a beer gut testing the tensile strength of his T-shirt stood at the front of the crowd, together with a young woman wearing a baby round her neck in a sling, as if it were the latest fashion accessory. They'd done most of the protesting, so I addressed them directly.
'Look, I'm sorry if we appeared rough, but the girls were given plenty of opportunity to come quietly. The third one did escape. There's been a spate of handbag-stealing in the mall recently, and we have good reason to believe that those girls were involved. Now will you please all go back to what you were doing.'
Most of them started to melt, away. Some of the troops had been mixed in with them, keeping an eye on things, and they drifted off. The woman with the baby held back.
'Typical police bullshit,' she snorted. 'Your behaviour was disgraceful. I'm going to take this further. I demand to know your name.'
'Priest,' I answered wearily. 'Inspector. Try to have a nice rest of the day.'
Another woman, a little older, appeared in front of me. She was offering me a tissue. 'She scratched you, Inspector. Your cheek's bleeding slightly.'
I took the tissue and wiped my cheek. 'Thank you,' I said, smiling so wide it hurt my face. 'You're very kind. Could I possibly repay you by buying you a coffee?'
'I'd prefer tea,' replied Annabelle Wilberforce.
Chapter Five
We went back upstairs to the restaurant and had a pot of Earl Grey and a Danish pastry each. It was unreal after the unpleasantness of a few minutes earlier. 'Did you see it all?' I asked.
'Yes. I'd just popped in to buy a few things and I walked straight into it. Do you often have to put up with such abuse?'
'Oh, now and again.'
'Will that woman really report you? It's people like her who give the left a bad name.'
'I doubt it, but it will be tricky if she does. Manhandling a sixteen-year-old girl could be construed to my disadvantage.'
Annabelle looked grave. 'Oh dear. I hope you are not going to be in trouble. I saw it all — I could make a statement on your behalf.'
I laughed. 'Thanks for the offer, but don't worry about it. She said her piece in front of an audience, that's probably all she wanted.'
Annabelle went off to do her shopping and I scrounged a lift back to the station. It had been a mixed sort of an afternoon, and it wasn't over yet. My reputation had preceded me.
'Hey, who's the stunner you were seen with? You've been keeping her under wraps, you crafty so-and-so,' were DS Willis's opening words.
'Oh, just a friend, Tony. Any messages?'
'Only a note from Jeff Caton for you. It's on your desk somewhere.'
I found the note. It read: 'ABC Security is a privately owned company, founded four years ago. Head office at ABC House, Welton, Lanes.
Managing Director named Miss Eunice Grimes.'
Big bells were ringing in my head. I was riding on a lucky streak.
Time to spin the wheel once again, but this time we'd do it the easy way. I rang Oldfield CID. There was nobody in that I knew. Eventually I persuaded a young DC to make some enquiries for me. He rang me back, true to his word.
'ABC Security is owned by Eunice Grimes, as you said, but her married name is Cakebread. She's just a front for her husband. He has his finger in all sorts of pies, but he's got a record, so that would rule him out of owning a security company.'
