The murmur of conversation stopped abruptly and everyone sprang to their feet as Mullett marched into the Briefing Room. He frowned. There seemed very few people in attendance. A quick count . . . eight in all, six men and two WPCs. No sign of Frost. He raised his eyebrows at Wells, querying the small turnout.
‘This is all there is, sir,’ he was told. ‘Two more down with flu, plus Bryant and Wilkes still in hospital after the pub punch-up last week. Collier’s on the desk in the lobby standing in for me.’
‘And Mr Frost?’
‘I did tell him, sir.’
Mullett’s lips narrowed. Typical. Well, he certainly wasn’t going to wait for him. He looked around the room. The new man, Gilmore, smartly turned out, was in the front row. Next to him, a sullen DC Burton, all brawn and no brains. Burton was a good man to have at your side in an emergency, but he would never progress beyond the rank of DC.
Mullett shivered and rubbed his hands together briskly. It was damn cold in here. ‘Sit down, everyone, please. Well, what we lack in quantity, I’m sure we more than make up for in quality.’ He let the half-hearted ripple of laughter die. ‘Firstly, I’m sorry to tell you that Mr Allen has suffered a set-back and will not be returning to duty for some time . . .’ His brow furrowed in annoyance as the door crashed open and Frost burst in.
‘The bloody canteen’s shut,’ announced Frost, looking round in puzzlement. ‘What’s everyone doing in here?’ Then he spotted Mullett. ‘The briefing meeting! Sorry, Super . . . I forgot . . .’
Mullett waited until Frost had found himself a seat right at the back. ‘I was just telling everyone the sad news about Inspector Allen.’
‘Sad news?’ echoed Frost, genuinely misunderstanding. ‘Bloody hell, he’s not coming back, is he?’
When the laughter subsided Mullett gave a tolerant smile. ‘He won’t be back for some time. I was about to explain that, in the meantime, you would be taking over his cases. Our resources are going to be spread very thinly, so I don’t want any wasted effort. We’ve got two people tied up in the Murder Incident Room on this Paula Bartlett case. What’s the current position?’
‘It’s more or less fizzled out,’ said Frost, striking a match down a filing cabinet. ‘I can’t see any progress there until the body turns up.’
‘Good,’ smiled Mullett, ticking off the first item on his pad. ‘Then on the basis of your assessment, Inspector, I’m closing down the Incident Room pro tem. This will release much-needed personnel to more urgent duties.’ He beamed as if that solved everyone’s problems, then frowned as he reached the next item on his list. ‘Another senior citizen burglary, over the weekend, Inspector?’
Frost looked up. ‘That’s right, Super. Old lady living alone. He got away with about £80 in used fivers.’
‘Correct me if I’m wrong, Inspector,’ said Mullett, ‘but this would be the sixteenth such break-in in three weeks, the victims all senior citizens?’
Frost gave a vague shrug. ‘I haven’t been counting, but you’re probably not far out.’
‘I am exactly right,’ snapped Mullett. ‘Sixteen – all senior citizens, most of them robbed of their life savings. What are we doing about it?’
‘What the hell can we do about it?’ replied Frost. ‘He leaves no clues and nobody sees him. It doesn’t give us much to go on.’
‘What does he take?’ asked Gilmore. ‘If it’s jewellery, have we got all the local fences covered?’
‘Good point!’ agreed Mullett.
‘Of course I’ve got the fences covered,’ replied Frost. ‘Even a dim old twat like me thought of that. If anyone tries to sell any of the loot, I’ll be contacted. But he takes very little jewellery. He concentrates on cash – used notes. Many of these old people mistrust banks. They keep wads of banknotes in the house. They stick it in the wardrobe or in the middle drawer of the dressing table under the condoms and the leather knickers. They think no-one will find it there – but it’s the first place he looks.’
‘You say there’s been no clues,’ said Mullett. ‘I understand people have spotted a blue van in the vicinity. That should give you something to go on. There can’t be that many blue vans in Denton.’
‘Sixteen burglaries,’ said Frost. ‘In two instances, we found neighbours who claim they saw a van parked in the vicinity late at night. One thought it was a small blue van, another