Red plastic briefcase

The Red plastic briefcase is the carrier of evidence that turns Pamela Chamcha’s journey to the Brickhall Community Relations Council into a moment of danger and uncertainty. It is handed to her by one of Antoinette Roberts’s associates, and its contents are described as evidence of witches’ covens within the Metropolitan Police. Pamela intends to copy and circulate the documents; after masked men force their way into the council offices, however, neither the briefcase nor its contents can be accounted for.

Delivery and contents

At a small flat above an off-licence on Railton Road in Brixton, Antoinette Roberts tells Pamela and Jumpy Joshi that her son Walcott’s murder was probably connected to his work on a subject also of interest to Pamela. She says the time has come to work more formally through Pamela’s channels. One of the three men present then gives Pamela the Red plastic briefcase. Antoinette explains that it contains extensive evidence of witches’ covens throughout the Metropolitan Police. The claim establishes the documents’ alleged significance, though the account does not disclose their contents in detail or independently verify them.

The planned circulation

Walcott Roberts drives Pamela and Jumpy to Notting Hill. Although Jumpy is coughing and experiencing recurring head pain after his injuries at Shepperton, he insists on accompanying Pamela to the council offices in Brickhall. Pamela is nervous because the briefcase contains the only copy of what she considers explosive documents. Her plan is to make photocopies and distribute them to trusted friends and colleagues. In this intended use, the briefcase is more than a container: it is the vulnerable link between secret evidence and its possible wider circulation.

The missing briefcase

An unmarked blue Mercedes panel van follows Walcott’s pick-up truck and then Pamela’s MG, without their noticing. When Pamela unlocks the council offices, men wearing Halloween masks emerge from the van and force their way inside. The narration does not reveal what happens in the offices. It later establishes that the council building was deliberately set on fire and that badly burned bodies were found in the photocopying room; it does not establish the briefcase’s fate or say that the documents were copied.

An unresolved object

The narrative explicitly returns to the van, the masked men, the obscured events inside the offices, and the whereabouts of the Red plastic briefcase and its documents. Inspector Kinch has no answers. The object’s disappearance therefore remains an open question rather than a confirmed theft or destruction. Its unresolved status leaves the alleged evidence—and the possibility of making it public—suspended beyond the official account of the fire.