She's Out (18 page)

Dolly beamed. ‘Is there any advice you can give me, anything I should take with me?’

Mrs Tilly smiled, then said earnestly, ‘My advice to everyone applying for foster caring is always tell the truth because everything is always checked and double-checked.’

‘Thank you very much, Mrs Tilly. Are you sure you won’t come in for a cup of tea?’

‘No, I shouldn’t have really left the office unattended.’

‘I’ll see you later then.’

Angela had overheard. She came to the kitchen door. ‘Mrs Rawlins, about this afternoon—’

Dolly turned and frowned at Angela to shut her up, then turned back to Mrs Tilly. ‘Four thirty, then, Mrs Tilly. Should I wear a suit, do you think?’

‘Wear anything you feel comfortable in. You’ll be asked a lot of questions, some very personal, so whatever you feel most confident and relaxed in. Goodbye.’

Dolly waved. She felt like skipping – everything was coming together so fast and they were obviously taking her proposals seriously. She waited until Mrs Tilly’s car had disappeared
before she clapped her hands. ‘Did you hear, Angela? I’ve got a meeting before the social services board. This is positive, isn’t it? I’m going to make this work.’

Angela wrinkled her nose. ‘But what about that Jimmy bloke? You said you’d see him this afternoon. I phoned him yesterday, remember? You can’t go to London for two and be back
by four thirty. It’s after eleven now.’

Dolly folded her arms. She’d forgotten – unbelievable but she had. It was the excitement. She’d not felt like this since she was a kid. She hugged her arms tightly around
herself. ‘Get the others in. Tell them we need to talk.’

Angela shaded her eyes as the women slowly trooped into the yard. ‘They’re coming in now.’

Dolly whipped round. ‘I hope that Mrs Tilly didn’t cop sight of Ester. Is she with them?’

‘No, I’m here, Dolly,’ Ester called from the kitchen.

Dolly went into the house. She didn’t say a word to Ester but hurried up to her room to sort out what she would wear for the afternoon’s meeting.

They all looked at Angela, then Ester. ‘Don’t ask me what went down, Angela was here. What did that woman want?’

Angela told them about the board meeting and they shrugged, not interested, until Angela said, ‘She was taking me to London this afternoon. Well, now she can’t go.’

Dolly was brushing her hair, talking to herself, trying to sort out exactly what she should do. She had intended making a few calls, just to check out some of Harry’s old fences,
preferring to use people she knew rather than trust Kathleen’s contacts. Now she sat on the dressing-table stool. Could she trust them? she asked herself. Sure she couldn’t, but she
reckoned little Angela was on the level. She made up her mind. She didn’t like leaving Jimmy Donaldson holding the stones for too long. He could get itchy fingers and she’d kind of
given him an ultimatum. She didn’t like going back on that as it made her look weak, as if she didn’t mean business. Harry had something on Donaldson but without him, Donaldson might
just try it on.

They were sitting at the table in the big kitchen, obviously waiting. As soon as she walked in, she could feel the tension. ‘Okay, this is how we work it. One of you will
have to collect the stones for me. I can’t risk losing this opportunity with the board members. They’re doing me a big favour as it is. Someone dropped out and I’m being upped to
meet them, so . . .’

Ester looked at Julia. ‘What do you want to do?’

Dolly sat down. ‘Jimmy’s waiting for me to come at two o’clock. I said I’d be there, to collect at two this afternoon as I’m not too keen on leaving them with him.
He’ll have them by now so one of you’ll have to go and do it for me.’

There was a unanimous ‘I’ll do it’ but Dolly shook her head.

‘What, don’t you trust us?’

‘No, if you want my honest opinion, but if I say I’ll give you each a cut, then whoever picks them up will do every one of you in. So that’s a bit of an incentive to come back,
isn’t it?’ Dolly’s mind was racing. She never said how much of a cut but it was only to be a few hundred quid each. They could fight that out later, when she’d fenced the
diamonds.

She looked them all over: Ester was Julia’s partner, so they wouldn’t do together; Kathleen she wouldn’t trust with a loaf of bread, or Gloria, so she went for Ester, the least
trustworthy – but with Julia at home Dolly reckoned she’d return. ‘Okay, Ester, you go.’

Ester couldn’t hide her smile.

‘You sure, Dolly? I mean, what do you think, Ester?’ Julia said, and Ester could have smacked her.

‘I’ll do it. Don’t be stupid.’

Julia shrugged her shoulders. She knew that Ester had people after her but she said nothing. ‘Okay, if you say so.’

‘Take Angela with you, the pair of you do it. Ester collects, you drive, Angela.’ Dolly pointed at them in turn.

Angela seemed scared to speak, looking from one to the other.

‘Why Angela?’ Ester demanded.

Dolly gave an icy smile. ‘I trust her.’

‘And you don’t trust me?’

‘No, but I don’t think you’d leave Julia in the lurch – leave us all in the lurch – would you?’

They glared at Ester, almost as if warning her that she’d better not try anything. Dolly felt good. Yeah, she’d made the right decision.

‘So get yourselves together, take the Range Rover and get moving.’

Julia walked in as Ester was changing, and shut the door. ‘You’re coming back, aren’t you?’

Ester snapped, ‘Of course. She’s not as dumb as you think. She knows I’ve got people after me. I’m not likely to fence the gear all by myself in one afternoon, am
I?’

Julia sat on the bed. ‘I dunno. Just seems odd she’d choose you, not me.’

‘Why you?’

‘Because she knows I’d come back if you were here, but I don’t know if you would – that answer your question?’

Ester leaned over Julia. ‘I’ll be back, don’t think I won’t, and she’s tied me to Miss Goody-Two-Shoes, so she’ll be watching me like a hawk. I’ll be
back, Julia.’

‘Then what?’

Ester straightened and clenched her fists. Well, you said it the other night. You reckoned Dolly would kill for those diamonds. Maybe, just maybe, I would too if she tried it on. You’ll
see which of us is tough. They’re my ticket out, Julia, and I won’t be content with some fucking measly little cut.’

‘What about the others?’

‘Fuck ’em. Now. how do I look?’

‘Great, but then I’m biased.’ Julia smiled: Ester always turned her on when she was hard like this. She liked her like this; she was so icy cold, so arrogant and, uppermost, so
dangerous.

Angela stood in front of Dolly, who was close, her voice soft. ‘You watch her all the time. You stay in the car, see her collect, then you put your foot down and come
straight back here, okay? This is the address, twenty-one Ladbroke Grove Estate. You all right?’

‘Yes, but I wish you’d ask one of the others.’

‘No, love, I only trust you, maybe because you’re the only one who hasn’t been inside. You’ve still got some honesty about you, some integrity none of the others has.
They’d have ’em and be away, I know it. You’re my safety lever.’

Angela was in turmoil but couldn’t see any way out of it. She was still shaking as Ester walked in, dangling the car keys. ‘Okay, we’re all set, sweetface, let’s go and
collect.’

Gloria looked at the clock. ‘Well, you got plenty of time.’

‘Maybe we’ll stop off for lunch.’

‘Yeah. Just as long as you don’t stop off any place after you picked them up.’

Ester laughed, unaware that Dolly had already searched her room and pocketed her passport. She was, as they all said, not the pushover they had thought, and now she was sitting drumming her
fingers on the side of the desk, wondering if she had made the right decision. She decided to make a few calls just to be sure.

Ester and Angela climbed into the Range Rover. Ester gave Julia a little wink. ‘Right, might as well get, on with it then. See you all later.’

Julia slammed the door as the engine fired. She banged on the side of the door. Take care, Ester, see you later.’

Gloria leaned on a rake. ‘If she doesn’t show, I’ll shove this up her arse.’ They watched the Range Rover drive out and Julia stared towards the vegetable patch. Gloria
called after her. ‘She will come back, won’t she?’

Julia walked. ‘Yeah. I’m the love of her life, aren’t I? She’ll come back. So get your spades, we have to dig a deep trench so the water drains.’

Wandering back to the vegetable garden, dragging a spade, Gloria said, ‘How come you know so much about gardening? I thought you were a doctor.’

‘Bit similar, actually.’ Julia laughed. She had always loved the outdoors. In fact, she liked being at the manor. She just didn’t have the guts to say so.

Dolly dialled and waited. She recognized Tommy’s throaty, chesty breath immediately. ‘Hello, Tommy, it’s Dolly, Harry Rawlins’s widow.’

‘Good God, you’re out then, are you, gel?’

‘Yeah, I’m out, but I need a favour.’

‘You know old Tommy, lovey, if he can do you one, he will.’

‘Just so long as you get paid for it, right?’ Dolly chuckled.

‘On the nail. So what can I do you for?’

Dolly lowered her voice. ‘I’ve got a few things I want to run by Jimmy Donaldson, then maybe bring to you.’

‘Jimmy Donaldson?’ Tommy wheezed.

‘Yeah, you know him?’

‘Course I do. Runs a gig over in Hackney, or he did. You know he’s been away for a few years – still is as far as I know.’

‘Away? Where?’

‘Banged up. Got pinched for floggin’ some Georgian silver. Didn’t you know?’

‘You sayin’ he’s still in the nick? You sure?’

‘Yeah, reason is, a few days back someone was asking after him and . . . hello? Hello?’

Dolly felt cold, her hand still gripping the receiver. If Donaldson was nicked, how come he was answering his phone? It didn’t make sense. She sat down and ran her hands through her hair,
trying to remember everything he had said at the fairground. The more she thought about it, the more she began to think that maybe she was being set up.

The women turned as they heard Dolly calling for Ester. ‘She’s gone. Dolly?’

Dolly ran towards them. ‘They’ve gone? But why, why didn’t they talk to me? I never told them to go.’

‘Well, they couldn’t wait.’ Gloria started to laugh, but seeing Dolly’s expression straightened her face. ‘What is it?’

‘I’m being set up. Jimmy Donaldson’s supposed to be in the nick.’

‘
You!
’ stormed Julia. ‘They’ve
gone
!’

Gloria hurled aside her rake. ‘Get me car, we can catch them up. Come
on
!’

Julia ran after Gloria, Dolly following. Kathleen looked at Connie, who was still half-heartedly digging the trench. ‘What did you make of that?’

‘I don’t know. What do you think?’

Kathleen gazed down at the trench. She rammed in her spade. ‘Keep digging. This looks like a grave. Maybe we’ll be putting somebody in it . . .’

E
ster moved on to the fast lane as soon as they hit the motorway.

‘No need to go so quick, Ester, you’ll get picked up for speeding.’

‘Then keep your eyes peeled for cop cars – and stop biting your nails, it drives me nuts.’

The Mini backfired and Dolly hit the dashboard. ‘Next turning there’s a hire firm. Pull in and get a car with something under the bonnet.’

‘Who’s paying for it?’

Julia shouted that she would, and Gloria headed towards Rodway Motors, garage and rental. She drove on to the forecourt and asked who had their licence to hire the car, but as she only had hers
with her it was she who went into the reception. The others waited impatiently on the roadside.

‘They should have waited!’ Dolly seethed. ‘If they’d waited I’d have told them not to go.’

‘Well, they didn’t,’ said Julia, looking at her watch, ‘but we’ll be there in plenty of time.’

Dolly was clenching and unclenching her hands. ‘If I miss this board meeting, I’ll – I’ll—’

Julia glanced at Dolly, curiously. She seemed not to care about the diamonds, only that she had been set up. ‘What about the diamonds. Dolly?’ she said.

‘If Jimmy has done me over, he’ll regret it, he’ll pay for it, and he’ll cough up. His shop, his house, I’ll clean the little shit out, then I’ll have him
taken out. I might even do it myself.’

Julia blinked, and then heard the
toot-toot
of a horn as Gloria drove up in a red Volvo. Dolly ordered her to move over as she wanted to drive, and they set off towards the motorway.

At twelve fifteen, one of the officers at long last returned to the wall they had first checked, but it wasn’t until almost one o’clock that they found the pouch of
diamonds. There was no time to record it, just to get it driven at top speed to Donaldson’s house on the Ladbroke estate. It was handed over to DI Palmer, who snatched it with hardly a
thank-you.

‘I’ve not logged it yet, Gov.’

‘I’ll do it, thanks.’

Palmer looked up and down the street, afraid the exchange might have been seen, but there was no new vehicle parked so he hurried into Donaldson’s house.

DCI Craigh was standing in the hall. ‘They got them,’ Palmer gasped.

Craigh relaxed. ‘Talk about cutting it fine. Let’s have a look at them.’

‘They’ve not put it on record yet.’

‘I’ll do it when I go in,’ Craigh said, as he eased open the velvet pouch. ‘Holy shit, look at the size of some of those stones,’ he said in awe, then pulled the
drawstring tight. ‘Look, we don’t let these out of our sight – that’s your job and yours only, you watch these babies, okay?’

Craigh walked in and held up the bag to Jimmy Donaldson. ‘Saved by the bell, sonny Jim, we got them.’

Donaldson looked over with baleful eyes. ‘Just so long as you get her. She plugged her old man and I don’t want her loose and after me.’

Craigh smirked. ‘That’s the whole point of the exercise, Jimmy. We want her back inside for nicking these.’

Mike stared blankly from his position by the window. He’d just about given up on them finding the stones in time but he couldn’t say anything, daren’t risk going back to
Donaldson’s shop or it would look suspicious. All he hoped for now was that Rawlins would arrive, get nicked, and whatever happened about the diamonds could be laid at Donaldson’s feet,
or somebody else’s. Anyone could have switched those stones over the past eight years and he and his bloody mother would be in the clear.