She's Out (21 page)

‘Can anyone verify that, Mrs Rawlins?’

‘Oh, yes.’

Craigh dug the pen in deeply as he wrote one name after the other. He had a terrible sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach that he had been well and truly stitched up.

The officers searched every room, lifted the floorboards, opened cupboards and cases. They went into the attic, they were out in the stables. Kathleen remained stuck on the
roof, half hidden by the gables, and didn’t move a muscle. They searched the grounds, the swimming pool and the cellars for eight hours, with fifteen men.

Kathleen inched back to the room from which she had escaped and fell asleep under the bed. The police were now concentrating on the sauna and steam room and the lockers. The women waited,
expecting any moment the scream to go up but it never came. They smelt bacon being cooked and, to their amazement, Dolly walked in with a tray of bacon butties. Gloria was about to blurt out to
Dolly that they were in trouble but Dolly shoved a sandwich into her hand. ‘Eat it and say nothing.’

Gloria rammed the sandwich into her mouth and sat down.

Craigh was looking over the sauna when Mike joined him. ‘They’re searching the grounds now but so far nothing.’

Craigh felt knackered and, even worse, foolish. ‘We’ve fuckin’ been had, you know that, don’t you? She’s got about eight or nine names as alibis. She was at the
ruddy social services.’

Mike didn’t know whether this was good news or bad but he was as tired out as Craigh.

‘This all stinks, you know that, don’t you?’ Craigh paced up and down, then jerked his head for Mike to come close. ‘The Super’s gonna have a seizure about the
whole cock-up – Donaldson was in our custody.’

‘I’m sorry,’ Mike muttered.

‘You’re sorry. Jesus Christ,
sorry
? Have you any idea what a mess we’re in? Donaldson dead, no sign of the diamonds . . .’ Craigh hesitated and then licked his
lips. ‘Look, until we’ve sorted this, keep schtum about those stones. I never put it in the record sheets so maybe we can—’

‘Fine by me,’ Mike said quickly.

Craigh stared at him. ‘Nothing’s fine, Mike son. We have big problems and we’ve got to sort them.’

Mike nodded, his brain ticking away. He thanked God nothing had been found as it let him off the hook, but all he could do was look as glum as Craigh obviously felt.

Dolly watched the London mob, as she referred to Craigh and Withey, leaving, then let the curtain fall back into place. She yawned and said she was going to bed.

‘Sleep? You can sleep, can you?’ Ester said.

‘Not easily, but I need to do a lot of thinking.’

Gloria was pulling at a piece of sodden tissue. ‘Did you move them, Dolly? Did you?’

She turned her face, hard. ‘What the hell do you think, you stupid idiot? Of course I bloody moved them – and thank God I did or we’d all have been arrested. I’ve been
waiting for you to talk about them. I saw you and Ester carrying them into the house.’

‘I got nothing to do with them,’ interrupted Ester.

‘But you bloody knew they was in the house.’

Ester turned away. It was always the same: instead of being grateful to Dolly, she said nothing, whereas Gloria would have kissed her feet. But none of them was prepared for Dolly’s next
admission, dropping the line in quietly, with that smile of hers on her face. ‘I also got the diamonds but I’m not talking about them yet. Like I said, I need to sleep, get my head
straight.’

‘You got them?’ Ester said in wonder.

‘Yes, Ester, I got them but they’re not here. What is here smells, because someone had to tip them off. Somebody here’s grassing on me – one
of you
. One of you
hates me enough to get me put back inside and I’m going to find out which one of you it is.’

She walked out, slamming the door, and they stood there in mute silence, not believing what they had heard her say, hardly daring to believe they still had a chance of a cut of the diamonds.
Then Gloria said, ‘Grassin’? What she friggin’ talkin’ about? None of us’d do it, I mean, we want them diamonds as much as she does. She’s nuts if she thinks
it’s one of us! None of us’d do it.’

Angela started to cry again and Julia looked at her angrily. ‘Oh shut up howling, Angela. You’re a pain in the arse.’

Angela ran out of the room, bumping into Kathleen, who was creeping down the stairs as the last of the Thames Valley police drove away. She walked into the drawing room and they all turned on
her.

‘Where the hell have you been?’

Dolly hunched the pillow up beneath her shoulders. She couldn’t sleep. She stared at a stain on the wall, wondering. Who would hate her enough to want to put her back
inside? Because that’s what it came down to. If she’d been picked up with the diamonds, virtually holding Donaldson’s hand, the cops would have got her. Even if they
couldn’t pin the old robbery on her, they’d have her for fencing the stolen diamonds. Either way, with her out on licence, she’d have been back in a cell and with no hope of bail.
Was it just that dirty little conman, Jimmy? If it was, then he’d got his just deserts but something inside her said there had to be more to it than that. Harry had taught her, ‘Always
remember, sweetheart, it takes two to tango. One leads, the other follows.’ So who was in with that rat Jimmy Donaldson? If it was one of the women she would find out and God help them.

Dolly left the house and drove straight to the town hall. She hurried into the ladies’ and found the pouch bag exactly where she had left it. She kissed it with relief.
She then got down, straightened her skirt and slipped out, bumping into a surprised Mrs Tilly in the corridor. ‘Mrs Rawlins?’

‘I was just passing. I know there’s no possibility of you having any answers for me yet but I just wanted to ask you how I did. Was I all right?’

‘Yes, you were. I thought you handled yourself very well but it’ll be some time before we have any definite news. I’ll let you know as soon as I hear anything.’

‘Thank you. I really appreciate all your help.’

Dolly hurried out and Mrs Tilly went in to speak to Mr Crow.

‘You know, Mrs Rawlins is so keen, I think we should push forward an on-site visit. I worry she may spend too much money without approval and I don’t want her to waste her
savings.’

He looked up from his diary. ‘Well, we’ll have to get some appraisals from her probation officer and the prison authorities. And we’re nowhere near ready even to discuss the
project yet.’

‘Well, I would just like us to inspect the manor house. She was so enthusiastic’

He smiled, flattening down his few strands of hair. ‘I’ll see what I can do. If we’re visiting anyone near the location we can possibly have a look over the place as well. You
like her, don’t you?’

‘Yes, I do. That said, far be it from me not to do everything through the correct channels.’

‘As I said, I’ll see what I can do but I was also impressed by her. I very much doubt if she will ever be allowed access to very young children, not enough experience, but she may be
useful for the older children, the problem ones particularly. Leave it with me.’

Mrs Tilly smiled and left the office. She doubted if Mr Crow would show Dolly Rawlins any favours. He showed nobody any as he was a stickler for rules and regulations, but she knew he had been
impressed by her. Everyone had.

Dolly stopped at a phone booth and called Tommy Malin. She asked if he was still in business, unlike Jimmy Donaldson. They had a few laughs, and she said she would be around
later in the afternoon as she had something that might interest him. He agreed to meet her but she made no reference to what it was. She then returned to the manor. As she came in she saw Angela on
the telephone. ‘Who you calling, love?’

Angela spun round. ‘Oh – my mum. I’ve not told her where I am.’

‘Don’t, and don’t make private calls – that goes for all of you. Fewer people who know what’s going on here the better.’

‘Okay.’

‘I’m going to London. You want to come with me?’ Angela nodded. ‘Good, in about an hour, then.’

The others, who had overheard the conversation in the kitchen, whispered and nudged each other, sure that Dolly was going to fence the stones. Ester gave them all a quiet talking-to: they were
to show a lot more willing, they were to get out to that vegetable patch and look like they were working and loving every minute of it. They got to their feet, went out and trudged around with
wheelbarrows, spades and rakes, and when Dolly and Angela left in the local taxi, they appeared to be too intent on their labour even to see them go.

As the cab passed them, Dolly laughed. ‘Amazing what a bit of incentive can do, isn’t it?’

‘I don’t understand,’ Angela said, looking towards the women.

‘Well, they all know I’m going to fence the diamonds this morning and they all want a slice so “Let’s show Dolly how hard we’re working!”
Understand?’

‘Oh, yes, I see what you mean.’

Mike had waited when Angela put down the receiver. He was hoping she would call back directly but after waiting half an hour he gave up. It had unnerved him to be told that
Dolly Rawlins had the diamonds but he didn’t know what the hell to do about it. He could tell Craigh but it was all getting like treacle and he felt his shoes sticking to it.

Susan walked in from the front door with a bag of groceries and looked at him. ‘Hi, I didn’t wake you when I went out, did I?’

‘No, I’m up, had something to eat. I was just going to go actually.’

‘Oh, were you? You stayed out all night. Surely they can’t expect you to work today?’

He sighed. ‘Yes, they can.’

‘There was another call from your girlfriend yesterday –I tried to contact you, she seemed upset.’

‘What?’

‘Angela, she was crying, in a terrible state.’ She stared at him, waiting. ‘She said her name was Angela.’

‘I heard you,’ he snapped.

‘What’s going on with her, then?’

He took a deep breath. ‘She’s a tart, sweetheart, a young kid I helped out a while back when I was on Vice. Now sometimes she acts as an informant. There is nothing going on between
us, it’s business, all right?
Is that all right with you?
’

‘I don’t like tarts having your home phone number or ringing me up screaming and yelling.
Is that all right with you?
’ Susan went into the kitchen. He dithered, knew he
should talk to her, straighten it out, but instead he grabbed his car keys and left very quietly.

Dolly was feeling pleased with herself as she and Angela hailed a taxi heading for Tommy Malin’s address. ‘That Mrs Tilly is such a nice woman, I really like her.
You know, Angela, if I get the manor opened as a kids’ home it’ll be my dream come true. It was all I used to think about when I was in Holloway.’ She took the girl’s hand.
‘Don’t worry about that hit-and-run. Gloria said there wasn’t a mark on the car and if they’d got anything on you – on any of us – we’d have been copped
last night.’ Angela clutched Dolly’s hand tightly. ‘Will you want to stay on, help me?’ She nodded. ‘Good, I’ll be able to pay you a decent wage and you can have
cookery classes. Would you like that?’

‘Yes, I would.’

She wanted to tell Dolly about Mike, about everything. She liked her so much, felt protected by her – but how
could
she tell her? And now, with that poor man she’d run over,
it was all so complicated. She wanted to talk to Mike, needed to ask his advice.

The cab headed towards Elephant and Castle and then veered off down a small one-way road, stopping outside a paint-yard. Dolly got out, saying, ‘You wait here, love, I shouldn’t be
too long.’

Angela watched as Dolly tapped on the door and disappeared inside the yard.

A young kid in filthy overalls pointed Dolly to the office and then rejoined his colleagues who were stripping down pine furniture.

‘Dolly Rawlins,’ wheezed Tommy Malin, leaning against the doorframe.

‘Hello, Tommy.’ She shook hands and he gestured for her to go in ahead of him. He waved at the workmen and closed the door.

‘I’ll put the kettle on.’

‘Tha’d be nice,’ she said, looking around, taking in the cheap desk, rows of bulging and dented filing cabinets and the massive cast-iron safe. Dolly eased herself on to a
newspaper-filled chair. She looked over the equally cluttered desk: the scales, the rows of diamond cutters and pinchers, and rolls of velvet cloth, the only indication that perhaps Mr
Malin’s paint and pine-stripping factory was used for other purposes. Tommy Malin would deal in literally anything he could turn round fast. He was famous for his high percentage and his
‘no risk’ attitude. He would deal in hot stuff but always insisted on a long chilling period. That was why he was so wealthy and had so far avoided arrest. He was very, very
careful.

The women had done a half-day’s work. Rods had been fixed up, more seeds sown, and the rubbish was now tipped into a skip left for them by the builder. Big John was
getting a bit edgy; it was almost payday, he’d laid out all his savings to buy the materials, and still Mrs Rawlins hadn’t given him the down payment. He’d seen all the women
working out in the garden but Mrs Rawlins was not with them. He had even looked for her inside the house.

Connie was testing the sauna temperature when he asked if he could have a word with her. She turned and gave him a wonderful smile that made him flush.

‘I’m sorry to bother you but is Mrs Rawlins around?’

‘No, I’m sorry, she’s gone into London. Can I help at all?’

He could feel his cheeks burning. ‘Well, it was just we had an arrangement and Mrs Rawlins is a bit behind in the first instalment, you see, and I have to pay the men, pay for the
materials and—’

‘Oh, she’s gone to get some money this afternoon.’ Connie gave another wide smile. ‘You couldn’t have a look at the sauna for me, could you? I think I’ve got
it working but I’m not sure.’

He nodded and she brushed against him as they went into the small Swedish sauna hut. John checked the temperature dials and the coals. ‘Do you like it hot?’ he asked seriously.

‘Oh, yes, as hot as you can give it to me.’ He flushed again but she seemed to be concentrating on the temperature gauge. ‘Do you work out?’