She's Out Read online

  Connie hadn’t, so Gloria began to burrow around the odd bits and pieces of furniture in the gym. She was filthy and she sighed when she caught her reflection. Then she inspected the black roots of her hair. She needed a tint badly, had to have it done before she went to see Eddie.

  Eddie Radford was serving eighteen years for arms dealing and armed robbery. He was going to be away for so long that sometimes Gloria wondered if it was worth going back and forth to the prisons. He’d spent most of their marriage in one or another. They were two bad pennies, as she had been in and out for this and that since she was a teenager. Eddie was trouble – she’d known it when she first met him. He was even worse than her first husband. Now he’d got a stash of weapons hidden at their old house with two of his bastard friends trying to get them. She had no money and Eddie kept telling her he’d arrange a deal, that she just had to sit tight and wait until he’d made the contact. Gloria was behind in the rent, and the council had told her to leave. It seemed like everyone was always telling her what to do and it always ended up a mess. She was scared of handling such a big stash of guns, scared of his so-called contacts and she was sick to death of always being on the move, always looking over her shoulder in case one of Eddie’s bastards tracked her down. When Ester called, it was like a breath of fresh air. The thought of getting away from that pressure, away from Eddie’s bloody heavies, was like a God-given present. And with the promise of big money tied in with it, who could refuse? Not Gloria Radford.

  Ester checked the table. It was looking good. As it grew darker it was harder to see the dilapidation, and she had bought boxes of candles and incense sticks, plus room sprays, so gradually the stench of mildew was disappearing. Gloria said it smelt like someone had farted in a pine forest but it wasn’t that bad.

  The food had been delivered on big oval throwaway platters, and all they had to do was heat it up. The Aga was on, the boiler was working and fires were lit in the dining room and drawing room. Julia had cut logs and carried them in, and slowly the firelight and the candlelight gave warmth to the old house. The kids from the job centre had gone and only the women remained. Ester shouted for them all to meet up and have a confab as Dolly would be arriving in a couple of hours.

  The doorbell rang and Ester swore, looking at her watch. It couldn’t be her yet … Then she remembered Angela.

  ‘You took your bloody time getting here. I said this afternoon. It’s almost six,’ she snapped.

  Angela dumped her overnight bag. ‘I had to bleedin’ walk all the way from the station, it took hours. And I missed the train so I had to wait …’ She looked at the bank of candles. ‘Eh, this looks great, I thought it was wrecked.’

  ‘It was, it is, we’ve done a good bandage job.’

  Angela hadn’t seen the old house for years, not since it was busted, so she was impressed by the big floral displays in the hall, the banisters gleaming from the hours Kathleen had spent polishing.

  Gloria walked out from the dining room and glared at Angela. ‘Who’s this? What’re you doing?’

  Ester said that Angela was a friend who had come to serve the dinner.

  ‘Oh yes, we cut this any more ways and there’s not gonna be much to go round, you know.’

  Ester pushed Gloria against the wall. ‘She doesn’t know anything, she doesn’t know Dolly and she’s not in for a cut. She gets fifty quid to wait on us at dinner. Now will you get the others in the dining room so we can have a talk?’

  Angela went into the kitchen. Ester pointed to the food, what needed heating, what was to be served cold and showed her the low oven of the Aga for the plates to be heated. Angela looked around, nodding, and trailed after Ester to the dining room.

  There’s a room ready for you. Dump your bag. Did you bring a black dress and an apron?’

  ‘Yes, ma’am,’ said Angela.

  ‘Okay, all of you read these.’ Ester handed round old newspaper clippings she had xeroxed. They were clippings about the diamond raid: there were photographs of Dolly Rawlins after the shooting of her husband and several of Shirley Miller.

  ‘Holy shit, you read this?’ said Gloria. ‘“Diamonds worth more than two million were last night stolen in a daring raid.”’

  Julia grabbed the clippings. ‘Gloria, we can read it for ourselves, okay? There is no need for you to read it aloud.’

  Gloria picked up another. ‘Fuckin’ hell, says here, headline, “Criminal murdered by his wife”. Oh, listen to this, “Harry Rawlins was last night shot at point-blank range by his wife. His body was discovered in an ornate pond in …”’

  Julia snatched it from her. ‘Shut up, just shut up.’

  They read in silence, one clipping after another. Kathleen looked at Ester. This was some raid. Did she set it up? Dolly?’

  ‘She was never shopped for it if she did.’

  Gloria frowned. This was no doodle at Woolworth’s. Look at the gear they got away with, and guns. See this?’ She held up a cutting. ‘“Shirley Miller, aged twenty-one, was shot and killed during a terrifying armed raid that took place at a fashion show last night. The models were wearing over two million pounds’ worth of diamonds …”’

  Julia glanced at Ester in exasperation. She couldn’t stand Gloria reading aloud. She had put up with it when they shared the same prison cell and she was about to intervene for the third time when Ester held her back.

  If they were worth two million nearly nine years ago, you can double the value now.’

  Kathleen let out her breath in awe. Gloria’s face was puckered in concentration. ‘I mean, I know there were rumours, Ester, but, like, she might have started them. How can you be sure she’s really got these diamonds?’

  ‘Because nobody ever found them after the raid.’

  ‘That don’t mean she got ’em,’ said Gloria.

  ‘She said she had, she’s hinted enough times that she had.’

  Julia sighed. ‘Let’s take it that she does have them.’

  ‘Okay, she’s got them, and now she’s out and she’s coming here tonight.’

  ‘Right. She’s coming here, to friends, and that’s what we are going to be for her, old dear friends.’

  ‘You must be joking. She don’t know the meaning of the word. She was like edgy, very edgy, Ester.’

  ‘Gloria, will you keep it shut for ten minutes and fucking listen to me?’

  Ester ran her hands through her hair. ‘I know she has no one, had no visitors. She’s going to be very lonely, even frightened, so we make her welcome, we make her have a great night …’

  Gloria nodded. ‘Yeah, well, I’m with you so far, darlin’. Then what? When do we get our hands on the stones?’

  ‘None of you, not one of you, mentions diamonds. We just want her to feel like we’re her friends, that she can trust us. She might need a good fence – Kathleen knows enough. She might have trouble getting the stones – Gloria’s got contacts. She will need us, do you understand? Above all, we make her trust us. When she tells us about the diamonds, we go for them, we take them if we feel like it, and we share them between us.’

  ‘The five of us?’ asked Gloria.

  ‘Yes, Gloria, the five of us, or six—’

  ‘Who’s the sixth, then? Not that little black chick you got in for the nosh?’

  ‘No, Gloria, Angela is not the sixth, but I reckon Dolly might want a cut of her own gear.’

  ‘Well, if I was her I’d just say piss off. I mean, why give us a cut?’

  ‘Maybe she won’t want to give us anything, Gloria. If that’s the case, we just take it, you understand? We only need to know where the bloody things are stashed.’

  Ester sighed, beginning to think the entire idea was a fiasco, when Connie suddenly giggled. ‘Two million … Oh, yes.’

  They all started to laugh and then Ester broke it up and told them to start getting changed: Dolly was already on her way and would be there within the hour. Like kids they trooped out.

  Julia began to rub Ester’s neck, feelin
g the tension. ‘I hope to God this works, Julia, and works fast because I don’t think I could stand more than a few hours with that bloody demented gerbil, Gloria Radford.’

  Julia cupped Ester’s face in her hands and kissed her lips. ‘Don’t say I didn’t warn you. You’ll pull it off – if anyone can, you can. I just hope there really are diamonds. It could all be a fantasy, you know that, don’t you, darling?’

  Ester gripped her wrists. ‘No. There’s diamonds, believe me, I know it. And I know that hard bitch has got them somewhere … and we’ll get them away from her and then …’

  Julia stepped back. ‘Then?’ she said softly.

  ‘I’m free, Julia. I’ll be free. No bastard trying to slit my throat. I’ll even airmail their wretched tape back to them. With all those millions I won’t need to grovel or beg from anyone. I don’t reckon in all honesty I’ve ever been free but this time I will be.’

  ‘I hope for your sake you’ll get them. I love you, Ester.’

  Ester was already walking out of the room. She didn’t hear or if she did she pretended not to. Alone, Julia looked round the old, ornate, once magnificent room. Maybe Dolly would be taken in if she didn’t look too carefully, if she didn’t see the cracks, if she believed Ester was her friend, that all of them were her friends. Julia sighed. In some ways she felt sorry for Dolly Rawlins because she was walking into a snake pit and she was ashamed to be a part of it.

  The candles threw shadows on the wall and she raised her hand to make a silhouette of a bird flying, flapping its wings. Dolly Rawlins’s first day of freedom in eight years. Julia watched the shadow bird flutter and then broke the shadow as she moved her hands away from the candle. Ester had planned this evening carefully, each one of them chosen because they were desperate, herself included. She was desperate not to lose Ester, desperate to safeguard the lies she had told her ailing elderly mother, lies she had spun round her arrest and prison sentence. Julia’s mother never knew her daughter the doctor was an ex-drug addict, that she had been struck off and that for the last four years she had been in prison. She had arranged an elaborate charade via friends who passed Julia’s letters written in Holloway to look as if they were sent from around the world. Julia’s mother never suspected, never knew her daughter’s double life, just as she had no notion that her daughter could or would be deeply in love with another woman. It was beyond her comprehension, and Julia was determined her mother would never know. Keeping up the pretence had taken money, and still took every penny she could lay hands on, as she paid all her mother’s bills. Julia, too, although she hated to admit it, needed those diamonds but, unlike the others, she was ashamed to acknowledge the awful con they were all about to begin on Dolly Rawlins.

  Chapter 3

  Jimmy Donaldon’s wife had been informed that her husband was returning home on a ‘special leave’ from prison. She was asked not to mention the visit to anyone and to remain in the house until he was brought home. When he did arrive, in the company of two plainclothes officers, they had only one or two moments alone before he was taken into their sitting room. One officer placed a tape recorder and bugging device on their telephone in the hope that Dolly Rawlins would make contact. The small antique shop was already being searched. DCI Craigh arranged for a rota of officers to remain in the house and to keep an eye on Jimmy. Mike Withey was to take the following morning shift: he couldn’t wait to see his mother and tell her of the developments that had moved faster than he could have anticipated.

  At the same time Dolly Rawlins was about to arrive at Grange Manor House. The women had all changed into cocktail dresses. Ester had laid out one of her own dresses for Dolly to change into and as she saw the headlamps of the Corniche turning into the driveway, she gave hurried orders for the women to remain in the dining room and stay silent. Next she briefed Angela that when the doorbell rang she was to open the front door and welcome Dolly into the house. Ester would then make her appearance.

  Dolly stepped out of the car. She looked around in confusion and felt unsure, even more so than she’d been when driving down the dark, potholed lane leading to the house. The massive manor looked daunting but in the shadows it was difficult to detect its run-down, neglected grounds. The chauffeur guided her towards the front steps. She stopped.

  ‘Are you staying?’

  ‘If you would like me to, Mrs Rawlins. It’s entirely up to you.’ He rang the bell. Some of the stained glass was broken in the panels but the steps had been swept and Dolly wasn’t paying much attention; she was feeling edgy.

  Angela opened the door, wearing a neat black dress and white apron.

  ‘Good evening, Mrs Rawlins. Welcome to the Grange.’

  Dolly hesitated and then saw the elegant Ester standing with her arms wide. ‘Dolly. Come on in.’

  She walked into the hall.

  ‘What’s going on?’

  ‘It’s a welcome out party for you.’

  ‘Is he going?’ She was almost prepared to walk after the chauffeur.

  ‘Oh, he’ll be back, and we’ve all got our cars round the back.’

  ‘All?’

  ‘Your old mates, Dolly, from Holloway.’

  She watched as Angela closed the door, taking Dolly’s small case from the chauffeur, and then Ester embraced her warmly, kissing her on both cheeks.

  ‘Come, let me show you around. You’ll want a bath, won’t you?’

  Dolly looked at the banks of flickering candles, still nonplussed as Ester guided her up the stairs. She stopped. ‘Why are you doing this?’

  Ester continued up the stairs. ‘We’ve come out to nothing and no one, Dolly. We all know what it feels like. We wanted to make sure you got a special party, to sort of kick you off in the right direction.’

  Dolly followed Ester up the stairs, impressed by the house, then the clean room with the black lace dress laid out on the bed. There were stockings and clean underwear, even a couple of pairs of high-heeled shoes.

  ‘You did all this for me?’ Dolly said, still nonplussed.

  ‘It’s not a new dress but it is a Valentino. Would you like me to run a bath for you? Wash your hair?’

  Angela slipped in with Dolly’s suitcase and placed it by the bed. She was out again before Dolly could say a word. ‘Who’s that?’

  ‘Oh, she’s just a kid that used to work for me.’

  ‘A tart, is she?’

  ‘No, she’s just here to serve us so we don’t have to do anything but enjoy ourselves.’

  Dolly wandered around the room. ‘Who else is here?’

  Ester turned on the taps, felt the hot water – it wasn’t what you’d call hot hot – and poured in bath salts.

  ‘Kathleen O’Reilly, you remember her?’ Ester listed the other names.

  Dolly sat on the bed. ‘Well, I wouldn’t call any of them friends, Ester. They all here, are they?’

  ‘Yes, well, I tried to get as many women as I thought you knew so it’d be a bit of a knees-up.’

  ‘I’m not sure what to say.’

  Ester smiled. ‘Just have a nice bath. I’ll go and tell them you’ll be down soon, okay?’

  Dolly slowly took off her coat, and then smiled. ‘Yeah, why not? I could do with a drink.’

  They all looked towards the double doors as Ester came into the dining room. ‘She’s getting ready, won’t be long.’

  ‘I hope not, I’m starving,’ Gloria muttered.

  Julia lolled in her chair. ‘She knows who’s down here?’

  ‘Yes, she does, and don’t drink any more, Kathleen. We’ve got to work her over and if you get pissed you’ll open that yapping mouth. That goes for you too, Gloria.’

  She glanced over the table and then went to the kitchen. Angela had her feet up, reading a magazine. ‘We’ll have the first course, then I’ll ring for you.’

  ‘Yeah, you told me that before.’

  ‘When she’s ready to come down, I want you to bring her in. Go up to her room when I tell you. I don’t want her wandering ar
ound.’

  ‘You told me that as well.’

  ‘Fine, I’m just making sure everything’s ready.’

  Ester walked out. Angela waited a moment, then followed. As soon as she saw her heading up the stairs she crept to the phone, eased it off the hook, and dialled. She waited, eyes to the dark, candlelit hallway.

  Mike answered the phone. Susan was dishing up dinner. He spoke softly and then replaced the receiver. He was smiling like he’d just been given good news.

  ‘Who was that?’

  ‘Mum. I said I’d go over later after dinner.’

  ‘Oh, I’d like to have come with you. Why didn’t you tell me? I could ask the girl next door to babysit.’

  ‘I’m only going for a few minutes.’

  Mike sat down as Susan passed him a plate of stew. She was a pretty girl, with long blonde hair, similar to Mike’s sister Shirley. She was almost as pretty. Both their sons had already been put to bed and she’d half-hoped they could have an evening together.

  ‘Is your mum still planning to go to Spain?’

  Mike nodded, his mouth full. ‘Yeah, that’s why I said I’d drop in, see if she needed me to do anything.’

  ‘Funny time to go, isn’t it, winter?’

  Mike shrugged, forking in another mouthful. ‘Got some friend there with a villa, be good for her, she needs to get away.’

  ‘Don’t we all. It’s been ages since we had a holiday – be nice to get away.’

  ‘We will,’ he said, eyes to the clock, wondering if they’d found the diamonds.

  Susan watched him: he’d been very distracted of late, moody and snapping at the kids. ‘Everything all right at work, is it?’

  ‘Yep.’ He pushed the plate aside, only half finished, and wiped his mouth with a napkin. ‘I’ll shove off. Sooner I see her, sooner I’ll be home.’

  She picked up her knife and fork and he reached over and kissed her forehead.

  ‘There’s nobody else, is there, Mike?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘It’s just I hardly have time to talk to you, you’re always out, and most weekends you’ve been on duty. If there is somebody else …’