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, feeling 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.