A row of faces waited.
‘I want to put back something into society, might sound crazy, but I really want to make something of the rest of my life.’
No one spoke. They felt a trifle uneasy, though — she was coming on like something from The Sound of Music.
Dolly took a deep breath. ‘I want to buy a house and I want to open it up as a home, a foster home for kids, battered wives, a home run by me, for all those less fortunate than me.’
None of them could speak. They looked at Dolly as if she had two heads. She had taken the carpet from beneath every one of them.
Tommy Malin agreed that he could make up a bag of fake stones, using some real settings and some fake ones. He could do it for two grand cash and have it ready by the following afternoon. Mike tried to push him to have them done by the following morning but he refused, saying if they wanted the stuff to look good, really good, he would need that time. He’d have to shop around for some good cut-glass fakes, maybe throw in a couple of zircons, but he needed that much time. Mike agreed and said Audrey would collect them as soon as he called to say they were ready.
By the time Mike got home he was worn to a frazzle and it was after twelve. Susan heard the front door shut and turned over to her side of the bed, not wanting to speak to him or confront him. She was sure he had another woman and it was breaking her heart.
Mike cleaned his teeth. His eyes were red-rimmed, his face chalk white; he was in it up to his neck and he just hoped he would be able to get away with what he was doing. He had to find some way of stashing the fakes in Jimmy Donaldson’s place. He splashed cold water over his face, patting it dry, half hoping that Dolly Rawlins would never make contact about the bloody diamonds.
Susan heard him undressing and then he got into bed beside her, turning his back towards her. Neither said a word, Susan because she was sure he was cheating on her, Mike hearing his own heart thudding as he went over the mess he had got himself caught up in. Whatever excuses he tried to make for Audrey, or she had made to him, didn’t alter the fact she had trapped him into the world he had tried so hard to walk away from all his life. Shirley had been well caught up in it and he knew it, together with her husband and the subsequent robbery, but nothing he could have thought up or dreamed in his worst nightmares would measure up to the reality that Shirley had been shot. He found himself, like his mother, making excuses and eventually laying the blame on Dolly Rawlins. If he could get her put away, it would, he told himself, get them all out of trouble. And he was even able to tell himself that she deserved everything she got or anything he could have her framed and done for.
Ester had a mink coat slung round her shoulders and Dolly wore Gloria’s fluffy wrap as they walked towards the stables. ‘I mean, look at this place, Dolly. You could have ten, twelve kids here, get a horse even. And there’s a swimming pool, needs a bit of work, the whole house does, but it’s crying out for kids. It’d be a perfect place.’
Dolly looked back at the vast house. ‘I dunno, Ester. I was sort of thinking about a small terraced job, near Holloway.’
‘No. This is much better. Country air, grounds, and it’d be cheaper than any terraced house. I’ll even throw in all the linen, crockery and furniture. You can have the lot for two hundred grand. I’ve even got surveyors’ reports. It’s on the market right now but if it’s out of your league then...’
Dolly considered. It wasn’t out of her league — in fact it was smack in it: she’d got about two hundred and fifty grand to be exact but after shelling out here and there it’d be around the two hundred mark.
They walked on round the stables to the front of the house, Ester pointing over towards the swimming pool. ‘There’s an orchard, vegetable patch. You could grow your own veg, be self-sufficient. It’s a dream place for kids, Dolly.’
Dolly sighed. ‘I dunno, Ester, it’s an awfully big house.’
‘All the better. And we can all give you a hand, stay on and work it up for you, get the place shipshape. Hell, none of us have got anythin’ better going for us. We’d be your helpers, it’s a brilliant idea.’
The women watched from the slit in the curtains. Kathleen turned away. ‘Home for battered wives! She’s out of her mind. I’ve been one most of me life and I’m not about to start livin’ with a bunch of them. She’s got a screw loose.’
Gloria kicked at the dying embers of the fire. ‘Well, I’m pissed off. I think this was all Ester was after from the start. She wanted us to break our backs cleaning the fuckin’ place up so she can flog it to Dolly. That’s what she got us here for — she’s used the lot of us to sell this bleedin’ place.’
Julia poured another brandy and swirled it in her glass. ‘No, she hasn’t, she’s being clever.’
‘You can say that again. We all done it up and she’s the only one that’s gonna make any dough out of it.’
Connie joined in. ‘I didn’t even know she was selling this place, she never told me. I mean, is this why she’s got us here?’
‘You really are dumb, all of you, aren’t you?’ Julia shook her head. ‘You heard Dolly say she’s got two hundred grand. Well, this place will swallow that right away so where’s she going to get the money to get this place up and running as a kids’ home?’ She drained her glass. ‘She’ll have to go for those diamonds. Ester knows it. Can’t you see what she’s doing? She’s creaming her, you stupid cows.’
Gloria frowned. ‘So when she’s laid out the cash for this dump, you think she’s going to go for those diamonds?’
‘What do you think she’ll go for?’
They looked at each other and then Kathleen yawned. Well, in that case I’m staying on.’
They all agreed to stay on and wait — wait for Dolly to go for the diamonds.
Ester showed Dolly all the estate agents’, valuers’ and solicitors’ letters, all the old surveys of the manor house. It had been on the market for over two hundred and fifty thousand. She offered it to Dolly for two hundred.
‘That wipes me out, Ester.’
Ester felt her belly tighten: she’d guessed right. It tickled her that she could always suss out people’s cash-flow. It came with dealing for the girls, pushing the punters to the limit. She gave a wide smile. ‘But you’ll get big grants for the kids.’
Dolly looked over the documents again. ‘I dunno, Ester. What if the others won’t stay on? I can’t run this place on my own.’
‘All the better. And listen, none of them have got a place to go. They’ll stay on, believe you me. And then we got Julia, she’s a doctor, you got a strong group behind you.’
Dolly was still unsure.
‘Look don’t do anything right away, think about it, take your time. If you’re not interested, fine, I’ll sell it to someone else. No skin off my back, think about it...’
Dolly suddenly took out her cheque book. ‘You’re on. Here, I’ll give you a cheque right now.’
‘Now don’t do anything you’re going to be sorry for. Maybe you should sleep on it. I don’t want you thinking I bamboozled you into this. It’s your choice. The only thing that might be a problem is the other offer that I got but it can wait at least until tomorrow.’
Dolly wrote out the cheque there and then, still heady from the wine. She insisted Ester take it and she did, fast, and pocketed it.
‘You got a telephone here?’
‘Course. You called in, remember?’ smiled Ester.
Ester slipped out of the kitchen, leaving Dolly looking over the papers. The women had all gone up to bed, the fires were dead, the candles burnt out. She went upstairs, to her bedroom, closed the door silently and crept to the bed. She leaned over Julia and showed her the cheque. ‘I’ll put this in the bank first thing tomorrow before the old cow changes her mind.’