‘It’s Angela, she’s come back. I said we don’t want her here.’
‘Well, she can’t go back at this hour. Let her in, we’ve got enough rooms.’
Ester stepped aside and Angela said, ‘Thank you very much, Mrs Rawlins,’ giving Ester a snooty look.
‘There’s some stew on so put your bag in a room and come into the kitchen,’ Dolly said, smiling. She headed into the kitchen.
Ester gave a half smile. There was no way that Dolly could get the two hundred grand back now: it would have gone straight through from her bank into Ester’s overdrawn account.
Julia was already sitting at the table, helping a still tearful Connie serve up the stew. They heard Gloria returning and she banged in from the back yard. She was filthy, and went straight to the sink and ran the taps over her hands. ‘I brought me gear from the house.’
They all concentrated on the food, and the scraping of their knives and forks was accentuated by the silence.
Dolly cleared her throat. ‘Right. Things have changed since last night. I’m not taking on this house. I’m sorry, but I’ve had time to think and I reckon it’ll be too expensive to do up and as it had such a bad reputation I think I’ll go back to my original plan and open up a smaller place back in town.’ She placed her knife and fork together.
‘You should have told me this morning, Dolly,’ Ester said.
‘I’m telling you now. I want my money back, Ester.’
‘Well, if you’d told me this morning that might have been possible but you’re too late now. I put it in the bank.’
‘You can take it out again, can’t you?’
‘No. I’m bankrupt and they gave me the deeds of the house. They were holding them as collateral. I’ve still got about three hundred grand to pay off, but they won’t cash a cheque for a tenner right now.’ Ester looked dutifully crestfallen and her voice took on an apologetic whine. ‘I’m really sorry, Dolly. Like I said, you should have told me this morning.’
Dolly’s face tightened. ‘If you’d told me you were bankrupt I’d never have walked out without getting my money.’
‘But you did and now there’s nothing I can do about it. The house is yours, Dolly, lock, stock and barrel.’
Dolly pursed her lips. ‘You really stitched me up, didn’t you, Ester? I should have known there’d be some hitch. I really walked into this one, didn’t I?’
‘With your eyes open, Dolly, I never pushed you. I told you to think about it, if you recall. Now there’s nothing I can do. But we’re all here, we can all lend a hand, get this place up and rolling.’
Dolly clenched her hands. ‘You any idea how much this will cost to get fixed up?’
‘No, but we can start getting estimates in tomorrow. Local builders are cheaper than up in London.’
‘And how do I pay them?’ Dolly said quietly.
Ester flicked a look at Julia, shrugging her shoulders. ‘Well, they give you grants, don’t they? Unless you’ve got more dough stashed away.’
Dolly got up and fetched a glass. ‘Any wine left from last night?’
Ester sent Angela to get a bottle from the dining room. All the women were looking at Ester, then back to Dolly as if at a tennis match.
Dolly followed Angela out, and went into the drawing room, where Angela was at the desk, reading a stack of newspaper cuttings. When she saw Dolly, she tried to stuff them back into the drawer. ‘I couldn’t find any wine, Mrs Rawlins.’
‘It wouldn’t be in a drawer, would it, love?’ She pushed past Angela and opened the drawer as Angela backed away from her. She flicked through the cuttings, headlines about the murder of her husband, headlines about the shooting of Shirley Miller — and the diamond raid, then folded them and picked up her handbag.
‘What you staring at me like that for?’ she demanded.
Angela stuttered, ‘I’m not, I just — just didn’t know about all that.’
‘What? That I’d been in prison? You knew, they all know. Now go and get the bottle. Try the dining room, dear.’
Angela scuttled out, and Dolly, taking a deep breath, walked back into the kitchen. The room fell silent.
Angela uncorked the wine as Dolly sat waiting, her hands clenched over her handbag. As soon as the wine was poured, Ester lifted her glass. ‘Well, here’s to the Grange Foster Home.’ Echoing her, they sipped the wine. Dolly took only a small mouthful before she replaced the glass.
‘Isn’t it about time you all cut the pretence and came clean?’
‘About what, Dolly? Ester asked innocendy.
‘Why you’re all here,’ Dolly replied calmly.
Again they looked at Ester to take the lead. She smiled sweetly. ‘You know why. We were all at a bit of a loose end and thought it would be nice, you know, to have a little welcome-out party, that’s all. As it turned out, you got this place.’
‘Off your hands,’ said Dolly.
‘Well, if you want to put it that way.’
Dolly opened her bag slowly. ‘Well, maybe I will be able to open up but that isn’t what you all bargained for.’
‘I don’t know what you mean, Dolly,’ Gloria said.
‘Don’t you?’ Dolly threw the newspaper cuttings on to the table. ‘Not too clever leaving them lying around, was it? That’s why you’re all here. That’s what you’re all after, isn’t it?’
‘The diamonds?’ Connie asked, and received a kick under the table from Ester.
‘Yes. The bloody diamonds.’ Dolly rarely, if ever, swore.
Mike drew up outside Jimmy Donaldson’s run-down antique shop. The lights were on and a patrol car was parked outside. He patted his pocket, felt the pouch bag, and then walked into the shop.
Arc-lights were turned on and three uniformed officers were strip-searching the place. It was a tough job as furniture, junk and bric-à-brac were crowded into every inch of the shop space. An officer looked up at Mike as he entered. ‘There’s another floor even more stuffed than down here, plus a backyard crammed full, and an outside lav.’
‘You not found them, then?’ Mike asked innocently.
‘No. According to Donaldson, they were hidden behind a wall. Well, we’ve nearly had the place come down on us, we’ve chipped away at so many bricks, but we’ve come to the conclusion he’s playing silly buggers.’
Mike eased his way round a Victorian washstand. ‘Well, carry on. I was just passing so I’ll give you a hand for an hour or so.’
The officer nodded. ‘You want a cup of tea? We’re about to brew up out back.’
‘Yeah, milk, one sugar.’
Left alone, Mike looked round the shop. He could see the wall where they had been removing bricks and he inched towards it. He had to be fast as the men were within yards of him. He pulled back two bricks and stuffed in the pouch, then rammed the bricks back into place. When the officer returned with two mugs of tea, Mike was standing by the opposite wall. He was inspecting the brickwork. ‘Go over every inch of all the walls again. Donaldson is still insisting it’s behind the brickwork.’
Mike stayed for another half-hour, helping move furniture around but keeping well away from where he had stashed the pouch, concentrating on the opposite wall. As he left, he suggested they stay at it.
He got home after eleven. His wife was already in bed and when he got in beside her, she didn’t move.
‘You awake?’
‘Yes.’
‘Sorry I’m so late. It’s this bloke we brought out of the nick, taking up a lot of extra time.’
‘Phone call for you.’
‘Oh yeah, who?’
‘I don’t know. She put the phone down.’
Susan turned to face him. He sighed. ‘If whoever it was put the phone down, how do you know it was a she?’
‘I can tell. And that’s what I’m asking you to do, Mike. Tell me if there’s somebody else, just tell me.’