Dolly folded her arms. ‘You had a prang? In a car? Who you kidding?’
Ester turned away her bruised face, changing the subject fast. Whose is that flash Porsche parked down the lane?’
Julia looked at Dolly, then back at Ester. ‘Our lane?’
‘Whose do you think? I passed it on my way in.’
Gloria ran upstairs to ask Connie what car Lennie drove. She was back a moment later. ‘It’s his.’
Julia helped Ester to bed and then joined Gloria and Dolly to search the grounds. This time Dolly carried the shotgun, making Gloria hold up the flashlight. They toured the stables, the outhouses, and saw Ester’s Saab.
‘Where did she get this?’
Julia explained that Ester had told her she’d traded the Range Rover in.
‘Did she?’ Dolly said, already suspicious. But the search was uppermost in their minds. They walked together round to the front of the manor, getting more and more anxious as they began to wonder if Lennie was hiding in the house. The beam of the flashlight moved slowly over the grounds, the overgrown bushes and hedgerows, and then swept across the swimming pool.
‘Wait! Move it back, down the deep end of the pool.’ Dolly was squinting in the darkness, trying to work out what she had seen. They walked slowly towards what looked like a bundle of rags but as they moved closer, it was obviously the body of a man.
Lennie was lying face down, his hands floating in the stagnant water in front of him, one leg caught round some old rope.
Dolly hesitated only a moment. Already there were guns in the house, and her application for the social services ran through her mind. A body was all they needed. ‘Get him out and move him.’
Julia stared at her. ‘Are you crazy?’
‘No. We get him out and bury him as fast as we can. It’s almost dawn.’
‘Don’t you think we should call the police?’ Julia asked.
‘No, I don’t. Get Connie and Angela — we’ll all have to help drag him out. We’ll put him in the back of Gloria’s car.’
‘I don’t think that’s a good idea,’ Julia said, and Dolly turned on her, her face like parchment in the cold night.
‘Okay. You take care of it, then.’ She stalked away in fury.
Connie was brought out, and Gloria waded into the filthy water with a hook, to move the body closer. ‘Is it him?’
Connie broke down sobbing, gasping that she didn’t do it, she never even touched him. Dolly rejoined them, standing slightly apart.
‘Well, look at the bang on his head. He must have cracked it on the side of the pool. Nobody’s accusing you of doin’ anything. Just stop howling.’ Gloria waded in deeper, drawing the body closer to the steps.
It took three of them to drag him out of the pool. Julia pulled a big sheet of polythene from the roof of the house and they dragged the body towards it. They turned out his pockets as Gloria drove the Mini round, and rolled the body in the polythene, then lifted it into the back of the car. ‘Now what?’ Gloria asked, bending down to check the big end of the car. ‘You know this has only just been repaired.’ Dolly checked the time: it was almost five o’clock and the builders would be starting at seven. It didn’t give them enough time: they couldn’t dump it in broad daylight.
‘Drive it back to the lean-to and we’ll leave it there until tomorrow night.’
‘What? In my car?’
‘Yes, Gloria, unless you can think of somewhere better,’ Dolly retorted.
By the time they returned to the house, Dolly had a pot of coffee on the stove and some toast made. They all trooped in and started to wash their hands, all suddenly quiet.
Ester walked in. ‘Everything okay?’
‘What do you think? We got her bleedin’ boyfriend stashed in the back of me car and a kitchen full of guns,’ Gloria said angrily.
Connie broke down into heaving sobs again and this time Dolly turned on her. ‘Shut up, all of you. Now sit down and listen.’ They sat like kids, almost grateful that she was taking charge. ‘You, Connie, go out to his car. Here are his keys and wallet. Any money we take but burn his cards. You then drive the car back to London, go to his flat, get the log book.’ She proceeded to give Connie directions to a garage she knew in North London. She was to sell the car, leave notes cancelling the milkman and newspapers, and make it look as if Lennie had gone away. She was to clean the car of any fingerprints, likewise the flat, and she was then to return to the manor.
Connie nodded dumbly, not really comprehending, still so shaken that her whole body wouldn’t stop trembling. ‘Go on then, get started. Get rid of that car as soon as possible.’
Dolly spooned sugar into her coffee. ‘Right, Julia, and you, Kathleen, go through the local papers, find out the most recent funeral, then check out the grave in the cemetery.’
‘What?’ Julia was about to laugh, and again she was thrown off balance by the coldness in Dolly’s eyes.
‘Best way to get rid of a body. Dig up the grave, dump him and cover it. Now Ester, that car out back. Is it hot? How did you get it?’
‘I bought it. Well, it’s on the never-never in part-exchange for the Range Rover. It’s not nicked, if that’s what you’re thinking.’
‘Gloria, you go and see Eddie. The sooner those guns are out of this place the better.’
Angela had remained silent throughout. Dolly patted her shoulder. ‘I’m sorry to get you involved in this, love, but I think we’re doing the best for all of us and with you driving the car that took out Jimmy Donaldson, I just think the less we see of the filth the better.’
Suddenly, hearing the name of the man she had run over made Angela’s knees knock together. ‘I won’t say anything,’ she said.
Dolly frowned. ‘Well, I hope not, and that goes for everyone here.’
‘It’s nothing to do with me. I can’t help anyone in my condition and you’re the boss,’ Ester said, lisping through her bruised mouth.
Dolly turned on her. ‘Yes, I am, as long as you’re in my house — and don’t you forget it, any of you. Now I’m going to have a couple of hours’ kip.’
She walked out. They were impressed by her — and a little afraid of her coldness.
Kathleen swallowed and nudged Gloria. ‘I’m glad she’s not found out about that business down the sauna. I think she’d bloody kill us.’
Chapter 10
The mini remained in the lean-to, dripping pools of water beneath its wheels. Julia and Kathleen checked the newspapers and then went to the cemetery. Connie was already driving to London to sell the Porsche and clean Lennie’s flat. She parked it a good distance from his block, as Dolly had instructed, and set about finding the log book. Having so much to do calmed her.
Ester stayed in bed with some aspirin. Her ribs hurt and she felt dizzy if she so much as sat up. Dolly slept, the only one of them able to do so. Gloria caught the train to London and went to Brixton to visit Eddie.
Angela cleaned the kitchen; she was worrying herself into a panic about Jimmy Donaldson. As she tidied and cleared the dirty crockery, she saw the big bags of guns left by the kitchen cabinet.
Mike listened impatiently to his mother fretting because she’d missed her flight so she was now rearranging her trip to Spain.
‘You got to get out soon, Mum, I mean it.’
‘I will, Mike, but I got to pack the whole place up, you know. At least it’s over, love. She accepted the cash, said she didn’t ever want to see me again.’
He hung up and the phone rang again immediately. Mike swore when he heard Angela’s voice and would have slammed it down again immediately until she whispered, ‘Guns.’ He had to calm her down, as she seemed so hysterical, and eventually he pieced together what she was saying: Dolly Rawlins had bags full of weapons that belonged to Eddie Radford in the manor. She had moved them on the night they had come with the warrant.