Ester headed over Tower Bridge. ‘Well, I’ll split the money from the car with you. Dolly needn’t know.’
Gloria smirked. ‘You mean about it being nicked?’
‘Yeah, we just divide the cash between us.’
‘No way. She gets the lot because she’ll be on the blower to Tommy checking it out, you know her. And besides...’
‘Besides what?’
Gloria stuffed the money up her skirt, wriggling it into her panties. ‘Somebody kept those shotguns — and you never know...’
‘Never know what?’
‘Maybe she’s got something in mind? I mean, she’s pulled a couple of blinders, hasn’t she? Way I see it, let’s keep her happy, see what’s going on in that old brain of hers.’
Ester laughed. ‘Why not? In the meantime, you keep that cash warm.’
‘Better to be safe than sorry,’ Gloria said, as the wad of notes eased round her panties. ‘They got bastards holding up motors to nick handbags now, you know, in a traffic jam, and they push a gun into your face and nick your wallet. Shocking world nowadays.’
DCI Craigh, DI Palmer and Mike headed towards Grange Manor House. They were accompanied by twelve local officers from Thames Valley and they had now secured a search warrant, this time not for diamonds but weapons. Some weekend!
Julia and Dolly had carried the spare earth to the hedges and scattered it around. They were filthy dirty but the job had been done. They were just stacking the spades back into the car when they heard the wail of a siren. They froze and looked towards the lane as a police car drove past, followed by two more vehicles.
‘What was that about?’
‘I don’t know and I don’t care, just so long as they’re not coming into the cemetery,’ Dolly muttered.
Julia walked round to the driving seat. She got in and turned to Dolly.
‘Connie really owes us a big favour.’
‘She’ll pay it,’ Dolly replied as they headed out of the dark cemetery on to the lane, virtually following the convoy of police and having no idea they were on their way to search the manor.
Chapter 11
DCI Craigh gave the signal and all vehicle lights went out; no sirens as the convoy moved slowly down the drive to the manor. There were lights on. The cars stopped and six men moved quickly to the rear of the house, six more positioned themselves around the front. Craigh, accompanied by Palmer and Mike, walked up the front steps. He tapped lightly and called quietly that it was the police. Receiving no reply, he stepped back, and Palmer hit the lock on the front door. At the same time, the men at the rear of the house got a radio message to enter via the kitchen.
The sound of the forced entry echoed like thunder inside the manor. Down came the front door as the back door splintered. They let rip with the information they were police officers.
Kathleen was putting coal into a scuttle when she heard the crash and the loud voices: ‘Police! Police!’ She chucked the scuttle aside, drew open the cellar window and climbed out.
Angela almost had heart failure. She was caught midway up the stairs and started screaming in terror.
Connie was the first to return. Big John had dropped her at the manor gates. She was picked up as she walked down the drive, two uniformed officers holding her between them as they pushed her towards the front door. By now every light was turned on, the place seemed to be swarming with police and she was as terrified as Angela. She thought they were arresting her because of Lennie; Angela thought they had come for her because of James Donaldson. They were questioned, asked for their names, dates of birth, and shown the search warrant: neither said anything.
Kathleen was equally terrified and, once out of the cellar, made a run for it, heading towards the woods. Two officers gave chase. By the time she was brought back, held between the two men, she was sobbing hysterically.
Ester and Gloria drove in just as Kathleen was being escorted from the woods. Both women were asked to step out of their vehicle, place their hands on the top of the car and stand with their legs apart. Gloria was yelling her head off, demanding that a female officer search her, as Ester shouted that she wanted to know what was going on. No one answered. They were shown the warrant as DCI Craigh walked out of the house. He instructed his men to run checks on all the women.
‘What you talking about?’ Gloria demanded.
Kathleen stood by the patrol car, head bowed, still crying.
‘What you think we are? Bleedin’ IRA? I’m from East Ham, she’s from Liverpool, you got this all wrong.’ Gloria was yelling and Ester nudged her to shut up. ‘I want to go to the toilet,’ Gloria shouted.
Ester warned her again to shut up but Gloria hissed back, ‘Have you forgot I got the dough in me knickers?’
The police received information that Kathleen O’Reilly was wanted for absconding from a magistrates’ court; there was an outstanding charge of fraud against her. She was ushered into the patrol car.
As Dolly and Julia drove up to the manor, they gaped at the scene: Ester and Gloria, spread-eagled over the van, Kathleen sobbing inside the patrol car, and everywhere uniformed officers carrying big-beamed torches.
‘Shit, now what?’ Dolly exploded.
‘Will you get out of the car?’ DCI Craigh gestured for more officers to assist in searching the new arrivals.
The women were herded into the house and taken into the drawing room where Connie sat with Angela as the room was searched by a uniformed officer. Dolly looked over the search warrant and then handed it back to Craigh. ‘You mind if I brew a pot of tea?’
He shook his head. If that woman had a stash of guns inside the house she was acting very cool about it but he wasn’t about to call the men off, far from it. They would comb every inch of the house and grounds.
The dawn light came and with it better visibility. The search continued, both inside and out. The women sat drinking tea, eating sandwiches, but did not offer either to the police.
At half past eight on Sunday morning, Craigh gave up. He returned to London with Palmer and Mike. They had found nothing and all they had to show for eight hours’ work was a missing felon, Kathleen O’Reilly. At least that was something.
Dolly examined the damaged doors and banister rails. She began making up a list of damages for which she would apply to be reimbursed and she would make damned sure they paid for it through the nose. She was angry, not just because of the warrant and the search but because it was obvious they had to have had a tip-off from someone. The question was, which one of them was it? She knew they had been very lucky: a few hours earlier and they would have been caught not only with the guns but with a dead body. The women were all on edge, waiting for the police to leave. They couldn’t talk, too scared they might be overheard. By one o’clock Sunday morning the remaining police called it quits and left. As soon as the women saw them moving out, they all began to talk at once.
‘Eh! Dolly, what about Kathleen?’
‘I don’t know what to think.’
‘I would never put her in the frame for being a grass,’ Gloria said, as she hitched up her skirt.
‘Somebody is, though,’ Dolly said.
Gloria tossed the money out of her panties. There you go. I had it stashed in me drawers — about the only thing I’ve had in them for a few years.’
Dolly arched an eyebrow. ‘Don’t be crude.’
They counted the money, discussed the sale of the car and then Dolly looked at her watch. ‘Right, I’m going to have a sleep, then I’m going to church.’
They were astonished. She yawned, asking if the boiler was on as she needed a bath.