Gloria was looking out of the window as a stern-faced Dolly marched up the path. Well, the church has certainly done wonders for her! She looks ready for two rounds with Mike Tyson.’
The door banged shut and promptly banged open again because of the damaged lock. The drawing-room door was thrown wide and the women faced Dolly. She hurled her handbag on to the sofa and threw off her coat.
‘Something wrong?’ Ester asked innocently.
‘Oh, yes, you can say that again. Now I know why they turned me down. They only came here and found the lot of you bollock-naked in the sauna.’
‘Oh, come on, we weren’t all naked, Dolly.’
‘You, Julia, shut your mouth because you and that bitch over there were, and I quote, “in an obvious sexual embrace”. I presume before you turned the hosepipe on the governor of the board.’
They couldn’t make any excuses, not that she gave them a chance to as she paced up and down. ‘All of you knew you’d blown my chances and not one of you had the guts to tell me what you’d done. Eight years I planned this, eight years I waited and now you’ve done it. You’ve destroyed any hope I had of reversing the rejection. Well, the lot of you can pack up and piss off with Angela.’
She slammed the door so hard when she walked out that the chandelier shook dangerously.
‘Oh, bloody hell,’ muttered Gloria. ‘I knew it’d come out. How do we get round this one?’
Ester was up and heading for the door. She turned and winked. ‘Leave it to me.’
Dolly crashed the kettle on to the Aga as Ester walked in with her hands up as if held at gun-point. ‘Just let me tell you something, okay? Don’t shoot.’
Dolly was not amused. She threw tea-bags into the pot.
‘Listen, Dolly. There may, just may, be a way round this.’
‘Like what? You’ve blown it, all of you.’
‘No, no, just listen. That bloke who came with them, beaky-nosed, bald fella with a few hairs over the top of his head.’
‘Mr Crow. He’s chairman of the board.’
‘Ah, crow by name, crow by nature. Well, Dolly, I recognized him and maybe one of the reasons why the board turned you down, or he did, was because—’
‘You were all naked in the sauna!’
‘No. He used to be a regular. What you can do is pay him a private visit. Maybe he can do something for you. I’m sure he wouldn’t want that known, would he?’
Dolly put her head in her hands. ‘He was one of your clients?’
‘Yeah. Work him over, Dolly. You can do it — or at least try it.’
Mike was watching TV when the phone rang. He watched Susan jump up to answer it, making no effort to take it himself. He was sick and tired of being monitored.
Susan called from the hall. ‘She wants to speak to you.’
He didn’t know if she was referring to Angela or his mother. ‘Who is it?’
‘She said her name was Dolly Rawlins.’
Mike was half out of his seat when he fell back, his face drained of colour.
‘Mike? She said it’s important.’
Audrey was booked on the first flight to Spain on Monday morning, her third attempt to leave. She opened the door to Mike, all smiles, thinking he had called to say goodbye, but one look at his face made her step back, afraid.
‘What’s happened?’
She shut the door. He walked into the living room and flopped on to the sofa.
‘Dolly Rawlins just called my house.’
‘Oh God.’
‘She just wanted me to know that she knows about my involvement with the diamonds, with everything.’
‘What will she do?’
‘I don’t know but I’m in deep shit because if she goes to my governor, I’ll be arrested. So will you.’
‘She wouldn’t do that. It’d implicate her.’
‘I know. That’s what I’m banking on.’
‘What do we do?’
Mike sank lower into the sofa cushions. ‘Well, maybe you should leave anyway.’
She went to him and put her arms around him. ‘Come with me, love, you and the kids and Susan. We just up and run for it.’
He pushed her away. ‘I can’t do that.’
‘Why not?’
‘I can’t do anything that’ll throw any suspicion on me. Can’t you see? Don’t you understand? I’ll just have to wait, see what she wants.’
‘Maybe she won’t want anything.’
Mike looked at his mother contemptuously. ‘Bullshit. She’ll want something, question is what?’
Audrey broke down and sobbed. ‘It’s not fair, is it? Some people get away with murder. You know she killed that poor Jimmy Donaldson, just as she as good as killed our Shirley.’
Mike swung round and grabbed his mother’s arm. ‘I don’t want to hear her name again. If it wasn’t for Shirley I’d never have got into this mess. I mean it, Mum! And I don’t want to see or hear from you either. You got me involved in this, Mum, and I got to get myself out of it so leave, go away, get the hell out of my sight.’
He was almost at the car when he stopped and leaned against a brick wall. He started to cry — he couldn’t stop the tears. He hadn’t meant to say all that about Shirley. He sniffed, wiped his face with the back of his hand, then forced himself to get angry.
She was to blame, whatever way he looked at it, whatever guilt he felt. She’d married that cheap villain Terry Miller, she... Shirley was dead and buried, he had to get his life sorted, he had to straighten out. He was losing it, he was blowing everything that was important to him and if he didn’t get hold of himself there was no one else to prop him up.
By the time he got into his car he was calmer and in control. He didn’t look back to the lit-up window of his mother’s flat. He truthfully never wanted to see her again.
Audrey was all packed. She’d earmarked a few items for shipping out but now she was taking down the little personal items, the photographs from the gilt mirror above the mantel. She read her younger son Gregg’s last postcard, looked at the stupid kittens, and sighed. Well, he’d just have to ask around for where she was, they would tell him down the market. She tossed the card into the trash can. She didn’t have the energy to worry about Gregg, or anyone but herself. Now she could even blame Dolly Rawlins for her son walking out on her. Everything was Dolly Rawlins’s fault and Audrey, in a fit of rage, cursed. But then she straightened herself out: she’d be in Spain this time tomorrow, with a villa and a few quid in the bank. At least she’d beaten that bitch over the money. At least she had something to show for poor Shirley. She turned towards the sideboard as if to confirm everything was all right but she’d packed Shirley’s photograph, there was nothing there, no sweet, smiling, beautiful Shirley. Audrey felt the tears, not of anger or fury or revenge: the tears were tinged with guilt because she knew she had thought about and cared more for Shirley after she was dead than when she was alive.
Chapter 12
Dolly was directed to sit on a row of chairs in the draughty town hall corridor. Mr Crow’s secretary walked out of his office. She didn’t even glance in Dolly’s direction. Dolly stood up, watched the squat-legged woman disappear, carrying a thick file. She reckoned she’d at least have a few moments so she tapped and entered Mr Crow’s office. She was through with waiting.
Mr Crow looked up, frowning when he saw her close his door. ‘Mrs Rawlins, did my secretary tell you—’ He was interrupted.
‘Yes, she said I could have a few moments. It won’t take any longer.’
He pursed his lips and folded his hands together, priestlike. ‘I am a very busy man.’
‘I’m busy too but, like I said, this won’t take a moment. I’ve come about the letter.’
‘Mrs Rawlins, the decision was unanimous. Obviously you can take private action if you wish, that is entirely up to you, but as far as I am concerned I do not at this stage feel you would be advised to proceed.’