‘It’s not funny! You get changed and give us a hand and stop grinnin’,’ Ester snapped.
As Julia walked off, Connie called after her, the only one to ask about her mother, and Julia shouted back that it was all taken care of. Ester then hurled a sack aside and followed Julia. ‘Did that Norma stay with you?’
‘Yep, and I got her hat and cape.’ Julia held up the case cheerfully.
‘Well, you keep her away from here,’ Ester said angrily, and Julia smiled happily because Ester was obviously jealous, and went towards the house.
In the kitchen, she found Angela giving the three girls some lunch, and Dolly sitting moodily at the end of the table with her notebook open. She looked up as Julia walked in. ‘How was your mother?’
‘Mute,’ Julia said, and then leaned close to Dolly. ‘Got the hat and cape.’
Dolly nodded, then looked to the three girls. ‘I don’t want any of you going near the big pit out at the back. If you do, you’ll get a very hard smack and you won’t be allowed to ride Helen of Troy, do you all understand? I see one of you even close to the pit and I will make you very, very sorry.’
Their expressions were glum, and Angela poured another cup of tea for Dolly.
‘What’s in the pit?’
‘Mind your own business, Angela. Take the girls for a nice long walk up to the woods.’
Dolly didn’t touch the tea but went out to see how the others were doing. She stopped off at the stables to fetch an old thick canvas bag and walked over to the ‘snowmen’. ‘When it’s finished put this in, see how long it takes to disintegrate. Then fetch some corrugated iron. Take it off the stables roof at the back, and put it over the pit.’
Gloria saluted as if to a sergeant major but Dolly was not amused and walked off round to the front of the house.
‘Well, she doesn’t get her hands dirty, does she?’ Connie said.
Julia raked at the canvas bag. She showed it to Ester — it was disintegrating fast. ‘It works.’
‘Yeah, my gloves are rotting, my eyes are red and weeping, my skin feels like I got lice crawling all over it and you and Dolly have done bugger all to help us.’
Julia laughed, as Connie and Gloria dragged two big sheets of rusted corrugated iron towards the pit. ‘You can laugh, Julia, but we’re all knackered — we’ve even been riding this morning.’
‘How you all doing?’ Julia asked.
Ester threw her gloves into the pit. ‘We’re bloody useless. Gloria almost fell off.’
‘I didn’t,’ Connie said proudly.
Julia slipped her arm round Connie’s shoulder. ‘That’s because you, my darling, have a good seat!’
Ester stared hard at Julia. She was in a very expansive mood — it wasn’t like her to be so tactile or amusing. ‘You been drinking with that Norma?’
‘Nope.’ Julia then single-handedly lifted one sheet of the corrugated iron to bang it down over the pit. ‘Just feeling good, Ester.’
Mike knew something was going down when he saw Craigh and Palmer having a confab in the corridor. As soon as they saw him, they turned away.
‘What’s going on?’ Mike asked pleasantly.
DCI Craigh sighed. ‘A lot, mate. Seems the ruddy estimates that bitch Rawlins sent in are now with the Super and he’s gone ape-shit.’
‘Shit,’ Mike said ruefully.
‘You said it, and it’s all over us. We got to get it sorted and, Mike, don’t expect to get off with a slapped wrist because I’m not covering for you and nor is he.’ He jerked his thumb at Palmer. Palmer gave an apologetic shrug.
Mike hesitated. ‘What if I’d got a tip-off about—’
‘We don’t want any more of your fuckin’ tip-offs, we got enough problems.’ Craigh prodded Mike with his index finger. ‘You sit at your desk. This Rawlins business has left us with a lot of aggro and there are back cases that now take precedence. But if there’s to be an internal investigation, I’m warning you, I’m not taking the rap.’
Craigh stormed off down the corridor and Palmer looked after him, then back at Mike. ‘Super’s in with the Chief now so we just have to wait. Maybe it’ll all blow over.’
Mike could feel the pit of his stomach churning. He felt trapped and he couldn’t see any way out of it. When he got to his desk there was a message to call Colin. Mike held the slip in his hands, half of him wanting to come clean, to tell Craigh everything. He wanted to tell them about Angela and about his mother, but the more he thought about just how much there was to confess, the more he freaked. He was trapped, all right, and there seemed no way out.
Mike took the pen Angela had given him out of his pocket and sucked at the end of it. Then he looked at the clock. He had another couple of hours’ work before he could skive off. Maybe the best plan of action was to play it all out, go and see his mate again, go and talk to Rawlins, and then make the decision as to whether or not he should spill the beans.
While Angela was putting the children to bed, Dolly sat behind her desk and the women came in to see her ‘Shut the door,’ Dolly said quietly.
They lined up, sensing something was going down. Dolly tapped the desk with her pencil, flicking through the little black book. She pointed at Connie. ‘You. We have to find out if the numbers you got from the bloke at the signal box are the coded alarms.
Connie chewed her lip and sighed. ‘How do I do that?’
‘Get in the signal box and, I dunno, switch on the alarm, see what happens.’
Gloria sat down. ‘Well, we are professional, aren’t we?’
Dolly glared at her. ‘I want you to scout around under the signal box, see where their main electrical and phone cables are, see if we can cut them off.’
‘We still going to do it, Dolly?’ Ester asked.
‘I’m thinking about it,’ she replied, as she looked through her book.
‘Well, I’m telling you we’ll never uncouple the carriage, no way. It’s too heavy.’
‘Get some bleedin’ Semtex and blow the fuckin’ thing,’ Gloria snarled.
Dolly directed the pencil at Gloria. ‘Eh! Shut it, I’m giving out the instructions, not you. And where do you get Semtex from, just as a matter of interest?’
‘I dunno. It was just a suggestion,’ Gloria said.
‘Thank you for that,’ Dolly said sarcastically.
‘We’re never gonna do it,’ Ester said.
‘Have you sorted out that tape business?’
‘When have I had the time?’ Ester said.
‘You do that tomorrow.’
Dolly ran her fingers through her hair, then leaned on the desk. ‘We got to start riding better.’
They all groaned. Dolly took out the pen and opened it, slipping in the small batteries. ‘Connie, give this to the bloke in the signal box. This transmitter you place somewhere inside the box. The tail wire, make sure it hangs loose so we get a clear reception. Shove it on a shelf or somethin’. Shouldn’t be too hard, it’s only just bigger than a matchbox. I’ve got one under the signal box already but the batteries need changing.
‘We got anything from the signal box?’
Julia snorted. ‘Yeah, we know when they eat, fart and go home.’
Dolly was surprised at Julia — she wasn’t usually so crude. ‘What’s the matter with you?’
Julia wiped her nose on her sleeve. ‘Got a bit of a cold coming on. Apart from that I’m fine. How are you?’
Dolly raised an eyebrow. ‘I’m fine, Julia, but we don’t want you in bed sick if we got to ride with you.’
Ester propped herself on the desk. ‘Dolly, when are we gonna be told just how we go about the whole thing? I mean, you’re a great one for giving orders but we don’t really know what we’re doing all this for.’