Angela peeped in to see Dolly tucking them up. Sheena had so many teddy bears lined up there was hardly room in the bed for her. ‘I got everything you told me to get so I’ll be in my room if you want me,’ Angela whispered.
Dolly turned off the night-light — the girls were no longer afraid to sleep in the dark — and went into Angela’s room. She sat on the neatly made bed and checked all the passports. It touched her to know she really was their legal guardian.
Angela pointed to hers. ‘Me photo’s terrible. I look like I’m scared stiff.’
Dolly put them back into the envelope. ‘I’ll keep these safe, love, and not a word to anyone or they’ll all want to come on holiday with us.’
‘If anything happens to me, Angela, I want you to promise me you’ll take care of the girls. There’ll be money provided for you, I’ll see to that.’
Angela slipped her arms around Dolly. ‘Have you forgiven me?’
Dolly seemed to cringe from her embrace and Angela quickly released her. ‘Just go about your business here, love. Don’t ask me to say things I don’t mean. You’ll know when I’ve forgiven you. I need you to make up for a lot of trust you destroyed. That’s hard to forgive.’ She opened the bedroom door. ‘Put your TV on, there’s a good film. Don’t come downstairs. I’ll see to the dishes. Goodnight, love.’
Angela had never known anyone like Dolly before: she seemed so lonely and yet there was something about her that made you frightened of trying to get through that barrier, as if it would break a dam of feelings that she covered so well. And Angela began to understand how she had hurt Dolly, hurt her more than she could have imagined, because she had shown Angela a genuine affection not shown to any of the other women. She was glad they would be going away together and she would in no way jeopardize that by telling any of the others about the proposed holiday and the passports.
In turn, Dolly had kept the robbery plans secret from Angela. Forever looking ahead and pre-planning, she was already preparing for the time when she had the money and would leave England with Kathleen’s kids. It would be a long holiday, maybe Geneva or some other place in luxury, and the less Angela knew about what was going on the better. Dolly might be unforgiving but Angela was useful, and she could not help liking her, as she had from the beginning. But as well as being useful for taking care of the kids and keeping them out of the way, Angela was a good cover, and a useful weapon against Mike, should she need it.
Ester was waiting at the bottom of the stairs. ‘You’d better come in and listen to this. It’s got us all anxious.’
Dolly switched on the speaker so that they could all hear the tapes from the signal box. There was a series of phone calls from the station master to Jim. The mail train was never mentioned but something referred to as the ‘special’, due the following Thursday, was being rescheduled due to a fault with the engine. The ‘special’ would not be arriving as prearranged but at a later time and, as Jim’s second already had a previous arrangement, the station master wanted to know if Jim could do the late shift. Jim was heard to moan about his hours on and off duty, and then came the big worrying line.
‘Well, we won’t have this bloody problem for much longer. After Thursday it’ll be rerouted to another station, thank Christ.’
‘So what time is it due?’
‘Be late, Jim. Around midnight.’
Dolly replayed the last line a few times and then switched off the machine. ‘Shit. I hope that’s not what I think it is.’
Ester’s hands were on her hips. ‘You hope? Jesus Christ, what do you think we all feel? If next Thursday is the last mail train through here we’re fucked.’
Dolly was waiting for Mike at the end of the lane, sitting in the Mini estate, smoking. She saw his headlights flash once, twice, as he drew up and parked a few yards ahead of her.
The women were tired of discussing the taped phone call from the signal box. They sat wondering why Dolly had suddenly upped and left them at eleven o’clock without a word to a single one of them.
‘I’m getting sick of this,’ Ester said.
Julia yawned and stretched her arms above her head. ‘Well, she’s a secretive cow, and we all know it, but maybe it’s a good thing. We’ll never be ready by Thursday, so my guess is it’s all off and the question is what do we do next?’
‘Oh, shut up.’ Ester turned on Julia, who laughed. ‘It’s not funny, we’ve been working our butts off and for what?’
Gloria looked at her chipped nails, felt the rough skin on her hands from the horse’s reins. ‘I don’t believe it, after all we done.’
Connie pursed her lips. ‘I never believed it anyway. I mean, I’ve gone along with it, like everyone, but in my heart I never really believed we’d do it. Did you? Honestly?’
Ester glared at her. ‘For forty million quid, sweetheart, I was more than fucking thinking of it.’
‘I’m just repeating what Colin said, Mrs Rawlins. That next Thursday he’s got to be on duty so he couldn’t make dinner with me, something about having problems with the engine, so instead of being back in London he was having to do a late-night drop. He never said the time.’
‘Midnight,’ Dolly said softly and Mike stared. Dolly rolled down the window. ‘Did he say it would be the last train coming this way? Anything about rerouting it?’
Mike bit his lip, shaking his head. He then leaned over to the back seat. ‘You won’t need this, then, will you?’ He unzipped the bag. ‘Mate from Aldershot, owed me a favour.’
Dolly looked into the bag and then into his face. ‘You fancy a walk, do you? Maybe a nice quiet row across the lake? Show you where I plan to blow up the train.’
Mike thought she must be joking, but she wasn’t. He felt his bladder about to explode but he nodded and she sat back.
‘Drive to the end of the lane, we’ll walk via the woods.’
Mike explained in detail how dangerous Semtex was and gave her a diagram as to how it should be used. Dolly listened attentively, making Mike repeat himself a few times, then quietly talked herself through the procedures. He stressed over and over again that only a small amount was needed.
They walked on in silence until they came to the lakeside and gazed into the black water.
‘You’ll need money now you got no job. I might be able to get a few grand to you.’
Dolly stood still as he slowly turned to face her. ‘Can I ask you, and I want the truth, Mrs Rawlins, did you have anything to do with that diamond robbery? Did you set it up?’
She looked into his eyes and lied. ‘No, love, it was nothing to do with me. I admit I was after the diamonds but, then, who wouldn’t have been? Even your mother was after them. It was nothing to do with me.’ Mike kept staring into her face and she held his gaze. ‘I never would have put Shirley at risk. I know I’ve said things to you in the past and said things about her I shouldn’t have but, believe me, I never knew she was on that raid. It was all down to my husband. It was Harry’s doing. You think I’d have let her take the risks?’
Mike shrugged. ‘Just from what you said before, it sounded like you set it up.’
‘No, love, it was my husband. All I ever done was kill him. But that was a personal matter.’ She could feel him hesitating, and she gestured to the bridge. ‘You know how much is on that train, love, don’t you? Now do you want just a few grand in your pocket or a couple of million? Take those kids and that pretty wife of yours to live in Spain. Sunshine, sea and sand, good for kids.’