He was half in shadow, his face caught in the moonlight. ‘What would I have to do?’
It was after two o’clock in the morning when Dolly eventually got home. She opened the front door quietly and didn’t switch on the lights, but they were not asleep and, slowly, in their dressing gowns, they all appeared on the stairs and landing.
Dolly took off her coat and hung it up, picked up the kit-bag Mike had given her and walked over to the bottom stair. She leaned on the newel post.
‘We do it Thursday. In some ways it’s probably better for all of us so late at night. If they change the route then it’ll be our only chance.’
Not one of them said a word, but Dolly could feel their fear rising. She spoke softly and yet they were so silent they could hear every word clearly. ‘We’ve got two days.’ She looked at the frightened faces, one by one. ‘Now we’ll see who’s got the bottle. Are you up for it?’
Ester was the first to say yes, the others took their time but one by one they hesitantly agreed.
‘Good.’ Dolly said it like a school-teacher and then smiled. ‘Goodnight, then.’
No one could sleep that night as it dawned on them that The Job was for real and they had only two days to go. Toilets could be heard flushing throughout the night as their nerves hit their bladders. Only Dolly’s room remained silent and dark as she slept a deep, dreamless sleep, knowing the last piece of the jigsaw was in place. Her only worry was that it might have come too late.
Angela dished up breakfast, aware of the uneasy silence round the table. She put it down to them having argued or something, but none of them felt like talking or finished their eggs and bacon apart from Dolly. She had cut up soldiers for the little girls to dip in their eggs and reprimanded Sheena for using her sleeve instead of the napkin to wipe her mouth. The others could hardly wait for the children and Angela to go on their morning ramble, eager to be left alone to discuss the robbery, but Dolly seemed more intent on making sure they had on their wellington boots, thick scarves round their necks and hats before she waved them out of the back door.
As it closed, they all started talking at once, asking one question after another, but Dolly moved past them and into the hall. ‘I need Gloria and Connie this morning.’
Ester threw down a half-eaten piece of toast. ‘That’s it? Don’t you think we should fucking talk about this?’
Dolly returned and stood, granite-faced, in the doorway. ‘We’ve talked, Ester, and we’ve been talking for months. If I still have to talk any one of you round then it’s off. You know what is to be done, each of you. Now we have to finalize the last stages.’
‘That’s what I want to frigging talk about,’ shouted Ester.
‘No, love. You’ve got your jobs. The last part is to do with Connie and Gloria, nothing to do with you. When that’s done, we’ll have a meet later this afternoon after the ride.’ Dolly left the room.
Ester glowered at Julia. ‘Christ, I’d like to throttle her.’
‘Feeling’s mutual,’ came the reply from Dolly in the hall.
Gloria looked at the sports bag as Dolly unzipped it. ‘Now, I’ve got the instructions written down. You need very little and the most important thing is to know the exact place where it’s got to go. You’ll have to have it in place on the bridge and...’
Connie felt her knees go and she slumped on the sofa. Her mouth was dry. ‘I think it’s just the time of the month. I come over a bit faint.’
Gloria paid her no attention. She was studying the diagrams and then the sports bag. ‘I never handled nothin’ like this you know, Dolly.’
‘Well, you’ll have to practise, so start doing it.’ Gloria goggled. ‘Where do I do it, for chrissakes?’ Dolly wafted her hands. ‘We got enough acres, Gloria. Just go outside and start practising. But remember you need only a small amount. It’s all written down there.’
‘Who gave you this?’ Gloria asked.
‘Mind your own business.’
‘Well, it is my fucking business because we’re dependent on him or her knowing what they’re doing for starters. I’m not playing with Lego here, you know. This is high explosives.’
Connie had tried to stand up but then fell back again. If she’d felt faint before, now she virtually passed out.
Dolly felt her head. ‘You’re not runnin’ a temperature, are you?’
Gloria picked up the bag and looked at Connie. ‘I know what it is. It’s called shittin’ yourself with nerves. You watch her, Doll, she’s a liability.’
Connie struggled up. ‘I’m not, you leave me alone, it’s my period, I always feel like this.’
Dolly gestured for Connie to join her. She had a small, high-voltage generator on the floor. ‘Right, love. You get this over to the little landing-stage on the lake. I’ll get one of the others to carry it with you and then we got to get the light fixed up and hidden.’
Connie’s legs went again and her face was ashen. ‘But do you think it’s a good i-i-idea for us to be lit up? Anyone will be able to see it for miles around and—’
‘We’re not gonna be doing a cabaret act, Connie, we want it on for no more than three minutes at the most. Then we’re out of there. It won’t last much longer — batteries’ll run down.’
Ester moved closer to Julia as they stacked the cladding bags for the horses’ hooves. She pulled away bales of straw to reveal big leather saddle-bags to be strung across the animals’ flanks. She tested one. ‘I hope these’ll hold the weight.’
There was a loud boom! and the sound of breaking glass. Both women froze and Ester peered out of the stable door. ‘What the fuck was that?’
A second boom shook the stables and Ester rushed out. Julia strode after her in a fury, almost knocking her aside. ‘I told her not to do it close to the bloody stables.’
Ester looked back at Helen of Troy. She hadn’t flinched — unlike the pair of them.
Gloria picked herself up. An old greenhouse was devastated, a gaping hole in the ground. She was covered in soil and debris and shakily holding the dustbin lid she had used as a shield.
‘Are you out of your mind?’ Julia screamed.
‘I got to fucking practise, haven’t I?’
‘Not inside a greenhouse, you idiot. Look at the glass it’s showered everywhere. You stupid bitch! You could have made the horse bolt — and you could have killed yourself.’
Gloria dusted herself down and smirked. ‘I know what I’m doing.’
‘You could have fooled me,’ Ester shouted, keeping her distance. ‘Just go further away from the house.’
Gloria yelled back that she was only doing what Dolly had told her and began to check the instructions. ‘I used too much, that’s all. It’s not like dynamite, you know.’
Dolly steamed towards them, passing them without a word. She stood with Gloria, inspecting the damage. ‘How much did you use?’
‘Not a lot,’ said Gloria. She looked ruefully at Dolly. ‘Sorry.’
Dolly opened her notebook. ‘Julia reckons we’ll need it at this point of the bridge, here and here.’
Gloria looked at Dolly’s tight, neat writing. ‘Yeah. We been over it day in day out. That’s the best spot, train still moving very slowly so it’ll get the impact.’
‘Just don’t blow the carriage up, Gloria. You do that, the money will be blown to smithereens. More important, there are three guards inside that carriage, and I don’t want anyone getting hurt.’
Gloria nodded. ‘I’ll have another go.’
Connie and Julia rowed across the lake, the boat low in the water with the weight of the lamp, the cables and the battery-operated generator. Julia did most of the rowing as Connie felt faint and couldn’t stop shaking. They dragged the boat alongside the jetty and then began to move the equipment, constantly keeping an eye open for anyone either side of the shore who might spot them. Julia wore leather gloves and told Connie off because she hadn’t put hers on. They then dusted the lamp down just in case she had left her fingerprints on it. The gear was stashed in bushes, alongside the petrol, and they headed back to the shore, Julia rowing again as Connie trained the binoculars towards the bridge.