Susan and the kids left London the next day, after Mike received the formal acceptance of his resignation. It was Wednesday, and he began to wonder if he really was going to do it. Alone in the house, he started to get nervous but it was too late to back out now... He opened a bottle of vodka and had three or four mouthfuls before he calmed down. He had to rent a car, sell his own — there was a lot to get organized and it began to take his mind off just what he had got himself into. There was no getting out of it now unless he made a run for it and joined the kids and Susan in Spain. But, then, if he did that, what was he going to do with the rest of his life? The phone made him jump, his heart beating rapidly.
‘Hello, love, it’s me,’ Dolly said softly.
Mike answered, and she could tell he was having kittens just by the sound of his voice.
‘The wife and kids gone, have they?’
‘Yes, this morning.’
‘Good. Angela will be at your place Thursday with the girls.’
‘What?’ He sounded like his wife.
‘Two reasons, love. One, you got a nice alibi, just in case you’re ever questioned. She’ll be there all night and will say you was with her. And you will be — well, for part of it. She doesn’t know about the robbery, love. All I’m using her for is to give you a safe alibi if — pray to God you won’t — you need one. Might cause a bit of aggro with your wife but if nothing untoward happens, she won’t know, will she?’
‘Angela’s to stay here, in my house?’
‘Yes, love, because I don’t want her and the kids around when it goes down. Like I said, she’s not involved in this, she’s caring for the girls. Friday she’ll get the first train out and back here. You just go straight to the airport. All right, love?’
His voice was even hoarser. ‘Yes.’
There was a long pause. ‘Well, you get on with your business and keep steady and out of sight. Goodbye.’
When they drove back after their riding lesson, it became obvious that tension was building because they found it impossible to make any small talk. Only Dolly chattered on.
‘Norma home, is she?’ Dolly asked casually.
‘You know she isn’t,’ she said flatly.
‘Just checking. You got her keys still?’
Julia sighed. ‘You know I have. We’ve been over and over it, Dolly, and it’s the only place.’
Ester leaned forward from the back seat. She looked at Dolly and then Julia. ‘I don’t trust that Norma.’
Dolly paused at the level crossing as the train signals blinked. She pulled on the handbrake as the gates closed. ‘We don’t have to trust her, Ester, just use her. She’s another one. You think her friends at the nick would approve if they found out not only that she was a big dyke but fraternizing with—’
‘Shut up,’ Julia said softly.
‘It’s true, though, isn’t it? Somewhere in Norma’s head she’s getting a kick out of slobbering over you, and you know it, but you’re going to have to watch her like a hawk because when this goes down, she’ll be the first to point the finger our way. Maybe give her even more of a sexual kick.’
‘Leave it out, Dolly.’ It was Ester now, as she saw Julia’s back go rigid.
‘No, you leave it out,’ Dolly said, her mouth a tight thin line. ‘We need Norma, we’ve had Julia play her along for enough time. We got to use her place to stash the money, like we used her to get the cop’s hat and cape. Now we use her picturesque little cottage. It’s the only place close enough to us and the only place the cops are unlikely to search. She’s one of them.’
Ester gave Julia’s shoulder a squeeze. It was funny, really, Julia being such a decent woman that she did not want to involve Norma, and yet prepared to play a major part in the robbery. It really didn’t add up. She felt more love towards her in that moment than she had for a long time, and she liked it when Julia pressed herself closer, their bodies touching in an unspoken embrace.
Dolly’s beady eyes missed nothing. It was good, she thought, the pair of them backing each other up because, come the night, she reckoned Julia would need a lot of confidence, maybe even need to snort that stuff she used. Dolly knew about it — not much escaped her — but she was clever enough not to mention it.
Julia fed Helen of Troy, checked on the sacking and bags for the umpteenth time that day. When she came back, Dolly was standing at the kitchen door, throwing half-eaten sandwiches out for the birds.
‘You’re something else, you know that, Dolly Rawlins?’ Dolly brushed the crumbs from her hands and then stared at them, palms upwards. They were steady and she smiled. ‘My husband used to say that, only he always called me Doll. Funny, I hated to be called that but I used to let him, nobody else.’
‘Gloria sometimes calls you Doll, doesn’t she?’ Dolly looked up into Julia’s face. She was a handsome woman and it was as if only now it struck her just how good-looking she really was. ‘Being in prison I got called a lot of things. Got to the point I didn’t really care any more, but I used to, in the old days.’
‘Prison tough for you?’ Julia asked casually.
Dolly hesitated a moment and then folded her arms. ‘You know, I reckon there were only a few really criminal-minded women in there. Most of them were inside for petty stuff, kiting, fraud, theft, nothing big, nothing that on the outside a few quid wouldn’t have put them right. Everything comes down to money. The rest were poor cows put inside by men, men they’d done something for.’
‘That doesn’t include me,’ Julia said softly.
‘You were a junkie. That’s what put you inside.’
‘No, Dolly, I put myself inside.’
‘Because you were a junkie, your guilt put you in there. You tellin’ me you really needed to flog prescriptions? You wanted to be caught for your shame. I mean, you take how many years to qualify? Doctors when I was a kid were like high society, shown into the best room when they came round on a visit. My mum was dying on her feet but she got up, made sure the house was clean before the doctor came.’
Julia took out her tobacco stash. She began to roll a cigarette, thinking that she had never, in all the weeks she had been living with Dolly, actually talked this way with her.
‘Eight years is a long time inside that place, Julia. Maybe I met only four or five of what I’d describe as dangerous women that deserved to be locked up. The rest, they shouldn’t have been there but when most of them were released, they’d been made criminals by the system, humiliated, degraded and defemalized. Is there such a word as that? Defemalized?’
Julia said nothing, rolling a cigarette, and Dolly continued in a low unemotional voice. The few that were able to take advantage of the education sessions might go out with more than what they come in with but most of them were of below average intelligence, lot of girls couldn’t read or write, some of them didn’t even speak English. Lot of blacks copped with drugs on ’em. They was all herded in together.’
Julia licked the paper. She found it interesting. The more Dolly talked, the more fascinated she became by her. The woman they all listened to, at times were even a little afraid of, Julia guessed was poorly educated, maybe even self-taught. This was accentuated by her poor vocabulary and her East End accent, which became thicker as she tried to express herself.