She's Out

by Lynda La Plante

  Chapter 3

  Jimmy Donaldson’s wife had been informed that her husband was returning home on a “special leave” from prison. She was asked not to mention the visit to anyone and to remain in the house until he was brought home. When he did arrive, in the company of two plainclothes officers, they had only one or two moments alone before he was taken into their sitting room. One officer placed a tape recorder and bugging device on their telephone in the hope that Dolly Rawlins made contact. The small antique shop was already being searched. DCI Craigh arranged for a rota of officers to remain in the house and keep an eye on Jimmy. Mike Withey was to take the following morning shift. Mike couldn’t wait to see his mother and tell her what was happening.

  At the same time Dolly Rawlins was about to arrive at Grange Manor House. The women had all changed into cocktail dresses. Ester had laid out one of her own dresses for Dolly to change into and, as she saw the headlamps of the Corniche turning into the driveway, she gave hurried orders for the women to remain in the dining room and stay silent. Next she briefed Angela that when the doorbell rang she was to open the front door and welcome Dolly into the house. Ester would then make her appearance.

  Dolly stepped out of the car. She looked around, feeling unsure, even more so than when she’d been driving down the dark, potholed lane leading to the house. Now that she was here, it was difficult to see what state it was in. The chauffeur guided her toward the front steps. She stopped.

  “Are you staying?”

  “If you would like me to, Mrs. Rawlins. It’s entirely up to you.” He rang the bell. Some of the stained glass was broken but Dolly wasn’t paying much attention; she was feeling edgy.

  Angela opened the door, wearing a neat black dress and white apron.

  “Good evening, Mrs. Rawlins. Welcome to the Grange.”

  Dolly hesitated and then saw Ester, elegant as ever, standing with her arms wide. “Dolly. Come on in.”

  She walked into the hall.

  “What’s going on?”

  “It’s a welcome-out party for you. All your old mates, Dolly, from Holloway.”

  She watched as Angela closed the door, taking Dolly’s small case from the chauffeur, and then Ester embraced her warmly, kissing her on both cheeks.

  “Come on, let me show you around. You’ll want a bath, won’t you?”

  Dolly looked at the banks of flickering candles, still nonplussed as Ester guided her up the stairs. She stopped. “Why are you doing this?”

  Ester continued up the stairs. “We all know what it feels like, coming out to nothing and no one, Dolly. We wanted to make sure you got a special party, to sort of start you off in the right direction.”

  Dolly followed Ester up the stairs, impressed by the state of the house, then the clean room with the black lace dress laid out on the bed. There were stockings and clean underwear, even a couple of pairs of high-heeled shoes.

  “You did all this for me?” Dolly said, still nonplussed.

  “It’s not a new dress but it is a Valentino. Would you like me to run a bath for you? Wash your hair?”

  Angela slipped in with Dolly’s suitcase and placed it by the bed. She was out again before Dolly could say a word. “Who’s that?”

  “Oh, she’s just a kid that used to work for me.”

  “A tart, is she?”

  “No, she’s just here to serve us so we don’t have to do anything but enjoy ourselves.”

  Dolly wandered around the room. “Who else is here?”

  Ester went into the ensuite, turned on the taps, felt the hot water—it wasn’t what you’d call hot hot—and poured in bath salts.

  “Kathleen O’Reilly, you remember her?” Ester told her the other names.

  Dolly sat on the bed. “Well, I wouldn’t call any of them friends, Ester. They all here, are they?”

  “Yes, well, I tried to get as many women as I thought you knew so it’d be a bit of a knees-up.”

  “I’m not sure what to say.”

  Ester smiled. “Just have a nice bath. I’ll go and tell them you’ll be down soon, okay?”

  Dolly slowly took off her coat, and then smiled. “Yeah, why not? I could do with a drink.”

  They all looked toward the double doors as Ester came into the dining room. “She’s getting ready, won’t be long.”

  “I hope not, I’m starving,” Gloria muttered.

  Julia lolled in her chair. “She knows who’s down here?”

  “Yes, she does,” Esther said, looking round the room. “Please don’t drink any more, Kathleen. We’ve got to work her over and if you get pissed you’ll open that yapping mouth. That goes for you too, Gloria.”

  She glanced over the table and then went to the kitchen. Angela had her feet up and was reading a magazine. “We’ll have the first course, then I’ll ring for you.”

  “Yeah, you told me that before.”

  “When she’s ready to come down, I want you to bring her in. Go up to her room when I tell you. I don’t want her wandering around.”

  “You told me that as well.”

  Ester walked out. Angela waited a moment, then followed. As soon as she saw her heading up the stairs she crept to the phone, eased it off the hook, and dialed. She waited, eyes on the dark, candlelit hallway.

  Susan was dishing up dinner and Mike answered the phone. He spoke softly and then replaced the receiver. He was smiling like he’d just been given good news.

  “Who was that?”

  “Mum. I said I’d go over later after dinner.”

  “Oh, I’d liked to have come with you. Why didn’t you tell me? I could ask the girl next door to babysit.”

  “I’m only going for a few minutes.”

  Mike sat down as Susan passed him a plate of stew. She had long blonde hair, like Mike’s sister Shirley, and was almost as pretty. Their two boys had already been put to bed and she’d half-hoped they could have an evening together.

  “Is your mum still planning to go to Spain?”

  Mike nodded, his mouth full. “Yeah, that’s why I said I’d drop in, see if she needed me to do anything.”

  “Funny time to go, isn’t it, winter?”

  Mike shrugged, forking in another mouthful. “Got some friend there with a villa, be good for her, she needs to get away.”

  “Don’t we all. It’s been ages since we had a holiday—be nice to get away.”

  “We will,” he said, eyes on the clock, wondering if they’d found the diamonds yet.

  Susan watched him: he’d been very distracted of late, moody and snapping at the kids. “Everything all right at work, is it?”

  “Yep.” He pushed the plate aside, only half finished, and wiped his mouth with a napkin. “I’ll shove off. Sooner I go, sooner I’ll be home.”

  He leaned over and kissed her forehead.

  “There’s nobody else, is there, Mike?”

  “What?”

  “It’s just I hardly have time to talk to you, you’re always out, and most weekends you’ve been on duty. If there is somebody else . . .”

  He sat down again. “There isn’t anyone else, Sue, okay? It’s been a bit heavy lately, I’ve got a lot on and . . .”

  “Yes?”

  “Well, it’s to do with Shirley. The woman Mum blames for her being killed, Dolly Rawlins, got released today, so Mum’s been a bit hysterical, you know the way she always harps on about it.”

  “Well, you can’t blame her. If one of our boys was killed I’d feel the same.”

  “I won’t be long, I promise, okay?”

  Once he’d gone, Susan tried to finish her supper but she wasn’t hungry anymore. She was sure Mike was seeing someone else—she’d even searched his suit pockets, looking for evidence. She hadn’t found anything but that didn’t prove anything because he was a detective so he wouldn’t be stupid enough to leave anything incriminating, would he? She told herself to stop it: it was just as he said, overwork, he was tired and she was reading more into his moods than she should. She pushe
d her plate away, muttering to herself. What about her moods? Nobody ever seemed concerned about her or the way she felt.

  Ester cocked her head to one side, sprayed lacquer over Dolly’s hair and stepped back. “That’s much nicer, softer round your face with a bit of a wave. So, we all set to go down?” Dolly stood up and admired herself in the wardrobe mirror. “This is a lovely frock.”

  Ester opened the bedroom door. “It was a lovely price, too, a few years back, Dolly. Come on, they’re all starving down there.”

  They walked down the stairs together, Angela waiting at the bottom.

  “No men invited, then?” Dolly asked.

  Ester laughed. “Well, we could always get the chauffeur back.”

  “Couldn’t you get the Chippendales? They’re all the rage in the nick—girls have got their posters on the walls. Good-looking lads, they do dances just for women.”

  “I know who they are, Dolly, but they’re a bit passé now. That’s always the problem in the nick. Years behind what’s going on.”

  Angela opened the dining-room doors wider and Ester stepped back to allow Dolly to walk in ahead of her.

  The women all rose to their feet and began to sing. “Good luck, God bless you . . .”

  The banks of candles, their dresses and the beautifully laid table made Dolly gasp: it seemed almost magical. The room with its ornately carved ceiling, the huge stone hearth with a blazing log fire, the women all raising their glasses in a toast.

  “To Dolly Rawlins. She’s out!”

  Dolly slowly moved from one woman to the next. Like a princess, she touched their shoulders or kissed their cheeks.

  Ester drew out the carved chair at the head of the table. “Sit down, Dolly. This is your night, one we won’t let you forget.”

  Dolly sat down, seeming near to tears. She accepted a glass of champagne and lifted it. “God bless us all.”

  In the soft firelight with the flickering candles, they looked almost surreal: six women enjoying a celebration dinner. No one caught the strange glint behind the star guest’s eyes because she was smiling, seemingly enjoying every precious moment. In reality she was waiting, knowing they wanted something, and she had a pretty good idea what it was. But she could wait. She was used to waiting.

  The officers found it difficult to search the dark, poky little antique shop. There was a lot of junk and clutter to be moved aside and Donaldson had said the diamonds were hidden in a wall recess, but by ten o’clock they still had not been found. The men decided to call it quits for the night and to start again early the following morning.

  Audrey was in her dressing gown when she opened the door to Mike. He beamed as he hugged her. “Have I got news for you.”

  She shut the door, a look of anticipation on her face.

  “She’s out, Mum, and, I know exactly where she is, and . . .”

  Audrey sat on the settee as Mike gave her all the details about what had gone down that day, ending by clapping his hands together and laughing. “Right now we got blokes searching for the diamonds, right? When they find them, we’ll have Jimmy Donaldson wired up. If she calls, and she will, she’ll go straight for them. We’ll be ready and waiting. She’s going to go right back inside, Mum, just what you wanted.”

  Audrey had gone pale. “You should have warned me, told me what you were doing.”

  “How could I? It all happened today. It was such a bloody coincidence I couldn’t believe it. First Angela—”

  “You’re not still messing around with that little tart, are you?”

  “For Chrissakes, Mum, she’s very useful. Because of her, right now I know where Dolly Rawlins is. Then I got a tip-off about Jimmy Donaldson. It was beautiful, just beautiful, I got my governor jumping around. You know there was a reward for those stones and—”

  “You got to stop this, Mike,” Audrey said sharply.

  “Why? It’s what you’ve been bleatin’ on about for the past eight years, isn’t it? Well, I’m going to have Dolly Rawlins put back inside for that robbery. She’s going to be copped for those diamonds.”

  “No, she isn’t, love.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “The diamonds.”

  “Yeah, we got blokes stripping Donaldson’s place for them.”

  “They won’t find them.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because they’re not there.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Because I took them.”

  Mike’s jaw dropped. He couldn’t take it in.

  Audrey started to cry. “When I read about Jimmy being arrested, I . . . You see, she always said I’d get a cut. I couldn’t risk him telling the police where they were.”

  “Jesus Christ, I don’t believe this.”

  “So I went round to his shop. I’ve known his wife for years and, well, she asked if I wanted a coffee, then she went round to a café to bring it back and I knew where he’d stashed them, so I took them.”

  “You’ve got them?”

  “No, I had them.”

  “So what the fuck have you done with them?”

  “Sold them.”

  Mike stood up. He was shaking. “You sold them?”

  Audrey took out a tissue and blew her nose. “Yes. God help me, I didn’t know what to do with them once I’d got them here and I was scared. I mean, they just sat there and I got more and more scared having something worth that much in the flat.”

  Mike slumped into a chair, his head in his hands. “Holy shit, you’ve really landed me in it. Who’s got them now?”

  Audrey twisted the tissue. “Well, I couldn’t really shop around, could I? I knew this dealer, Frank Richmond. He’s dodgy but I took them to him and he said he’d get what he could for them. But you know, they weren’t easy because they were still hot. Well, that’s what he said.”

  “He paid you for them?”

  “He gave me four hundred and fifty grand.”

  Mike leaned back, his eyes closed.

  “They were worth millions, I knew that, but I wasn’t gonna start pushing for more money, was I? I was desperate—I knew she’d be out, knew she’d go to Jimmy and then come here.”

  Mike jumped to his feet. “You’ve been bullshitting me, haven’t you? All that crap about Shirley. You’ve lied to me.”

  “No, I haven’t!”

  “Yes, you bloody have. This wasn’t for Shirley. It was for you, you, and now you’ve got me caught up in it.”

  Audrey sobbed as he paced up and down the room.

  “Where’s the money?” Mike demanded.

  “Well, some of it’s in my bank, some’s in a building society but the bulk of it’s in Spain.”

  “Spain?” Mike wanted to shake or slap her, he didn’t know which. “Is that why you’re going there?”

  She sniffed. “Yes. Wally Simmonds bought a villa for me.”

  Mike gaped. “A villa?”

  She nodded. “It was ever such a good buy and we did a cash deal. I’m leaving for good. I was gonna tell you when I’d sorted myself out.”

  Mike swallowed. It was getting worse by the second. He could feel the floor shifting under his feet.

  “What am I going to do, Mike?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Do you want a cup of tea?”

  He turned on her in a fury. “No, I bloody don’t. Just shut up and let me think this one out.”

  She sat snuffling as he sat with his head in his hands. Eventually he asked flatly, “Do you know anyone who could make us up some dud stones that’d look like the real things?”

  Audrey licked her lips, trying to think.

  Mike continued, “I could stash them at Donaldson’s. It could still work but we’d only have a few hours, a day maybe, to get the stuff ready. Do you know anyone?”

  “I’m sorry I’ve done this to you, love. Will you get into trouble?”

  He stared at his mother. “I could lose my fucking job—that good enough for you? Now, do you know anyone?�
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  Audrey took a worn address book from her handbag. “There’s Tommy Malin—he’s probably the best—and if we said we’d pay cash for it he might do us a favor.”

  “Us now, is it?”

  “Well, I’ll just do whatever you tell me to.” Her brain was a jumbled mess of questions. Why, why had she been so stupid? Why had she done it? Was it because she just wanted to get back at Dolly? Was that it? But there was another element: greed. Audrey wanted money. She had always wanted it but it had always been out of her reach. When she read about Jimmy’s arrest, all the waiting seemed to have been for nothing and it was her fury at being cheated that pushed her into getting the diamonds. She had not foreseen how deeply she would bring her son into it all. Somehow she had thought he’d just arrest the bitch and put her away, out of reach.

  “I’m so scared of her, Mike. I know she’ll come after me. She won’t understand what it was like having them stones in the flat, why I just had to . . .”

  Mike sighed as she started crying again. “Mum, you’re up to your neck in it, whatever excuses you make. Gimme the address book. I’ll call this fence bloke but I can only do so much. Then I gotta walk away from it—and from you if necessary.”

  They had all had a considerable amount to drink: champagne, white and red wine. The booze had eased the tension and now they were all talking freely. Kathleen, well away, was telling an elaborate story about how she found her ex-husband in bed with a lodger and how she’d locked him in a coal hole. Connie was sketching the details of her plastic surgery operations on a paper napkin. Gloria was having a heated argument with Julia about body fat. Their voices were like music to Dolly. She didn’t listen to whatever anyone was saying: it was the freedom, the roaring laughs, and the relaxed atmosphere. Ester did not drink as much as the others but watched Dolly throughout, noting how often her glass was refilled, waiting for the right moment to start a conversation about Dolly’s future arrangements.