She's Out

by Lynda La Plante

  The Chief looked hard at Craigh. “So is most of this, but we take very seriously Mrs. Rawlins’s allegations of police harassment, and we also have to take seriously her claim for ten thousand pounds’ worth of damages done to her property.”

  Craigh knew that had been at the bottom of it all, the bloody claim for damages.

  “I would now like to interview DI John Palmer. Thank you for your time, Detective Chief Inspector. That, along with a lot of money, has been wasted. I have also been discussing a backlog of work in your division that should by rights have taken priority over this entire Rawlins situation.”

  Craigh stood up and tightened the knot of his tie until it was almost throttling him. “Yes, sir.”

  Palmer took one look at Craigh’s face as he walked out and hissed, “Bad, huh?”

  Craigh nodded. “Look, it’s no good trying to cover for that prat Withey. I’m not carrying the can for this, so don’t you. They know all about his sister so just tell the truth.”

  Palmer would have liked more advice but he was asked to enter the boardroom by the WPC who had been taking notes throughout.

  Craigh looked around. “Where is he?”

  Palmer paused at the door. “He walked in about ten minutes ago, said he’d been sick.”

  Mike would be sick all right when they finished with him, Craigh thought, and he knew what the outcome of the internal inquiry would be: that one or other of them would be just that: finished. He just hoped to Christ it wasn’t going to be him.

  Half an hour later, Palmer left the boardroom. He looked even worse than Craigh had when he walked out, and he just hoped he’d not screwed himself. Mike was sitting with a plastic beaker of coffee in his hand. “How did it go?”

  Palmer gave him a wry look. He went closer before saying quietly, “They don’t know about the diamonds. Seems the big gripe is about Donaldson and that ruddy ten grand.”

  Mike exhaled and then swallowed. “What did they ask you?”

  “A lot. But, Mike, they know about your sister—I mean, I never said anything, they knew already. I know the Gov wouldn’t have told them so you—”

  Palmer was interrupted as the same female officer stepped into the room and asked for Mike. Palmer watched him follow her like a condemned man walking to the scaffold. He took off to find Craigh and compare notes.

  Mike knew it was going to be heavy but he had not anticipated the icy anger of the Chief.

  “You have abused your position as a police officer. You have used personal grievances to instigate a full-scale investigation of Mrs. Dorothy Rawlins without disclosing to your superior officer your personal connection.”

  Mike remained with his head bowed as the cold voice continued that he had not disclosed on his original papers that his sister had been married to a known criminal and had taken part in and been shot during an armed robbery. He interrupted, “She was dead, sir. I didn’t think there was any reason to put that—”

  He was silenced by a wave of the Chief’s hand. “There was every reason and you know it, so don’t try and deny it. If we had been privy to this information, it would obviously have been taken into consideration by DCI Craigh and it would have been his decision to go ahead with the investigation without you or not.”

  Mike licked his lips. “I’m sorry, sir, but I feel I should mention that both DCI Craigh and DI Palmer acted with the utmost professionalism throughout, and I apologize for misinforming them as well as for not filling in the required data on my application to join the force.”

  The Chief nodded. “You were accepted by the force because of your exemplary Army record, and the recommendation of your commanding officers. You have proved yourself a highly intelligent and dedicated officer. I do not wish to lose you but at the same time action must be taken . . .”

  Mike knew he could be up for suspension but he hadn’t bargained for the fine and return to uniform for a year. That took the wind right out of him. No way would he be back with the hard hats—not after all he’d been through. Even the job at the security company would be better than that, and probably better paid, too.

  Mike resigned there and then, and felt as though a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders. What his wife would think about it, what he would do, he didn’t give much thought to. He just wanted to get out, have a drink and go home. Both Palmer and Craigh were waiting for him, looking really twitchy. It was Mike who smiled, lifting his arms wide in a big open-handed shrug. “Well, one of us had to go and it was my decision. I’ve resigned, so how about a drink?”

  Craigh patted him on the shoulder, unable to hide his relief. “They didn’t ask you to leave, then? It wasn’t the big heave-ho?”

  “No, but the ‘back in uniform’ did it. I’m out. Just get me to the pub.”

  Palmer gave Craigh a wink. Mike had let them both off the hook.

  Ester took off her best suit and hung it in the wardrobe. She only had a little time before they were due out for the riding class so she pulled on her old jeans and a thick sweater and was just stamping into her right boot when Dolly came in. It irritated Ester that she was expected to knock if she entered Dolly’s bedroom, even her tinpot office, but Dolly just barged in.

  “Is it sorted?”

  Ester stamped into the left boot and stood straight. “Yep, it’s sorted. The tape’s back in their hot sweaty hands.”

  “You’re sure you haven’t got any more tapes up your sleeve, are you?”

  Dolly walked out before Ester could reply.

  Gloria and Connie were in the kitchen getting into their riding boots. Gloria was complaining she’d cut her fingers sewing the sacks and was pissed off that no one else seemed to be doing any work but her. Connie turned on her. “What you think I’ve been doing half the afternoon—having a laugh? Well, if you want to take over and screw for—”

  “That’s enough,” warned Dolly, pointing to the kids, and Connie glared back.

  “The leaf machine will be delivered tomorrow morning. It costs fifty-four pounds, cash on delivery, all right?” She flounced out of the kitchen as Dolly drew on a pair of leather gloves and followed her into the hall.

  “Right, we all set?” she said calmly, and walked past Ester and out of the front door.

  “I swear before God I’ll punch her straight in that smarmy arrogant face,” Ester said quietly.

  “I’ll get one in before you,” Gloria said as they left.

  Dolly was worried the stable girl was becoming suspicious, and Julia had arranged for them to take an extra lesson at a different stable. Riding unfamiliar horses, they were unsteady to begin with but soon got their confidence back. Their instructor was an older woman who spoke in a deep, theatrical, aristocratic voice, which they all kept mimicking.

  Gloria was still imitating her when they returned to the manor two hours later. They heaved themselves out of the car to Gloria’s “Walk on, come along now, walk on . . .”

  Julia galloped down from the wood and called out. They couldn’t help being impressed by the way she neatly skirted the plants, wheelbarrows and other obstacles.

  “How did it go?”

  “Oh, frightfully well,” shouted Gloria.

  Connie smiled. “We’re all joining the local hunt, don’t you know, we’re all so frightfully good.”

  Julia laughed and turned Helen of Troy toward the stables. The women followed, grouping outside the loosebox as Julia took off her saddle and carried it inside.

  “You’ve each got to learn how to clad the horses’ hoofs this evening so we might as well do it now. Practice on Helen,” Dolly said, scraping the mud off her boots.

  “Oh, absolutely, Mrs. Rawlins, that would be delightful,” Gloria said, and Dolly actually managed a small tight smile.

  Gloria had her hand under the cold-water tap; it was already swelling up. “The fuckin’ thing trod on me hand.” She showed it to Angela.

  “I wish you wouldn’t swear so much, not in front of the kids,” Angela said, peeling potatoes.

/>   “Oh fuck off,” Gloria said cheerfully.

  They were all famished after their successful riding session, and for the moment even Ester seemed more concerned with eating than with badgering Dolly about the robbery.

  “Well, this makes a nice change from pasta,” Gloria said, shoveling more potatoes onto her plate. Dolly noticed for the first time that each one of them had changed considerably. Their skins were fresher, with hardly any trace of make-up; even Gloria’s usual thick eye shadow and mascara were no longer evident and Connie hadn’t a false nail in sight. Ester retained a glimmer of her old sophistication, but still looked fitter and healthier. But were they up to the job? Dolly wondered.

  Mike could have done with some food inside him. He hadn’t eaten all day and he was soon drunker than Craigh and Palmer put together. By the time they had driven him home, he was feeling well pissed and stumbled out of the car as they parked outside his house. He leaned against the bonnet, banging it with the flat of his hand. “Thanks, see you.”

  “We’ll talk tomorrow,” Craigh said, opening the window.

  Mike stepped back. “Yeah, but I’ll be having a lie-in for a change. Goodnight.”

  They watched him stagger up his path, knocking over an empty milk bottle before fumbling his key into the lock. He lurched into the house, banging the front door closed, getting as far as the stairs before slumping down with his head in his hands, feeling sick as a dog. “Are you all right?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine.”

  Susan stared down at him from the top of the stairs. She had just had a bath and washed her hair. “Your dinner is in the oven, probably dried to a bone, but if I’d known what time you were coming home—”

  “Shut up, Sue, leave it out—just for one night.”

  Mike walked unsteadily into the kitchen and she returned to the bedroom. Well, he could just stay down there, she wasn’t going to speak to him. She locked the bedroom door, picked up the hairdryer, turned it on full blast, and opened last week’s issue of Hello! magazine. She hadn’t planned on having an early night but she would now.

  In the kitchen, Mike burned his fingers on the plate, almost dropping it, and then sat at the table, staring at the atrophied stew. He got a bottle of HP sauce and shook it, his chair scraping the floor as he got up and sat down again. He picked up his fork but suddenly couldn’t face eating. Instead he sat in a stupor, wondering what the hell he was going to do with his life, how he would pay for the mortgage, the kids’ schooling.

  “My bloody mother, she got me into this, the stupid cow,” he muttered, shoving the plate to one side.

  Ester looked at the dregs of the bottle. “Well, this is the last of the wine.”

  Dolly put her glass down, got up and opened a drawer in the desk. She took out one of the girls’ big blank-paged drawing books and a thick black felt-tipped pen. “Right, this is what I intend to do.”

  They sat in front of her, squashed onto the sofa with an air of nervous anticipation.

  “I don’t want any interruptions, not until I’ve finished, then you can ask whatever you want.”

  They all nodded, eyes fixed on the blank sheet of paper as Dolly started drawing, beginning with the manor which she marked with a big cross, and the stables, explaining how they would pick up their rides and move silently down the lane.

  She drew the railway tracks, the bridge and the lake. She then marked in red the danger cables, the areas of vulnerability. No one said a word as, slowly, her plan began to take shape. It was ridiculous, it was insane. She was not even thinking about hitting the security wagon itself. She was aiming to remove the money from the train. And not, as they had supposed, at the level crossing, but on the bridge. “Bloody hell,” Gloria muttered.

  Dolly pointed at the lines depicting the rail tracks. “These are live wires, very high voltage. There’s a narrow parapet right along the entire edge of the bridge, two good positions to cover us, and a big notice here.” She smiled. “One that says ‘High Voltage, Danger,’ but it’s big enough for one of us to hide behind. There’s another boarding here and one on the opposite side of the lake. The railings are lower so we position two of us there.” She made neat crosses and then turned the sketch round. “We’ve got to stop the train halfway across the bridge. We’ll mark out the position with fluorescent paint. I’ve paced it and I reckon we can stop it almost dead center of the bridge.” She continued in a quiet, steady voice, taking them through each stage of the raid. She drew the signal box, the electric cables, the telephone wires and, as her drawings began to take up one page after another, she became more animated, explaining how they would drop the money from the bridge, where the horses would be tethered. “Well, I think that’s nearly all of it. I need to find out if we can get one of the speedboats, and if not, we have to find one. We also need a powerful spotlight positioned here on this jetty. It’ll blind the guards but, most important, we’ll be able to see the live cables, especially Julia as she is in the most dangerous position of all, right here, up ahead of the train.” Dolly snapped the book closed and looked at the row of stunned faces. “So that’s it.”

  Ester let out a long breath. “It’s even more crazy than I thought. Actually, it’s not crazy, it’s bloody insane—no way can Julia ride her horse up onto the tracks.”

  Julia got up. “I can speak for myself, Ester.”

  Ester sprang to her feet. “But you can’t take this seriously, it’s impossible!”

  Julia looked at Dolly. “You know how much cash is on the train?”

  Dolly ripped up the drawings and threw them on the fire. “Yes. That copper found out for me.”

  “How much?” Connie asked softly.

  “Usually between thirty and forty million.”

  You could have heard a pin drop. Dolly looked at their gaping mouths and that little smile appeared again as she said, “Penny for them? Well, if none of you have anything you want to say, I’m going to make a cup of tea.” Still smiling, she went to put the kettle on.

  Julia was the first into the kitchen after Dolly. She drew out a chair and began to roll up a cigarette. “Ester’s right, you know.”

  Dolly rested her hands on the edge of the table. Her eyes were shining. “It may be crazy but it’s also brilliant. I know it could work, I know it, Julia.”

  Julia licked the cigarette paper, her eyes on Dolly. “We could all get ourselves killed, just like little Shirley Miller.”

  Dolly froze. Julia watched her eyes narrow, her hands form into tight fists.

  “So what I want to ask you, Dolly, is why? Why take such a risk?”

  “Money,” Dolly said simply.

  “No other reason?”

  “What other reason do you want? With money you can do what you like. Without it in this world you’re nothing, you don’t count.”

  Julia patted her pockets for her matches, the cigarette dangling from her lips.

  Dolly turned to the teapot. Behind her Julia struck the match, still keeping her eyes on Dolly’s back.

  “You’re sure this isn’t about Harry? You’re sure it isn’t about emulating him? I don’t want to get killed just so you can prove something to yourself, Dolly.”

  Dolly took out the milk from the fridge and put the bottle on the tray before picking it up. She stood poised, looking at Julia. “I killed him, Julia, I looked straight into his face, into his eyes, and I saw the expression on his face the second before I pulled the trigger. After doing that, nothing scares me. I’m not like my husband—I’m better, I always was. I was just very clever at always making sure he never knew it. Now, will you open the door and I’ll take the tea in. I’m sure they’ve all got a lot of questions.”

  Julia stayed in the kitchen, smoking until the thin reed of a cigarette was down to nothing but a tiny scrap of sodden paper. She then chucked it into the sink and walked out. She needed a line; she was feeling high but she wanted to get even higher. In the dark old stable, with Helen’s heavy snorting breath, Julia laid out her lines and snorted
each one, and then she licked the tiny mirror and started to laugh.

  “Oh man, if my mother could see me now!”

  Chapter 18

  Julia urged Helen of Troy forward. She scouted the area but there was no one in sight. They had arranged to have a ride before the stables opened for business, on the condition that Julia led them. It was not the first time that Sandy had allowed the women to ride solo with Julia, and none of them wanted her to see how accomplished they were becoming. They had their ride at six in the morning and after every lesson they returned the horses to the stable yard.

  Julia and Helen of Troy continued checking the area. Their breath hung in the cold air, and not until Julia was truly satisfied that it was all clear did she lift her hand with the stopwatch as a signal to the waiting Ester, who then relayed it to the others.

  The women nudged their horses forward until they formed a line over the brow of a hill, waiting for Julia to join them. Then, stopwatch at the ready, she gave the “go” signal, and they all set off at a gallop as if they were competing in the Grand National. But they weren’t racing against each other; they were trying to beat the stopwatch, each rider trying to accomplish her own specific task in the allotted time. They jumped the hedges, split up, paced their positions, re-formed and started again. Eight times they timed the ride, with Julia carefully monitoring each one, shouting instructions; any more times and they’d have risked being seen.

  The horses were stabled and the women drove back to the manor. Julia was waiting with the stopwatch. They were still out of breath, faces flushed, shirts dripping with sweat. Julia ticked off Connie for not being in her position on time and angrily told Gloria and Ester she had seen both of them almost come off and if they fell and injured themselves it would finish the whole caper. She didn’t leave Dolly out, admonishing her for holding back too long and delaying by reining in her horse.

  “Sorry, I knew I was behind.” She had to bend over as she had a stitch in her side.

  Not until they had discussed in detail the entire morning’s exercise did they sit down for breakfast, laid out by Angela. Later, Dolly took a boat out with Angela and the little girls. They rowed across the lake and ate crisps and drank lemonade on the jetty. The girls had a wonderful time and when they went off to play hide and seek with Angela, Dolly stashed the can of petrol behind the small boathouse. She shaded her eyes to look toward the bridge and saw Julia and Ester sitting on the wall at the end. She then called the girls to get back into the boat as it was time to leave.