Authors: Lynda La Plante
She stayed there, wedged under it, as they threw her belongings on to the ground before they drove the Range Rover out of the car park. She moaned, feeling her ribs, her face. She then searched
for her handbag and dragged her body upright. It was agony.
When she pressed the alarm on the keys she’d taken from Rooney they lit up a brand-new Saab convertible and, as sick as she felt, she couldn’t help but smile. It was beautiful. She
was just about to drag her belongings together when she heard the lift opening. Rooney slid back the gate. ‘I’m sorry about that, Ester, but I’ve got to take the car back and if
you’ve got any sense you take that tape back to them.’
She picked up her case. ‘Thanks for the advice.’
Rooney peeled off two fifty-pound notes and tossed them towards her. Take a cab.’
She wouldn’t let him see her grovel and pick up the notes, so she stood there until the lift had disappeared, then picked up the money, wincing in pain, and opened the boot of the Saab,
tossing in her case.
‘Fuck you, Rooney.’ She got in and drove out fast, smiling.
Gloria had all the guns laid out on the kitchen table, a formidable collection, and she was in her element as she fingered them, showing them off as if they were fashion
accessories. Kathleen wouldn’t go near them but hung back, eyes popping. Julia touched the Hechler and Koch machine-gun. ‘My God! You had these stashed in the house?’
Dolly was uneasy with them but at the same time knew she was looking at hard cash. ‘What are they worth, did you say?’
‘Thirty grand at least,’ Gloria said proudly.
Dolly nodded. ‘Well, the sooner they’re out of here the better. You tell that husband of yours I want a cut, fifty per cent. If he doesn’t like it . . .’
Gloria sniggered. ‘He can’t really do a lot about it. He’s doing eighteen, Dolly.’
‘Yes, I know. Just don’t want him sending any goons round so get a contact and get rid of them – fast.’
Gloria began to roll up the shotguns in their padded cloths. She was almost tender, taking great care in replacing each one in its case. Gloria quite obviously knew what she was doing and Julia
couldn’t help but be a little impressed. ‘Can you use these?’
‘Course I can. I belong to one of the top gun clubs in the country. You got to know what you’re sellin’ or buyin’.’ She picked up a .45, showing Julia the
cartridges.
Dolly turned on her angrily. ‘Just put them away, Gloria!’
‘Right, right.’ As Dolly walked out, Gloria grinned at Julia. ‘You know, they say Hitler’s mistress never died in the bunker with him. That one, dead ringer for Eva
Braun.’
Julia smiled, and put on the kettle to brew some coffee.
Angela was sitting holding Connie’s hand. She was still scared, jumping at every creak in the house, and sprang up when Dolly walked in.
‘I’m going to bed. Julia will stay downstairs just in case he comes back but I think he’s gone.’
Connie stammered, ‘He’ll be back, Dolly. He’ll never leave me alone.’
Dolly didn’t want to hear it all over again. ‘How did he know where you were?’
Connie paused. ‘I might have mentioned it, I don’t remember.’
‘Well, then, you got nobody else to blame, have you? Goodnight, Angela love.’
Angela shut the door and went back to sit with Connie. ‘Why don’t you call the police about him?’
Connie sniffed. ‘Don’t be stupid.’
‘Well, he can’t knock you around and get away with it.’
‘No? Who’re you kidding?’ Connie wiped her nose with a sodden piece of tissue. ‘All my life I’ve been on the end of a fist. First my dad, only he did a lot more
than knock me around. My poor mum was so scared of him she used to lock herself in a cupboard. Even when she knew what he was doing, she didn’t stop him. It meant that it wasn’t
her
getting a beating and . . . Every man I’ve been with. I dunno why but I always thought Lennie was different, I really thought he loved me.’
Angela slipped her arm around Connie. ‘We’ll all look after you here.’
‘Can’t hide out here for ever though, can I? Because he’ll come back, you know, he thinks I’m his property.’ Angela was getting bored. Connie was going over and
over the same ground. ‘If I could get an agent, a decent one, I know I could make my living doing proper modelling, I know I could. I can’t do anything else.’
‘How old are you?’ asked Angela innocently, and was taken aback when Connie turned on her.
‘Mind your own fucking business.’
Ester kept her foot pressed to the floor. She hit a hundred and twenty, passing everything on the road, and then suddenly felt sick and veered over on to the hard shoulder. She
only just got out before she vomited and sat with head bent, the driver’s door open, as she waited for the dizziness to pass.
Julia saw the headlights and went to the window, wishing she had one of Gloria’s guns. But then she heard the clip-clip of high heels heading towards the back door.
Angela woke and sat up. Connie was by the window. ‘I just saw a car drive up.’
Angela listened. She heard a door open and close below. The next moment there was a light tap and Gloria appeared with a loaded shotgun. ‘Did you hear someone?’ Angela nodded.
‘Right, you lock the door and stay put. I’ll see to him.’
Gloria crept down the landing and almost blasted Dolly. ‘Cor, you give me a fright!’ she exclaimed.’
‘What you think you’re playing at? Put the gun away,’ snapped Dolly.
‘Somebody come in the house, we all heard it. Shush, listen.’ They could hear a chair scraping and then Julia talking. They inched down the stairs together, Gloria in front with the
shotgun.
Julia examined Ester’s ribs. They were cracked, she reckoned, the deep, awful bruises looking like massive purple balls.
‘I just pranged the car – steering wheel hit me,’ Ester said, gasping with pain.
Julia produced a bandage and had just begun to wind it around Ester’s midriff when the door burst open. Ester jumped out of her chair, flinching, as Dolly and Gloria marched in.
‘Oh, it’s you,’ Gloria snarled.
‘Yes. Sorry about this, Dolly. I was driving along and had a bit of an accident. Is it okay if I just stay for a night or two?’
Dolly folded her arms. ‘You had a prang? In a car? Who you kidding?’
Ester turned away her bruised face, changing the subject fast. Whose is that flash Porsche parked down the lane?’
Julia looked at Dolly, then back at Ester. ‘Our lane?’
‘Whose do you think? I passed it on my way in.’
Gloria ran upstairs to ask Connie what car Lennie drove. She was back a moment later. ‘It’s his.’
Julia helped Ester to bed and then joined Gloria and Dolly to search the grounds. This time Dolly carried the shotgun, making Gloria hold up the flashlight. They toured the stables, the
outhouses, and saw Ester’s Saab.
‘Where did she get this?’
Julia explained that Ester had told her she’d traded the Range Rover in.
‘Did she?’ Dolly said, already suspicious. But the search was uppermost in their minds. They walked together round to the front of the manor, getting more and more anxious as they
began to wonder if Lennie was hiding in the house. The beam of the flashlight moved slowly over the grounds, the overgrown bushes and hedgerows, and then swept across the swimming pool.
‘Wait! Move it back, down the deep end of the pool.’ Dolly was squinting in the darkness, trying to work out what she had seen. They walked slowly towards what looked like a bundle
of rags but as they moved closer, it was obviously the body of a man.
Lennie was lying face down, his hands floating in the stagnant water in front of him, one leg caught round some old rope.
Dolly hesitated only a moment. Already there were guns in the house, and her application for the social services ran through her mind. A body was all they needed. ‘Get him out and move
him.’
Julia stared at her. ‘Are you crazy?’
‘No. We get him out and bury him as fast as we can. It’s almost dawn.’
‘Don’t you think we should call the police?’ Julia asked.
‘No, I don’t. Get Connie and Angela – we’ll all have to help drag him out. We’ll put him in the back of Gloria’s car.’
‘I don’t think that’s a good idea,’ Julia said, and Dolly turned on her, her face like parchment in the cold night.
‘Okay. You take care of it, then.’ She stalked away in fury.
Connie was brought out, and Gloria waded into the filthy water with a hook, to move the body closer. ‘Is it him?’
Connie broke down sobbing, gasping that she didn’t do it, she never even touched him. Dolly rejoined them, standing slightly apart.
‘Well, look at the bang on his head. He must have cracked it on the side of the pool. Nobody’s accusing you of doin’ anything. Just stop howling.’ Gloria waded in deeper,
drawing the body closer to the steps.
It took three of them to drag him out of the pool. Julia pulled a big sheet of polythene from the roof of the house and they dragged the body towards it. They turned out his pockets as Gloria
drove the Mini round, and rolled the body in the polythene, then lifted it into the back of the car. ‘Now what?’ Gloria asked, bending down to check the big end of the car. ‘You
know this has only just been repaired.’ Dolly checked the time: it was almost five o’clock and the builders would be starting at seven. It didn’t give them enough time: they
couldn’t dump it in broad daylight.
‘Drive it back to the lean-to and we’ll leave it there until tomorrow night.’
‘What? In my car?’
‘Yes, Gloria, unless you can think of somewhere better,’ Dolly retorted.
By the time they returned to the house, Dolly had a pot of coffee on the stove and some toast made. They all trooped in and started to wash their hands, all suddenly quiet.
Ester walked in. ‘Everything okay?’
‘What do you think? We got her bleedin’ boyfriend stashed in the back of me car and a kitchen full of guns,’ Gloria said angrily.
Connie broke down into heaving sobs again and this time Dolly turned on her. ‘
Shut up
, all of you. Now sit down and listen.’ They sat like kids, almost grateful that she was
taking charge. ‘You, Connie, go out to his car. Here are his keys and wallet. Any money we take but burn his cards. You then drive the car back to London, go to his flat, get the log
book.’ She proceeded to give Connie directions to a garage she knew in North London. She was to sell the car, leave notes cancelling the milkman and newspapers, and make it look as if Lennie
had gone away. She was to clean the car of any fingerprints, likewise the flat, and she was then to return to the manor.
Connie nodded dumbly, not really comprehending, still so shaken that her whole body wouldn’t stop trembling. ‘Go on then, get started. Get rid of that car as soon as
possible.’
Dolly spooned sugar into her coffee. ‘Right, Julia, and you, Kathleen, go through the local papers, find out the most recent funeral, then check out the grave in the cemetery.’
‘
What
?’ Julia was about to laugh, and again she was thrown off balance by the coldness in Dolly’s eyes.
‘Best way to get rid of a body. Dig up the grave, dump him and cover it. Now Ester, that car out back. Is it hot? How did you get it?’
‘I bought it. Well, it’s on the never-never in part-exchange for the Range Rover. It’s not nicked, if that’s what you’re thinking.’
‘Gloria, you go and see Eddie. The sooner those guns are out of this place the better.’
Angela had remained silent throughout. Dolly patted her shoulder. ‘I’m sorry to get you involved in this, love, but I think we’re doing the best for all of us and with you
driving the car that took out Jimmy Donaldson, I just think the less we see of the filth the better.’
Suddenly, hearing the name of the man she had run over made Angela’s knees knock together. ‘I won’t say anything,’ she said.
Dolly frowned. ‘Well, I hope not, and that goes for everyone here.’
‘It’s nothing to do with me. I can’t help anyone in my condition and you’re the boss,’ Ester said, lisping through her bruised mouth.
Dolly turned on her. ‘Yes, I am, as long as you’re in my house – and don’t you forget it, any of you. Now I’m going to have a couple of hours’ kip.’
She walked out. They were impressed by her – and a little afraid of her coldness.
Kathleen swallowed and nudged Gloria. ‘I’m glad she’s not found out about that business down the sauna. I think she’d bloody kill us.’
T
he mini remained in the lean-to, dripping pools of water beneath its wheels. Julia and Kathleen checked the newspapers and then went to the
cemetery. Connie was already driving to London to sell the Porsche and clean Lennie’s flat. She parked it a good distance from his block, as Dolly had instructed, and set about finding the
log book. Having so much to do calmed her.
Ester stayed in bed with some aspirin. Her ribs hurt and she felt dizzy if she so much as sat up. Dolly slept, the only one of them able to do so. Gloria caught the train to London and went to
Brixton to visit Eddie.
Angela cleaned the kitchen; she was worrying herself into a panic about Jimmy Donaldson. As she tidied and cleared the dirty crockery, she saw the big bags of guns left by the kitchen
cabinet.
Mike listened impatiently to his mother fretting because she’d missed her flight so she was now rearranging her trip to Spain.
‘You got to get out soon, Mum, I mean it.’
‘I will, Mike, but I got to pack the whole place up, you know. At least it’s over, love. She accepted the cash, said she didn’t ever want to see me again.’
He hung up and the phone rang again immediately. Mike swore when he heard Angela’s voice and would have slammed it down again immediately until she whispered, ‘Guns.’ He had to
calm her down, as she seemed so hysterical, and eventually he pieced together what she was saying: Dolly Rawlins had bags full of weapons that belonged to Eddie Radford in the manor. She had moved
them on the night they had come with the warrant.
Ester walked slowly down the stairs and stopped. Angela was hunched over the telephone in the hall, acting furtively.