She's Out (40 page)

Julia stood, staring at her, for about five minutes, and then silently left the room. She no longer felt anger, just a total lack of energy, as if she had been drained, and it was then she
remembered. Her pace quickened as she went into the bathroom. She had to lie flat on the tiled bathroom floor as she unscrewed the cheap formica surrounds of the bath, pulling them away and
reaching in, searching until she found the tin medical box. Not until she had re-screwed the panel into place did she open the old battered white box with the scratched red cross in the centre.
Slowly she opened the lid and sighed: there were the rubber tube, the hypodermic needles, the tiny packets of white cocaine and one small, screwed-up, tin-foil square of heroin.

The following morning Julia had made some lists of what items she wanted from the house. She had arranged for a local estate agent to come in and also for a home to take her mother. It was
expensive and Norma suggested they ring round a few others. ‘Nope. With the money from the house I can pay for it.’

‘Are you okay?’

‘Yes, I’m fine. Just got a lot to get sorted.’

Norma couldn’t quite understand Julia’s attitude. She had been talkative at breakfast and had been on the go since then. She simply put it down to her way of dealing with the
situation and never thought for a moment Julia was high.

She didn’t see her mother again. Norma got her ready for the ambulance. Julia refused to help when the ambulance arrived, remaining in the drawing room when they took her away. She was
still making phone calls, cancelling milk, papers, and the housekeeper.

‘She’s gone,’ Norma said sadly.

‘Okay, we can leave in about half an hour.’ Julia continued writing, calculating how much the house would be worth. As it had been remortgaged three times, there would be little or
nothing left from the sale. She was going to need money more than ever before, and if it wasn’t from the robbery, she would have to find some other means to finance her mother’s stay at
the home.

Norma did not notice her hat and cloak were missing until they left. She didn’t seem unduly worried, blaming herself for forgetting to lock the truck. ‘Probably be some kids.
It’s a wretched nuisance because I’ll have to fork out for the replacements but at least they didn’t nick the truck.’

‘Yeah, that’s good,’ Julia said, and indicated the small case she was carrying out to the car. ‘Just a couple of things I thought I’d take back with me.’

Norma started the engine. ‘Well, if you need storage space, I’ve got a huge barn, and your mother has some nice pieces of furniture, antiques.’

As they drove off, Julia didn’t look back. The house and her mother were in the past now. She was as good as dead and at least there would be no more lies. She stared out of the window.
‘Stupid woman, why? Why did she never tell me she knew?’

Norma said nothing, knowing that Julia wasn’t expecting an answer. They headed back to the manor and Norma wondered if Julia would thank her for being with her, for caring, for loving her.
‘I love you, Julia,’ she said softly.

Julia continued to gaze out of the window, wondering if Ester was missing her. Then she began to think about the train hijack and started to smile: maybe it was the drugs, maybe it was just the
thought of doing something so audacious, so, crazy that lifted her spirits.

‘Feeling a bit better?’ Norma asked.

‘Yeah, I’m feeling good, really good!’

Dolly was in a ratty mood. She had slept badly and the riding lesson had not been successful. The women bickered and argued, and without Julia they had been subjected to the
scorn of the stable girl as they attempted to canter. By the time they returned to the manor, Dolly had to face the added frustration of finding John waiting to talk to her. She was running low on
cash and he stood in her office, refusing to budge.

‘I just want to know what’s going on. If I lay the men off, I won’t get them back. You got half a roof, scaffolding up, I got cement and sand out there. I’ve laid out for
the equipment, Mrs Rawlins. I’ve kept my end of the bargain.’

‘Look, I’m sorry about this but there have been a few problems. If you give me another day or so—’

‘But you say that every time I come here.’

‘I know, but I can’t help it if people don’t pay me. It’s not that I like doing this to you.’

‘The place is unsafe, Mrs Rawlins, and you got kids running around.’

Dolly opened a drawer and took out the last of the cash from the sale of the guns. Five thousand pounds. Now she was almost cleaned out. ‘Look, do what you can. If you have to lay a few of
the men off then you have to do it but this is all I’ve got right now.’

John gritted his teeth as he counted out the money, then stashed it in his pocket. ‘Okay. At least I’ll finish the roof.’ He walked out and she could hear him banging down the
hallway. She scratched her chin. The idea of the robbery was fading fast. There was no way they could do it, not for a few months, anyway. They couldn’t manage the horses, never mind hold up
the train.

Gloria yelled from the yard for someone to get Dolly as the truck had arrived with the bags of lime. More money had to be paid over to the driver before he would even lift one
of the twenty-kilo bags down from the back of the truck. Dolly then had to pay out for the skip that she had ordered. Money was always going out and nothing was coming in.

‘What we gonna do with all this lime, then?’ Gloria asked, prodding the bag.

‘Tip it into the old cesspit.’

‘Oh, yeah? Well, who’s gonna do that?’

‘All of you. Get them out there.’

‘Bloody hell,’ moaned Gloria.

Dolly clenched her hands. ‘Just get on with it!’

Connie, Ester and Gloria changed into old clothes, big thick gloves and scarves to cover their faces, and began to slit open the bags and tip them into the pit. The lime clouded and burnt their
eyes and made their skin itch so there were further moans and groans. Julia returned, bright and breezy as she stood looking at the three figures resembling snowmen.

‘It’s not funny! You get changed and give us a hand and stop grinnin’,’ Ester snapped.

As Julia walked off, Connie called after her, the only one to ask about her mother, and Julia shouted back that it was all taken care of. Ester then hurled a sack aside and followed Julia.
‘Did that Norma stay with you?’

‘Yep, and I got her hat and cape.’ Julia held up the case cheerfully.

‘Well, you keep her away from here,’ Ester said angrily, and Julia smiled happily because Ester was obviously jealous, and went towards the house.

In the kitchen, she found Angela giving the three girls some lunch, and Dolly sitting moodily at the end of the table with her notebook open. She looked up as Julia walked in. ‘How was
your mother?’

‘Mute,’ Julia said, and then leaned close to Dolly. ‘Got the hat and cape.’

Dolly nodded, then looked to the three girls. ‘I don’t want any of you going near the big pit out at the back. If you do, you’ll get a very hard smack and you won’t be
allowed to ride Helen of Troy, do you all understand? I see one of you even close to the pit and I will make you very, very sorry.’

Their expressions were glum, and Angela poured another cup of tea for Dolly.

‘What’s in the pit?’

‘Mind your own business, Angela. Take the girls for a nice long walk up to the woods.’

Dolly didn’t touch the tea but went out to see how the others were doing. She stopped off at the stables to fetch an old thick canvas bag and walked over to the ‘snowmen’.
‘When it’s finished put this in, see how long it takes to disintegrate. Then fetch some corrugated iron. Take it off the stables roof at the back, and put it over the pit.’

Gloria saluted as if to a sergeant major but Dolly was not amused and walked off round to the front of the house.

‘Well, she doesn’t get her hands dirty, does she?’ Connie said.

Julia raked at the canvas bag. She showed it to Ester – it was disintegrating fast. ‘It works.’

‘Yeah, my gloves are rotting, my eyes are red and weeping, my skin feels like I got lice crawling all over it and you and Dolly have done bugger all to help us.’

Julia laughed, as Connie and Gloria dragged two big sheets of rusted corrugated iron towards the pit. ‘You can laugh, Julia, but we’re all knackered – we’ve even been
riding this morning.’

‘How you all doing?’ Julia asked.

Ester threw her gloves into the pit. ‘We’re bloody useless. Gloria almost fell off.’

‘I didn’t,’ Connie said proudly.

Julia slipped her arm round Connie’s shoulder. ‘That’s because you, my darling, have a good seat!’

Ester stared hard at Julia. She was in a very expansive mood – it wasn’t like her to be so tactile or amusing. ‘You been drinking with that Norma?’

‘Nope.’ Julia then single-handedly lifted one sheet of the corrugated iron to bang it down over the pit. ‘Just feeling good, Ester.’

Mike knew something was going down when he saw Craigh and Palmer having a confab in the corridor. As soon as they saw him, they turned away.

‘What’s going on?’ Mike asked pleasantly.

DCI Craigh sighed. ‘A lot, mate. Seems the ruddy estimates that bitch Rawlins sent in are now with the Super and he’s gone apeshit.’

‘Shit,’ Mike said ruefully.

‘You said it, and it’s all over us. We got to get it sorted and, Mike, don’t expect to get off with a slapped wrist because I’m not covering for you and nor is he.’
He jerked his thumb at Palmer. Palmer gave an apologetic shrug.

Mike hesitated. ‘What if I’d got a tip-off about—’

‘We don’t want any more of your fuckin’ tip-offs, we got enough problems.’ Craigh prodded Mike with his index finger. ‘You sit at your desk. This Rawlins business
has left us with a lot of aggro and there are back cases that now take precedence. But if there’s to be an internal investigation, I’m warning you, I’m not taking the
rap.’

Craigh stormed off down the corridor and Palmer looked after him, then back at Mike. ‘Super’s in with the Chief now so we just have to wait. Maybe it’ll all blow
over.’

Mike could feel the pit of his stomach churning. He felt trapped and he couldn’t see any way out of it. When he got to his desk there was a message to call Colin. Mike held the slip in his
hands, half of him wanting to come clean, to tell Craigh everything. He wanted to tell them about Angela and about his mother, but the more he thought about just how much there was to confess, the
more he freaked. He was trapped, all right, and there seemed no way out.

Mike took the pen Angela had given him out of his pocket and sucked at the end of it. Then he looked at the clock. He had another couple of hours’ work before he could skive off. Maybe the
best plan of action was to play it all out, go and see his mate again, go and talk to Rawlins, and then make the decision as to whether or not he should spill the beans.

While Angela was putting the children to bed, Dolly sat behind her desk and the women came in to see her ‘Shut the door,’ Dolly said quietly.

They lined up, sensing something was going down. Dolly tapped the desk with her pencil, flicking through the little black book. She pointed at Connie. ‘You. We have to find out if the
numbers you got from the bloke at the signal box are the coded alarms.

Connie chewed her lip and sighed. ‘How do I do that?’

‘Get in the signal box and, I dunno, switch on the alarm, see what happens.’

Gloria sat down. ‘Well, we are professional, aren’t we?’

Dolly glared at her. ‘I want you to scout around under the signal box, see where their main electrical and phone cables are, see if we can cut them off.’

‘We still going to do it, Dolly?’ Ester asked.

‘I’m thinking about it,’ she replied, as she looked through her book.

‘Well, I’m telling you we’ll never uncouple the carriage, no way. It’s too heavy.’

‘Get some bleedin’ Semtex and blow the fuckin’ thing,’ Gloria snarled.

Dolly directed the pencil at Gloria. ‘Eh! Shut it, I’m giving out the instructions, not you. And where do you get Semtex from, just as a matter of interest?’

‘I dunno. It was just a suggestion,’ Gloria said.

‘Thank you for that,’ Dolly said sarcastically.

‘We’re never gonna do it,’ Ester said.

‘Have you sorted out that tape business?’

‘When have I had the time?’ Ester said.

‘You do that tomorrow.’

Dolly ran her fingers through her hair, then leaned on the desk. ‘We got to start riding better.’

They all groaned. Dolly took out the pen and opened it, slipping in the small batteries. ‘Connie, give this to the bloke in the signal box. This transmitter you place somewhere inside the
box. The tail wire, make sure it hangs loose so we get a clear reception. Shove it on a shelf or somethin’. Shouldn’t be too hard, it’s only just bigger than a matchbox.
I’ve got one under the signal box already but the batteries need changing.

‘We got anything from the signal box?’

Julia snorted. ‘Yeah, we know when they eat, fart and go home.’

Dolly was surprised at Julia – she wasn’t usually so crude. ‘What’s the matter with you?’

Julia wiped her nose on her sleeve. ‘Got a bit of a cold coming on. Apart from that I’m fine. How are you?’

Dolly raised an eyebrow. ‘I’m fine, Julia, but we don’t want you in bed sick if we got to ride with you.’

Ester propped herself on the desk. ‘Dolly, when are we gonna be told just how we go about the whole thing? I mean, you’re a great one for giving orders but we don’t really know
what we’re doing all this for.’

‘I’ll tell you when I’m ready or when I think you’re ready.’

‘Oh, fine, yes, ma’am, two bags full, ma’am.’

Dolly’s face was frightening, but she didn’t blast off, she just said calmly, ‘Yes, it will be fine, Ester, but I’m paying out and I don’t want any stupid mistakes,
like driving round in a stolen car. Like blokes coming here to slap you or any one of us around.’

‘Okay, okay, we’ve been over that.’

‘And we’ll go over and over it until I’m satisfied. Now get on with what you have to do, all of you.’

Julia sniffed and looked at Ester. ‘What do you want us to do?’