The three women stared at Dolly as she took a rucksack off her back and let Wolf out of it and onto the floor. He ran straight to the newly painted van and pissed up the wheel. ‘No!’ All three women shouted at once, collapsing in fits of laughter.
Dolly ignored them. They must all be very tired. She took off her jacket, lit a cigarette and started to pull out notebooks from the various pockets. Linda went to brew up some coffee, Bella went to get the chainsaw and Shirley watched her little fire burn down.
The silence was broken by Bella firing up the chainsaw and holding it aloft. It was a heavy piece of kit.
‘That’s great, Bella,’ said Dolly, admiringly. ‘When you come at them guards waving that around, they’ll definitely get out of your way. No one will know you’re not a fella. Shirley, those suits are coming along nicely and Linda — great job on the van.’
All three women smiled like children who’d just been praised by mum. None of them were quite sure why they were so proud — but it felt great.
With the saw making a racket they didn’t hear the banging on the garage door, but little Wolf started to yap, then the Alsatian from next door started to bark again. Bella turned the chainsaw off and Dolly signaled for the girls to keep quiet. Linda moved to the hidey-hole in the floor to get out a shotgun, but Bella held her back.
‘For God sake, Linda, just stay calm,’ whispered Dolly. ‘Who do think you are, Annie Get your friggin’ Gun?’
‘I handle shooters all day and night at that arcade so I know what I’m doing,’ Linda whispered back.
‘Yeah, but they fire little pellets, not bloody cartridges filled with buckshot.’
‘Shut up, the pair of you.’ Shirley hissed, as the hammering began again.
Dolly was already on the move, Wolf right by her side ready to protect if needed. She flicked the lights off, then slowly opened the small door in the main gates a few inches and peered round the gap. The girls stood grouped in the inner annex doorway, listening.
‘I’m Bill Grant,’ said the man outside. ‘I’m a friend of Harry Rawlins. I got a lock-up further down. It is Mrs. Rawlins, ain’t it?’
‘What do you want?’ said Dolly, without confirming who she was. ‘I’m very busy.’
‘Can I come in?’ Bill asked.
‘No,’ said Dolly. ‘Can’t open the door or my little dog’ll run out.’
‘That’s OK,’ Bill continued, ‘I was just wondering, what with Harry, you know, sorry about him dying by the way, but I was wondering if you’d be selling or renting the place out? Only if you are thinking about it, I wouldn’t mind first refusal.’
Dolly sniffed. ‘Thank you for your condolences,’ she said stiffly. ‘Why don’t you slip your number under the door and I’ll call you when I’ve had time to think things over?’ Shutting the door after him, she made certain that it was locked tight.
As Dolly walked slowly back to the three women, she was frowning, dragging on her ever-present cigarette. She blew out the smoke. ‘Any of you ever heard of a Bill Grant?’
They looked at each other and shrugged, following Dolly back into their inner sanctum where she picked up her notebook and stubbed the cigarette out. ‘We may have a problem,’ she said. ‘He said he was a friend of Harry’s and owns the lock-up further down. He saw me coming in and wondered if everything was OK.’
‘Why’s that a problem?’ asked Bella.
‘Harry never told anyone this was one of his places, no one. And he rented it under a false name.’ There was a silence as the implications sank in.
‘What if the Fishers sent him?’ Shirley shrieked. ‘We could be in way more trouble than we bargained for!’
Linda tried to reason with her. ‘Tony Fisher would never send someone else to put the frighteners on us. He likes getting stuck in.’
‘But what if he thought he was going to bump into Harry? Did you think of that? Harry would scare Tony off; wouldn’t he, Dolly?’
‘Hang on a second.’ Bella interrupted, playing catch-up. ‘Why would Tony Fisher think Harry — we are talking about your Harry, right, Dolly? — why would Tony Fisher think he was alive?’
Linda and Shirley both looked at Dolly.
‘Because I told Boxer that Harry survived the robbery, knowing that he’d tell the Fishers. I wanted them off our backs,’ said Dolly evenly.
‘Well, that ain’t worked out too well if that bloke was sent by Tony,’ Bella replied in her deep, authoritative voice. She didn’t take her eyes off Dolly; she could almost hear her brain mulling over all the options. ‘Who do you think sent him?’
Dolly lit another cigarette. ‘I don’t know. I’m thinking he could be the fourth man, but I’m almost certain he’s not mentioned in the ledgers. I’ll go to the bank again tomorrow and double check. And I’ll get you all some more cash as well.’
As Dolly studied the notebooks in front of her, the others looked at each other. Linda nodded at Bella as if to say: Go on then, ask her if we’re really gonna do this, but Bella didn’t. With more cash on the way, she didn’t want to rock the boat; it was the easiest money she’d made in a long time.
Dolly flicked a page on her notebook. ‘Shirl — you need to get some large wads of cotton wool dressing, something like hospital issue rolls, to pad out the overalls.’
She was so tired, she couldn’t help sounding a bit whiney. ‘Why do I always have to do the shopping?’ Shirley asked.
‘Because you’re so good at it, darlin’,’ Dolly replied quickly. ‘And we need to fill the rucksacks with something heavy. Linda, you do that.’
Bella picked up one of the bricks left piled around the lock-up. ‘Why don’t we all work on our fitness?’ she suggested.
Linda seized her opportunity. ‘We could go back to that Sanctuary place and lift proper weights there.’ She fancied a treat after all the hard work she’d been doing and the idea of that sauna thing really took her fancy now. She’d felt a whole lot braver since she started having regular sex again.
Dolly frowned. ‘I’m not talking about pissing around with little hand bars, Linda, we’ll be wearing heavy duty gear, and we got to be able to lift those rucksacks onto our back and run fast to the getaway car.’
Shirley was staring at the men’s clothing Dolly was wearing. ‘Are we all wearing boots now instead of the plimsolls I bought?’ she asked doubtfully.
‘No, the plimsolls will be fine, Shirl’,’ said Dolly.
‘I don’t mind.’ Shirley cleared her throat before she dared to continue. ‘Only, if we did wear boots instead, can I keep the plimsolls? Cos they go lovely with the new jumpsuit I bought. You know, the ones we ain’t wearing for the robbery now.’
‘Oh, they do!’ Linda eagerly agreed.
Dolly could hardly believe what she was hearing. ‘Can we get back to the bricks?’ she snapped.
‘Sorry, Dolly,’ Linda said with a sycophantic smile. She was still hoping that they could go back to the health spa at some stage. ‘How many bricks do you think we need in each rucksack?’
‘For Chrissakes, put as many as you think a million cash split into three is gonna weigh!’ Dolly was exasperated. ‘Now, can you all shut up and concentrate? We only got one crack at this robbery, and everything has to be practiced until it becomes second nature.’
She got out a map of a quarry on the outskirts of London and laid it on the work bench. ‘Harry made notes about how he used this old quarry to rehearse jobs. It’s out in the sticks and not used anymore, so it was perfect for them.’ Shirley’s eyes filled with tears, she put her hand to her mouth and started to cry. Linda put an arm round her.
‘I’m sorry. It’s nothing. Carry on, Dolly,’ said Shirley, sniffing.
‘No, come on, Shirl, if something’s wrong, tell us.’ Dolly insisted. ‘We all need to be at our strongest as the job gets closer. What’s upsetting you?’