After helping the children to make their beds, Dolly had gone to the nursery to help feed the babies. As she entered the room, she’d been stunned breathless at the sight of a baby boy lying in the cot she had donated from her own nursery. She knew that her things were here and was delighted that they were being used, but she still found it very upsetting. One of the nuns had handed Dolly a bottle of warm milk and then, without a word, left the room.
Dolly had walked slowly toward her son’s cot and looked down at the unwanted child using it now. The nametag on the cot read, ‘Ben.’
‘Hello, Ben,’ Dolly had whispered, and the baby stretched and opened his eyes at the sound of her voice. They looked at each other for a few moments, sizing each other up and deciding that they’d no doubt get on. Dolly’s heart had jumped between two distinct feelings: sorrow at how anyone could not want Ben, and pride at knowing that she’d have been an amazing mum. Dolly had fed many babies at the convent since the loss of her own son, but this was the first time she’d leaned down into the very cot bought by Harry all those years ago and lifted out a perfect, beautiful baby boy. He lay content in her arms and, in that moment, all of Dolly’s feelings of loss connected to the past — her own and Ben’s — disappeared, and she focused only on the here and now. ‘I’m Dolly,’ she’d said testing the milk’s temperature on her wrist, ‘and I’m going to give you your breakfast.’
With the potatoes peeled, cut and boiling in a huge pan of water, Dolly fried up the mince and vegetables, thickening it with Bisto gravy granules before putting the lot into a large oven tray. She then mashed the potatoes, layered them on top of the mince and put everything into the oven to finish and crisp.
Dolly grated an entire block of cheese as she looked out of the window at the children playing in the garden. Beyond the garden fence, an unmarked police car with two bored-looking surveillance officers inside watched the convent. ‘Keep watching, boys,’ Dolly whispered to herself as she grated the cheese. ‘Cos I’m gonna do this... and I’m gonna do it right under Resnick’s nose.’
When Dolly finally left the convent after lunch, she drove to Knightsbridge and parked in the customer car park at Harrods. Entering the building through the main doors, she walked through various departments before stopping to try on a hat. While she turned this way and that, she looked in the mirror to see how close the officer tailing her was. She calculated she just had time to make it out of the corner door, onto the busy street and then down into the tube station before he’d be able to figure out exactly which way she went.
Once in the station, she bought a newspaper and then crossed to the ticket office and bought a return ticket to Leicester Square. She watched the reflections of people behind her in the ticket kiosk glass, but couldn’t see the officer who had been following her in Harrods, although she was still wary. Any one of the sea of unknown faces could be another plain-clothes waiting to pick up her tail.
After getting off the train, Dolly zigzagged her way to the bank, changing direction numerous times along the way to be absolutely certain that she wasn’t still being followed. She had stopped outside the Army and Navy Store on the Strand and done some window-shopping, but was more interested in the reflections than the goods. Once she was sure she was safe, she headed to the bank. She needed to check out the ledgers to see if Bill Grant was ever mentioned and she also needed some more money for the girls.
Shirley’s mum Audrey was frozen stiff; her feet were numb and even her fur-lined boots didn’t help in this weather. She stamped her feet and blew into her mitten-gloved hands. The bitter cold had made for poor trade so far today and she’d not sold a thing since ten o’clock. Audrey could murder a coffee, but didn’t like to keep drinking as it made her want to pee, which meant asking ‘Mushroom Features’ on the next stall to take care of hers. That meant ten pence for him, and then she’d have a hard time explaining to the greengrocer why the takings were low against the produce sold.
She tried occupying herself with people-watching and soon spotted Tony Fisher pull up in a flash-looking motor. She knew Tony of old — his mother and her mother had worked together down Covent Garden Market, before it was all cleared out and moved to Nine Elms. Last Audrey heard, Tony’s mum had a job cleaning for a big firm at the Aldwych.
She watched Tony get out the car — handsome bloke, she thought, well dressed, and the cashmere coat he had on his back must have set him back a few hundred quid. She shrugged. His poor old mother was cleaning offices and there he was, parading round like some model out of a fashion mag! She shook her head and straightened her stack of paper bags.
When she looked up again, Tony was walking directly toward her. She hid her fear and smiled at him. He nodded. Cheeky bugger’s going to demand a free apple or something most likely, thought Audrey. Although she’d known Tony all his life, she wasn’t under any illusion that this afforded her any favors; she knew his reputation. She nervously touched her woolly hat and noticed Mushroom Features flicking glances at Tony and then quickly back at her.
‘You got a problem?’ Tony asked him, pleasantly enough, and the squirt instantly turned his back on them. Audrey noticed that every other stall holder close by also took one look at Tony and then avoided eye contact. They knew trouble when they saw it.
‘Apples look nice, Audrey,’ Tony said with a beaming smile. He had been a cheeky lad when he was younger, but now there was menace to him and he was hard to read. Audrey polished and bagged an apple for him and vainly hoped that it really was all he wanted. Right now, Audrey was wishing she’d had much, much more coffee and had gone to the loo, leaving Mushroom Features to deal with Tony.
He bit into the apple and seemed pleased enough. Audrey breathed a small sigh of relief. But she knew Tony wasn’t just here for one apple.
‘Nice and sweet,’ Tony said, ‘just like your Shirley.’ Audrey’s smile disappeared in a split second. ‘Where’s she living these days?’
Audrey knew full well that the likes of Tony Fisher don’t turn up out of the blue for a friendly chat; they want something, and it’s usually something you don’t want to give. The thought of him wanting something from Shirley sent a shiver down her spine.
‘I haven’t seen her since her Terry’s funeral. Last she told me was she was going to Spain to do some modeling,’ Audrey said unconvincingly. Shirley was suddenly very flush with cash; had her baby got herself involved with the Fishers?
Tony gripped the edge of the stall. ‘I asked you where she’s living.’
‘She moves around a lot. Stays with friends — you know how it is.’
With one shove of his strong arm, Tony shook the stall so that the loosest fruit rolled off into the gutter that ran the length of the market.
‘Please don’t do that, Tony.’
‘Next shove it all goes over, and what for, eh, Aud? I just want to talk to her, that’s all.’
‘Leave her alone, eh? She’s been through so much...’
Tony noticed Audrey looking over his shoulder as she tailed off, before she gave a slight shake of her head.
‘Hi Mum, you seen that waste of space Greg about? That duff motor he got me is playing up again and I—’ As Shirley clocked Tony, the rest of her sentence stuck in her throat and the color drained from her face.
‘Hello, Shirley, how was Spain?’ Tony turned slowly and stared at her forehead with a menacing smile.
Audrey quickly jumped in. ‘I was just tellin’ Tony you’d been in Spain doing some modeling. He was askin’ where you was.’
Tony looked Shirley up and down, stopping to gawp at her tits. ‘You’re looking lovely, Shirl.’
‘Thank you,’ Shirley stuttered. She had no idea how to deal with the likes of Tony Fisher.
‘I was hoping we could go for a little chat. We’ll go to yours; it’ll be quiet there.’
Audrey jumped in again. ‘I’ll give you something to take back with you,’ she said, desperately trying to keep calm as she wrapped some carrots and handed them to Shirley, ‘She’s back with me at the moment, aren’t you, Shirl? There you go, you take those back with you. We can have them with tea. I won’t be far behind you. Not far behind you at all.’ Audrey knew that she couldn’t stop Tony from leaving the market with her daughter, but hoped beyond hope that if they went back to her house then Greg would still be there with his stupid mates.
‘What do you want to talk to me about?’ Shirley asked, nervously screwing the paper round the carrots till it ripped.
Tony grabbed her by the arm. ‘Let’s go. We can talk at your mum’s.’ He led Shirley toward his car, gripping her elbow so hard she was unable to resist.
Shirley glanced back at Audrey, who mouthed that she’d follow, but neither knew if she’d be able to follow quickly enough. The second Tony’s car pulled out of sight, Audrey threw her money belt at Mushroom Features and ran as fast as she could toward the pub, where she hoped to get a lift back to her flat. If there was no one who could help her, she’d run the whole way, fueled by the fear of what that bastard might do to her little girl.