Ignoring her, Fuller opened the garage door, leaned forward and looked inside. As he fumbled around on the wall for a light switch, Dolly shouted, ‘Right!’ and stormed off toward the front door.
Fuller whipped round. ‘Where you going?’
‘To walk my bleedin’ dog,’ Dolly shouted. ‘If you ain’t coming right now, I’m off.’
Fuller slammed the garage door shut and paced after Dolly. ‘You’re not going anywhere other than the station, Mrs. Rawlins.’
It was Fuller who now led the way toward the front door, with Dolly in tow, still nagging and badgering him.
‘I’ve had enough of you effin’ lot! The sooner you ask your stupid questions, the sooner I can get home to me housework... you’d better be bringing me back an’ all.’
As Fuller opened the front door, he said, ‘Put the dog down, please. He’s not coming.’
Shirley had heard Fuller’s voice when he’d opened the door to the garage and, fearful of making the smallest sound, she had bit down hard on her hand, her teeth almost cutting through the skin. She lay there listening to the commotion, which had now moved outside onto the driveway.
Dolly was still shouting the odds. ‘If he’s pissed on the carpet by the time I get back, you’re getting the cleaning bill!’ she yelled. ‘And which nick we goin’ to this time?’
‘The big house,’ Fuller replied ‘Scotland Yard.’
Shirley edged out of the Merc, limped over to the garage door and peered through the tiny window, like Dolly had done not ten minutes ago. Dolly was pushed into the police car, and then they were gone. In the sudden silence, Shirley leaned against the car, her chest heaving up and down. It had been a very close call. If the officers had touched the bonnet of the Merc they would have known that Dolly had been out. Shirley’s mind raced as she replayed everything that had just happened and tried to work out what to do next. Dolly had just saved her neck by being so loud and angry and annoying with the police... in fact she might well have just sacrificed herself. What Shirley couldn’t work out was how on earth the police had got here so quickly. Why? Why had they arrested Dolly and taken her away?
Eddie Rawlins waited for the police car to leave before he inched back up into a sitting position. Bill had called earlier and told him to get his arse round to Dolly’s house and wait for her to come home. When Bill told Eddie that Dolly was doing Harry’s raid, he’d almost pissed himself laughing. ‘How the ’ell’s a bird gonna do a raid like that?’ But when Bill mentioned that she had Harry’s ledgers, with the plan all laid out for her, Eddie believed it.
As he watched the police car disappear round the corner, Eddie wondered what the hell was going on. How and why had the Old Bill turned up at Dolly’s house so quickly? What had gone wrong? Eddie scratched the stubble on his chin. He supposed it was possible that someone grassed her up, but the officers hadn’t stayed long and they certainly didn’t walk out with bags full of money. Could they possibly have missed it? Was it still in the house or somewhere else? Eddie thought hard about what to do next, but he wasn’t one for making big decisions. He could go and find a phone box and call Bill, or he could nip into Dolly’s house and see if she’d left a million quid lying round anywhere. Eddie went for the easiest option.
Shirley could hear Wolf howling for Dolly in the kitchen. As she limped inside to comfort the little dog, she heard a bubbling sound and, spinning round, saw the electric coffee percolator boiling over. God, she was jumpy! As she bent down to pick Wolf up, he turned his head sharply toward the closed kitchen door that led to the hallway and started to yap. Shirley tried to calm him, but he continued with his yap-yap-yapping at the kitchen door.
Eddie had decided to kill two birds with one stone — he’d break into Dolly’s house, take a brief look round and, whether he found anything or not, he could then call Bill from there. No need to find a phone box.
He slowly and quietly forced the French window in the living room with a jimmy and made his way straight to the kitchen in order to get to Dolly’s Merc in the garage. If Dolly had indeed just returned home from an early morning armed robbery, unless she’d dumped it somewhere on the way, this was the only place the money could be.
Eddie opened the kitchen door an inch or two to make sure Wolf knew it was him before opening it fully. Eddie knew that even the smallest dog, if frightened, could be a vicious bastard, but Wolf was yapping his welcome. Relieved, Eddie opened the door fully and was stunned to see a blonde standing over by the percolator. Panicked at being rumbled breaking into Dolly’s house, Eddie raised his hands and charged toward Shirley. She’d seen his face, and he didn’t like that.
For Shirley, it was like the moment when Tony Fisher had been about to attack her. Not this time, you bastard, she thought and, screaming like a banshee, she took an almighty swing at Eddie with her right hand.
Eddie had done a bit of sparring back in the day, with Harry. He raised his left hand to defend himself from the punch and then swung with his right at the same time, catching Shirley on the jaw. She was in such a state and her ankle was still so weak that she stumbled on her heels and fell backward at the same time as Eddie’s fist made contact, which turned it into a glancing blow rather than a full-on punch. Shirley was back at him in an instant, scratching at his eyes and kicking him with her good leg for all she was worth. Eddie grabbed her wrists hard and held her arms apart.
‘Where’s the fucking money, you bitch?’ he screamed and, releasing one hand, he slapped her hard.
At first Wolf thought it was some kind of game, and jumped up on his hind legs, yapping and wagging his tail. But the tone of anger in Eddie’s voice, followed by the slap to Shirley’s face and then her piercing scream, was enough for the little dog. He sank his teeth into Eddie’s leg. The little teeth didn’t hurt that much, but it took Eddie by surprise, and in that split second Shirley broke from his grip. As she turned toward the kitchen counter she heard Wolf let out an ear-piercing yelp.
Grabbing the coffee pot, Shirley pulled the lid off and threw the still bubbling brown liquid into Eddie’s face, aiming for his eyes. He screamed in pain as the boiling coffee burned and blistered his face and his neck. Half-blind, he turned and ran from the kitchen into the hall, crashing into a table and knocking over a vase of flowers.
Shirley heard the vase break as it hit the wooden hallway floor, then she heard the front door opening and Eddie’s heavy footsteps running off down the gravel path, followed by a car starting up then speeding away. In the eerie silence that followed, Shirley crumpled into a heap on a kitchen chair and held her head in her hands. Her jaw ached, her ankle throbbed and her head spun. She began sobbing: a mixture of fear and relief. She had no idea who the intruder was, but he was clearly after the money, which meant he must have known about the robbery. Oh — how she wished that Dolly was with her right now!
Wiping her eyes, Shirley looked round the kitchen. Coffee stains were all over the wall and even on the ceiling by the open door to the hallway, but she didn’t think that Dolly would give two hoots about any of that. Then Shirley realized — it was silent. ‘Wolf?’ she whispered. ‘Wolfie?’ She staggered to her feet. Perhaps Wolf had followed the man out into the street? But as she glanced toward the corner of the kitchen, she realized that things were far, far worse.
‘Oh no, no, no... please, God, no...’
Wolf lay motionless on the floor. Shirley knelt beside him, silently begging. Please let him be OK... She touched his little body, but there was no response. A small trickle of blood ran from Wolf’s mouth. Shirley sat on the kitchen floor next to the dead body of Dolly’s most beloved companion and cried. Stroking Wolf’s soft white fur, she realized what comfort he must have brought Dolly every time she held him in her arms. How was Dolly going to cope without him? She had no one in her life to love her now.