As Shirley entered Dolly’s bedroom, the smell of burning was still in the air, although there was no sign of fire or anything burned. The contents of the dressing table still lay scattered across the bedroom floor where Dolly had thrown them. A bottle of nail varnish had smashed against the wall near the wardrobe and the deep plum colored contents had slowly seeped out and onto the cream carpet. Shirley was shocked to see such a mess in an otherwise pristine house and blamed it on one of Dolly’s meltdowns. Searching the drawers of the dressing table, she eventually found Dolly’s dark glasses and was about the leave when she noticed a stray scrap of material on the carpet. She slowly opened the wardrobe door and gasped. There wasn’t a single article of clothing in Harry’s wardrobe that hadn’t been cut to shreds. Even his shoes were slashed or stained with a rainbow of nail varnish colors. How tormented Dolly must have been to be so destructive and how strong she must have been to hide it all morning. Shirley realized that there was much more going on inside Dolly Rawlins than she could never imagine.
Back in the lounge, Dolly handed Audrey her own tatty coat and woolly boots. ‘Stick them in the boot of the Merc,’ Dolly instructed.
‘I might have to wear the boots, actually. I’m no good on the clutch in high heels.’
‘There is no clutch,’ Dolly replied. ‘The Merc’s an automatic.’
‘A what?’
Oh, God, thought Dolly. I’ll have to give the stupid woman a crash course in how to drive! ‘Come through to the garage. I’ll show you.’ She was being as patient as possible, considering that it was now almost 4:30 a.m. and they sun would be up soon.
Audrey got into the driver’s seat and Dolly explained the two pedals and shift stick. Dolly could see that Audrey was getting her left and right mixed up, so she punched her hard in the left thigh. ‘Don’t use the leg that hurts, all right, love?’
They headed back into the house, where Shirley handed her mum the dark glasses to complete her disguise. Audrey took some deep breaths; this was the most exciting thing she’d ever been asked to do.
‘Well,’ she said to Shirley. ‘Have a nice time away. And I suppose I’ll see you when you get back.’ Audrey leaned forward to kiss Shirley on the cheek, but Shirley grabbed her and hugged her tight.
‘Bye, Mum,’ Shirley whispered.
‘Come on. We got to go.’ Dolly didn’t want Audrey to start thinking there was something wrong.
‘I love you’ Shirley added, turning quickly away from her mum. She went out of the front door to open the garage doors from the outside, so Eddie could see her.
Audrey put the Merc into reverse and started to back it down the drive. Shirley waved from the front door step. ‘See you later, Dolly,’ she called and started to close the garage doors. A nervous Audrey put her foot down a bit too hard on the accelerator and the car lurched backward at speed into the road. Audrey hit the brake and turned the wheel at the same time. The car screeched: the rear wheels skidded off to the right and in a panic Audrey slammed it into drive. It lurched forward and took off at high speed down the wrong side of the road, but Audrey soon righted herself and off she went.
Eddie had watched all of this unfold. As soon as Dolly’s Merc fired up, Eddie had started the Granada. It was unusual for her to kangaroo down the road as clumsily as she did, but Eddie figured that she was in a hurry. Maybe she’s cracking up, he thought. If so, then taking the money from her would be like taking candy from a baby. Eddie smiled to himself as he thought about all the money he, Bill and Harry would end up with. ‘Stupid bitch,’ he muttered as he took off after Dolly’s Merc. ‘You done all that hard work for nothing. Cos now we’re coming for you, Dolly Rawlins.’
From the living room, Shirley watched Eddie’s car turn the corner. Behind her, Dolly stood, all ready to go, holding the two suitcases.
‘He’s gone.’ Shirley took one suitcase from Dolly and they both headed for the front door.
‘Come on then, Shirl — move it. The way your mum drives, we might not have as long as we need.’
Dolly and Shirley ran as fast as they could down the road toward the cul-de-sac where Shirley’s Mini Estate was parked up. Shirley’s ankle was still bruised and every step was agony. ‘You still there?’ Dolly shouted back without looking.
‘I’m right behind you,’ Shirley replied, battling through the pain. Then the adrenalin started to take effect and Shirley found her stride, closing the gap between her and Dolly. When they reached the car, they threw the two identical cases into the boot on top of Shirley’s suitcase.
Shirley bent down by the driver’s seat and reached underneath to find the keys. Dolly impatiently tapped the roof of the car with her hand.
‘Come on, darlin’,’ Dolly said. ‘Your mum’ll probably have crashed by now and Eddie will have figured out that she ain’t me.’
‘I can’t find—’ Shirley froze. ‘What would he do to her?’
Dolly realized her joke was a mistake. ‘Nothing, Shirl, I promise. He’s a coward.’
‘That’s not what you called him earlier,’ Shirley replied, still searching for the keys. ‘You said he was a runt who slaps women and kills dogs. Well, she’s a woman, Dolly, and if he lays one finger on her...’ Shirley stood up with the car keys in her hand.
Dolly took the keys and spoke gently. ‘I know love... you’ll kill him.’
Shirley stared at Dolly. Strong and fixed. ‘No, Dolly,’ she said. ‘Not him.’
Shirley walked round to the passenger door, leaving Dolly staring into space. She’d probably lost Shirley completely now. Dolly had used Audrey and Greg to get what she wanted. What she needed. Greg could have ended up in prison and Audrey could still end up dead. Shirley, the girl who had once looked at her like a mother, hated her.
But Dolly would make it right. Once they were safe, she would make it right.
Chapter 37
Alice knew she could get into trouble if she got caught, possibly even lose her job, but she was doing it because George Resnick had asked her to.
She’d been in the office since 6 a.m.; no other admin staff were about this early to see what she was up to. Picking up the files and the neatly typed notes from her desk, she put them all into a plastic bag, hurried off down the corridor and out of the station. None of the night shift officers gave her a second look as she passed them.
As arranged, Resnick was waiting for Alice in the greasy spoon round the corner. He was slurping on a coffee and eating a sausage and egg sandwich covered in HP sauce when she arrived. He waved to the waitress as Alice sat down. ‘Nice to see you, girl.’ He smiled, showing little bits of sausage skin between his teeth.
‘And you, sir,’ Alice replied, eyeing the brown sauce dribbling down Resnick’s fingers. If he got any of that on the files, everyone would know exactly who’d been handling them. Resnick was forever spilling things on important paperwork and all his files had been decorated with coffee rings from his dirty mug.
The waitress brought a pot of tea to Alice and Resnick beamed. Alice hated tea, but she accepted it with thanks: it was rare that Resnick bought anyone anything. She got up and collected a pile of napkins from the counter and handed them to Resnick, waiting until he’d obediently wiped his mucky hands before handing him the first file. Then she gave him a summary of the most important bits of information.
‘You won’t find much there about Jimmy Nunn. He’s got no criminal record so I got everything from the Social. He’d had high hopes of being a racing driver, and he’s got two traffic convictions for reckless driving and speeding. Married to Trudie, one child aged six months. Receiving Child Benefit, non-taxpayer, unemployed for two years and, according to the dole office, he hasn’t claimed for the past two months.’