Widows

‘For you,’ Bella said. ‘I wasn’t so sure. I didn’t even know who you were, Dolly Rawlins. You could have been some eccentric old woman grieving for her dead husband for all I knew. Keeping him alive by recreating what should have been his finest hour.’ Bella caught up with Dolly. ‘But you got me now. I’ve bought in, I’m going to give you a hundred percent and we’re actually going to steal a million pounds.’ Bella stared deep into Dolly’s eyes and gave her a smile of absolute respect. Dolly had a lot on her shoulders and Bella wanted her to know that she was there to help.

Dolly’s expression remained impassive. She gave a little nod of understanding, turned and walked back to the others. ‘Less of the “old,”’ she said over her shoulder.

Back with Linda and Shirley, Dolly got down to business.

‘Let’s get cracking. Linda, you’ll be driving the van behind the security wagon with me and Shirley in the back. The clapped-out Morris is our van for today, so just mime it through for timings.’

Linda snorted, and looked at the rusty wreck of a car. ‘Well, I wasn’t thinkin’ of racin’ it up and down the effin’ beach.’

‘Bella, you’ll be driving the blocking van up front. The one that Linda is hopefully gonna pull her finger out and get—’

Linda interrupted, ‘All right, you made your point. No need to hark on about it.’

‘You two—’ Dolly ordered Bella and Linda — ‘go and get the chainsaw and sledgehammer. Let’s see how ready we are.’

Once all the equipment was assembled and everyone was back on the beach, Dolly gathered them round for further instructions. Shirley was shaking her legs, warming up the muscles; Linda, in contrast, was perched in the bonnet of the Morris. Dolly addressed Linda first.

‘We’ll practice getting out of the car and starting up the chainsaw first of all, and trying it out on the side of the wreck—’

Before Dolly could finish, Linda butted in. ‘Bella’s doin’ the saw, Dolly. That’s Bella’s job. You just said I was drivin’ the van.’

Dolly tapped the wet sand with her welly and shook her head. ‘I’ve changed me mind,’ she said. ‘Bella drives the front van and I’ll drive the van behind.’

‘But that’s bloody stupid,’ Linda persisted. ‘Bella’s the only one of us so far that’s been able to handle the saw. I can hardly lift it... And I thought you was in the front truck doin’ the blockin’?’

Dolly sighed, clenching and unclenching her hands. ‘I’ve changed me mind!’ she repeated aggressively. ‘Once the security wagon has gone into the back of the front vehicle, Bella has to get out of the blocking van and hold the guards at bay with the shotgun while we load the cash. She’ll also have to be the last to leave. Unless I say different, that’s the position she takes. Right?’

‘Fine by me,’ Bella said impatiently, wanting to get on with it.

The rain had stopped now, and Dolly took her coat off to reveal a pink Dance Center tracksuit. Linda and Shirley bowed their heads to hide their giggles. She looked like a hideous pair of velour curtains. Linda imagined her at the Sanctuary, bouncing about in an aerobics class, sweating like a fat fluffy pink pig. Oblivious, Dolly took a stopwatch out of her pocket and handed it to Bella, then folded her coat neatly and placed it on the picnic blanket.

Following Dolly’s lead, Shirley and Linda each put a heavy rucksack on their backs. Linda tried to lift the chainsaw, but the weight of it was clearly too much for her. ‘This is a bloody waste of time,’ she muttered. ‘It’s obvious that Bella should be the one carrying the saw!’

Shirley tightened the shoulder straps on her rucksack to stop it bouncing as she ran. ‘Why don’t we just do what Dolly says and start rehearsing? We don’t know anything for sure yet.’

Bella winked at Linda and settled down on the picnic blanket to watch them run through the initial stages of the operation.

Dolly sat in the driver’s seat of the Morris, with Shirley and a stony-faced Linda in the back seat. Linda had the chainsaw on her knee, complaining about its weight.

‘OK,’ Dolly explained, ‘we’ve got four minutes from start to finish. Let’s just try timing getting out and starting the chainsaw. Ready, Bella?’

Bella gave them the thumbs up.

‘Three, two, one... GO!’ Dolly leapt out of the driver’s seat, raced to the back of the Morris and pointed Bella’s driftwood shot-gun out into the distance behind them. Shirley scrambled out of the back seat and stood by the edge of the picnic blanket, pointing her driftwood shot-gun in the direction of the security guards. And Linda... Linda was still stuck in the back seat of the Morris, smashing the chainsaw against the door frame like a dog trying to get through a door with a long stick in its mouth.

‘It’s too long to get out of the fucking door!’ Linda screamed in sheer frustration.

‘Well, you got it in there, you must be able to get it out!’ Dolly shouted back.