Widows

‘No, and I’m furious that he hasn’t done a thing about clearing his office! I gave him boxes to put things in but he’s not even managed that.’ Although she was a group secretary for the CID senior officers, Resnick behaved as if she worked for him, and him alone.

‘Alice,’ Fuller said kindly. ‘What did you expect?’

Alice looked sharply at Fuller. She hated the lack of respect for Resnick, although she knew exactly what Fuller meant. Resnick was bone idle when it came to practical things; he knew that if he left something for long enough, Alice would do it for him. She’d once caught him laughing about it with one of his colleagues. ‘Why have a dog and bark yourself?’ he’d said, which had hurt her deeply, although she knew he didn’t really mean it. Resnick was lazy because she liked looking after him, not the other way round. She still defended him. ‘Well, he’s very busy, Detective Sergeant Fuller. He has no time for menial tasks.’

Fuller smiled at Alice as he left with his last box of property. ‘He’s lucky to have you, Alice. And I’m sorry that I can’t say the same for you.’

‘Do you know when you might expect him?’ Alice shouted after Fuller.

‘Don’t know! Don’t care!’ Fuller shouted back.

Alice went along the empty corridor and stood outside the cracked, Sellotape-covered door to Resnick’s office. She rattled the handle. It was, as usual, locked. The silence was shattered as the swing doors at the end of the hall banged open and Resnick appeared. As he passed the new office, he bellowed for Fuller and Andrews, and was about to bellow for Alice when he saw her waiting for him.

‘Morning, flower,’ he said, unlocking his office door and bursting into one of his coughing fits.

Resnick’s office was as shambolic as ever; he’d made no effort even to begin boxing things up. He flung his dog-eared, chewed briefcase onto his desk and picked up the phone.

‘It’s been cut off, sir,’ said Alice patiently. ‘The decorators are starting in here today and you’re supposed to have moved upstairs into the new annex office.’

Resnick banged the phone down. ‘Why didn’t you tell me?!’

Alice had in fact told him five times, but she didn’t say so.

He handed his office keys to her. ‘Don’t let anything out of your sight,’ he said, earnestly looking her straight in the eyes. He trusted her as he trusted no one else.

‘Of course,’ she replied equally gravely. And he was gone.

Alice stood amid the horrible mess that was Resnick’s professional life. If it had been anyone else’s office, she’d have delegated it to the typing pool. But not Resnick’s. He’d given her the keys to his sanctuary and she wasn’t going to let a single scrap of paper out of her sight. She sighed heavily. Why do I always let you do this to me? she thought. Resnick barged in and out of her life every day like a tornado, and every night she’d pick up whatever he left in his wake. He never listened to a thing she said, unless it was an answer to one of his questions, and she couldn’t recall how many times on leaving the office, he’d shouted: ‘Give my regards to your dad! Slip him a hot toddy — that’ll cure anything.’ Even though she’d told him a thousand times that her father was dead.

But Alice knew exactly why she ran round after Resnick, and why she would do anything for him. She’d loved him for fifteen years.

Chapter 20

Linda sat in her arcade booth, biting her nails. The throbbing music had given her a headache. She was thinking about the meeting they’d all had at the arches lock-up after the beach rehearsal. And she didn’t like how it had turned out.

They had all been on a high after the successful practice runs, but the meeting had turned sour. It had started when Bella had asked Dolly where she was going to stash the money after the raid.

‘I’m not telling you.’ Dolly had replied, quite matter of fact. ‘What you don’t know, you can’t tell. It’s as simple as that. It’ll be safe. That’s all you need to be sure of.’

‘Don’t you trust us?’ Linda had said, instantly defensive.

‘If you don’t like it, Linda, you know where the door is.’

The three of them had stood in disgruntled silence as Dolly had handed them another checklist. After the raid, each girl was to travel to Heathrow airport separately for flights to Rio. Exact times and dates would be confirmed once Dolly had met the security contact, but for now they each had instructions on how to travel to the airport and how to behave during their journey. Lastly, Dolly gave them each an envelope full of money to pay for their hotel bills.

Shirley’s face was beaming. She was both excited and frightened by what was happening. ‘Where you going before Rio, Dolly?’