Free She's Out by Lynda La Plante

I will be.’
    ‘I hope for your sake you’ll get them. I love you, Ester.’
    Ester was already walking out of the room. She didn’t hear or if she did she pretended not to. Alone, Julia looked round the old, ornate, once magnificent room. Maybe Dolly would be taken
in if she didn’t look too carefully, if she didn’t see the cracks, if she believed Ester was her friend, that all of them were her friends. Julia sighed. In some ways she felt sorry for
Dolly Rawlins because she was walking into a snake pit and she was ashamed to be a part of it.
    The candles threw shadows on the wall and she raised her hand to make a silhouette of a bird flying, flapping its wings. Dolly Rawlins’s first day of freedom in eight years. Julia watched
the shadow bird flutter and then broke the shadow as she moved her hands away from the candle. Ester had planned this evening carefully, each one of them chosen because they were desperate, herself
included. She was desperate not to lose Ester, desperate to safeguard the lies she had told her ailing elderly mother, lies she had spun round her arrest and prison sentence. Julia’s mother
never knew her daughter the doctor was an ex-drug addict, that she had been struck off and that for the last four years she had been in prison. She had arranged an elaborate charade via friends who
passed Julia’s letters written in Holloway to look as if they were sent from around the world. Julia’s mother never suspected, never knew her daughter’s double life, just as she
had no notion that her daughter could or would be deeply in love with another woman. It was beyond her comprehension, and Julia was determined her mother would never know. Keeping up the pretence
had taken money, and still took every penny she could lay hands on, as she paid all her mother’s bills. Julia, too, although she hated to admit it, needed those diamonds but, unlike the
others, she was ashamed to acknowledge the awful con they were all about to begin on Dolly Rawlins.

Chapter 3
    J immy Donaldon’s wife had been informed that her husband was returning home on a ‘special leave’ from prison. She was asked not
to mention the visit to anyone and to remain in the house until he was brought home. When he did arrive, in the company of two plainclothes officers, they had only one or two moments alone before
he was taken into their sitting room. One officer placed a tape recorder and bugging device on their telephone in the hope that Dolly Rawlins would make contact. The small antique shop was already
being searched. DCI Craigh arranged for a rota of officers to remain in the house and to keep an eye on Jimmy. Mike Withey was to take the following morning shift: he couldn’t wait to see his
mother and tell her of the developments that had moved faster than he could have anticipated.
    At the same time Dolly Rawlins was about to arrive at Grange Manor House. The women had all changed into cocktail dresses. Ester had laid out one of her own dresses for Dolly
to change into and as she saw the headlamps of the Corniche turning into the driveway, she gave hurried orders for the women to remain in the dining room and stay silent. Next she briefed Angela
that when the doorbell rang she was to open the front door and welcome Dolly into the house. Ester would then make her appearance.
    Dolly stepped out of the car. She looked around in confusion and felt unsure, even more so than she’d been when driving down the dark, potholed lane leading to the house. The massive manor
looked daunting but in the shadows it was difficult to detect its run-down, neglected grounds. The chauffeur guided her towards the front steps. She stopped.
    ‘Are you staying?’
    ‘If you would like me to, Mrs Rawlins. It’s entirely up to you.’ He rang the bell. Some of the stained glass was broken in the panels but the steps had been swept and Dolly
wasn’t paying much attention; she was feeling edgy.
    Angela opened the door, wearing a neat