Chapter 95
NINETY-FIVE
Twelve red buckets, each with a label sellotaped on the front: ‘Ripton Rhinos Straw Bear collection.’ Lorna put the roll of tape away in the kitchen drawer and surveyed her handiwork.
Each of these money-collecting tubs would be held by a member of the Ripton Rhinos at various points on the straw bear route through the village.
Once the procession had passed and the villagers had followed on behind, the custodian of the bucket would bring it, full of cash, down to Heron Water, where Lorna would be waiting in her car.
They would hand it over and Lorna would wait until all twelve buckets were safely with her before taking them home, where she would count the donations then later hand them to Simon for banking.
After she had proposed her idea to Simon, also suggesting that he and the rest of the Rhinos could go for a well-earned pint after the festival if she took the money home, he had put her completely in charge of looking after the buckets.
Carol was supervising the children at the parade.
All Lorna had to do was wait for the cash to be brought to her.
It was easy. Too easy. For a moment, Lorna had a stab of conscience. She shouldn’t really be taking from the people she lived and worked with, the parents whose children went to school with hers.
But no one would know.
A part of her felt scornful of the system.
At the way so much money was allowed to be handled by just one person.
Even the bucket holders themselves, standing in the street in the dark; they had plenty of opportunity to relieve the weight of their load by several pounds.
She sighed. It was a massive oversight really.
Maybe in the future she’d point it out to someone.
For now, she picked up the stack of buckets and took them out to her car. When she next saw them, they’d be full.