Decider - By Dick Francis Page 0,101

controlled and comes out as a consuming competitiveness in a testing sport. In her, there’s splendid courage and will-to-win. There’s also a tremendous overpowering urge to get her own way. When Marjorie blocked her first plan for achieving new stands, she hit on a simple solution – get rid of the old ones.’

This time, Conrad protested incredulously, and Marjorie also, but not Rebecca or Dart.

‘I’d guess,’ I said to Rebecca, ‘that you told Wilson Yarrow to do it, as, if he didn’t, he could kiss the commission goodbye.’

She glared at me unblinkingly, a tigress untamed.

I said, ‘Wilson Yarrow was in deep already with that blackmailing attempt. He saw, as you did, that destroying a part of the main grandstand would mean new ones had to be built. He knew those old grandstands and, as an architect, he saw how maximum damage could be achieved for minimum effort. The staircase in the centre was the main artery of the building. Collapse that core, and the rooms round it would cave in.’

‘I had nothing to do with it,’ Rebecca yelled suddenly.

Conrad jumped. Conrad… aghast.

‘I saw those charges before they exploded,’ I said to Rebecca. ‘I saw how they were laid. Very professional. I could have done it myself. And I know other dealers, not as responsible as my giant friend Henry, who’ll sell you anything, few questions asked. But it’s difficult, even for people whose whole job is demolition, to get right the amount of explosive needed. Every structure has its own strengths and weaknesses. There’s pressure to use too much rather than too little. The amount Yarrow used tore half the building apart.’

‘No,’ Rebecca said.

‘Yes,’ I contradicted her. ‘Between you, you decided it should be done early on Good Friday morning, when there would be no one about.’

‘No.’

‘Wilson Yarrow drilled the holes and set the charges, with you acting as look-out.’

‘No!’

‘He couldn’t do it without a look-out. If you go in for crime, it’s much best to post a look-out you can trust.’

Dart squirmed. Then he grinned. Irrepressible.

‘You sat on watch in Dart’s car,’ I said.

Rebecca’s eyes opened wide, abruptly. The ‘no’ she produced lacked the fire of the other denials.

‘You thought,’ I said, ‘that if you went in your own bright scarlet Ferrari, and any stray groundsman, perhaps, saw it on the racecourse on that non-racing day, he would remember it and report it after the stands had exploded. So you drove to Stratton Hays, and parked your car there, and took Dart’s, which always has the keys left in, and you drove that car into the racecourse, because Dart’s car is so familiar there as to be practically invisible. But you didn’t reckon with Harold Quest, actor and busybody, who wouldn’t have been at the gates there anyway on that day if he’d been a genuine protestor, and you must have been shattered when he said Dart’s car had been there, and described it to the police. But not as shattered as you would have been if Harold Quest had reported your Ferrari.’

‘I don’t believe all this,’ Conrad said faintly; but he did.

‘I imagine,’ I said to Rebecca, ‘that somewhere you picked up Yarrow and took him and the explosive to the racecourse, because the police tested the car and found traces of nitrates.’

Rebecca said nothing.

I said, ‘Dart has known all along that it was you – or you and Yarrow – who blew up the stands.’

‘Dart told you!’ Rebecca shouted, furiously turning to Dart, who looked staggered and hurt. ‘You gave me away to this… this…’

‘No, he didn’t,’ I said fiercely. ‘Dart was unswervingly loyal to you. He went through a considerable grilling from the police yesterday and didn’t say a word. They accused him of setting the explosives himself, and he’s still their chief suspect, and they’ll question him again. But he won’t tell them about you. He’s proud of you, he has mixed feelings, he thinks you’re crack-brained, but he’s a Stratton and he won’t give you away.’

‘How do you know?’ Dart wailed, agonised.

‘I stood next to you when she won on Tempestexi.’

‘But… you couldn’t tell from that.’

‘I’ve lived and breathed Strattons for a week.’

‘How did you know?’ Rebecca demanded of her brother.

‘I saw your Ferrari from my bathroom, parked where my old car was supposed to be.’

She said helplessly, ‘It was there for less than an hour.’

Conrad’s shoulders sagged.

‘I was back in Lambourn long before the explosion,’ Rebecca said crossly. ‘And Yarrow was putting himself about in London by then.’

‘I want to know,’ Marjorie said