Dead Heat - By Dick Francis & Felix Francis Page 0,104

the woman her credit card and flinched only slightly when she saw the amount on the slip she was asked to sign. We went back and sat down in the waiting area with an assurance that I would be called soon. I kissed her gently and promised to repay her as soon as I got home.

‘What if someone kills you first?’ she whispered. ‘Then what would I do?’ She grinned. It made me feel better.

‘I’ll leave it to you in my will,’ I said, grinning back. Laugh in the face of adversity, for laughter is the best medicine.

We sat for a while together. The clock on the wall crept around to six forty.

‘I hate to say it,’ she said, ‘but I’ve got to go now or I’ll miss the performance and then I really will get fired. Are you sure you’ll be all right?’

‘I’ll be fine,’ I said. ‘I’ll see you later.’

‘They won’t keep you in here all night, will they?’ she asked.

‘Not without more money,’ I said with a hollow laugh. ‘No, I don’t think so. I’ll see you later at the hotel.’ She was reluctant to go. ‘Go on, go,’ I said. ‘Or you’ll be late.’

She waved as she went through the automatic doors. I didn’t really want her to go. I needed her here, mopping my brow and easing my pain, not caressing that damn Viola.

‘Mr Moreton,’ shouted a nurse, bringing me back to my reality.

I beat Caroline back to the hotel room but only by about ten minutes. As before, she was high on the applause-induced adrenalin rush, while I was high on a mix of nitrous oxide and painkillers. And I was sporting a fibreglass cast on my wrist that stretched from the palm of my hand, round my thumb, and up to my elbow.

An X-ray had clearly shown that I had a broken wrist, my ulna having been well and truly cracked right through, about an inch above the joint. Fortunately it wasn’t much displaced and the fracture had been reduced by a doctor simply pulling on my hand until the ends of the bone had returned to their rightful positions. I hadn’t enjoyed the experience in spite of the partial anaesthetic effects of the nitrous oxide. Laughing gas it may be, but the procedure had not been a laughing matter.

The cast was designed to immobilize the joint and the doctor had told me it would have to stay on for at least six weeks. I remembered the stories my father used to tell about his injuries when he was a jump jockey. He always claimed that he was a quick healer, and he often told of how he would start trying to remove a plaster with scissors only about a week after breaking a bone. But jump jockeys are mad, everyone knows that.

As instructed, I kept my right arm raised on a pillow throughout the night to reduce swelling under the cast. It wasn’t great for romance, but it did keep the pain to a minimum.

Saturday came and went with me spending most of the time horizontal on the bed in Caroline’s hotel room. I watched some televised baseball, which was not very exciting, and then some motor racing that was more so.

I ordered some room service Caesar salad for a midafternoon left-handed lunch and then called Carl using the hotel phone.

‘Where are you?’ he said. ‘I’ve had three phone calls from people saying they need to contact you urgently.’

‘Who are they?’ I asked.

‘One was your mother,’ he said. ‘One said they were from the Inland Revenue, and the third wouldn’t say.’

‘Did you get their numbers?’ I asked.

‘You must know your mother’s number, surely,’ he said. ‘The others didn’t leave one. They said they would call back. Where shall I tell them you are?’

I wondered again if I could trust Carl.

‘Just tell them that I’m away,’ I said. ‘And I will be for at least another week.’

‘And will you?’ he asked.

‘Will I what?’ I said.

‘Will you be away for at least another week?’

‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘Could you cope if I was?’

‘I could cope even if you stayed away for ever,’ he said, and I wasn’t quite sure if he was expressing confidence in his own ability or contempt for mine.

‘I’ll take that to mean that everything’s all right at the restaurant then,’ I said.

‘Absolutely.’

‘Then I’ll call you again on Monday,’ I said.

‘OK,’ he said. ‘But where are you exactly? You told me you were going to your mother, so how come