Dead Heat - By Dick Francis & Felix Francis Page 0,54

the orchestra, and he handles all my bookings and contracts. All I have to do is turn up and play.’

‘He keeps you busy, then?’

‘He certainly does,’ she said. ‘I’m only free this week because I was meant to be in New York. To tell you the truth, it’s been fantastic having evenings at home to veg on the sofa watching the telly.’

‘Sorry I disturbed your vegging by asking you out.’

‘Don’t be silly, I’m loving this.’

‘Good,’ I said. ‘So am I.’

We ate for a while in contented silence. I really was loving this. A pretty, intelligent and talented female companion, a wonderful dinner and a passable bottle of Bordeaux. What could be better?

‘So who are you going to tell of your crazy theory?’ Caroline asked over coffee.

‘Who do you suggest?’ I said.

‘The police, of course,’ she said. ‘But you need to get your facts straight first.’

‘How so?’ I asked.

‘Do you have the guest list from the gala dinner?’

‘I do,’ I said. ‘But it’s not really very helpful since it doesn’t list everyone individually. Quite a few tables were groups of ten and only the host is named on the guest list; the others are just down as guests of so-and-so. I obtained a copy of the seating plan too, but it’s the same thing. Only about half of the guests are actually named.’

‘How about the guest list for where the bomb went off?’ she asked.

‘I haven’t managed to get that,’ I said. ‘1 think the only person who probably knew the full guest list was the marketing executive of the sponsor company, and she was killed in the explosion. It’s pretty easy to find out who was actually there because they are either on the list of the dead or on the list of the injured. But I am more interested in the names of the seven people who should have been there but weren’t.’

‘Surely someone must have the names of those who were invited,’ she said.

‘I have tried,’ I said, ‘but no luck.’ I had spent much of Monday morning trying to acquire the list. Suzanne Miller at the racecourse catering company had only ‘guests of Delafield Industries’ in her paperwork, and William Preston, the racecourse manager, had been even less helpful, with simply ‘sponsor and guests’ on his.

‘How about the sponsor company?’ she asked. ‘Have you tried them?’

‘No,’ I said. ‘I don’t think that they would be very likely to know who was invited, other than their own staff flown over from America. I think that MaryLou Fordham, that’s the marketing woman who was killed, I think she added the UK guests to the list after she was here and after she knew who would be suitable. I remember that she was very cross beforehand when a couple of trainers from the town pulled out at the last minute. And I think I know who those two were anyway.’

‘Can’t you ask them?’ she said.

‘I did ask one of them yesterday,’ I said. I had called George Kealy. ‘But, as he said, it is difficult to know who else was invited to a party that you didn’t go to.’

‘That’s true, I suppose,’ she said. ‘How about the injured people from the sponsor company? One of them might know who was meant to be there.’

‘I’ve thought of that too,’ I said. ‘According to yesterday’s local newspaper, two of them are still in intensive care and the others have already been flown home to America.’

I asked a passing waiter for the bill and winced only a little when it arrived. The same amount would have fed a good-sized family at the Hay Net, and a small army at a burger bar, but neither would have given as much pleasure as that dinner with Caroline had given me.

When I suggested that I should see her home to Fulham, she insisted that she would be fine if I simply put her in a taxi. Reluctantly, I hailed a black cab and she climbed in alone.

‘Can I see you again?’ I asked through the open door.

‘Sure,’ she replied. ‘You’ll see me in court.’

‘That’s not exactly what I meant,’ I said.

‘Well, what do you mean, then?’

‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘Another dinner? A trip to the races?’ I felt like asking her to make a trip to my bed.

‘What are you doing two weeks on Thursday?’ she asked.

‘Nothing,’ I replied. Nothing, that is, except cooking sixty lunches and a hundred dinners at the Hay Net.

‘I’m due to play a viola concerto with the orchestra at the