they were wrong?’
Dorothy Schumann sat down heavily on one of the stools. ‘Are you saying that someone may have tried to kill Rolf?’
‘Yes,’ I said. There was a long silence. ‘Can you think of anyone who might want him dead?’
She laughed, just a single titter. ‘Only about a thousand of the locals,’ she said. ‘They all got fired last winter. And they all seem to blame Rolf.’
‘But surely…’ I said.
‘No, no,’ she said. ‘I’m not really serious.’
‘But is there anyone else you could think of who might want to hurt him or damage his company?’ I said.
She pursed her lips and gently shook her head.
‘Do you know a man called Komarov?’ I asked her.
‘Of course,’ she replied. ‘I know Peter very well. He imports polo ponies. But you’re not telling me that he has something to do with what happened to Rolf?’
‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘I just wondered if you had heard of him.’
‘He and his wife come and stay with us,’ she said in a tone which implied that her house guests were beyond reproach. ‘They are friends of ours.’
‘Lots of people have been murdered by their friends,’ I said.
Et tu, Brute?
‘When exactly do the Komarovs stay with you?’ I asked her.
‘For the polo,’ she said.
‘At the Lake Country Polo Club?’ I asked.
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘Rolf is a vice-president.’
‘Does Rolf have any polo ponies himself?’ I asked her.
‘Hundreds,’ she said. ‘I wish he would devote as much time to me as he does to his damn polo.’ She stopped suddenly and looked blankly out of the window. Life was going to be very different for her from now on.
‘Is Peter Komarov anything to do with the polo club?’ I asked her.
She turned back to face me. ‘I don’t think so,’ she said. ‘But I do know that all his horses go there for a few days when they first arrive in the country.’
‘Where do the horses originally come from?’ I asked.
‘South America, I think,’ she said. ‘Argentina, Uruguay and Colombia mostly.’
‘And where do they go after they leave the polo club?’ I asked.
‘All over the country,’ she said. ‘I have occasionally been to some of the sales with Rolf. You know, at Keeneland in Kentucky, and at Saratoga.’
I had heard of both of them. They were major bloodstock sales for Thoroughbreds. ‘So they’re not all polo ponies then?’
‘Oh no,’ she said. ‘I think that most are, but there are definitely some racehorses as well.’
‘Why do they all come here first then,’ I said, ‘to the polo club?’
‘I don’t really know,’ she said. ‘But I do know they arrive by plane at O’Hare, or at Milwaukee airport, and then they go to the club by horse-van. I’ve seen them being unloaded. Perhaps they need to get over the journey, like jet lag or something. I think they stay for up to a week before being shipped. Except the ones that Rolf keeps himself, of course.’ She sighed and again the tears welled up in her eyes.
‘Seems strange to me not to send the racehorses directly to where they’ll be sold,’ I said.
‘Rolf says they have to be inspected by the vet,’ she said. ‘And he has to do something with the balls.’
‘The balls?’ I asked.
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘The metal balls. They’re something to do with the journey. I don’t really know what, but Rolf always has a big box full of them here a few days after the arrival of each planeload of ponies.’
‘Do you have any of these balls here at the moment?’ I asked.
‘I think there are a few in Rolf’s desk,’ she said.
She went out of the kitchen but soon returned with a shiny metal ball about the size of a golf ball. She placed it on the counter in front of me and I picked it up. I was expecting it to be heavy like a large ball-bearing, but it was surprisingly light and hollow.
‘What are they for?’ I asked her.
‘I have no idea,’ she said. ‘But I think they might be also something to do with breeding the ponies.’
‘Can I have this one?’ I said.
‘I don’t think Rolf would be very pleased with me if I let it go,’ she replied. ‘He’s always extremely careful to check he has the right number. He counts them over and over.’
‘But it might help me find out why he was injured,’ I said.
‘Do you really think so?’ said Dorothy, again looking so frail and forlorn.
‘I don’t know, but it might.’
‘Well, I suppose just one will be all