Enquiry - By Dick Francis Page 0,20

good team, but you can’t get a high ratio of winners without one. You might get your licence back but you won’t get these lads back and it’ll take years for the stable to recover. If it ever does. And I hear you have already given them all the sack.’

‘What else was there to do?’

‘You could try keeping them on for a month.’

His head came up a little more. ‘You haven’t the slightest idea what that would cost me. The wages come to more than four hundred pounds a week.’

‘There must still be quite a lot to come in in training fees. Owners seldom pay in advance. You won’t have to dig very deep into your own pocket. Not for a month, anyway, and it might not take as long as that.’

‘What might not?’

‘Getting our licences back.’

‘Don’t be so bloody ridiculous.’

‘I mean it. What is it worth to you? Four weeks’ wages for your lads? Would you pay that much if there was a chance you’d be back in racing in a month? The owners would send their horses back, if it was as quick as that. Particularly if you tell them you confidently expect to be back in business almost immediately.’

‘They wouldn’t believe it.’

‘They’d be uncertain. That should be enough.’

‘There isn’t a chance of getting back.’

‘Oh yes there damn well is,’ I said forcefully. ‘But only if you’re willing to take it. Tell the lads you’re keeping them on for a bit. Especially Archie. Go down to the yard and tell them now.’

‘Now.’

‘Of course,’ I said impatiently. ‘Probably half of them have already read the Situations Vacant columns and written to other trainers.’

‘There isn’t any point.’ He seemed sunk in fresh gloom. ‘It’s all hopeless. And it couldn’t have happened, it simply could not have happened at a worse time. Edwin Byler was going to send me his horses. It was all fixed up. Now of course he’s telephoned to say it’s all off, his horses are staying where they are, at Jack Roxford’s.’

To train Edwin Byler’s horses was to be presented with a pot of gold. He was a north country business man who had made a million or two out of mail order, and had used a little of it to fulfil a long held ambition to own the best string of steeplechasers in Britain. Four of his present horses had in turn cost more than anyone had paid before. When he wanted, he bid. He only wanted the best, and he had bought enough of them to put him for the two previous seasons at the top of the Winning Owners’ list. To have been going to train Edwin Byler’s horses, and now not to be going to, was a refined cruelty to pile on top of everything else.

To have been going to ride Edwin Byler’s horses… as I would no doubt have done… that too was a thrust where it hurt.

‘There’s all the more point, then,’ I said. ‘What more do you want in the way of incentive? You’re throwing away without a struggle not only what you’ve got but what you might have… Why in the Hell don’t you get off your bed and behave like a gentleman and show some spirit?’

‘Hughes!’ He was outraged. But he still sat. He still wouldn’t look at me.

I paused, considering him. Then, slowly, I said, ‘All right, then. I’ll tell you why you won’t. You won’t because… to some degree… you are in fact guilty. You made sure Squelch wouldn’t win. And you backed Cherry Pie.’

That got him. Not just his head up, but up, trembling, on to his feet.

CHAPTER FIVE

‘How dare you?’

‘Frankly, just now I’d dare practically anything.’

‘You said we were framed.’

‘So we were.’

Some of his alarm subsided. I stoked it up again.

‘You banded us away on a plate.’

He swallowed, his eyes flicking from side to side, looking everywhere except at me.

‘I don’t know what you mean.’

‘Don’t be so weak,’ I said impatiently. ‘I rode Squelch, remember? Was he his usual self? He was not.’

‘If you’re suggesting,’ he began explosively, ‘That I doped…’

‘Oh of course not. Anyway, they tested him, didn’t they? Negative result. Naturally. No trainer needs to dope a horse he doesn’t want to win. It’s like swatting a fly with a bulldozer. There are much more subtle methods. Undetectable. Even innocent. Maybe you should be kinder to yourself and admit that you quite innocently stopped Squelch. Maybe you even did it subconsciously, wanting Cherry Pie to win.’

‘Bull,’ he said.

‘The mind plays tricks,’ I