Enquiry - By Dick Francis Page 0,56

came by it, you cannot be too surprised if you are thought to have procured it yourself.’

‘The evidence was genuine!’ he asserted. A rearguard action.

‘You are still trying to convince yourself that it was.’

‘No! It was.’

‘Then where did it come from?’

Gowery’s back was against the wall. I could see from the remembered emotion twisting Ferth’s face that this had been a saddening and perhaps embarrassing moment.

‘I was sent,’ said Gowery with difficulty, ‘A package. It contained… various statements… and six copies of the photograph taken in Hughes’ flat.’

‘Who sent it to you?’

Gowery’s voice was very low. ‘I don’t know.’

‘You don’t know?’ Ferth was incredulous. ‘You warned two men off on the strength of it, and you don’t know where it came from?’

A miserable assenting silence.

‘You just accepted all that so called evidence on its face value?’

‘It was all true.’ He clung to it.

‘Have you still got that package?’

‘Yes.’

‘I’d like to see it.’ A touch of iron in Ferth’s voice.

Gowery hadn’t argued. There were sounds of moving about, a drawer opening and closing, a rustling of papers.

‘I see,’ Ferth said slowly. ‘These papers do, in fact, look very convincing.’

‘Then you see why I acted on them,’ Gowery said eagerly, with a little too much relief.

‘I can see why you should consider doing so… after making a careful check.’

‘I did check.’

‘To what extent?’

‘Well… the package only came four days before the Enquiry. On the Thursday before. I had the Secretaries send out the summonses to Newtonnards, Oakley and West immediately. They were asked to confirm by telegram that they would be attending, and they all did so. Newtonnards was asked to bring his records for the Lemonfizz Cup. And then of course I asked a Stipendiary to ask the Totalisator people if anyone had backed Cherry Pie substantially, and he collected those affidavits… the ones we produced at the Enquiry. There was absolutely no doubt whatsoever that Cranfield had backed Cherry Pie. He lied about it at the Enquiry. That made it quite conclusive. He was entirely guilty, and there was no reason why I should not warn him off.’

Ferth stopped the recorder. ‘What do you say to that?’ he asked.

I shrugged. ‘Cranfield did back Cherry Pie. He was stupid to deny it, but admitting it was, as he saw it, cutting his own throat. He told me that he backed him – through this unidentified friend -with Newtonnards and on the Tote, and not with his normal bookmaker, because he didn’t want Kessel to know, as Kessel and the bookmaker are tattle-swapping buddies. He in fact put a hundred pounds on Cherry Pie because he thought the horse might be warming up to give everyone a surprise. He also put two hundred and fifty pounds on Squelch, because reason suggested that he would win. And where is the villainy in that?’

Ferth looked at me levelly. ‘You didn’t know he had backed Cherry Pie, not at the Enquiry.’

‘I tackled him with it afterwards. It had struck me by then that that had to be true, however hard he had denied it. Newtonnards might have lied or altered his books, but no one can argue against Tote tickets.’

‘That was one of the things which convinced me too,’ he admitted.

He started the recorder. He himself was speaking and now there was a distinct flavour in his voice of cross examination. The whole interview moved suddenly into the shape of an Enquiry of its own. ‘This photograph… didn’t it seem at all odd to you?’

‘Why should it?’ Gowery said sharply.

‘Didn’t you ask yourself how it came to be taken?’

‘No.’

‘Hughes says Oakley took the money and the note with him and simply photographed them in his flat.’

‘No.’

‘How can you be sure?’ Ferth pounced on him.

‘No!’ Gowery said again. There was a rising note in his voice, the sound of pressure approaching blow-up.

‘Who sent Oakley to Hughes’ flat?’

‘I’ve told you, I don’t know.’

‘But you’re sure that is a genuine photograph?’

‘Yes. Yes it is.’

‘You are sure beyond doubt?’ Ferth insisted.

‘Yes!’ The voice was high, the anxiety plain, the panic growing. Into this screwed up moment Ferth dropped one intense word, like a bomb.

‘Why?’

CHAPTER TWELVE

The tape ran on for nearly a minute. When Gowery finally answered his voice was quite different. Low, broken up, distressed to the soul.

‘It had… to be true. I said at first… I couldn’t warn them off if they weren’t guilty… and then the package came… and it was such a relief… they really were guilty… I could warn them off… and everything would be