Enquiry - By Dick Francis Page 0,57

all right.’

My mouth opened. Ferth watched me steadily, his eyes narrowed with the pity of it.

Gowery went on compulsively. Once started, he needed to confess.

‘If I tell you… from the beginning… perhaps you will understand. It began the day after I was appointed to substitute for the Disciplinary Steward at the Cranfield-Hughes Enquiry. It’s ironic to think of it now, but I was quite pleased to be going to do it… and then… and then…’ He paused and took an effortful control of his voice. ‘Then, I had a telephone call.’ Another pause. ‘This man said… said… I must warn Cranfield off.’ He cleared his throat. ‘I told him I would do no such thing, unless Cranfield was guilty. Then he said… then he said… that he knew things about me… and he would tell everyone… if I didn’t warn Cranfield off. I told him I couldn’t warn him off if he wasn’t guilty… and you see I didn’t think he was guilty. I mean, race-horses are so unpredictable, and I saw the Lemonfizz myself and although after that crowd demonstration it was obvious the Stewards would have Cranfield and Hughes in, I was surprised when they referred it to the Disciplinary Committee… I thought that there must have been circumstances that I didn’t know of…and then I was asked to take the Enquiry… and I had an open mind… I told the man on the telephone that no threats could move me from giving Cranfield a fair judgement.’

Less jelly in his voice while he remembered that first strength. It didn’t last.

‘He said… in that case… I could expect… after the Enquiry… if Cranfield got off… that my life wouldn’t be worth living… I would have to resign from the Jockey Club… and everyone would know… And I said again that I would not warn Cranfield off unless I was convinced of his guilt, and that I would not be blackmailed, and I put down the receiver and cut him off.’

‘And then,’ Ferth suggested, ‘You began to worry?’

‘Yes.’ Little more than a whisper.

‘What exactly did he threaten to publish?’

‘I can’t… can’t tell you. Not criminal… not a matter for the police… but…’

‘But enough to ruin you socially?’

‘Yes… I’m afraid so… yes, completely.’

‘But you stuck to your guns?’

‘I was desperately worried… I couldn’t… how could I…? take away Cranfield’s livelihood just to save myself… It would have been dishonourable… and I couldn’t see myself living with it… and in any case I couldn’t just warn him off, just like that, if there was no proof he was guilty… So I did worry… couldn’t sleep… or eat…’

‘Why didn’t you ask to be relieved of the Enquiry?’

‘Because he told me… if I backed out… it would count the same with him as letting Cranfield off… so I had to go on, just in case some proof turned up.’

‘Which it did,’ Ferth said dryly. ‘Conveniently.’

‘Oh…’ Again the anguish. ‘I didn’t realise… I didn’t indeed… that it might have been the blackmailer who had sent the package. I didn’t wonder very much who had sent it. It was release… that’s all I could see… it was a heavensent release from the most unbearable… I didn’t question…I just believed it… believed it absolutely… and I was so grateful… so grateful…’

Four days before the Enquiry, that package had come. He must have been sweating for a whole week, taking a long bleak look at the wilderness. Send a St Bernard to a dying mountaineer and he’s unlikely to ask for the dog licence.

‘When did you begin to doubt?’ Ferth said calmly.

‘Not until afterwards. Not for days. It was Hughes… at the dance. You told me he was insisting he’d been framed and was going to find out who… and then he asked me directly who had sent Oakley to his flat… and it… Wykeham it was terrible. I realised… what I’d done. Inside, I did know… but I couldn’t admit to it myself… I shut it away… they had to be guilty…’

There was another long silence. Then Gowery said, “You’ll see to it… that they get their licences back?’

‘Yes,’ Ferth said.

‘I’ll resign…’ He sounded desolate.

‘From the Disciplinary Committee, I agree,’ Ferth said reasonably. ‘As to the rest… we will see.’

‘Do you think the… the blackmailer… will tell… everyone… anyway, when Cranfield has his licence back?’

‘He would have nothing to gain.’

‘No, but…’

‘There are laws to protect you.’

‘They couldn’t.’

‘What does he in fact have over you?’

‘I… I… oh God.’ The tape stopped abruptly, cutting off words that were disintegrating