Enquiry - By Dick Francis Page 0,77

was stationed outside the door with instructions to send all customers along to the members’ tea room.

While this was going on Jack looked steadfastly down at the tablecloth and said not a word. I didn’t feel like chatting to him idly either. He’d cost me too much.

Lord Ferth came briskly back and sat down.

‘Now then, Roxford,’ he said in his most businesslike way, ‘We’ve heard Kelly’s accusations. It’s your turn now to speak up in your defence.’

Jack slowly lifted his head. The deep habitual lines of worry were running with sweat.

‘It was someone else.’ His voice was dead.

‘It certainly wasn’t Grace,’ I said, ‘Because Lord Gowery was quite clear that the person who tried to blackmail him on the telephone was a man.’ So was the person who had got at Charlie West a man, or so he’d said.

Jack Roxford jerked.

‘Yes, Roxford, we know about Lord Gowery.’ Ferth said.

‘You can’t…’

‘You belong to the same club,’ I said assertively, as if I knew.

For Jack Roxford, too, the thought of that club was the lever which opened the floodgates. Like Gowery before him he broke into wretched pieces.

‘You don’t understand…’

‘Tell us then,’ Ferth said. ‘And we’ll try.’

‘Grace… we… I… Grace didn’t like…’ He petered out.

I gave him a shove. ‘Grace liked her sex natural and wouldn’t stand for what you wanted.’

He gulped. ‘Soon after we were married we were having rows all the time, and I hated that. I loved her, really I did. I’ve always loved her. And I felt… all tangled up… she didn’t understand that when I beat her it was because of love… she said she’d leave me and divorce me for cruelty… so I asked a girl I’d known… a street girl, who didn’t mind… I mean… she let you, if you paid well enough… if I could go on seeing her… but she said she’d given that up now… but there was a club in London… and I went there… and it was a terrific relief… and then I was all right with Grace… but of course we didn’t… well, hardly ever… but somehow… we could go on being married.’

Lord Ferth looked revolted.

‘I couldn’t believe it at first,’ Jack said more coherently, ‘When I saw Lord Gowery there. I saw him in the street, just outside. I thought it was just a coincidence. But then, one night, inside the club, I was sure it was him, and I saw him again in the street another time… but I didn’t say anything. I mean, how could I? And anyway, I knew how he felt… you don’t go there unless you must… and you can’t keep away.’

‘How long have you known that Lord Gowery went to the same club?’ I asked.

‘Oh… two or three years. A long time. I don’t know exactly.’

‘Did he know you were a member?’

‘No. He hadn’t a clue. I spoke to him once or twice on the racecourse about official things… He didn’t have any idea.’

‘And then,’ Ferth said thoughtfully, ‘You read that he had been appointed in Colonel Midgley’s place to officiate at the Cranfield-Hughes Enquiry, and you saw what you thought was a good chance of getting Cranfield out of racing, and keeping Byler’s horses yourself.’

Jack sat huddled in his chair, not denying it.

‘And when Lord Gowery declined to be blackmailed, you couldn’t bear to give up the idea, and you set about faking evidence that would achieve your ends.’

A long silence. Then Jack said in a thick disjointed voice, ‘Grace minded so much… about Cranfield taking our horses. She went on and on about it… morning, noon and night. Couldn’t stop. Talk, talk, talk. All the time. Saying she’d like to kill Cranfield… and things like that. I mean… she’s always been a bit nervy… a bit strung up… but Cranfield was upsetting her… I got a bit frightened for her sometimes, she was that violent about him… Well, it was really because of that that I tried to get Cranfield warned off… I mean, he was better warned off than Grace trying to kill him.’

‘Did you truly believe she would?’ I asked.

‘She was ranting about it all the time… I didn’t know if she really would… but I was so afraid… I didn’t want her to get into trouble… dear dear Grace… I wanted to help her… and make things right again… so I set about it… and it wasn’t too difficult really, not once I’d set my mind to it.’

Ferth gave me a twisted smile. I gave him a