Enquiry - By Dick Francis Page 0,8

down. All the Stewards and all the officials ranked behind them were looking at me. I could see that all, to a man, believed West.

‘Hughes, are you in the habit of using this phrase?’ Gowery’s voice was dry acid.

‘No, sir.’

‘Have you ever used it?’

‘Not in the Lemonfizz Cup, sir.’

‘I said, Hughes, have you ever used it?’

To lie or not to lie…‘Yes, sir, I have used it, once or twice. But not on Squelch in the Lemonfizz Cup.’

‘It is sufficient that you said it at all, Hughes. We will draw our own conclusions as to when you said it.’

He shuffled one paper to the bottom of his pack and picked up another. Consulting it with the unseeing token glance of those who know their subject by heart, he continued, ‘And now, West, tell us what Hughes did after he had said these words.’

‘Sir, he pulled his horse back, sir.’

‘How do you know this?’ The question was a formality. He asked with the tone of one already aware of the answer.

‘I was just beside Hughes, sir, when he said that about brakes. Then he sort of hunched his shoulders, sir, and give a pull, sir, and, well, then he was behind me, having dropped out, like.’

Cranfield said angrily, ‘But he finished in front of you.’

‘Yes, sir,’ Charlie West flicked his eyes upwards to Lord Gowery, and spoke only to him. ‘My old horse couldn’t act on the going, sir, and Hughes came past me again going into the second last, like.’

‘And how did Squelch jump that fence?’

‘Easy, sir. Met it just right. Stood back proper, sir.’

‘Hughes maintains that Squelch was extremely tired at that point.’

Charlie West left a small pause. Finally he said, ‘I don’t know about that, sir. I thought as how Squelch would win, myself, sir. I still think as how he ought to have won, sir, being the horse he is, sir.’

Gowery glanced left and right, to make sure that his colleagues had taken the point. ‘From your position during the last stages of the race, West, could you see whether or not Hughes was making every effort to win?’

‘Well he didn’t look like it, sir, which was surprising, like.’

‘Surprising?’

‘Yes sir. See, Hughes is such an artist at it, sir.’

‘An artist at what?’

‘Well, at riding what looks from the stands one hell of a finish, sir, while all the time he’s smothering it like mad.’

‘Hughes is in the habit of not riding to win?’

Charlie West worked it out. ‘Yes, sir.’

‘Thank you, West,’ Lord Gowery said with insincere politeness. ‘You may go and sit over there at the back of the room.’

Charlie West made a rabbit’s scurry towards the row of chairs reserved for those who had finished giving evidence. Cranfield turned fiercely to me and said, ‘Why didn’t you deny it more vehemently, for God’s sake? Why the Hell didn’t you insist he was making the whole thing up?’

‘Do you think they’d believe me?’

He looked uneasily at the accusing ranks opposite, and found his answer in their implacable stares. All the same, he stood up and did his best.

‘Lord Gowery, the film of the Lemonfizz Cup does not bear out West’s accusation. At no point does Hughes pull back his horse.’

I lifted my hand too late to stop him. Gowery’s and Lord Ferth’s intent faces both registered satisfaction. They knew as well as I did that what West had said was borne out on the film. Sensing that Squelch was going to run out of steam, I’d give him a short breather a mile from home, and this normal everyday little act was now wide open to misinterpretation.

Cranfield looked down at me, surprised by my reaction.

‘I gave him a breather,’ I said apologetically. ‘It shows.’

He sat down heavily, frowning in worry.

Gowery was saying to an official, ‘Show in Mr Newtonnards’ as if Cranfield hadn’t spoken. There was a pause before Mr Newtonnards, whoever he was, materialised. Lord Gowery was looking slightly over his left shoulder, towards the door, giving me the benefit of his patrician profile. I realised with almost a sense of shock that I knew nothing about him as a person, and that he most probably knew nothing about me. He had been, to me, a figure of authority with a capital A. I hadn’t questioned his right to rule over me. I had assumed naively that he would do so with integrity, wisdom and justice.

So much for illusions. He was leading his witnesses in a way that would make the Old Bailey reel. He heard truth