set up the stuff in silence for a while.
“I suppose we’ll need a new junior assistant now,” Luca said.
“Yes,” I said. “Any ideas?”
“There’s a lad at the electronics club who might be good.”
“I don’t want any juvenile delinquents.”
“He’s a good lad at heart,” said Luca. “He just fell in with the wrong crowd.”
“Talking about the electronics club,” I said, “did you tell the police about that microcoder thing?”
“Oh yeah,” he said. “Sorry about that.”
“I should think so too. I nearly got arrested yesterday.”
“God! I’m sorry. I didn’t even know Jim was a copper until after he’d asked.”
“Tell me about it,” I said.
“This chap, Jim, who also helps at the club, he called me up yesterday morning and asked about that black-box device thing you gave me to look at. Jim had helped me to investigate it. He was the bloke who fixed it up to the oscilloscope. So he just casually, like, asks me where I got it from, and I told him that you gave it to me. I didn’t think I was doing anything wrong to say so, but Jim then says his boss will be most interested. So I ask him who his boss is, and he says some chief inspector or something.”
“You could have bloody warned me,” I said, fighting with the catch that held our board up.
“Sorry,” he said. “Jim called right in the middle of my own domestic crisis. Betsy had just accused me, point-blank, of sleeping with her sister, Millie.”
I stopped what I was doing and looked at him in surprise. Perhaps I might forgive him for not remembering to tell me about PC Jim.
“And have you?” I asked, intrigued.
“That’s none of your business,” he said, laughing. “But, no, not exactly.”
“And what the hell does that mean?” I said.
“I kissed her. Only once, mind. At her birthday party. You know, we went there from Ascot. But Betsy caught us.”
“Oh come on,” I said. “Everyone kisses the birthday girl at her own party.”
“Not with tongues,” he said. “And not out in the garden, behind a bush.”
“Ah,” I replied. That explained a lot. Betsy had been cool towards Luca ever since that party, and now I knew why.
“So what are you going to do?” I asked him.
“Nothing,” he said. “Leave things to settle for a while, I think. Then I’ll see how the land lies.”
“She may not have you back,” I said.
“Back? Are you crazy? I just thought I’d better let things calm down before I asked Millie out.” He grinned at me, and I wasn’t sure whether he meant it or if he was just trying to shock his new business partner. Knowing Luca, it was probably both.
It was a lovely summer’s evening at the races with a large crowd, many of them eager to have a flutter on the horses, and most of them in summer-casual dress of shorts and T-shirts. It was a far cry from the morning-dress formality of Royal Ascot, and much more fun. The bars were soon doing brisk business, helped by the unusually warm weather, and before long there was a party atmosphere all around the betting ring.
Luca and I worked continuously, taking bets and paying out winners without a break, one of the disadvantages of not having a junior assistant. But busy as it was, it was still one of those times when being a bookmaker was a real joy.
No one really becomes a bookie unless they have a bit of the showman in them. I just loved standing on my platform shouting out the odds and bantering with the crowd.
“Come on, mate,” shouted one heavyweight punter at me, “call that fair to have Ellie’s Mobile at only three-to-one?” He looked up at the name at the top of our board. “How can we ‘Trust Teddy Talbot’ when you only offer it at that price?”
“If you’ll ride it, you can have it at tens,” I shouted back at him.
All his mates roared with laughter.
“He couldn’t ride a bike,” one of them shouted.
“Not without bending it,” shouted another.
“Give me twenty on the nose,” said the heavyweight, thrusting a note in my direction.
“Twenty pounds to win, number two, and make it at four-to-one,” I said to Luca over my shoulder. “Special favor.”
“Cheers,” said the man, surprised. “You’re a real gent.”
I didn’t know about that, but, if I couldn’t repay a bit of initiative and color, then I was in the wrong business.
Ellie’s Mobile, the favorite, romped home to win by four lengths at a starting price of three-to-one, cheered