‘I think he will. Especially as I intend blocking his driveway so he can’t get his car out.’

‘Sneaky. So where after that?’

‘If we fail to speak to Jimmy this morning, we’ll have to see him at the end of the day. There’s no time to go to the races because we have to be in Harrogate by three o’clock.’

‘What for?’

‘Have you ever had a Turkish bath?’

‘I doubt it. Never been to Turkey. Greece, yes, Turkey, no.’

I laughed. ‘Do you even know what a Turkish bath is?’

‘Obviously not takin’ a normal bath in Turkey, then, or you wouldn’t be askin’.’

‘It’s a steam bath, plus cold and hot dry rooms, and then a freezing-cold plunge pool, and there’s one in Harrogate.’

‘Sounds a bit bleedin’ masochistic to me.’ Chico turned and gave me a broad, full-teeth grin. ‘But I’m game if you are. I’m not quite sure, mind, why we’re goin’ all the way to Harrogate just for a wash.’

‘We’re going there to see someone.’

The previous afternoon, after speaking to Simon Paulson, I had called the Turkish Baths in Harrogate.

‘How can I help you?’ said the friendly receptionist who answered.

‘Hello,’ I replied. ‘My name is Valance, Anton Valance, and I was wondering if you could tell me when my next appointment is as I seem to have mislaid the note I made.’

‘Certainly, sir. Just a moment. I’ll check on the computer.’

There had been a very slight pause.

‘Here we are. You’re booked into our three o’clock session, tomorrow afternoon.’

‘On Sunday?’

‘Yes, on Sunday. And you have a fifty-minute massage with Laura at three thirty.’

‘Of course, thank you.’

Now, why did I think that Valance had made the appointment at that particular time as an alibi for what was going on eighty-five miles away in the three thirty race at Market Rasen? Who could possibly think he had fixed a race that he wasn’t even watching?

Well, me, for one.

I assumed Valance wouldn’t have his two goons with him for his massage and, without his clothes on, I might catch him off guard.

I had also searched deeper into the internet for an image of him, so I knew which particular middle-aged man wrapped in a towel to accost.

Mr Valance was clearly a publicity-averse individual, and he was very hard to find. But eventually, I discovered him in a two-year-old photo published in the Yorkshire Post of a group of five men standing smiling at the camera at a local charity event at Headingley Cricket Ground in Leeds. He was named as the second from the right.