‘I find out all sorts of things, Jimmy. It’s my job.’

‘What do you want?’

‘A chat, that’s all.’

‘I haven’t got time for a chat, not with you, anyway.’

‘Oh, I think you have.’ I spoke quietly and without any threat.

‘I have to get off to the races.’ He looked past me to where Chico was leaning up against the front wing of the Skoda, trying to look menacing. ‘And you can move that bloody car for a start.’

‘I’ll happily move it, but only after we’ve had our little chat.’

‘But I have to leave in a few minutes.’

‘Then we had better talk fast.’

I could see, once again, the same touch of panic in his eyes that I had first witnessed at Catterick.

‘I have absolutely no intention of talking to you,’ he shouted with a slight quiver in his voice. ‘Because I have to go now.’

‘To Market Rasen races?’

‘Yes.’

I shook my head and tut-tutted. ‘What a pity. It seems like you might not make it there today, after all.’

‘But I have to,’ he beseeched.

‘And why is that?’ I asked with my first touch of belligerence. ‘Why do you have to go to Market Rasen, Jimmy? Is it to make sure that Oscar Mike doesn’t win the fourth race?’

He stared at me and, just like Charles’s had before, his mouth hung open in amazement.

‘Like I told you, Jimmy,’ I said, quieter again. ‘I find out all sorts of things.’

CHAPTER

22

‘WHO TOLD YOU that?’ Jimmy asked, finding his tongue.

‘So you don’t deny it?’

‘Of course I do.’

‘How about eight other Simon Paulson runners you rode that also didn’t win when they could have done—do you deny stopping those as well?’

‘Lots of horses I ride don’t win. Most of them, in fact,’ he said, echoing what Marcus Capes had said about jockeys having to get used to losing.

‘Yes, I know, but there are eight specific losers that never had a chance, did they, Jimmy? Because you had been told not to win on them.’

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

‘So what’s your plan for Oscar Mike today? Start too slowly and leave him too much to do at the end, or perhaps engineer that he falls, just like you did on Night Shadow at Catterick last week? Or maybe you have some other ruse this time to ensure he doesn’t win?’

‘I think I’ve heard enough of this nonsense. It’s time you left.’ And he started to close the door, but I placed my right foot forward to prevent it closing fully.

‘Okay, Jimmy,’ I said through the narrow gap. ‘If that’s what you want, but I won’t be moving my car any time soon. Can you run to Market Rasen in time?’

‘I’ll call the police.’