‘Anyway, if I leave the tag switched on for too long, and it moves about only in sync with someone else’s phone, it has an inbuilt way of realising that, and it will put a message up on that phone to warn the owner that they’re being tracked. It will also start making a noise to alert them where it is. That’s why we must be patient, and only use it in very short bursts.’

‘You seem to know a lot about it.’

‘I read a news report on the internet about these tracking tags. Seems that some people were complaining that they were being stalked using them.’

‘And they are exactly right,’ Chico said. ‘We’re stalking Mr Bleedin’ Valance with one, all right, just like a Highland stag.’

‘I didn’t realise you were into deer hunting,’ I said.

‘Worked on an estate one school summer holiday, didn’t I? Way up in Scotland, as a ghillie’s mate. Years ago now. Toughest work I’ve ever done, draggin’ dead stags down off the hills. But the sooner we get Valance into our crosshairs and pull the bleedin’ trigger, the better.’

If only it were so simple.

As expected, Meeru started the first race at Hexham as the betting favourite, and his starting price was even shorter than had been predicted, at just nine-to-four.

Marcus Capes had called me again at five past twelve.

‘The gaffer doesn’t know about the stop.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘Absolutely. He reckons that, with a victory here today, we should step Meeru up a class, perhaps two classes, maybe even go for the Swinton Handicap at Haydock next month, that’s a Class 1. And the gaffer says that I could ride him there too. He’s really excited by the prospect and so am I. The Swinton Handicap has a purse of over a hundred grand. That means big money for me if I won it.’

‘So you’re going to win today if you can?’

‘Dead right I am.’

I remembered back to when I’d first started out in my own racing career, and how excited I had been at the prospect of riding a really good horse such as Meeru. There was no feeling like it. I just hoped Marcus’s enthusiasm to win would last until the actual running of the race and he wouldn’t have had, by then, second thoughts, or third, fourth, or fifth thoughts, or even thoughts of pulling up or of purposely falling off.

At ten minutes to one, Chico and I went into the sitting room and tuned the TV to the correct racing channel for Hexham.

‘Shall we see where Mr Valance is?’ I said.

‘Good idea.’

I switched my phone’s ID to Marina’s and turned on the tag. Immediately the map with the small blue circle appeared.

‘Where is he, then?’ Chico asked.

I spread my fingers on the screen to expand the details.