Broken bones were an occupational hazard for steeplechase jockeys, and both they and the trainers they rode for just had to get used to them. However, none of them expected to have their collarbone broken by a baseball bat while standing in their bedroom.

Accepted medical advice was that a broken collarbone would take about six weeks to mend, plus another six weeks to get back to full strength, but I’d known of several jockeys who had raced again within three weeks of a break. In fact, thinking back, I’d been one of them.

And there were plenty of verified accounts, from the days before mandatory medical checks were introduced after every racing fall, of hardy jump jockeys riding with the ends of a broken collarbone grinding together, rather than lose a ride on a well-fancied horse in a big race.

‘Look on the bright side,’ I said to Marcus with a smile. ‘At least you won’t have Valance telling you to lose a race for a while.’

He tried to smile back.

‘Perhaps I’ll go home for bit, but things are not great between my parents at the moment. Ever since Dad left the army, he’s been rather lost, with no real direction in his life. He and Mum have begun arguing all the time, mostly over how much he drinks now.’

Marcus sighed and I felt sorry for him.

Chico finally called me.

‘Did you see them?’ I asked.

‘You bet. Followed all three of them to start with, but then they separated. The two goons got in a car and drove off—don’t worry, I took a photo of the car and I got the reg—and then Valance walked on through the town to the ruined castle. I followed him, and guess what? Your chum turns up—the one from the races this afternoon. Bleedin’ nearly catches me too, as I’m hidin’ from Valance behind a car right next to where he parks.’

‘He’s hardly my chum,’ I complained. ‘So then what happened?’

‘Suffice to say that you are not flavour of the month with either of them. They had a right barney, right there and then, over how you knew that Valance had been at Asquith’s house in East Witton on Monday. Asquith accused Valance of being bleedin’ careless.’

My plan to outflank their defences by setting them against each other seemed to be bearing some fruit.

‘So where are they now?’ I asked.

‘They went into the castle. It was already shut for the day, but Asquith brought the key to the gate with him. They’re now in a wooden buildin’ just inside the castle entrance. It looks like a ticket office or somethin’.’

‘So where are you?’ I asked.

‘I’m standin’ right next to the wooden building. Round the back, away from the door.’

‘Be careful they can’t hear you.’