Microsoft Word - John Francome - Inside Track.doc

by Gene

  Colin shook his head. `Never. I was after him. I'd have nailed him too if he hadn't been daft enough to get himself shot.'

  `You sound quite keen on this Colin,' Simon had remarked the evening before as she'd recounted their meeting.

  Ì am,' she said, sitting at the place he'd laid for her at the dinner table.

  `Should I be jealous?' He was lifting something aromatic out of the oven -

  her oven, which she used only to warm plates and bake ready meals.

  `Dreadfully,' she said, sipping the wine he had poured her. Àny virile young man is a temptation for me. So you'd better not let your standards slip.'

  He'd stood behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders, pressing his thumbs into the flesh at the base of her neck. She shivered with pleasure.

  `Yes, boss,' he growled in her ear.

  They were at the beginning of something good and both of them knew it.

  They were trying to keep their feet on the ground but it was hard.

  `Jesus, Mum,' Robbie had complained when she'd spent an hour on the phone with Simon. `You're in love with him, aren't you? Admit it.'

  But she wouldn't admit that to herself.

  And Tanya, so Jane had gathered, was giving Simon an equally hard time.

  Now they'd spent a whole night together and it had taken a bit of arranging. Jane and Simon had not only had to synchronise their own calendars but had to make sure their offspring were otherwise taken care of.

  Tanya and Robbie seemed to have a more mature friendship than their parents. Jane had yet to catch them snogging on the doorstep. They listened to impenetrable music. Robbie was teaching Tanya to play a better class of chess. And, at Tanya's instigation, the pair of them went on trips to see his grandmother at The Palm Tree.

  Jane was delighted, and mightily surprised. Ì got the impression from you,' she said to Simon, `that your daughter was a party girl. Now it turns out she's Mother Teresa.'

  He'd just shrugged - he didn't understand either.

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  So, as they lay side by side in bed, wearing little but their own happiness, it was with alarm that they heard the front door open down the hall.

  Òh God, Robbie's back,' cried Jane, leaping out of bed and grabbing her dressing-gown. `You'll have to stay in here, Simon.'

  But it was too late.

  `Mum?' The knock was an accompaniment to the door swinging wide open. By Robbie's side stood Tanya.

  Caught red-handed.

  Jamie sat on the step of Dave's caravan, scratching Matilda's ears. She wanted him to take her for a walk but he wasn't budging just yet, he was waiting for someone. Besides, it was a peaceful spot. He could see why Dave was so attached to it.

  Malcolm's death had been a complete bombshell, to be followed by even bigger explosions. Even now, after the information that the police had laid before him, Jamie found it hard to believe that Malcolm had been anything other than the benign and generous brother-in-law whom a man could trust with his life.

  Ìt's extremely fortunate for you,' the sympathetic policewoman had said,

  `that you did not leave the rececourse with Malcolm once you had revealed to him that your memory had returned. He might well have decided to dispose of you on the way home.'

  Jamie had found that hard to believe.

  `Think about it,' she'd said. `He'd already got rid of three other people who were inconvenient to him. And you were the most inconvenient of all. I suspect if his brother had not been present he would have ensured that you didn't survive the car crash.'

  Jamie had said nothing to that.

  Òf course, this is just my supposition. I couldn't prove it.'

  But they'd proved plenty of other things and Jamie had hardly known how to handle it. It had been even worse for Pippa, realising she'd been sharing her life with a murderer.

  Fortunately Dave was still on hand - no more had been said about his threat to return south - and, of course, there were the horses. Pippa had spent a day in bed, sedated against shock, then got up for first lot the next 303

  morning. The life of a training yard couldn't come to a halt just because of a seismic human drama. The animals came first.

  So they'd just worked their way through it. While the police trawled through the house, examining Malcolm's possessions, demanding lengthy interviews from all of them about what had happened when, the three of them and the yard staff had just mucked in and done the best they could.

  The funny thing was, they'd done pretty well. It had been the best beginning to the Flat season Pippa had had and she was turning owners down. It was funny how things worked out.

  The day after Malcolm was killed, when Jamie had no idea whether he was coming or going, he'd taken a phone call from Bertie Brooks. At last his former agent had got round to getting in touch. Thinking about it, Bertie's timing had never been that good.

  Jamie had been polite but the decision was suddenly clear-cut. He wasn't going to hand his riding career over to someone he didn't trust. Where was Bertie when he'd stumbled out of Garstone unsure if he even had a future in racing? He'd rather be represented by a rank amateur who'd walk through fire for him.

  `Dave,' he'd said. `Would you like to be my agent?' `What would I have to do?'

  `Ring round trainers and get me rides. Be in there quick when someone else drops out. Big me up and say I'm the greatest jockey on the circuit.'

  'But you are, mate. I can do that easy.' So that had solved that.

  Matilda wuffed excitedly and Jamie looked up. Was that a fox slinking across the corner of the field? At any rate, it wasn't who he was expecting.

  Matilda calmed down and put her head on his knee.

  Vanessa had left. Today would have been her wedding day but that prospect had gone up in smoke. Following Richard's disgrace, no one had been surprised. But Jamie knew that wasn't the real reason. Vanessa had told him Richard had called the wedding off the night before Malcolm was shot. He knew why too and, had it not been for other events, he would have felt guilty. But he was done with guilt.

  `You're better off without him,' he said to her. `Why on earth be jealous of what you got up to with me a few years ago?'

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  `You're right,' she said. Ì might go back to Australia for a bit. No offence, Jamie, but the guys there have got real balls.'

  He looked at his watch. Marie was late. He knew it was hard for her to fit everything in. It was a long trip to hospital to see her father and she spent a lot of time with her Aunt Joyce. The woman had come within a whisker of being charged with being an accessory to murder but it looked as if she'd escaped. Since the intended murder victim had been himself, that made the situation difficult. Particularly for Marie.

  Matilda lifted her head and then bolted for the gate. As she careered out of sight he heard a familiar voice welcoming the dog.

  A few seconds passed and he fought the urge to run after Matilda. He liked this moment best of all, when Marie came through the gate and walked towards him, a shy smile on her lips and the sunlight catching her thick fair hair.

  Just as it did now.

  END:genew

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