by Joe McNally
Twenty minutes later the deal had been done, and Dil handed Ben an envelope of cash for expenses. We went looking for Alice and Prim. Dil stayed behind with Vita.
In the brightly lit barn, Alice was scratching the neck of a beautiful chestnut mare. Prim was on the other side, stroking the mare and telling Alice about the importance of breeding.
‘That would be your specialist subject, Prim, would it not? Good breeding? You being of royal descent,’ I said, and Prim laughed, ‘You mean my mother, the gypsy queen?’
‘I’d like to have met her,’ I said.
‘There’s still time, Eddie.’
‘Good.’
Alice played with the mare’s mane and said to Prim, ‘Your mother really was a gypsy queen?’
‘In Granada,’ Prim said.
Alice smiled, ‘That makes you a princess.’
Prim laughed, ‘I told them all that when I came here, but they laughed!’
Alice said, ‘You should make them curtsy…like this,’ and Alice stepped back and bent gracefully, strands of her fair hair almost touching the deep straw. Prim laughed and looked at Ben, ‘You have a princess of your own, Ben. You’re a lucky man!’
Ben had his forearms flat on the door of the stall and he gazed lovingly at his daughter and said, ‘I am.’
Prim glanced up at the big railway clock that hung in the triangle above the barn entrance, ’Time for lunch,’ she said, ‘Let’s get you back to the house.’
They walked ahead of me and Ben, along the concrete aisle down the middle of the barn and out into the sunshine and across the yard, Prim with her arm linked in Alice’s all the way. We stopped ten paces short of the back door and Prim turned to us, ‘Enjoy your lunch. Dil’s as good a cook as he is a trainer,’ and she smiled and winked and eased her arm free from Alice’s.
Alice looked concerned, ‘Aren’t you coming?’
Prim didn’t answer right away, but she held Alice’s gaze then said, ‘Maybe next time.’
Alice turned to us. Ben shrugged. I looked at Prim who reached to touch Alice’s shoulder, ‘We will have a girls’ lunch, you and I, very soon. We won’t wait for a next time.’
Alice said, ‘I’d like that,’ and she leant and kissed Prim’s cheek and Prim looked straight ahead, avoiding our eyes in the hope of hiding her wounds.
24
On Wednesday afternoon, the day before the start of the three-day Grand National meeting, I was driving home from Kelso when Mac phoned me.
‘Mac, how are you?’
‘Harassed, as ever. How are you?’
’Sanguine.’
‘Ha! You’ve been saving that up, haven’t you? Learning a word a day to throw at me?’
I laughed, ‘A word a month, more like. So, what’s harassing you that I can help with?’
‘I just wanted your thoughts on an idea I had.’
‘Go on.’
’The big novice hurdle tomorrow, I was thinking of getting all the runners thoroughly vetted before the race.’
‘As in what, blood tests, heart and lungs, scopes?’
‘We’d take veterinary advice on what should be covered.’
’Short notice, Mac, isn’t it? Would you tell the press?’
‘Not beforehand.’
‘Well there wouldn’t be much point in telling them afterwards. If Spalpeen or something else goes wild, all you’d be admitting is that the tests picked up nothing. If the race goes to plan there’s no point telling the press then, is there?’
‘Hmmm, no, I suppose not.’
‘Seems to me you’d be on a loser whichever way it pans out.’
Mac cleared his throat, ‘But if something does go wrong, at least we could say that we took what precautions we could.’
‘In that case, you’d need to do it for every race…or, at least, every race with a short priced favourite. If Spalpeen wins easy, and the favourite in the next gets crocked you’re going to look a right bunch.’
‘You’ve persuaded me.’
‘Good.’
‘Had you any more thoughts on it yourself?’
‘Maybe we can talk tomorrow, Mac? Vita Brodie has taken someone on to do a bit of digging. If you could arrange some help for this guy, I think it would work in your favour.’
‘Who is it?’
‘Ben Searcey.’
‘The journalist?’
‘That’s him.’
‘I thought he was dead!’
’So did I. He only looks dead.’
‘What’s his connection to Vita Brodie?’
‘It’s a long story. I’ll tell you tomorrow.’
‘I’m travelling up tonight. What time will you be there tomorrow?
‘Come and stay with us, Mac, we’re only an hour away from Aintree.’
‘Well, it would be nice to see everyone again.’
‘Kim and Marie and Sonny are away at the moment. I’ll tell you all about it tonight. But Mave will be happy to see you.’
‘How is she?’
‘As brainy as ever. She’s doing fine, Mac.’
‘Good…good.’
‘We’ll get your room ready.’
’See you about eight?’
‘See you then.’
After dinner, Maven excused herself to work on her laptop in the bedroom. Mac and I moved to the Snug where logs burned in the stove and a brandy glass sat on the old coffee table. I poured cognac for him and whiskey for myself.
Mac settled back on the low sofa, his weight making the cushion wheeze. He said, ‘Looks like you have everything the way you want it now.’
When we’d first moved here, Mac had visited with his friend, Broc Lisle. That had been shortly after the death of Mac’s wife, and we had invited him to join our little commune. ’No regrets about declining our offer of a place here?’ I said.
’That’s a hard one to answer. It’s difficult to have regrets about something you’ve never experienced, if you know what I mean?’
‘I suppose so. But you’re doing all right on your own?’
‘Well…’ he sipped from the glass, ‘I’ve made some tiny adjustments, day by day, week by week, and things are not quite so bad as they were after Jean died,’ he smiled at me then gazed at the embers in the stove.
‘I’m glad to hear that, Mac. What about Broc, has he stayed in touch?’
‘He calls from time to time.’
‘What’s he doing?’
‘Working for a London charity, I believe, supporting victims of crime. Apparently he did a big job in the middle east which means, financially at least, he’ll never need to work again.’
‘Good for him. He’s a real character.’
‘I suspect we don’t know the half of it. Anyway, tell me more about Ben Searcey and this job with Vita Brodie.’
I went though the details. Mac said, ‘I can’t see this assistant starter theory going anywhere. Perhaps it had some merit after the first two, but when Vogel was elsewhere for the third one, that knocks rather a big hole in it, don’t you think?’
‘I don’t believe it will come to anything. It was Vita who latched onto it with this fixation on the ring Vogel was wearing. What do you know about him?’
‘Well, he was never cautioned as a jockey. Started a retraining course before he quit the saddle, so he was a better planner than many of your colleagues. And he applied regularly for jobs at the BHA until he landed this one.’
‘What about his private life?’
Mac shook his head, ‘Not our line, beyond basic background checks, Eddie. Couldn’t justify probing that until evidence supported it. He lives on his own in Swindon. That’s as much as I know.’
‘Fair enough.’ I got up to put more logs in the stove.
Mac said, ’So it sounds like Ben’s employment might be cut short if Miss Brodie wants him to concentrate on Vogel.’
‘He’s going to do some digging on Vince McCrory too,’ I told Mac about the discussion on whether McCrory had steered the horse off the cour
se at Cheltenham, and about buzzers.
Mac smiled and drained his glass, ‘A horseman of exquisite skill if that turns out to be the case.’
‘Agreed,’ I reached for the cognac and tipped a short, slow stream over the rim of the brandy balloon. Mac nodded and raised a finger to stop me. I said, ‘What’s happening your side with this?’
He sighed and settled his bulk back, ‘We’ve adopted our specialized HIDHA approach…’ I knew Mac well enough to wait silently for the punchline. He said, ‘Hoping it doesn’t happen again.’
I smiled. He said, ‘You know as well as I do we’re buggered on this. Unless somebody decides to tell tales, or the perpetrators make a mistake, we just need to hope for the best. One of the benefits of twenty-four-seven news, and this virulent social media is that nothing stays in the headlines for long.’
’Spalpeen will be the shortest price of the meeting. You can probably breathe easy if you get past that race.’
‘You don’t think yours will beat him?’
‘He won’t. One of my memories of Cheltenham for as long as I live will be how sweetly that horse was travelling when I looked across at him. And we know he finds plenty when asked. He’ll win barring accidents.’
‘Dil Grant and Miss Brodie will surely be more hopeful than you about the chances of Stevedore?’
‘Up front, they will. And maybe Vita believes it. But Dil’s not daft. Well, he’s stupid but he’s not daft, if you know what I mean.’
‘I hear he’s punting big.’
‘Is that so?’
We smiled the same smile. Over the years, almost all the barriers between us had dropped, but, much as Dil aggravated me at times, some things were sacred. Trainers were not barred from betting, but Mac would be uneasy about the stakes Dil was playing in. It was none of my business.
Mac leaned forward and put his glass on the table, and the shallow pool of cognac glowed in the light as the new logs caught fire. I reached for the bottle, but Mac raised his palm, ‘No, thank you, Eddie. You’ve been a gracious host, but it was a long drive and if you don’t mind, I’ll head for bed.’
I got up, ’Sure. We’ve a nice big room for you in the farmhouse. This place is a bit too small. I hope that’s okay?’
He shuffled forward and pushed himself up from the low sofa, ‘Of course, of course. Anywhere at all. Wherever I lay my hat, as the old song goes. I can haunt the corridors while the clan is in Australia. When did you say they’d be back?’
‘August. That’s the plan. Kim’s supposed to be starting at boarding school in Edinburgh in September.’
‘Ah, good. Which one?’
‘Can’t recall, Mac. One of the fancy ones. They’re not my line, as you probably know. Not Kim’s either, poor bugger. His mother’s idea.’
‘It will do him more good than harm, if I can paraphrase an old saying.’
We went outside and walked toward the patch of light cast on the drive by the side window of the farmhouse kitchen. Mac said, ‘I know it’s just three lines of latitude above Lambourn, Eddie, but I always find it noticeably chillier up this way.’
‘You’re getting old, Mac. Though it is colder here in the hills.’
‘An unusually still night, too, I’d guess?’
‘It’s been an unusually still week. More like June than April.’
‘Calm before the storm, eh?’
‘Likely, knowing our luck.’
We covered the remaining fifty yards in companionable silence, and I felt oddly reassured by Mac’s dark bulk beside me that the big house would soon be alive again when Kim and the others came home.
Back in our small cottage, the clickety-clack of Mave’s keyboard as I approached the bedroom sounded like a busy typing pool sound-effect from an old black and white movie. And when I opened the door, the weak light from a small lamp in the corner reinforced the monochrome feel.
Mave sat on the bed, a slim silhouette. Even if the lampglow had reached her, it wouldn’t have found much.
She spoke without breaking her finger-rhythm, ‘Early night for the boys?’
I sat on the edge of the bed, ‘Mac’s tired.’
‘He’s getting old.’
‘I think losing Jean sucked about ten years out of the poor sod.’
‘He’ll adjust, Eddie. They don’t spend their whole childhood moulding those stiff upper lips for nothing.’
I sighed, and laid back, easing off my shoes, ‘That’s funny, that’s what Mac said, he’s adjusting…day by day, a tiny bit at a time.’
The clicking stopped as she reached to touch my arm, ’Stop worrying about him. You’ve enough to worry about.’
‘Thanks for reminding me.’
‘You’re welcome.’
I tried to get my trousers off, still lying down. Mave laughed and pushed me, ‘Get up, you lazy bugger!’
I grabbed at her, trying to keep my balance, and my phone rang.
By the time I’d scrambled it from my pocket I’d missed the call.
‘Who was it?’ Mave asked.
‘Ben.’
‘This late?’
I called back.
25
Ben answered on the first ring, ‘Eddie, sorry to call so late. Did I wake you?’
‘No, not at all. Everything okay?’
‘Well, yes, but I wanted to let you know before tomorrow, assuming you’ll be seeing Vita tomorrow?’
‘Yes, she’ll be at Aintree.’
‘It’s just that, well, this probably sounds stupid, but I’d rather be safe than sorry, tell her to be careful from a personal viewpoint.’
‘What’s happening?’
‘It might be nothing, but I think Vogel is some kind of woman hater, and he is so anti-American, they’ll lock him up if he ever lands there.’
‘How’d you find this out?’
‘A friend of mine is an accomplished…well, let’s call him a high tech eavesdropper. He’s very discreet.’
‘A hacker?’
Ben cleared his throat, ‘That would be a crude term. This guy’s the best.’
I glanced at Mave, keen to speak up, but this wasn’t the time. ‘So what’s he found?’ I said.
‘Vogel’s posting on message boards under an alias. Big time conspiracy theorist, especially where America is concerned, you know, the moon landing never happened, nine-eleven was down to the government, Obama’s a terrorist etcetera.’
‘What’s he saying about women?’
‘American women, specifically. They’re conspiring to take over from men, look at the jobs they have already, see how competitive they are, how insolent, that’s his word, they all are, how they’re bringing up their little girls to compete with men, that they need putting back in their place, blah, blah, blah.’
‘Nice man, but just so we’re clear, Vita’s not American. I know she’s got one of these mangled accents, and she lives in New York most of the time, but she was born in Scotland.’
‘Ah, right. Maybe that changes things a bit…though Vogel might be thinking she’s a Yank.’
‘Look, we’ll tell her, to be on the safe side.’
'You ought to see some of the stuff on these boards. A few of them call Vogel the voice of reason, trying to promote him as some sort of viable public spokesman come the day.’
‘Come what day?’
‘The day democracy is finally exposed for the sham it is. The day politicians pay the price.’
I looked at Mave, ‘Ben, I’ll get some more details about this. Mave’s a superstar too at all things technical, maybe she can help track Vogel and the places he’s hanging out online.’
‘That would be good, Eddie, take some pressure off me for now. Alice has kicked off on another link with DJ and I’m trying to help her too.’
‘Is he back?’
‘DJ? No, but Alice has found the guy who’s doing what she thinks is a lot of his work. She started following him, but a few of his regular stops are betting shops where she can’t get in, so, since I ha
ve no trouble these days convincing staff I’m over eighteen, I’ve landed the job of hanging around in the bookies.’
‘You’ll find a few conspiracy theorists in there, too.’
He laughed, ‘You said it.’
’So, what’s this guy doing, passing money to DJ or something?’
‘I think he might be laundering it through slot machines. My trouble is keeping up with the guy once he leaves the betting shop. He travels on foot until he comes out, then there’s usually someone waiting to pick him up in whatever fancy car’s available.’
‘Want me to have a word with Monty tomorrow and get Bruno back on it?’
‘Nah, not worth it. I think once Alice knows what he’s actually doing, she’ll calm down a bit. I’m learning that if I humour her, she doesn’t kick and scream so much, figuratively speaking, of course.’
‘Of course.’
’Sorry,’ Ben said, ‘just getting paranoid after reading so much of Vogel’s bile. Anyway, send me Mave’s details and I’ll forward some stuff. I’ll see you on Saturday.’
‘Alice excited about the National?’
’She is. She’s asking if Prim will be there.’
‘I don’t know, Ben, and it’s not one I’m inclined to get involved with as far as Dil is concerned.’
‘Don’t worry. Just leave it. I think maybe she’s missing her mother more than she thought she would. Prim’s about the same age as Alice, Alice senior that is, and, well, you know how it is.’
‘I do. Let’s wait and see. I know Prim wouldn’t want to miss the National, so maybe she’ll stick two fingers up to Vita and Dil. If she does, I’m sure I can get Monty to invite her up to the box.’
‘That would be cool…as Alice would say.’
‘It would. Listen, I’ll speak to Dil and to Vita about Vogel, I’ll call them first thing.’
‘It’s probably nothing, but she’s paying me to find things out, and, well, I found something out.’
‘I’ll let you know how it goes, Ben. See you Saturday. Give our love to Alice.’
‘I will. Good night.’
26
We lay side by side in the April darkness. Mave said, ‘Shall we open a window?’