Dick Francis - Wild Horses

‘Well... I... ’

‘By then,’ I suggested, ‘you knew she had lovers. Not dream lovers. Real ones. The gang. All casual. A joke. A game. I’d guess she never thought the sex act more than a passing delight, like ice cream, and there are plenty of people like that, though it’s not them but the intense and the jealous that sell the tabloids. When Sonia died, your playing-at-marriage was already over. You told me so. You might have felt shock and regret at her death, but you were young and healthy and blessed with a resilient nature, and your grief was short.’

‘You can’t possibly know.’

‘Am I right so far?’

‘Well... ’

‘Tell me what happened afterwards,’ I said. ‘If you tell me, I promise not to put anything you say in the film. I’ll keep the fictional story well away. But it would be better if I knew the truth because, like I told you before, I might reveal your innermost secrets simply by guessing. So tell me... and you won’t find what you’re afraid of on the screen.’

Jackson Wells surveyed his creeper-covered house and his untidy drive and yard, and no doubt thought of his pleasant existence with his second wife and of his pride in Lucy.

‘You’re right.’ He sighed heavily. ‘They were all there, and I didn’t find out for weeks.’

I let time pass. He had taken the first great step: the rest would follow.

‘Weeks afterwards, they began to unravel,’ he said at length. ‘They’d sworn to each other they would never say a word. Never. But it got too much for them. Pig pissed off to Australia and left me with only Derek Carsington to ride my nags; not that it mattered much, the owners were leaving as if I had the pox, and then Ridley... ’ He paused. ‘Ridley got drunk, which wasn’t a rarity even in those days, and spilled his guts from every possible orifice. Ridley disgusts me but Lucy still thinks he’s a laugh, which won’t last much longer as he’d have his hand up her skirt by now except that I’ve told her always to wear jeans. No fun being a girl these days, not like Sonia, she loved skirts down to her ankles and no bra most of the time and a green crewcut — and why the hell am I telling you this?’

I thought he might be mourning Sonia twenty-six years too late; but maybe nothing was ever too late in that way.

‘She was fun ,’ he said. ‘Always good for a laugh.’

‘Yes.’

‘Ridley told me what they’d done.’ The pain of the revelation showed sharply in the sunny face, i as good as killed him. I thrashed him. Hit him. Beat him with a riding whip. Anything I could lay my hands on. I kicked him unconscious.’

‘That was grief,’ I said.

‘Anger.’

‘Same thing.’

Jackson stared unseeingly at time past.

‘I went to see Valentine to ask him what to do,’ he said. ‘Valentine was like a father to all of us. A better father than any of us had. Valentine loved Sonia like a daughter.’

I said nothing. The way Valentine had loved Sonia had had nothing to do with fatherhood.

‘What did Valentine say?’ I asked.

‘He already knew! He said Paul had told him. Paul was in pieces, like Ridley. Paul had told his uncle everything. Valentine said they could all either live with what they’d done or go to the police... and he wouldn’t choose for them.’

‘Did Valentine know that Roddy Visborough had been there?’

‘I told him,’ Jackson said frankly. ‘Sonia was Roddy’s aunt . And whatever sort of sex orgy they’d all been planning — I mean, of course, it was nothing like that, forget I said it — Roddy couldn’t be dragged in, they said it was impossible. She was his aunt!’

‘You all knew Valentine well,’ I said.

‘Yes, of course. His old smithy was only just down the road from my yard. He was always in and out with the horses and we’d drop in there at his house, all of us. Like I said, he was a sort of father. Better than a father. But everything broke up. Training died on me, and Paul left Newmarket and moved away with his mother and father, and Roddy went off to go on the show jumping circuit... he’d been wanting to be an assistant racehorse trainer only he hadn’t yet got a job, and Pig, like I said, he’d already gone off. And then Valentine was moving too. The old smithy needed impossible roof repairs, so he had it torn down and sold the land for building. I was there one day when he was watching the builders throw the junk of a lifetime down to fill up an old well that he had in the back there, that was a danger to children, and I said things were never going to be the same again. And of course they weren’t.’

‘But they turned out all right for you.’

‘Well, yes, they did.’ He couldn’t repress his grin for long. ‘And Valentine became the Grand Old Man of racing, and Roddy Visborough’s won enough silver cups for an avalanche. Ridley’s still bumming about and I help him out from time to time, and Paul got married... ’ He stopped uncertainly.

‘And Paul got killed,’ I said baldly

He was silent.

‘Do you know who killed him?’ I asked.

‘No.’ He stared. ‘Do you?’

I didn’t answer directly. I said, ‘Did any of them tell Valentine — or you — which of the four of them throttled Sonia?’

‘It was an accident.’

‘Whose accident?’

‘She was going to let them put their hands round her neck. She was laughing, they all agreed about that. They were sort of high, but not on drugs.’

‘On excitement,’ I said.

His blue eyes widened. ‘They were all going to... that’s what broke them up... they were all going to have a turn with her, and she wanted it... she bet they couldn’t all manage it, not like that when the lads had all ridden out for second morning exercise, not before they came back again in an hour, and not with all of the gang watching and cheering each other on, and not in a box on hay as a bed... and they were all crazy, and so was she... and Pig put his hands round her neck and kissed her... and squeezed... and she choked... he went on too long... and she went dark... her skin went dark, and by the time they realised... they couldn’t bring her back... ’ His voice died, and after a while he said, ‘You’re not surprised, are you?’

‘I won’t put it in the film.’

‘I was so angry,’ he said. ‘How could they? How could she let them? It wasn’t drugs... ’

‘Do you realise,’ I asked, ‘that it’s almost always men who die in that sort of asphyxia?’

‘Oh, God... They wanted to see if it worked the same for women.’

The total foolishness of it blankly silenced us both.

I took a breath. I said, ‘The Drumbeat said I couldn’t solve Sonia’s death, and I have. So now I’ll find out who killed Paul Pannier.’

He pushed himself away from the gate explosively, shouting back at me, ‘’How? Leave it alone. Leave all of us alone. Don’t make this pissing film.’

His raised voice brought my judo keeper out of the car like an uncoiling eel. Jackson looked both surprised and alarmed, even as I made soothing hand gestures to calm my minder’s reflexes.

I said to Jackson, ‘My bodyguard’s like a growling dog. Pay no attention. The film company insists on him because others beside you want this movie stopped.’

‘That bitch Audrey, Sonia’s sneering sister, I bet she does, for one.’

‘She above all,’ I agreed.

Lucy reappeared at the front door and called to her father, ‘Dad, Uncle Ridley’s on the phone.’

‘Tell him I’ll come in a minute.’

I said, as she dematerialised, ‘Your brother rode on the Heath this morning, for the film. He won’t be pleased with me.’

‘Why not?’