Dick Francis - For Kicks

Adams, although it had been instinct with him, not reason, was quite right to be alarmed that it was I and not Jerry who was now looking after Mickey.

In the hours I had spent close to the horse I had come to understand what was really the matter with him, and all my accumulated knowledge about the affected horses, and about all horses in general, had gradually shaken into place. I did by that day know in outline how Adams and Humber had made their winners win.

I knew in outline, but not in detail. A theory, but no proof. For detail and proof I still needed more time, and if the only way I could buy time was to sit on the ground and implore Adams not to beat me, then it had to be done. But it was pretty awful, just the same.

October's reply was unrelenting.

"Six-Ply, according to his present owner, is not going to be entered in any selling races. Does this mean that he will not be doped?

"The answers to your questions are as follows:

"I. The powder is soluble phenobarbitone. '2. The physical characteristics of Chin-Chin are:

bay gelding, white blaze down nose, white sock, off-fore. Kandersteg:

gelding, washy chestnut, three white socks, both fore-legs and near hind. Stariamp: brown gelding, near hind white heel. '3. Blackburn beat Arsenal on November 30th.

"I do not appreciate your flippancy. Does your irresponsibility now extend to the investigation?"

Irresponsibility. Duty. He could really pick his words. I read the descriptions of the horses again. They told me that Stariamp was Mickey. Chin-Chin was Dobbin, one of the two racehorses I did which belonged to

Humber. Kandersteg was a pale shambling creature looked after by Bert, and known in the yard as Flash.

If Blackburn beat Arsenal on November 30th, Jerry had been at Humber's eleven weeks already.

I tore up October's letter and wrote back.

"Six-Ply may now be vulnerable whatever race he runs in, as he is the only shot left in the locker since Old Etonian and Superman both misfired.

"In case I fall on my nut out riding, or get knocked over by a passing car, I think I had better tell you that I have this week realized how the scheme works, even though I am as yet ignorant of most of the details."

I told October that the stimulant Adams and Humber used was in fact adrenalin; and I told him how I believed it was introduced into the blood stream.

"As you can see, there are two prime facts which must be established before Adams and Humber can be prosecuted. I will do my best to finish the job properly, but I can't guarantee it, as the time factor is a nuisance."

Then, because I felt very alone, I added impulsively, jerkily, a postscript.

"Believe me. Please believe me. I did nothing to Patty."

When I had written it, I looked at this cri de coeur in disgust. I am getting as soft as I pretend, I thought. I tore the bottom off the sheet of paper and threw the pitiful words away, and posted my letter in the box.

Thinking it wise actually to buy some tranquillizers in case anyone checked, I stopped at the chemist's and asked for some. The chemist refused to sell me any, as they could only be had on a doctor's prescription. How long would it be, I wondered ruefully, before Adams or Humber discovered this awkward fact.

Jerry was disappointed when I ate my meal in the cafe very fast, and left him alone to finish and walk back from Posset, but I assured him that I had jobs to do. It was high time I took a look at the surrounding countryside.

I rode out of Posset and, stopping the motor-cycle in a lay-by, got out the map over which I had pored intermittently during the week. I had drawn on it with pencil and compasses two concentric circles: the outer circle had a radius of eight miles from Humber's stables, and the inner circle a radius of five miles. If Jud had driven straight there and back when he had gone to fetch Mickey, the place he had fetched him from would lie in the area between the circles.

Some directions from Humber's were unsuitable because of open-cast coal mines and eight miles to the southeast lay the outskirts of the sprawling mining town called Clavering. All round the north and west sides, however, there was little but moorland interspersed with small valleys like the ones in which Humber's stable lay, small fertile pockets in miles and miles of stark windswept heath.

Tellbridge, the village where Adams lived, lay outside the outer circle by two miles, and because of this I did not think Mickey could have been lodged there during his absence from Humber's. But all the same the area on a line from Number's yard to Adams' village seemed the most sensible to take a look at first.

As I did not wish Adams to find me spying out the land round his house, I fastened on my crash helmet, which I had not worn since the trip to Edinburgh, and pulled up over my eyes a large pair of goggles, under which even my sisters wouldn't have recognized me. I didn't, as it happened, see Adams on my travels; but I did see his house, which was a square, cream-coloured Georgian pile with gargoyle heads adorning the gate posts. It was the largest, most imposing building in the tiny group of a church, a shop, two pubs, and a gaggle of cottages which made up Tellbridge.

I talked about Adams to the boy who filled my petrol tank in the Tellbridge garage.

"Mr. Adams? Yes, he bought old Sir Lucas' place three-four years ago.

After the old man died. There weren't no family to keep it on. "

"And Mrs. Adams?" I suggested.

"Blimey, there isn't any Mrs. Adams," he said, laughing and pushing his fair hair out of his eyes with the back of his wrist.

"But a lot of birds, he has there sometimes. Often got a houseful there, he has.

Nobs, now, don't get me wrong. Never has anyone but nobs in his house, doesn't Mr. Adams. And anything he wants, he gets, and quick. Never mind anyone else. He woke the whole village up at two in the morning last Friday because he got it into his head that he'd like to ring the church bells. He smashed a window to get in. I ask you! Of course, no one says much, because he spends such a lot of money in the village. Food and drink and wages, and so on. Everyone's better off, since he came. "

"Does he often do things like that ringing the church bells?"

"Well, not exactly, but other things, yes. I shouldn't think you could believe all you hear. But they say he pays up handsome if he does any damage, and everyone just puts up with it. High spirits, that's what they say it is."

But Adams was too old for high spirits of that sort.

"Does he buy his petrol here?" I asked idly, fishing in my pocket for some money.

"Not often he doesn't, he has his own tank." The smile died out of the boy's open face.

"In fact, I only served him once, when his supplies had run out."

"What happened?"

"Well, he trod on my foot. In his hunting boots, too. I couldn't make out if he did it on purpose, because it seemed like that really, but why would he do something like that?"

"I can't imagine."

He shook his head wondering.

"He must have thought I'd moved out of his way, I suppose. Put his heel right on top of my foot, he did, and leaned back. I only had sneakers on. Darn nearly broke my bones, he did. He must weigh getting on for sixteen stone, I shouldn't wonder."

He sighed and counted my change into my palm, and I thanked him and went on my way thinking that it was extraordinary how much a psychopath could get away with if he was big enough and clever and well-born.

It was a cold afternoon, and cloudy, but I enjoyed it. Stopping on the highest point of a shoulder of moorland I sat straddling the bike and looking round at rolling distances of bare bleak hills and at the tall chimneys of Clavering pointing up on the horizon. I took off my helmet and goggles and pushed my fingers through my hair to let the cold wind in to my scalp. It was invigorating.