by Joe McNally
’Sorry,’ I smiled.
She smiled, too, ‘Boy, do you look cute.’
’I’ll bet. Show me the map.’
A purple line ran from Ben’s place up toward the pub we usually met in, then down Melling Road, and south east along the canal, before heading northwest toward Southport, then dipping back south west to the beach at Crosby.
Mave said, ‘He was in a vehicle when he left that spot at Melling Road,’ she pointed with her pen. ‘Pings are happening far too fast for someone on foot.’
‘What’s around there?’
‘A pub called the Blue Anchor. Otherwise, just houses.’
I straightened. Ben knew that area well. The canal runs behind The Blue Anchor. We had walked past it that day we were out. I said, ‘You know the pings Ben’s phone was sending to the masts, is there any way of tracking the phones of whoever was with him?’
‘There’d be thousands of phones pinging those masts at the same time…It would be possible though.’
‘How?’ I worked on my hair with the towel. Mave chewed the end of her pen, then said, ‘I could write a short programme to suck in all the numbers at each mast and filter through until we find one or more that’s shadowing Ben’s.’
‘How short is short, timewise?’
‘Maybe an hour?’
‘Go to it, Maven Judge!’
41
Mave’s programme turned up nothing. No mobile numbers travelled that route other than Ben’s. Mave cupped her chin in her hands and mumbled, ‘Frustrating.’
‘It is.’
She turned to me, ‘You said he didn’t drive, so he couldn’t have been on his own.’
‘But whoever’s trying to make it look like suicide wants us to believe he was on his own. Am I right in saying that if they had their phones switched off, they’d be invisible to the masts?’
‘Yep. They can’t ping, if they’re not on.’
‘Would that be generally known, do you think?’
Mave made one of her faces, where her cheeks went up and her nose wrinkled, ‘Well, first you’d need to know that your phone is always looking for these masts anyway, and I doubt that ever crosses anyone’s mind, unless they’re battery saving or criminal.’
I dragged a chair over and sat close to her, ’So, would you say that any criminal turning off his phone was pretty tech savvy?’
‘Not necessarily. They’d just pick up the advice from someone they trusted. They wouldn’t necessarily be interested in the technical facts. Why?’
‘Because, if they’re nobbling horses, maybe they’re using hi-tech to do it rather than drugs or guns.’
Mave picked up her pen again and tapped it on her chin, ‘Were you thinking of something in particular?’
‘Remember the ID chips, the ones Watt and Kilberg were using before we caught them? I just wondered if that could be adapted and some kind of signal sent to it?’
‘A signal could be sent, but what would it activate? It would need to be something linked to a neural pathway. Anyway, how would they get access to the horses? We’re talking surgery here if I remember correctly. Minor surgery, maybe, but they’d still need to get at the chip, or plant another one.’
I leant forward, elbows on knees, ‘Vets.’
Mave looked quizzical. I said, ‘I was fixated on Vogel, on the starter’s assistants. I never thought about vets.’
‘You know Dil’s vet well, though, whatshisname?’
‘His name is Winslow Mimnaugh, Winnie.’
‘And would you trust him?’
‘Almost with my life. But the horses weren’t all Dil’s, were they?’
‘Who else does this Winnie guy work for?’
‘I’ll find out,’ I stood up, ‘I’d bet my life he’s straight, but I’ll find out if he has anything to do with the other yards. I’ll call Dil…Where’s my phone?’
‘Probably in the pocket of your trousers on the bedroom floor where you kicked them off to shower.’
I went to the bedroom and came back waving the phone, ‘Mave, while I’m speaking to Dil, will you make a start on checking which vets were on duty at each of the tracks?’
‘Aye, aye, sir!’
I smiled and scrolled for Dil’s number.
Dil and I rode out in the early afternoon, shoulders brushing the white blossom on the hedgerows. I was surprised by the depth of its scent, which obliterated the smell of horse and leather.
It had been Dil’s idea to saddle up and get away from the yard. As the path widened, I moved alongside him, ‘Not like you to seek fresh air,’ I said.
‘I had to get away from Vita. She’s suffocating me. She was supposed to be flying home today and changed her mind, again.’
‘You know what they say, be careful what you wish for.’
Dil turned toward me, and held up his right hand, finger and thumb an inch apart, ‘I’m this close to kicking her out.’
I smiled. Dil said, ‘Seriously, I’ve had enough.’
I suspected that Prim’s departure had pushed him to this edge, but I said nothing. Dil just needed to vent, and he did that for the next half mile, until we reached open fields.
When Dil had got all his frustration out, and had been quiet for a minute, I went over the conversation I’d had with Mave about vets, ‘I’ve known Winnie longer than you have, and I trust him, but I wanted to know how you felt?’
Dil’s shoulders rocked gently as we kept the horses at a steady walk. He said, ‘I wouldn’t say Winnie has been himself since all this shit started. He’s turned Stevedore inside out trying to find some physical cause for the bolting. He even had a friend of his at Newmarket do dozens of different cross comparisons on bloods from Stevedore and Montego Moon and Kingdom Come.’
‘Why didn’t you tell me this?’ I tried not to sound confrontational, but was annoyed that so much had been going on without Dil telling me. He said, ’Tell you what? That Winnie had nothing to report? Would you expect a newsman, say, Ben Searcey to ring you up and say, “Guess what, Eddie, no news!”’
‘That’s not what I meant, Dil. I just didn’t know you’d gone to those lengths.’
‘It wasn’t me, it was Winnie. He’s not even charging for the bloods work. He’s as pissed off as everyone else.’
‘I’ll go and see him.’
‘Do that.’
‘I will. Now, what are you going to do about Vita, and Prim?’
He turned and reached to do his fringe-sweep, but forgot he had the helmet on, and he ended up just tucking a few hairs inside the rim, ‘I don’t know, yet…What would you do?’
‘You want the truth?’
He nodded. I said, ‘I don’t know because I wouldn’t have got into the position in the first place.’
I expected an outburst, but he turned again to look straight ahead at the path worn into the grass along the field edge, and he spoke quietly, ‘And I shouldn’t have got myself into it.’
‘Well, maybe it’s time to give Vita her marching orders.’
‘I can’t do that, Eddie. I told you, I was this close to it, but it would make me look a quitter. She’d think I was baling out because of Stevedore and the others. I could live if I lost her business, but I’m not having her saying I’m a quitter.’
I looked at him. He’d quit Prim quickly enough when it suited him. He’d quit more jobs than I’d had winners, but he didn’t want a woman who cared little for him to think he was a quitter. I shook my head, but managed to keep quiet.
42
Winnie Mimnaugh had blue eyes that were slightly popped, as though he’d fitted his stethoscope and blown a short blast into his ears. His fair hair popped too, in a crew-cut carpet a centimetre high. It would have been a dense growth for a man half his age, and each time I saw him I felt a weird temptation to stroke it. It looked as tough as a welcome mat.
Dil and I were in the office at Winnie’s practice. He shook my hand, ‘Eddie, I should have called you. To tell you the truth, I was embarrassed by the sham
bles I’ve made of these horses.’
I smiled, ‘What shambles? Don’t be daft, it’s not your fault.’
‘But there has to be a physiological reason for the way they’re behaving, and I should be able to find it!’
‘Can I offer you a theory?’ I said.
‘Please do.’
I told him about the microchips and signals and all that Mave and I had discussed, but the more I talked, the more those poppy blue eyes clouded over. The polite smile stayed on his mouth, but those old windows on the soul had misted up. When I’d explained everything, I added, ‘You think I’m crazy, don’t you?’
‘Well, I’m hoping you’re crazy, because if someone’s developed a technique that advanced, I can’t see how it could be combatted.’
Dil said, ‘But, in your opinion, Winnie, could something like that be possible? Links to neural pathways, all that kind of stuff?’
‘Dil, I think we’re in the realms of Frankenstein here, if you want an honest opinion. The unravelling of equine neural pathways into something as predictable, and as utterly consistent as what’s been happening just isn’t possible. I’m not saying it won’t be in thirty or forty years, but I’m not buying it today.’
I sighed long and loud and Dil and Winnie looked at me. I raised my hands, ‘Maybe it’s hypnosis for horses.’
Winnie smiled, but he looked resigned, and tired. I said, ‘If we were just talking about setting a horse off here, then we’re looking at a rifle, or a laser beam or something, but they’re not just setting them off. The horses are being started, then steered, then stopped, and each of those has been added since Montego Moon. Whatever they’re doing, they’re refining it.’
Winnie said, ‘Maybe we should stop looking for the what and start looking for the “they”.’
‘We are,’ I said, ‘and I think we probably found them, or, at least Ben did.’ I turned to Dil, ‘Have you told Winnie about Ben?’
‘Yes,’ he looked at Winnie, ‘Ben was brilliant at finding these guys, not so brilliant at avoiding them once they knew.’
I said, ‘Dil, we don’t know that yet. Don’t blame Ben.’ Dil shrugged and did his fringe-sweep. He was building resentment over Ben. Prim leaving to look after Alice had stoked his ill-feeling.
I turned back to Winnie, ‘Look, whatever’s happening to these horses, somebody’s got access to them, somebody who shouldn’t have. If it is a microchip, or a drug of some kind, there has to be physical contact with the horse at some point. You’ve done nothing to them, so who has? What about the vets at the track?’
Winnie said, ‘If there’s a bent vet, he’d be working alone. That would be my bet.’
I said, ‘By working alone you mean it would all be his idea?’
’No, I mean I’d be amazed if you can find one crooked vet on track. The chances of finding more than one, are remote, to my mind, at least.’
‘If you had to name one who might be worth checking out, who would it be?’
His eyes popped even more and he raised a hand, ‘I know half a dozen who work this area, Eddie, and I’d pretty much stand by any of them. I can’t speak for the ones down south.’
‘Okay,’ I said, ‘No offence meant. I’m not having a go at your profession, Winnie, I’m just working through a process of elimination. Somebody with a lot of knowledge is getting at these horses. It’s not you, and it’s not me, and it’s not Dil. It’s got to be happening at the track.’
Dil reached to nudge my arm with a soft fist, ‘About time your buddy McCarthy did some work then, don’t you think?’
‘He’s on it, Dil.’
‘Well he’s not on it heavy enough. Have they come up with a single lead? A single idea?’
‘Fair enough,’ I said, ‘I’ll call Mac later.’
Dil drove us back to the yard. He was quiet for the first minute of the trip, then he started in on what I knew had been building all day, ‘Has Prim told you what her plans are? I mean, has she said when when she’s coming back?’
‘Not to me, she hasn’t. Why don’t you call her?’
‘That’s not how I work.’
I gazed at him, ’So, how do you “work”, as you put it?’
He set his jaw then relaxed it, and made to turn and look at me, but changed his mind. He said, ‘Once you start chasing a woman, you might as well forget it.’
‘Ah, right. So what were you doing on those cruise ships when you were widow gathering?’
‘That’s not chasing. There’s a subtlety to it…an art. It was something I had to learn, then perfect over the years.’
I smiled, watching him, and said, ‘You make it sound like some great achievement that will leave lasting benefits for mankind.’
He glanced across, ‘Listen, you’ve never tried it. There’s a skill to it, a finesse that can border on genius.’
I knew him well enough to realize he was serious, and I said, ‘Dil! You’re a fucking hustler! You might not be a two-bit hustler as they say in your old homeland, but, well, in fact, I take that back, you are a two-bit hustler at heart, it’s just that you work the upper end of the money scale.’
‘Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it.’
‘Dil, I’d sooner try riding a fence of red hot spikes than prowl the bars and casinos on a floating prison.’
‘Well, you’re hardly Mister Right yourself going on your record with women.’
‘Maybe. But it doesn’t make me treat them like I learned how to do it in a correspondence course for dickheads.’
He laughed, ‘You’re jealous.’
‘Of what? All the moaning you were doing this morning about Vita? You’re only beginning to realize what a good woman Prim is, and you’re going to burn through her pretty soon. Can’t even pick up the phone to her because the manual says no.’
He tried to keep smiling, but it was hard work, and it faded and he said, ‘Seriously, has she mentioned me?’
‘Seriously? I haven’t spoken to her since yesterday, but as it happens, I’m calling her tonight to see how Alice is.’
‘Don’t tell her I’ve been asking about her!’
‘Don’t worry, I’ve got better things to do.’
‘How long is she planning on staying?’
‘Not long, I hope, for her sake. I’d like to get Alice out of there, and Prim.’
‘Well, I would too. It’s not as though I don’t care for her.’
‘No, it’s just that you’re an idiot.’
He smiled again, but only with his mouth.
43
Mac promised he’d round up the information on racecourse vets. When I finished that call, I rang Prim, ‘How’s it going in Deadwood?’
‘Eddie! How are you?’
‘I’m okay, Prim. How are you and how is Alice?’
‘Oh, Alice is a six stone fuse that never seems to burn out. I came here thinking how much she reminded me of my young self. Now I know I could never have held a candle to her. She’s a remarkable kid. Have you any news of her father?’
‘Afraid not, Prim. Mave’s doing what she can online with mobile phone data and stuff, but nothing to report so far.’
‘Alice has been non stop here trying to find out where he is. We ended up doing house to house calls last night.’
‘Seriously?’
‘Seriously. I went with her from door to door. She just knocks and won’t leave until somebody answers, then you either get dog’s abuse or they listen to her. And when they listen to her, most of them agree to do what they can, and that’s saying something around here.’
‘But you’re okay?’
‘I’m fine.’
‘Is Alice there?’
‘She’s in the bath.’
‘Do you think there’s any way of persuading her to come and live with us until Ben turns up?’
‘Not a chance, Eddie. Not a hope. She’s here until he’s found, dead or alive.’
‘That’s about what I expected. Do you want me to try and make arrangements t
o relieve you, if you’ll pardon the question?’
‘Eddie, I feel more alive here, than I have for years. Alice isn’t leaving her Dad, and I’m not leaving Alice.’
‘Well, I’m pretty sure it’s tied up with this wild horses scam, so if we find the scammers, we find Ben. Hopefully it won’t be long.’
‘Have you got anything to go on?’
‘Not yet. But Ben found something pretty quick, so it shouldn’t take us too long to figure out the same as he did.’
‘What about this Vogel guy?’
‘He’s out of it. Ben had some stuff on him, but it didn’t fit with the horses. It was when Ben moved on from Vogel that he found whatever got him carted away.’
‘It was the Blue Anchor pub he was last seen, is that right?’
‘It was at that location. Whether it was in the pub or not I don’t know. Why?’
‘Well, that’s where we’re heading this evening. Alice got some posters printed with her Dad’s picture on. We’re both going to the pub, and it’s my job to go in and hand them out. With a smile, and a phone number.’
‘Whose phone number?’
‘Alice’s. And, I know, don’t tell me. I’ve been through it all with her. Save your breath.’
‘But do you even know what the pub is like? It could be worse than Deadwood for all you know.’
‘Well, we’ll soon find out.’
‘Prim, look, why don’t you hold off and I’ll drive down there and come with you?’
‘I’d love to, Eddie, but I reckon you’ve got about ten minutes. As soon as Alice has dried her hair, she’s heading for the Blue Anchor, and she won’t be waiting for you or me or anybody else.’
‘Let me talk to her.’
‘Eddie, listen…we know each other well enough you and me?’
‘Of course, but-‘
‘Eddie…I now know Alice better than I know you, better than I know Dil, better than I know anyone. She doesn’t take much knowing, because what you see is most definitely what you get, and if I tell you that Alice will listen politely to you, then put the phone down and head out, then trust me, that’s exactly what she’ll do.’
