Bloodline

‘No, it was a thousand that time.’

‘Did Clare get another one too?’

‘Yes,’ Austin said. ‘Also for a thousand.’

‘And did you pay that for her as well?’

‘No,’ he said. ‘I told her to pay it out of the money I’d given her for losing on Tortola Beach.’

She obviously hadn’t done that, not if the two thousand I’d found in her desk had been the same money. I wondered if she’d paid it at all.

‘But you paid?’

‘Yes,’ he said gloomily.

‘And you still didn’t go to the police?’

‘I couldn’t, could I? Not when I’d paid up once before.’

‘And not when you’d also layed Tortola Beach to lose.’

‘That was only a bit,’ he said. ‘I couldn’t do too much, could I, or it would have been suspicious.’

‘But why on earth would you stop a horse if you weren’t making much from it?’

He looked the picture of abject misery, a stark contrast to when he had led his victorious horse into the winners’ enclosure earlier that afternoon.

‘Clare was adamant that we should do it. She seemed to act like it was a game. I told her not to be so bloody silly but she said that she would give it a go anyway, whether I wanted her to or not.’

‘So you agreed?’

‘Yes.’

‘But why then did you pay her two thousand pounds if you didn’t make much out of it?’

‘It was like a bet between us. I told her she could have half what I made if she pulled it off without there even being a stewards’ enquiry. She claimed it was easy and that she’d done it before, but I didn’t believe her. I really didn’t think she could do it, but boy, did she prove me wrong. It was brilliant. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life.’

My stupid brilliant sister, I thought. Competitive to the end. It hadn’t been the money that had been important, it had been winning her bet with Austin.

‘You said you’ve now been asked for more.’

‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I had another note yesterday morning demanding ten thousand.’ He again looked close to tears. ‘I can’t afford that sort of money.’

‘Show me the note,’ I said.

He opened the top left-hand drawer of the desk and removed a single sheet of paper, placing it down in front of me.

TIME TO PAY A LITTLE MORE.

A PAYMENT OF JUST £10000 IS NEEDED FOR ME TO REMAIN SILENT.

GET THE CASH READY. PAYMENT INSTRUCTIONS WILL FOLLOW.

It did look remarkably like the one I’d found in Clare’s freezer, but it had one very significant difference. The amount of ten thousand pounds had had the last zero added by hand. When it had been printed it had read just one thousand. The blackmailer had obviously decided at the last minute to seriously up the stakes.

‘If it had been for just a thousand like last time,’ Austin said, ‘I’d probably pay it. But ten grand is completely out of order.’

I thought that even one thousand was out of order.

‘When did you say this arrived?’

‘Yesterday morning,’ he said. ‘In the post.’

‘Where’s the envelope it came in?’

He took an envelope out of the drawer and placed it on the desk. It had been addressed in the same printed small capital letters as the note, and the postmark showed that it had been posted on Thursday, even though I couldn’t read from where.

‘Have you had the payment instructions?’ I asked.

‘Not yet.’

‘How did you hand the money over before?’

‘I was told I had to place used twenties in a brown envelope and then leave it under my car in the Owners and Trainers car park at Doncaster races, up against the inside of the back wheel.’

‘Didn’t you watch to see who collected it?’

‘No,’ he said. ‘I was told not to. Anyway I had a runner in the first and I had to go and saddle it.’

‘You could have got someone else to watch.’

He stared at me in disbelief. ‘Oh yeah! Tell me, who was I going to get to watch the package without telling them exactly why?’

‘How did you get the instructions?’

‘They also came in the post,’ he said. ‘They arrived the day before I had to leave the cash.’

‘Did Clare get the same instructions?’

‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘The first time I just put a note in with my payment to say that I was including hers.’

Crazy, I thought.

‘And was it the same drop method both times?’

‘Yes,’ he said. ‘Except the second time was at York, not Doncaster.’

‘And you’ve heard nothing else?’ I asked.

‘Not until yesterday morning, although there were those bloody pieces in the Gazette this week. I nearly shit myself when I saw that headline on Tuesday.’

‘Why? Did you think it was written about you?’

‘What would you think?’ he said.

‘But it didn’t say anything about the horse’s trainer being involved.’

‘It did last May when there was that piece about a trainer laying his horses on the internet.’

‘Was that you?’ I asked.

‘I’ve no idea,’ he said. ‘But it was still much too close for comfort.’

‘Was the article printed in the paper before or after you paid the first two hundred?’

‘After,’ he said definitely. ‘I remember clearly that the first note arrived on my birthday, and that’s the twenty-fifth of April. It was not much of a birthday present, I can tell you.’