Triple Crown Read Free

‘I’d pebbledash the ceiling if I
wasn’t careful.’
    I’d asked him what the jockeys did now that those drugs had all been banned. ‘Fingers down the throat, mate,’ he’d said. ‘Eat to ease the hunger pain then throw it
all back up again so as not to put on any weight. Not clever really.’
    ‘Can’t do much for their teeth.’
    ‘Teeth?’ He’d laughed again. ‘Bugger the teeth. Most of those get knocked out in falls anyway.’
    I dragged my mind back to the matter in hand.
    ‘Surely Jimmy would know we would test him for diuretics,’ I said.
    ‘The police lab says this is something new. Still a thiazide, whatever that means, but a synthetic version. Perhaps Jimmy thought it wouldn’t show up in a test. And maybe he’s
right.’
    ‘Why do these bloody drug firms keep muddying the water with new compounds?’ I sighed. ‘Don’t they realise we’re trying to stop the cheats?’
    ‘Apparently millions of people take diuretics every day for heart problems and high blood pressure.’
    ‘I’m one of those,’ Tony said meekly, tapping his jacket pocket.
    I suppose I couldn’t realistically blame the drug companies for making our life difficult, not if they were doing good for millions.
    I sighed again. ‘So why did the supplier run? And why pull a knife?’
    ‘He claims he didn’t know what was in the packet,’ Nigel said.
    ‘So they caught him then?’
    ‘My police contact said the man walked out of the woods with his arms in the air when he heard the dogs coming. He’d got rid of the knife by then, of course, and the cops
weren’t about to launch a massive search for a weapon that hadn’t been used. The man claimed he was only an intermediary, delivering a sealed package for a friend.’
    ‘So why did he run?’
    ‘He says that he was told the package contained drugs and he’d assumed they were illegal.’
    He hadn’t been the only one.
    I was now even more relieved that Tony hadn’t had a ‘piece’ in the lay-by. I could imagine the furore that would have followed the shooting of a man who was supplying perfectly
legal medication.
    ‘It seems odd to me that he just happened to have a knife in his pocket. Surely that’s not normal.’
    Tony waved a dismissive hand as if to say that it was quite normal where he came from.
    The man’s car had been removed to a forensic laboratory to be searched and, according to Nigel’s police chum, no illegal substances had been found. The man was free to pick it up
whenever he wanted to.
    The phone on my desk rang. I answered it.
    ‘Jeff, it’s Paul Maldini,’ said a voice down the line. ‘I need you in my office, right away.’
    Oh God, I thought. The chief superintendent must have called.
    ‘On my way,’ I said.
    ‘And Jeff, bring Tony with you.’
    ‘And Nigel?’ I asked.
    ‘No. Only you and Tony.’
    How odd, I thought. It had been Nigel and me who had been responsible for setting up this sorry affair, not Tony. He had simply been an innocent observer to the disaster. It didn’t seem
fair that he should be facing the firing squad alongside me.
    Tony and I made our way along the corridor to Paul’s office. It felt to me like we were two miscreant schoolboys who had been summoned to the headmaster’s study after having been
caught smoking behind the bike sheds – hugely apprehensive and not a little frightened.
    ‘Ah, come in, come in, both of you,’ Paul said as I knocked and opened his door. ‘Sit down.’ He waved at the two chairs in front of his desk.
    I thought the condemned always had to stand to receive their punishment.
    Tony and I sat down.
    ‘Now, Jeff,’ Paul said, smiling and nodding at Tony, ‘Tony here has something to ask you.’
    ‘Eh?’ I was unsure what was going on.
    ‘I’d like you to come to the States,’ Tony said, half turning towards me.
    ‘Eh?’ I said again. ‘Isn’t this about the Jimmy Robinson affair?’
    ‘No,’ Paul said. ‘It is not.’
    ‘Didn’t the police chief