Chapter 9 A Frightened Groom

In Winnipeg, the horses were taken off the train and to the racetrack for the next day's race. Buses were waiting to take the passengers to their hotels. Stafflike myself had to make their own way to their cheaper hotels.

As soon as I had checked into my room, I rang Mrs Baudelaire.

'I've got answers to your questions,' she said. 'Ready?'

'Yes.'

'There's nothing at all suspicious about the Youngs: they're just a nice Canadian couple, popular with everyone and welcome at every race meeting.'

'Thanks,' I said, 'that's what I thought, and certainly what I hoped, but I had to check. What about Sheridan Lorrimore?'

'Well, this is a bit shocking,' she said. 'Such a fine old Canadian family! But Sheridan seems to have been expelled from Cambridge University last May. It's all very mysterious: no one quite knows why he was expelled. Bill says to tell you that Brigadier Catto is trying to find out. Does that make sense to you?'

'Yes, thank you,' I said. 'Are you going to speak to Bill before he flies to Winnipeg for the race?'

'I wasn't planning to, but I can.'

'Could you tell him to expect delivery at the racetrack of a small packet from me? It will contain some of the horses' food which I want analysed.'

'That sounds alarming,' she said. 'Don't worry, I'll let him know.'

'And last, but not least,' I said, 'can you ask him to ask Catto if the numbers 151 mean anything to Filmer. For example, they might form part of his phone number or his car number-plate or something. They should be the last three numbers in a series of six numbers. Have you got all that?'

'Yes,' said Mrs Baudelaire. 'I must say, this sounds most exciting.'

♦

I reached the racetrack early. I was dressed as a typical racegoer -camera and all — so as not to stand out, but this made it possible for me to go to Bill's private office. Anyway, I didn't want to be seen with him.

Luckily, Bill had thought of a solution. I was approached by a cheeky-looking teenage girl who introduced herself as Carrie, one of Bill's daughters.

'Dad said you'd have a packet for him,' she said.

'And so I do,' I said. I gave it to her and that was that. I could now relax and enjoy the race.

It was a perfect afternoon. There were several good races, but the crowd of thousands was eagerly waiting for the main event. Only two horses from the train were running - Upper Gumtree and Flokati - although most of the owners, like the Lorrimores, had brought in other horses by road or air. So there was plenty of tension and excitement among the owners from the train.

As Mrs Baudelaire had said, the Lorrimores' Premiere led the field of twenty runners from the start, but to everyone's surprise Upper Gumtree made a late challenge and just beat Premiere at the post.

The owners, Mr and Mrs Unwin, were overjoyed. I was look­ing down from my seat on to the owners' area and watched everyone crowding around the Unwins and congratulating them. Only Filmer stood apart.

My eyes travelled carelessly from the owners over the rest of the crowd. I almost missed him! But yes, it was Thin-face. Before he could disappear in the crowd, I raised my camera and took his picture.

I immediately took the film out of the camera. I waited until most of the people had left the racetrack, and then it was easy to find Carrie again. She took the film to her father, who was by now carrying out one of the more enjoyable parts of his job -entertaining the winners.

Back at the hotel, I rang Mrs Baudelaire once again, to ask her to ask Bill to tell me as soon as possible who the man on the film was, if he could.

The train rolled out of Winnipeg that evening, and the celebrating went on late into the night, especially among the owners and the grooms.

At breakfast the next morning, however, the mood was completely different. For a start, Filmer stayed in his room; but the main problem was that Daffodil was clearly very angry. Sheridan's usual rudeness didn't help the atmosphere either.

Nell told me that Daffodil and Filmer had been heard having a row very late the night before; no one knew what it was about, but Daffodil was so upset that she was planning to leave the train at the next stop, which was Calgary.

Then George Burley called me into his office, where I found Leslie Brown waiting. 'Tell him what you told me,' George said to her.

'One of the grooms is behaving strangely,' she said.

'Which one?' I asked, although I had already guessed.

'The one who looks after Laurentide Ice,' said Ms Brown. 'I mean, all the grooms have headaches from drinking last night, but this one is sitting by himself in the horse-car; he's too quiet, as well as all white in the face.'

I went up to the horse-car with George. One look at the groom, whose name was Lenny Higgs, and I knew what was wrong: he was badly frightened.

It took time and patience, but I got the story out of him. Someone who sounded a lot like Thin-face had threatened to get him sent to prison for poisoning Mrs Quentin's other horse, Thunder. Thin-face had described prison to Lenny in detail, and Lenny was sure he would be beaten up and stabbed to death there.

'And did you poison the horse?' I asked.

'No, of course not!' protested Lenny. 'I loved old Thunder. But I gave him those sweets that Mrs Quentin said to give him.'

'Did you tell this man yesterday about the treats?'

'Yes, and that's when he said I'd go to prison. I don't want to go to prison, Mister. Can't you get me off this train?'

'Promise anything,' Catto always said, 'to keep them on your side.' So I promised I could protect him.

Date: 2015-12-24; view: 664