The Grave Maurice

Theo went on: “Or the two of you just didn’t hit it off.”

His smile was vaguely vicious; Theo just didn’t know who or what to train his anger on, so he kept it up in the air like a spinning plate.

“Or perhaps you’re paying him more than I would.”

It was plain Theo wondered if he was paying him much more.

“I will say that I admire your largesse-” said Trueblood.

Theo’s smile was held in suspension as he couldn’t be sure what was coming.

“-in not holding that time in the nick against him.” Trueblood lit a cigarette and waved out the match.

“ ‘In the nick’?”

Poor Theo could never run a bluff-too bad, seeing he was sitting across from the fellow who had invented bluffery.

“Oh? He didn’t tell you?” Trueblood’s eyebrows sought the headier heights of his slowly receding hairline. “I guess he thought it would tell against him. Yes, Freddie is what his gang called him.”

“Gang? Are you really saying Freddie was with a criminal gang?”

Melrose gave Trueblood’s shin a smart rap. If he carried on in this way, Melrose might have to put up with Freddie the Hermit again. Theo Wrenn Browne would fire him; Theo, he was sure, could fire people twenty-four hours a day. “Stop exaggerating. I didn’t have a bit of trouble in that way.”

“Of course you didn’t. He never went inside the house; he was confined to his hermitage, wasn’t he?” Trueblood shifted his attention to Theo again. “What did he tell you his last job was?”

“Book reviewer for the Sidbury paper.”

Diane nearly choked and Vivian patted her back. Diane said, “There isn’t any book reviewer on that paper. Nobody can read past fifth form, including me.” Diane was always generous with her criticism.

“Freelance is what he said. Only the occasional review, which is why I didn’t see it, he said.”

Good God! thought Jury. This Bramwell ought to be working for M1.

“A stock boy,” said Vivian, “is quite a demotion from book reviewer.”

“Maybe, but I told him first he’d got to learn the ropes.”

“And is he a hard worker?” asked Trueblood. “I passed by your shop earlier and saw him sitting in that easy chair by the window, reading.”

This earned Trueblood another crack on the shin from Melrose.

It was clear Theo did not like this news, but had to defend Freddie- meaning, defend his own choice-and he said, “Well, when you’re dealing in lit’re’ture all day, it’s awful hard not to keep from sampling it.”

“Yes, except he was reading a racing form. Likes a flutter now and then, does he?”

Theo gripped his empty glass and went remarkably red. “I’m sure you’re mistaken. Probably what he was reading was an inventory sheet.”

“If your inventory lists Pieces of Eight in the sixth at Doncaster, yes, it could be.” Trueblood deflected yet another attack under the table.

Theo, as he always did when he was losing (which was always), tried to go on the attack. Smarmily, he said, “Speaking of racing-just how’s that horse of yours, Mr. Plant? ‘That nag’ as Freddie calls him.”

“Aggrieved? Oh, he’s doing well on his gallops. I’m considering the 2000 Guineas for him. Yes, I’m sure you’ll see Aggrieved given short odds.”

“He’ll wire the field,” said Diane, blowing smoke in more ways than one.

“What was that horse-Shergar? Is that his name?-kidnapped by the IRA and held for ransom? No one paid it. The horse disappeared.”

Jury thought of Nell.

Diane dipped into what appeared to be a bottomless well of racing lore. “This horse in the States named Spectacular Bid was so outstanding, he was one of the very few horses ever to do a walkover.” They all looked blank. “A ‘walk-over. ’ That’s when there are no other entries in a race because no trainer thinks his horse can beat you. The horse gallops round an otherwise empty track.”

Jury had to admit he liked that image. A horse galloping on an empty course and people in the stands cheering.

“Diane,” said Melrose, “when did you turn into a bottomless well of racing arcana? I’ve never known you to hold forth at such length.”

“One of my fans-if you can call them that, the gullible creatures-asked me-meaning the stars-who I liked in the seventh at Newmarket for the next day. He read off the list. I just picked the name I fancied most. Well, the damned horse won and this idiot is always pestering me for more tips. I did it again. Actually, I began to wonder if I had the gift. There are people who can do that sort of thing on a regular basis-”

“They’re called bookies.”

“-and it just got me interested in the whole thing. I read a book.”

News that was met with the perturbation of a stock market crash.

“Anyway, going back to Spectacular Bid. There’s a nice little story about him. His jockey was talking to a reporter who asked him if he was to die and come back, would he like to come back on Spectacular Bid? The jockey said, ‘No, I’d like to come back as Spectacular Bid.’ ”

They laughed. Jury, too, and then he stopped laughing. His mind had been tripped by what she’d said. He sat, the drink in his hand undrunk, thinking. But how could they be sure it would work? Jury asked himself. Answer: They couldn’t. He sat there in a slump, thinking, trying to work out what could have happened. He looked all around as if the vacuum might assist him in discovering what he wanted. He said, “Do you get Le Monde around here?”

They all stared at him with round eyes as if no one had ever made such a frivolous request.

Theo, obviously thinking he was one up in the culture department, said, “I’ve been considering getting some of the European papers in, you know, for those who wish to keep up on things.”

“Such as who?” said Diane, who returned to the subject of racing. “The one I really liked most was that other American horse, Go for Wand.”

Trueblood raised a polished eyebrow. “Gopher what?”

“Not ‘gopher,’ ‘Go for.’ Two words. Go for Wand.”

Trust Diane to rake over the course of American racing and come up with a name none of them had either heard of or could even sort a meaning from.

Melrose said, “That’s an odd name. Are you making it up?”

Diane sighed. “Of course not. It’s a name that was taken from an old Jamaican superstition that when one was accosted by a strange spirit who could cast spells, one had to go home for a wand to ward off the evil spirit.”

Melrose sat back, brow furrowed in question.

“It’s the truth. You know I don’t have the imagination to make up