Skeleton Hill by Peter Lovesey Read Free Book Online Page A

hell, what a twat!’
    A scruffy-looking man in jeans and a hooded jacket had climbed the rail and was ambling across the racecourse from the centre to the Paddock Enclosure oblivious of the horses being cantered past for the start of the next race. A jockey yelled at him. People in the crowd were getting angry, too.
    ‘A few beers too many,’ Diamond said.
    ‘Or he’s found a way to get in free,’ Paloma said.
    If that was the object, it worked – up to a point. The man was grabbed by one of the police and dragged over the rail and into the exclusive section, so close to Diamond and Paloma that they heard him say in quite a refined drawl, ‘Thank you, officer, I’ll be on my way then.’
    ‘What the hell were you up to?’ the constable asked.
    ‘Crossing over for a bite to eat. All the food seems to be this side.’
    ‘You must be nuts. What’s your name?’
    ‘Noddy.’
    ‘Definitely drunk,’ Diamond said to Paloma. ‘And a stupid drunk. He could have been killed.’
    ‘Serve him bloody right if he had been,’ the bookie said. ‘More serious, he could have damaged a horse. He’s trouble, that one. He’s been here and acting daft since I set up two hours ago. I don’t think he paid to get in.’
    ‘Neither did we,’ Paloma murmured to Diamond as they moved off.
    ‘But we’re not misbehaving.’
    ‘Yet,’ she said. ‘What will happen to him?’
    ‘He’ll be shown the gate. It’s too much hassle to charge him with anything unless he turns violent. He’s at the silly stage now.’
    They found the champagne lawn where the winning owner was treating her friends, and she seemed to have a lot of them. They heard someone say, ‘I’m so delighted for Davina. She looks every bit the socialite, doesn’t she, and she was probably in surgery as usual this morning. She deserves this.’
    ‘Dr Davina, then?’ Diamond said to Paloma.
    A woman near them shook her head. ‘She’s a local vet.’
    ‘Lucky animals. My cat goes to a bearded Australian with red socks and sandals.’
    A waitress was moving among them with a tray loaded with filled glasses.
    ‘Shall we join them?’ Diamond said.
    ‘It’s a private party.’
    ‘Anyone with a horse like that is a friend of ours.’
    ‘I couldn’t,’ Paloma said. ‘Let’s buy our own.’
    When they’d got their glasses, he raised his and said, ‘To My Stylist.’
    She seemed to enjoy some joke at his expense as they clinked glasses. Whatever it was, he didn’t mind. Her eyes were still shining.
    He remarked that she’d clearly been racing before.
    ‘What makes you say that?’
    ‘For a start, you picked the winner.’
    ‘Luck,’ she said.
    ‘And some judgement, I suspect. When we saw them parading you seemed to know what to look for.’
    ‘There are too many variables for anyone to get it wholly right,’ she said in a more serious tone, confirming his impression that she knew more than she’d said up to now. She was such a different personality from Steph, who’d never concealed anything. In his mind he immediately rejected the notion of concealment. Paloma wasn’t sneaky. Rather, she chose not to air her knowledge unless and until it was useful. Hidden depths was a better way of putting it.
    ‘You mean the weights they carry?’
    ‘The going, the form they’ve shown in previous outings, the jockey and whether they’re blinkered or tongue-strapped for the first time.’
    ‘Sounds like a medieval torture.’
    ‘Funnily enough, it can give them confidence. Then there’s another factor: the stable. On a course like this one, which isn’t as highly rated as some, you get expensive and blue-blooded young horses from top stables at places like Lambourn being sent here to win. They start at odds-on and tend to win by small margins to nurse their handicaps.’
    ‘Was mine trained at Lambourn?’
    She smiled. ‘Doesn’t matter, does it? If they won’t start, they can’t win.’
    ‘Did you know it was highly strung?’
    And now she