Nice Fillies Finish Last Read Online Free Page B

said.
    The sports writer started. “Yeah?”
    “What do you think of Rourke’s idea?”
    “That somebody fed this bum wood alcohol because he found out about a scheme to beat the twin? Tim knows what I think. I think it’s ludicrous. Sure, thousands of people buy twin-double tickets every night. So far there’s always been at least one winner, and there can be as many as a couple of hundred. If I understand what Tim’s trying to say, he thinks that two of the four races tonight are fixed. I know,” he said to Rourke as he started to interrupt. “‘Fix’ is the wrong word. Let’s put it this way. Some person or persons unknown have reason to believe that two of the horses entered in the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth races are reasonably certain to win. Is that better? All right. If this was absolutely certain, and if Dolan knew what they were up to and threatened to give them away, in which case they would stand to lose a large sum of money, of course they might kill him. But murder’s an extreme way to handle the problem, it seems to me. In the first place, nothing is absolutely certain in harness racing. In the second place, why would it occur to Dolan to give them away? All he’d want would be to cut himself in on it. This would lower their payoff a little, but not too much. A twin-double investment takes capital. Say without Dolan there would be twenty winning tickets. With him there would be twenty-one. That wouldn’t make enough of a difference to justify a murder.”
    MacMaster took his mangled cigar out of his mouth and looked at it for a moment. “Unless what Dolan found out would get them in legal trouble, or in trouble with the track. It’s worth a try. How are you coming with your picks for tonight, Kimball?”
    “I’m down to the ninth race, and that’s the tough one.”
    “Look at those last four races again with Tim’s theory in mind,” MacMaster said. “Dolan went to sleep in the Domaine barn, and let’s assume that the Domaine horses figure in it, whatever it is. I admit the chronology is a bit muddy, but if he climbed in the window at two and climbed out again at two-thirty to call Tim in Miami, he probably didn’t have a sudden inspiration as he was falling asleep. He must have seen something, or heard something, or somebody told him something.”
    Kimball shrugged. “Just remember I’m no clairvoyant.” Seating himself on the corner of the desk, he began studying the entries. After a moment Rourke could see that he was becoming interested. He looked up a point in the Trotting Association Year Book.
    “Christ, there are millions of possibilities. The Domaine stable has horses entered in the sixth and the ninth. Both of them raced at Yonkers last summer, and I’d better check the Yonkers programs to see what I can find. In the ninth they’ve got a mare, My Treat, an in-and-outer. She’s always had good potential, but she’s never delivered. If those are the crucial races, the sixth and the ninth, there’s one overlap. It wouldn’t strike you unless you were looking for something like it. A guy named Paul Thorne is driving in both races, and he used to work for the Domaines.”
    “What do you know about him?” Rourke said.
    “He’s young, tough, probably a little crazy, very competitive. He’s number two in the driver standings. The fans love him, because he always gives the impression of being out to win, and he doesn’t care how he does it, ethically or otherwise. He has a few horses of his own, but he’ll drive for any stable that pays his fee. Some people have started betting on him every time he goes out, which drives down the odds on his horses, and he’s been having trouble getting work. He’s always in hot water with the stewards, who want drivers to be gentlemen and move over when somebody wants to get by. He’s just waited out a fifteen-day suspension. If you want me to do some guessing, I’d guess he might be open to a deal.”
    “Good,” MacMaster