The Grave Maurice Read Online Free Page B

Ryder often spent the night in the stables to keep an eye on a sick horse.
    DCI GERARD: You’re a wealthy man are you, Dr. Ryder?
    RYDER: No, I’m comfortable.
    DCI GERARD: Ryder Stud then. Your father is quite wealthy.
    RYDER: Intrinsically? Yes. Depends on how you look at it. In terms of liquidity, I mean money lying around, no. In terms of the stock—the Thoroughbreds—very.
    DCI GERARD: Could money be raised fairly easily?
    RYDER: I don’t know. Probably. I know his stepson’s got a lot of money, and he’d certainly help.
    DCI GERARD: We can expect a ransom demand.
    â€œQuestions follow relative to the doctor’s whereabouts; he was asleep, no witnesses. He’s incensed, naturally, to be taken as a suspect. Questions about Nell’s mother. She’s dead. About his brother, Danny Ryder, also dead.
    DCI GERARD: Your brother was the famous jockey, wasn’t he?
    RYDER: Yes. One of the best. He rode Ryder Thoroughbreds in every important race in this country and in Europe and the States. He was a great jockey.
    DCI GERARD: He died—
    RYDER: In France, a racing course near Paris. Auteuil. Thrown from his horse.
    DCI GERARD: Hell of a life, it is. It seems to explode all over the place or thinking about food food food. Lester Piggot lived on champagne and a lettuce leaf. [ Pause ] Well, pardon me, Dr. Ryder. I get carried away sometimes.
    Jury looked up, smiling. “ ‘Carried away.’ I like that. Apparently, Gerard has a cousin who’s a jockey. I like the description. Questions about the Ryders’ wives. The doctor’s is dead, her name being Charlotte. The jockey’s—Marybeth—is living somewhere in America. His first wife, that is. He married again after he went to Paris. Woman who lives in Paris but as none of the Ryders have met her, Ryder doesn’t know if she’s a Parisian or possibly an Englishwoman.” Jury closed the file and sat back against his pillows.
    Melrose asked, “What about ransom? What happened there?” He had captured the one decent chair, leaving Wiggins to arrange himself on the unforgiving wooden one.
    â€œNever was one, it seems.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œThey just took her. End of story. I mean, insofar as Cambridgeshire police knew. Oh, they didn’t stint in looking for her; it’s just that nothing else turned up. And, of course, in the absence of any ransom demand, it would be treated as an abduction rather than a kidnapping.”
    â€œThen maybe,” said Melrose, “it was the horse. What’s the name?”
    â€œAqueduct. Quite valuable, especially for breeding purposes. I wondered about that, too. I expect when you find an animal missing along with a human, you assume the target was the human.”
    â€œThey didn’t expect to find a girl along with the horse. Do you suppose they had to take her to keep her quiet?”
    â€œVery possibly.” Jury looked again at the report from Cambridgeshire police. “A number of valuable Thoroughbreds: Beautiful Dreamer, Criminal Type—”
    â€œCriminal Type, I like that name. Odd for a horse.”
    â€œSo is Seabiscuit,” Wiggins said. “Do you know how that name came about? Seabiscuit, I mean?”
    Trust Wiggins to know the derivation of anything with biscuit in it. He was sitting there eating one right now.
    â€œThere was a horse named Hard Tack, which is what sailors are often left with to eat. See? Hard Tack/sailor.”
    Both Jury and Melrose looked at him. Neither spoke. “ Sea relating to sailor; biscuit meaning a lesser version of hard tack. It’s rather clever.”
    Jury and Melrose still looked at him, neither commenting.
    Wiggins was leafing up pages in his notebook. “Ryder Stud Farm has diminished somewhat since Nell Ryder disappeared. It’s almost as if she were the heart of the place. Perhaps she really was, to her grandfather. Then there was also Danny Ryder.