tramway. It was a foolproof system, so Del said – or at least it had been.
“Last week’s consignment was intercepted,” he said. “Either the cops got wind of it somehow, or they’ve known for ages and this is just their way of letting us know they want a piece of the action. Fuck knows. Only I was intending to pay off the supply guys with the proceeds from this lot and now that plan’s scuppered. Which leaves the supply guys in the red with someone else. I don’t give a shit about their problem, frankly, except that they’ve pulled this stunt with Lumey to twist my arm.”
My heart sank. I knew at once that Del was right, that there was no way we could get the police involved. Not because of the glass – that was the least of it – but because of the supply people. If they found out we’d shopped them to the cops they’d come after Del and kill him. They’d kill Lumey too, of course, dump her body out in the marshes without a second thought.
The police were a lost cause anyway. Everyone knew the glass trade in Sapphire was out of control.
“Can’t you borrow the money from Gra? I’m sure he’d tide you over.”
Del laughed, a hard, bitter sound without a trace of humour. “Have you any idea how much I owe? Clearly not. You might as well suggest we go digging for treasure.” He leaned back in his seat. “Anyway, stuff that, I don’t want Gra involved. I can sort this thing myself – I’ve got it all worked out. You know it’s the Delawarr Triple in just over a fortnight? I know this guy who’ll bet big for a share of the proceeds, and by big I mean big enough to pay him off and the suppliers too. We finalize our account with the supply guys, they return Lumey by close of business. Job done.”
He was grinning now, just a little, with the look of a wolf circling a sheep pen. He was pleased with his plan, I could see that, happy as a cow in clover.
So far as I was concerned it sounded insane.
“Haven’t you forgotten something?” I said. “You have to win the race first.”
“We’ll win,” he said. He sounded abstracted, as if the race result were a minor technicality and his mind had already moved on to more important matters. “I’m going to run Limlasker.”
I gaped at him – I think my mouth really did fall open. I honestly considered the possibility that he might have gone crazy.
“You’re living in cloud cuckoo land, Del.”
“No,” he said. “Trust me. I know what I’m doing.”
What it came down to was this: Del was proposing to bet his daughter’s life on a sodding dog race.
~*~
The Delawarr Triple is the biggest event in the racing calendar. It takes place in the third Saturday in June, just before the really hot weather starts to kick in. The stadium is always packed. It’s a 1,100-metre race over hurdles, with the preliminary heats and the quarter- and semi-finals taking place throughout the course of the day. Victory in the Delawarr earns the winner ten full championship points, as well as a mighty winner’s purse of 10,000 shillings. There’s a lot of excitement surrounding the race, a lot of intrigue and rumour during the build-up, and of course a lot of money changes hands. I can’t remember a single year when there wasn’t some betting or doping scandal.
Occasionally dogs are stolen or killed. I remember one year there was a suicide, an out-of-towner who blew his brains out with a shotgun down on the seafront.
He lost his house in a bet, apparently. It happens.
Del had always been nervous around the Delawarr. He usually had a dog or two running and he usually made the semis at least but he had never run Limlasker. He said it was because Lim did better over flat but that was just a get-out. Lim had won his best races over flat, that was true, but he was a good hurdler. He’d won races all the way up to 900 metres.
The truth was that Del had never forgotten the business with Marley Struts. Struts had been a very young, very talented runner and
“Last week’s consignment was intercepted,” he said. “Either the cops got wind of it somehow, or they’ve known for ages and this is just their way of letting us know they want a piece of the action. Fuck knows. Only I was intending to pay off the supply guys with the proceeds from this lot and now that plan’s scuppered. Which leaves the supply guys in the red with someone else. I don’t give a shit about their problem, frankly, except that they’ve pulled this stunt with Lumey to twist my arm.”
My heart sank. I knew at once that Del was right, that there was no way we could get the police involved. Not because of the glass – that was the least of it – but because of the supply people. If they found out we’d shopped them to the cops they’d come after Del and kill him. They’d kill Lumey too, of course, dump her body out in the marshes without a second thought.
The police were a lost cause anyway. Everyone knew the glass trade in Sapphire was out of control.
“Can’t you borrow the money from Gra? I’m sure he’d tide you over.”
Del laughed, a hard, bitter sound without a trace of humour. “Have you any idea how much I owe? Clearly not. You might as well suggest we go digging for treasure.” He leaned back in his seat. “Anyway, stuff that, I don’t want Gra involved. I can sort this thing myself – I’ve got it all worked out. You know it’s the Delawarr Triple in just over a fortnight? I know this guy who’ll bet big for a share of the proceeds, and by big I mean big enough to pay him off and the suppliers too. We finalize our account with the supply guys, they return Lumey by close of business. Job done.”
He was grinning now, just a little, with the look of a wolf circling a sheep pen. He was pleased with his plan, I could see that, happy as a cow in clover.
So far as I was concerned it sounded insane.
“Haven’t you forgotten something?” I said. “You have to win the race first.”
“We’ll win,” he said. He sounded abstracted, as if the race result were a minor technicality and his mind had already moved on to more important matters. “I’m going to run Limlasker.”
I gaped at him – I think my mouth really did fall open. I honestly considered the possibility that he might have gone crazy.
“You’re living in cloud cuckoo land, Del.”
“No,” he said. “Trust me. I know what I’m doing.”
What it came down to was this: Del was proposing to bet his daughter’s life on a sodding dog race.
~*~
The Delawarr Triple is the biggest event in the racing calendar. It takes place in the third Saturday in June, just before the really hot weather starts to kick in. The stadium is always packed. It’s a 1,100-metre race over hurdles, with the preliminary heats and the quarter- and semi-finals taking place throughout the course of the day. Victory in the Delawarr earns the winner ten full championship points, as well as a mighty winner’s purse of 10,000 shillings. There’s a lot of excitement surrounding the race, a lot of intrigue and rumour during the build-up, and of course a lot of money changes hands. I can’t remember a single year when there wasn’t some betting or doping scandal.
Occasionally dogs are stolen or killed. I remember one year there was a suicide, an out-of-towner who blew his brains out with a shotgun down on the seafront.
He lost his house in a bet, apparently. It happens.
Del had always been nervous around the Delawarr. He usually had a dog or two running and he usually made the semis at least but he had never run Limlasker. He said it was because Lim did better over flat but that was just a get-out. Lim had won his best races over flat, that was true, but he was a good hurdler. He’d won races all the way up to 900 metres.
The truth was that Del had never forgotten the business with Marley Struts. Struts had been a very young, very talented runner and
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