Kickback by Damien Boyd

jodhpurs and was pulling at it with his fingers. Dixon waited.
    ‘Noel was in on it.’
    ‘What?’
    ‘The betting scam.’
    ‘Go on.’
    ‘Michael gets the jockeys to hold the horses back. Make sure they don’t win. Noel would tip Clapham off for a few quid each time.’
    ‘And?’
    ‘That’s it. When Noel died Clapham asked me if I’d do the same.’
    ‘So, you’re saying that Michael Hesp is deliberately holding his horses back?’
    Silence.
    ‘Let’s hear it, Kevin.’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Why?’
    ‘You know why.’
    ‘We need to hear it from you.’
    ‘They lay the horses on the betting exchanges...’
    ‘Who do?’
    ‘No way. That’s it. I’m not saying anymore.’
    ‘Who, Kevin?’
    ‘No comment.’
    After several more ‘no comments’ from Tanner, Dixon terminated the interview at 4.25pm. Tanner was taken back to a cell in the custody suite. Dixon turned to Jane.
    ‘If Noel was in on it, it’s unlikely that he was going to go public with it, isn’t it?’
    ‘Still possible, I suppose, but unlikely,’ replied Jane.
    ‘And it seems to me Tanner and Clapham were just taking advantage of what was going on to make some small change on the side.’
    ‘Looks like it.’
    ‘You and Louise can interview Clapham. You know what to ask him?’
    ‘I do.’
     
    Dixon waited in his office while Jane and Louise interviewed Jeremy Clapham. He fetched himself a coffee from the machine and spent the time reading the British Horseracing Authority file that he had brought back from London. He now understood the terminology and the basic principles but some of the maths still eluded him. He had never been very good at maths, which is why he had trained as a lawyer rather than an accountant before joining the police.
    He powered up his computer and checked his email. There was a telephone call from Jon Woodman at Exeter Prison, no doubt wanting to know what was going on, but otherwise nothing of interest. Jon would have to wait. Not least because Dixon wasn’t at all sure that he had anything relevant to tell him, apart from the fact that his brother had been on the fiddle.
    The interview with Clapham lasted no more than thirty minutes.
    ‘He’s a complete shit,’ said Jane.
    ‘We meet quite a few of those in this line of work, Jane,’ said Dixon.
    ‘It probably didn’t help that we pulled him out of the betting ring at Wincanton,’ said Louise.
    ‘My heart bleeds,’ replied Dixon. ‘What did he have to say for himself?’
    ‘Denials, mostly,’ said Jane. ‘He denied murdering Noel but then we don’t really think he did, do we?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘He completely denied knowing Noel or Tanner too but back tracked when we talked about mobile phone records. Then he said he knew them and spoke to them both from time to time, but not about racing.’
    ‘What did he say about yesterday?’
    ‘He said he did speak to Tanner but the change of odds was pure coincidence, prompted by checking the betting exchanges after each call.’
    ‘He must think we’re bloody stupid.’
    ‘I got the impression that’s exactly what he thought, Sir,’ said Louise.
    ‘Ok, re-arrest them for obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception and then release them both on bail. Then we’ll have a word with Mr Hesp.’
     
    The interview with Michael Hesp proved to be something of an anticlimax. It lasted no more than ten minutes, Hesp answering ‘no comment’ to each and every question asked of him. Dixon pressed him on the events of the previous day at Exeter and also the British Horseracing Authority investigation, all to no avail. The only occasion Dixon thought he had made any impression on Hesp was when he asked him about the ‘money’ behind the betting scam. Dixon thought he recognised a fleeting look of fear in Hesp’s eyes but he soon recovered his composure and reverted to ‘no comment’ answers.
    Dixon brought the interview to a close just after 5.30pm. Hesp was re-arrested for the deception offence and