‘How do you mean?’
‘These guys are smart — they don’t get to be federal special agents if they’re not. I can’t hang around forever on the off-chance that our friend will make a mistake. He won’t. And I’ll have wasted my time, and yours. I feel we have to tackle things from the opposite direction.’
‘Explain.’
‘I work best undercover but I’m not using those skills here. Everyone at the agency knows who I am and that severely limits my scope.’
I took a deep breath. In for a penny…
‘I need to get a job on a track backside, maybe as a groom or something, with one of the trainers. FACSA then has to plan a raid on that trainer for some reason and hope our friend somehow tips him off.’
‘Would the trainer be made aware of your existence?’ Tony asked.
‘Best not, at least to start with. I know from experience that being undercover is fraught with danger. It is ten times worse when somebody is aware of the truth. Body language can be a real giveaway.’
‘But how would you know if the trainer had been forewarned about a raid?’ Tony asked.
‘Hayden Ryder couldn’t have packed up the whole of his stable dispensary and arranged to ship out his horses without the help of his staff. Racehorses have to have grooms accompanying them — they would hardly walk onto a truck on their own. Ryder’s whole team had to be involved in the preparations even if they didn’t know the reasons why.’
‘But how will you get a job? Do you have any experience working with horses?’
‘Loads,’ I said. In truth, I’d only had a little. But I was confident around racehorses and that was half the battle.
‘And you’re hardly the right size,’ Tony said.
I was five feet ten inches in my socks, but I was lean and fit. Maybe I was a bit tall and perhaps a tad too heavy to ride young Thoroughbreds, but not to work as a groom.
One thing I had discovered while I’d been waiting at Churchill Downs all day was that, unlike in the UK, the grooms did not ride the horses. That was the preserve of the exercise riders, up-and-coming riders or retired jockeys who would often move from barn to barn, exploiting their skills for more than one trainer.
The grooms were simply there to, well, groom the horses, to muck out their stalls, and to fetch and carry their feed and water. On race days they might get to lead one of their charges over to the saddling boxes and the mounting yard but, in truth, the life of a backside groom was far from glamorous.
Tony wasn’t finished. ‘Most grooms are Latino or African-Americans. An Englishman would surely stick out like a sore thumb.’
He was right.
‘How about an Irishman?’ I said.
I had always been good at speaking with an Irish accent. While at school, I had entertained my classmates by mimicking our headmaster, who had come from County Cork.
‘I can easily pass as an Irishmen,’ I said. ‘I’ve done it before, and I know you have Irish grooms over here. I’ve heard their banter.’
‘Will you try to work at Churchill Downs?’ Tony asked.
‘That might be a bit of a risk. Almost all of the Churchill Downs backside staff came over to Ryder’s barn to have a look at the action at one time or another today and many of them asked me what was going on.’
‘Where then?’
‘How about at Pimlico?’ I said. ‘Isn’t the Preakness run there in two weeks?’
‘It sure is,’ said Tony. ‘But Pimlico isn’t used any more as a regular training centre. Their barns are only open for seven weeks during their spring meet. Better to try Belmont in New York. That’s where the third leg of the Crown is run. There are plenty of full-time trainers at Belmont.’
‘Isn’t Belmont where the Sports Illustrated journalist thought someone was blood doping?’
‘Yes,’ Tony said. ‘Jason Connor.’
‘Right, then I’ll try there. Can you get me a list of Belmont-based trainers, especially those you may have doubts about?’
‘Sure,’ Tony said. ‘No problem. Anything else?’
‘Yes. You told me in London about a raid on a trainer who employed suspected illegal immigrants as grooms. Where was that?’
‘Aqueduct Racetrack. Also in New York, near JFK. Back in February.’
‘Is the use of illegal-immigrant grooms widespread at all tracks?’
‘Cash gambling tends to make racing a cash-rich business. Wherever cash is used to pay staff there will always be illegals working.’
‘Could you therefore send an official letter to all the trainers at Belmont advising them of the severe consequences of employing illegal immigrants?’
‘What for?’
‘If you can fix me a legal work visa, it might help provide a vacancy for me to fill.’
Tony laughed. ‘The letter would be better coming from ICE — Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It’s part of the Department of Homeland Security. They’re responsible for tracking down illegal immigrants. I know the Deputy Director, we’ve been to conferences together. I’ll get him to write the letter.’
‘Best not to tell him why.’
‘I’ll say it’s a follow-up from FACSA’s raid earlier in the year. I’ll recommend he sends the letter to all registered racehorse trainers across the country threatening them with jail for employing illegals.’
‘Is that true?’
‘Unlikely,’ he said. ‘But it could happen in extreme cases.’
‘Would your man be prepared to cover the cost of sending a letter to all trainers?’
‘Sure he will,’ Tony said. ‘It’s peanuts compared to what else they spend. Their budget is over five billion a year. I’ll get it sorted straight away — have it done this week.’
‘How about the work visa?’ I said. ‘Preferably in a false name.’
‘What name?’
Think of a common Irish name. ‘How about Patrick Sean Murphy?’
‘Shouldn’t be too much of a problem,’ Tony said. ‘I’ll have a quiet word with someone I know in the State Department.’
‘Great,’ I said. ‘And how are the bank statements coming along?’
‘They should be with me this evening. How shall I get them to you?’
‘Can we trust Norman?’ I asked. But it was a rhetorical question. He already knew the true purpose of me being there. If we couldn’t trust him my cover was totally blown anyway, and my future prospects were likely to be severely limited.
‘We have to,’ Tony said.
‘Then give the statements to him to pass on to me.’
‘He’ll want to know what they are.’
‘Then tell him. But best not to say that his bank statements are there too. He might not like that. In fact, you’d better remove his in case he checks, but scan them yourself first for any suspicious deposits.’
‘You don’t really trust him, do you? Not even now.’
‘I trust no one,’ I said.
‘Not even me?’ Tony asked. ‘Not even my mother,’ I said.
And she’d been dead for twenty-five years.
Back in the National Guard mess hall, Trudi Harding was being hailed as a hero.
She was applauded and cheered by the other agents when she finally arrived back after a lengthy interview with the Louisville police.
Bob Wade embraced her warmly, which didn’t particularly endear him to Steffi Dean, who looked on stony-faced.
Everyone was in good spirits, as if the whole raid hadn’t been blighted by the shooting dead of Hayden Ryder.
Some of them even thought it was a bonus.
‘Saves all the expense of a trial,’ Cliff Connell said openly with a huge grin.
The debriefing turned rapidly into a self-congratulatory celebration.
There was even a short emotional address by Norman Gibson, who thanked his staff for ‘a job well done’.