Dead Man Docking - Mary Daheim [108]
“I’ll do both.” Judith stared in confusion as the first results came up. There were too many sites from too many sources. Trusting to luck—which was usually the way she bet the ponies—she typed in Montespan again.
Three references came up—all in French. “You’d better take a look at this, coz. I think there are mentions of Montespan in some newspaper articles, but they’re from Le Monde and Agence France-Presse.”
Renie took Judith’s place at the computer. “Too bad we don’t have a printer,” she said. “I hope I can translate this accurately, but I’m not making any promises. My Spanish is better than my French.” She clicked on the first article, dated some twenty years earlier. “Ah! You can read this headline as well as I can.”
Judith peered over her cousin’s shoulder. “Scandale,” she said. “Coupled with Montespan. What do you make of it?”
For several moments, Renie didn’t speak. Slowly, she scrolled through the article, occasionally shaking her head. “It’s about a big-stakes race for fillies and mares that Montespan was in. She won the race, but there was an inquiry. I think her jockey was accused of bumping another horse. Apparently, this wasn’t the first time that a Guillermo de Fuentes horse—Connie’s dad—had been involved in that kind of incident. But the inquiry was disallowed.” She kept reading. Suddenly she gasped. “Good grief! The jockey was Émile Grenier!”
“Émile!” Judith practically fell on top of Renie as she saw his name at the bottom of the screen. “It makes sense, though. He was built like a jockey. In fact,” she added in a rush, “he was in one of those photographs at Connie’s place. I thought he looked familiar just because…well…”
“All jockeys look alike?” Renie nodded. “They do from a distance unless you know them really well. They have to stay so lean, and their caps hide their faces.”
“So how did Émile go from jockey to purser?” Judith mused.
“Maybe we can find out,” Renie said, moving on to the next story.
Judith noted the date, which was a week later than the first article. There was nothing in the headline about a scandal. “What does it say?” she asked her cousin, who was scratching her head and grimacing.
“I’m kind of rusty,” Renie confessed. “Montespan was in the race at Longchamps but didn’t finish because—” She shut up and concentrated. “There was an accident on the rail,” Renie finally said. “Montespan threw her rider—Émile—who was badly injured. Montespan was disqualified, and there was another objection, this time from de Fuentes—I think—but that was overruled, too. The winning horse was owned by the same person who’d been edged out in the stakes race. The owner was somebody named Liam Ford Mackey, with a horse called Green Colleen. The trainer was L. C. O’Leary.”
“A grudge match?” Judith suggested.
“Could be,” Renie said. “Mackey may have thought he’d been screwed in the previous race, which was for some big bucks. Let’s look at that last story.”
This time, Renie translated with relative ease. “Émile got really banged up in that fall. This is two weeks later, and he’s out of the hospital, but has to retire.”
“He did have a limp,” Judith pointed out. “Maybe the purser job was a consolation prize.”
“Émile earned it,” Renie said. “He broke his leg, his collarbone, and his ankle. Ah! De Fuentes also retired from racing, citing…I can’t quite get this quote, but it’s something to the effect that he didn’t want to endanger his horses and riders any further.”
“That sounds very noble,” Judith said.
“Maybe not.” Renie paused, still translating. “The article states that people in the know believe that de Fuentes may have been involved in—bribes, I guess—with the stewards and other officials. It sounds as if he left the sport under a cloud.”
“Hunh.” Judith leaned against the desk. “Is that blackmail-worthy?”
“Could be,” Renie responded. “It certainly wouldn’t be good publicity for Cruz Cruises if it got out that Mrs. Cruz’s father is a crook.”
“It’s no big secret,” Judith objected. “I mean, here we are, reading all about it on the Internet.”
“True,” Renie agreed. “But how many people have