Page 42 of The Journal of a Thousand Years
The bookmaker snorted. “Don’t know, and if I did, I wouldn’t tell the pigs.”
Most of the others in the betting circle either chuckled or nodded. One left the betting circle altogether.
I watched him out of the corner of my eye as he headed to the stable block and disappeared around the side.
The others hadn’t noticed. Willie was getting frustrated with the wall of silence. “I’m going to blow your bollocks off if you don’t give us an address for Thurlow.”
That elicited a round of raucous laughter from the bookmakers. The scruffy one looked her up and down. “Not sure I want you blowing mine, but Wally over there’s desperate enough to risk it.”
“I saidoff! I’m going to blow ‘emoff!” She went to pull back her jacket to reveal her gun, but Alex grasped her arm and marched her away.
“Don’t show that around here,” he growled at her. “The officials will throw us out and I’m not finished yet.”
She wrenched free. “Who’re you going to question next?”
He sighed. “I don’t know. Course officials, perhaps.”
“I have an idea,” I said, walking in the direction the bookmaker had gone. “Come with me.”
We spotted him crossing the paved yard outside the stables. Instead of heading back to the betting circle, he was walking quickly to the members’ pavilion. Beyond that was the exit gate. Willie wanted to accost him immediately, but Alex and I both told her to wait. We watched as he hurried off, his head low, his face covered by his hat.
When he reached the back of the members’ pavilion, Alex said it was time. I picked up my skirts and ran, but my quicker companions reached the bookmaker first. Alex already had him in a headlock by the time I arrived.
“Where is he?” Alex growled. “Where can we find Thurlow?”
The man was aged about thirty, but had the yellowing teeth of someone who rarely cleaned them. He smelled like tobacco and unwashed man. Alex loosened his grip just enough so the bookmaker could tell us he didn’t know where to find Thurlow.
“He wasn’t in his office this morning,” he gasped out.
“So where else might he be?”
“I don’t know.”
“You do, or you wouldn’t be trying to leave now to warn him.”
“I was going to use the privy!”
“It’s back the way you came, unless you planned on using the private one in the members’ pavilion.”
The man tugged on Alex’s arm, but that only made Alex tighten his hold. The man’s face turned a violent shade of red.
Willie withdrew her gun and pointed it at the bookmaker’s temple. “Where. Is. Thurlow?”
The man put up his hands and Alex released him. “I don’t know! I just want to take a piss!”
“There ain’t no privies back here.”
“The tree. I was going to go behind the tree.”
Willie flexed her fingers around the gun handle but kept her gaze on her quarry. Alex and I both glanced toward the tree. It was large enough to shield a man from the prying eyes of anyone wandering past.
Willie pointed the gun at the bookmaker’s crotch. “Tell me where to find Thurlow or I’ll shoot.”
“You wouldn’t,” he sneered.
“Do I look like someone who cares about the bollocks of scum like you?”
The man gulped.
