Silver Blaze - Part Three
31:14 Share

This episode is brought to you by CarMax.

Boldly searching for your next used vehicle? With CarMax, you don't have to settle on anything when it comes to your ride. Instead, steer clear of the ordinary and buy the car that's right for you. Because CarMax makes it easy to stop settling and find a car you'll love today. Start shopping now at CarMax.com. CarMax, the way car buying should be.

This is an ad for BetterHelp. Welcome to the world. Please, read your personal owner's manual thoroughly. In it, you'll find simple instructions for how to interact with your fellow human beings and how to find happiness and peace of mind. Thank you, and have a nice life. Unfortunately, life doesn't come with an owner's manual. That's why there's BetterHelp Online Therapy. Connect with a credentialed therapist by phone, video, or online chat. Visit BetterHelp.com to learn more. That's BetterHelp.com.

Go to patreon.com forward slash Sherlock and Co. For bonus material, early access to episodes, ad-free listening, and much more. That's patreon.com forward slash Sherlock and Co. Okay. John, I did it. Do I just hit stop or...?

Previously on Sherlock and Co. This is June Straker, important member of the community down here. Trains Silver Blaze are missing Silver Blaze, of course. June is married to Philip Straker. They live, lived in Moreland Farmhouse, which is very near to the stables, Colonel Racing Stables.

Now, we believe that June was alerted to the behaviour of Fitzroy Simpson by her staff. You don't believe a walking stick did this? How big is Fitzroy Simpson? Medium build. Yeah, this is bullshit. Absolute bullshit. I think so too. You've left the trail. Silver Blaze is a size 5. This close to the Grand National, he was wearing one of these. Size 5 race plate horseshoe. If I place the shoe onto the hoof print...

Oh my god. Cinderella will go to the ball. We've determined that Silver Blaze was heading this way across the moors. Uh-huh. Look there. Mapleton Stables. Oh dear. They kidnapped him. Let's not jump to conclusions. His prints head across the river, through the shallows where somebody would have guided him, up here and into Mapleton Stables. I can see the horses. Any sign of Silver Blaze? Not that I can quite make out.

There are lots of them. I'd say a dozen, with a stable each. All doors are closed, so we're earlier than the morning exercise. Lovely. What are you doing? Two seconds. Sherlock! I won't be long. Get back! Shit! Welcome to part three of the adventure of Silver Blaze.

If you want a winding, perplexing mystery set on the moody Dartmoor Hills with the occasional swear word dropped in, that's my swearing warning, then come have a listen. I hope you enjoy part three. Take it away. Why have I said that? Take it away. Sorry, do you know this horse? Shit. OK, go. Now, back to where we came. Come on, Sherlock. Stay to your left.

The wall is shorter there. Jesus. Oh, fuck. Careful, mate. The wall's crumbling a little bit. Right behind you. Go. Go, go. Give me your hand. I can't see them anywhere. Just give me your... Oh, Jesus Christ! Watson, let go. Don't be stupid. They have a gun. Hold your fire, Silas. Who the fuck do you think you are? Huh?

Get down here, you coward lad! Sherlock, don't! Sherlock! Silas, put the gun down. Put the gun down? Are you pulling my pisser? What do you want with that horse, huh? Who are you? My name is Sherlock Holmes. This is my colleague, Dr John Watson. We're from London. Of course you bloody are. We're investigating the disappearance of Silver Blaze. Who is it? Can we talk, sir? Please. Come here.

I could only apologize that our conversation has begun in this manner. Jesus! Fuck off back to where you came from, you prick! How's the manner of the conversation treating you now, eh? Oh!

You sure you're alright, mate? Yes. All good in here. You shouldn't really put too much water on the area, mate. On your face, I mean. The blood needs to be able to clot. I'm not washing my face. Right. Hands. Washing my hands. Nice and clean now. See? Yeah, yeah. Can I take another look at that cut under your eye? I feel like it might...

Might be right on the verge of needing stitches. Don't be silly. No time for that at all. There is, though. There isn't. Much to do. The day is young, fortunately. What time is... Wait, where's my phone? Hmm? My phone. I gave it to you at the stables. Your phone, you say? Yeah, I gave you my phone so you could use the light on it. Ah, bugger.

Must have dropped it. Are you kidding me? Are you angry, Watson? I'm not sure I can take an argument right now. Head is rather sore. OK, fine. Lost my phone. Great. If we could turn our attention... Back to the case. Yep. So, thoughts on our friend, the owner of Mapleton Stables? Silas Brown. Yeah, the one who shot at us and smashed your face in. What about him?

Any hunch going on there? Potential murderer vibe from him? Not sure. Not sure? Right. OK, so he tried to kill us. He then smashed you in the face with the butt of his rifle, an attack that somebody called June Stryker might have been familiar with in her final seconds. Also has an S as part of his name.

Rival stable owner? No? Would you maybe like to consider an MRI? I don't need an MRI. OK, great. People like their horses around here, Watson. Not just like. Love. And it isn't just a relationship. It's a business asset. He has every right to protect his horses after what happened to Silver Blaze. I get it. It's a horsey area. We were trespassing. I'm not saying we were in the right, but...

I am saying I observed certain things that pertain to the case, okay? Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. What are we going to do about that? Not a great deal. God's sake. Breakfast? Yeah, there's not much here. Let's head out. Norfolk eggs. Why are they getting their eggs from Norfolk? They're miles away.

Yeah, Kingspilen to Norfolk. Look, see, six hours in the car, that. Madness. Can I have my phone back? Well, it's only fair. You lost mine, now we share this one. Put in Aintree. Aintree? Into maps? Yes, please. Four hours, 42 minutes. OK. Why do you need to know that? You heading to the Grand National tomorrow or something? Yes, possibly. Really? Yeah.

Possibly. Sorry, why? Can't quite answer that yet, I'm afraid. It would be very handy if you did. Yes, but it wouldn't be best for my process. I like to stew on thoughts before I give them validation. And telling me, giving me insight is validation, is it? Sort of. Sort of. We should watch it, regardless. I only got the Airbnb for one more night because she's got booking, so maybe we could stay at an inn like that one out there. Shall I look? Hmm? Inn. Staying at an inn.

Tomorrow night, because we need more time. There's one there on the high street, next to a bookies as well. So, tell you what, we could have a little flutter on the races tomorrow, couldn't we? A couple of pints in the pub, nip into the bookies. Don't gamble, kids. In fact, they used to say, actually, that... You know these bookies in these horsey areas? Not really. Well, think about it. I mean, the area is nowhere near big enough to have a bookies, is it? For international listeners, a bookies...

Well, that's a gambling shop front, I suppose, where you go in and place bets. What are you getting at? Oh, yeah, right. So, what they do, the gambling company, right, they find a horsey area and they put a bookies in there and they run it at a loss. Why? I don't know. It's just something the army guys used to say. Tell me. All right. So, yeah, the theory is, right, that big nationwide gambling chain sets up shop in this area, you know, in the heart of British horse racing country.

So all the local knowledge, all the experts, all the gossip gets translated into bets. And where do they go to bet? The local bookies. But the odds would shorten. Well, now that's the thing. So apparently the way they'd run it is the weight of those local bets at that bookies wouldn't affect it locally, but it would affect it nationally. Because it would put the local punters off. And that supply of insider knowledge would be shut off. Exactly.

Worth, in the gambling company's view, burning a few quid just to keep your ear to the ground. Finger on the pulse, eyes on the prize... Hey, what the hell are you doing? Sherlock, what are you... I'm so sorry. We'll be back in a second. Sherlock! Sherlock, hold on! It's just something the army lot used to say. It's not...

It's probably... It's a load of bollocks, Sherlock. Hi. Sorry, mate. Taking bloody ages because head office have got this absolute bell as a new project manager. Oh, what's... What do you need to do? So, on the email, Wednesday's email, did you see it? Oh, God. Don't know if I've been CC'd in. See what I mean? God, what do I always say, John? Well, you know, you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. Yeah, always saying that.

No. All it is, there was a Section 8 infraction in here the other week. Ah, Section 8. OK. Yeah, we've just got to make sure it wasn't a technical issue. Of course, no, yeah, yeah. Could I grab the work phone, John?

Cheers. So, let me see. Just correlating the numbers I've got on here. Number of transactions on the Monday last week? That would be, let me see, 44. 44, okay. Slow day. Yeah, Monday. Of course, yeah. And total for Tuesday? 58. Cool, cool. And let me go for largest bet placed and on what day? Largest bet placed...

Five grand. Blimey. Whopper! Good lord. Yeah, he loves his horses. That was on the Thursday. Yeah, cool. Great. Silver Blaze went missing on the Friday, didn't he?

That affect your numbers? Little bit, I think. Yeah, maybe. Finally. Need to check the security footage for that bet. Just because it's over the threshold. OK. Yeah, section five. Gotcha. Yeah, I can probably pull it up on here, actually. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Thank you. Yeah, no worries. It was...

in the morning, so if I change that to... Ooh, that's a nasty one you got there. Oh, this? Yeah, a bit of a shiner. Let me guess. Angry customer? Bingo. I don't even work the shop floor and I get one. Nightmare. God, we're glad for punishment, aren't we? Here we go. Screen's just loading. Yeah, there he is.

God, is that what I look like? Everyone says that, don't they, John? Yeah, always the same, mate. Always the same. Like hearing yourself talk. God, yeah. Yeah, so there he is. He did it via the sheet. So then we take an ID, just because of the amount, and then he has that scanned and... yeah. Could I take a look at him? Yeah, yeah. There you go. Lovely. Who was it? Who was it, Sherlock? It was our sleepy Mr Straker. The husband of June Straker. Oh, what? I mean...

That rules him out, doesn't it? I mean, if he's whacking on five grand for Silver Blaze, he clearly doesn't. You know, he clearly has no idea what's about to happen. Yes, that would be the case, wouldn't it? If the bet was placed on Silver Blaze. But it wasn't. It wasn't? It was placed on his lesser-known stablemate. Bayard. Bayard. BAYARD

Ryan Reynolds here for, I guess, my 100th Mint commercial. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I mean, honestly, when I started this, I thought I'd only have to do like four of these. I mean, it's unlimited premium wireless for $15 a month. How are there still people paying two or three times that much? I'm sorry, I shouldn't be victim blaming here. Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash save whenever you're ready. For

$45 upfront payment equivalent to $15 per month. New customers on first three-month plan only. Taxes and fees extra. Speeds lower above 40 gigabytes. See details.

♪♪

But it's a horse, right? So it's like who, I don't know, like what they're, I don't know exactly, um,

What's like completely going down over there, but it's like, who would even want a horse like that? But like they're saying that she was beaten to death with like a club or whatever. Holy shit. And whoever did that takes off with the horse. Oh, it's crazy. Totally crazy. Like the whole of the UK is totally losing their shit because it's like, how do you lose this million dollar racehorse? But who would take it?

Exactly. Who would take it? Who would take it? Who would take it? Who would take it? Like, like, like the betting, like sports, like sports betting companies, maybe like that's fucked up. Maybe dude. I don't know. Maybe.

So we are at Colonel Racing Stables in Kings Pylund. These people are actually aware that we're coming so we're not going to get shot at this time round. We might, however, get torn to pieces by this dog. Hello boy! Lovely, he is a handful. I've always got this theory about country dogs, you know, they love to yap and bark. Archer used to be kind of a woofer but

Since he's been in London, you know, there's just... There's so many people and so many dogs that he sees. He'd never get anything done if he was wound up by every single one, you know. City dogs, heavily socialised. Country dogs, not so much. Grumpy, territorial, defensive. Oh, Christ. Whoa, whoa, whoa, Sherlock, what are you doing? Looking at this horse.

Sixteen hands, wouldn't you say, Watson? Get away from... Don't go near its rear end. Why? Farts? No, not farts. Kicking. They kick out. Go round the front. Make them comfortable. Whoa, what's he doing? He's being a horse. No more than you or I are being human. Me more than you, mate. Move away. Come to the front door, please. Press the button. Yeah, I will. Now, just remember...

These are the colleagues and friends of June. OK? Kind, considerate, respectful. Absolutely. Smart doorbell. Do you have to comment on them every time? Just saying, we should get one. Is this an ad? No, it's not an ad.

Believe me, if it was an ad, I wouldn't be staying in some damp two-bed cottage. I'd be at some five-star Devon spa retreat, a long, long way from the smell of horse shit. Hello. Hello. Hi. Yeah, I'm Dr John Watson. You spoke to my colleague, I believe. Mariana, my colleague, Mariana, about a visit? Yeah, I'll come to the front door now. Great, thank you. I lost confidence in the pronunciation.

was going to go for it, you know, sort of second-guessed it. I don't know why, just, you know, should have just... It's like a penalty, isn't it? You know, don't change your mind, pick a spot, lash it in, or tuck it in neatly. But don't question yourself at the last minute. You see how maybe you make it difficult for advertisers? What, inane chat?

Do you have any idea how much podcast advertising goes towards inane chat? I mean, it's got to be like 80% of it, and that's being generous. Besides, what are we supposed to do? Oh, Sherlock's just been shot at by a potential murderer, and now he's been smashed in the face by the butt of a rifle. But don't forget to use your offer code for the Economist subscription. Well, that would never work. White point exactly. Hello again.

In the flesh. Ah, hello. Edie. Hello, Edie. This is Sherlock Holmes. Hello. Hi. June Straker is dead and it is sad. It is sad that she is dead and I am respectful of that, first and foremost. Yeah, it's very sad. Thank you. That's OK. Watson, would you like to say a few words? Er, yeah. Thanks. I'm very sorry for your loss.

June sounded like an amazing person, on and off the horse, as it were. Yeah, I'm sorry. I hope you're all keeping OK and the media circus hasn't been too much. It's been a lot, a lot, a lot. But, yeah, thank you for... Yeah, thank you. She's in heaven now, of course. Hmm? Heaven. June will be admitted to heaven, as is their policy, I believe. Of course.

Of course. By that man right there on your necklace. St Peter. Oh, yeah, yeah. Right, so what were we going to... We'd like to speak to the stable staff that was staying on site the night of the murder. Oh, well, that'll be me and Ned if you want to come through. Sure, yeah, after you. So you guys live on the, like, on site sort of thing? Maybe not in, you know, the depths of winter, but as racing season gears up, we're here mostly because of the hours, really.

And the transport, of course. Okay, I think he's in the kitchen here. Hiya. Hi. Hello. Hi. Ned? Ned? Yeah. Hi, Ned. I'm Dr John Watson. This is Sherlock Holmes. They're from the agency that does the detective work? The agent. For Blaze or for June? For both. Of course. Right. Uh...

Are the police struggling, or...? Police will often bring in a fresh perspective before they execute on their current assumptions. Uh-huh. You okay? Yeah, no, I, uh... There's assumptions, right? And then there's a bloke...

that comes to Kings Byland, breaks into some stables at night and steals a horse. Okay? You were speaking, of course, of Fitzroy Simpson, the man currently in custody. Yeah, I am, yeah. He stole the horse, you say? Well, yeah. He did. How would he have done that, out of curiosity? Well, he rang the doorbell earlier in the evening because he was after some info on Blaze and Bayard, who were both running. And we basically told him to do one.

And later on he breaks in. I take silver... I'm getting... Sorry, I'm getting wound up because I can't... Honestly, it's been a bloody nightmare there, Senate ED. It's OK. It's OK. Yeah. Er, Len. So we told June that this bloke had been sniffing around the stables and we just... We feel responsible for...

That she had to come out. Because you were drunk? Well, no, Sherlock. I think what they're saying is that they weren't to know what would happen from just telling June. They didn't know she would head out. Do either of you recall anything from the evening? Well, I... We do, yeah. Like what?

Like what? I'm asking for some instances or moments from the evening where you recollect a single thing. I don't really see... You don't really see what? See why I'm asking these questions? Can we... Right, can we backtrack here? Who are you, mate? Right? Who are you? And why do Edie and I need to do this exactly? For the five thousandth time? Huh? You are not guilty of murder. I have no interest in putting you under pressure.

But you are guilty. Guilty of what? Guilty in nature, not in practice. Yeah, it's called survivor's guilt. Eh? OK, it's very normal. You start going through everything that happened and seeing how you're to blame, you know, if it should have been you. No, it's called feeling guilty for being flat-out drunk and therefore completely unhelpful to any investigation or to defending the stable. Fuck off, mate! Honestly, just like I...

Literally, what are you even here for? I can see you've got a black eye, mate. I'll give you another. Can you both leave, please? I shall, soon. You've both given statements to the police where you talk of your recollections. I suggest you retract them or face the consequences. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Do you have any dealings with Sports Capital Trading, the owners of Colonel Racing Stables? No, we don't. Fine.

Show me the recording from the smart doorbell. Um, yeah. Let me just... So this is the view of the yard from the front door. Silverblazer's stable is out of view. Yeah. Bugger. So this is the night of the 28th. Ah, okay. Here we go. 9.17pm. So here comes Fitzroy Simpson. Um, yeah. And he's gonna ring the bell. BELL RINGS

And there's the walking stick. And yeah, I think I answer. Evening. I just wanted to have a quick chat. My name is Fitzroy Simpson. I'm interested in some information and I can pay a cash sum that I suspect will be very sufficient. Not interested, sorry. Listen, listen, just a chat regarding Silverblazing Bayard.

It could benefit you financially. Are you a reporter? No, I'm here for the information that... Get the fuck the property now! Sorry, I get a bit sweary when I've been drinking. Oh no, that's okay. Prick! I don't usually... Wanker! ...swear. Oi, asshole! You listening?

I think that's it. Dickhead! Oh, okay. That's all of it, I think. Stupid fucking bellend! Um... Okay. Yeah, so... Right. Okay. That's it. Then he left. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I won't ask any more of you.

Just send the footage of the entire evening to docjwatsonmd at gmail.com right away. Many thanks. Right, Edie, well, we will be in touch. Yeah, I'm really sorry. We're both really sorry. Just, I can't believe it happened. And I can't believe, like, we were, that we got that...

drunk on a night like that. I can. Sherlock, they are sorry, okay? Oh, there's no judgement from me. The 28th. Last day of Lent. I assume you'd given up drinking for it. We had. We did, yeah. Yes. So, perfectly reasonable and expected for you both to have a heavy evening. I, well, not really reasonable after everything that has happened, is it? Tell me, Edie, what did you drink? Uh,

Whiskey. A scotch that we got as a gift. From whom? From June. She wasn't really religious, so I think she thought we were real troopers for committing to Lent. She was... She really did think about everybody else first. I think she wanted us to really have a night of it, you know? Oh, God. Thank you. Oh.

You've been more helpful than you realise. Yeah, thanks, Edie. And thank you, Ned. Yeah, cheers, Ned. Don't torture yourself, OK? Mm-hm. OK. God, this is torture. This is absolute torture. How do people do it in the old days, before phones? I should know. I was there. Just forgotten. God.

And to make matters worse, it would appear our host does not have Netflix, Prime Video, Disney, BBC iPlayer, ITVX or Channel 4. Oh, hello, but what they do have are DVDs. For our younger listeners, a DVD is a disc that contains a movie or TV show. You put it in a DVD player, which is attached to your TV, and voila, you've got your movie. I must say, their disappearance has made Christmas shopping really difficult.

Also nearly destroyed HMV, and it did destroy Woolworths, but, you know. Hey, you charge 18 quid for a disc, you get what you deserve. What do you want to watch, mate? Got all sorts here. Ocean's Eleven, Sweeney Todd, Casino Royale, fancy a bit of Bond, the Bondster, bit of the old Bondage. No, that's why it's better to speak like a normal person, John. I'm watching something on my phone. Oh, rub it in, why don't you? The smart doorbell footage. Wow, OK. What a thriller. Anything...

actually happened? No. Cool. Just another two hours to go. Okay, well, yeah, no spoilers, please. Mm-hmm. It's just the police have done this, mate. The camera didn't pick anything up. Shh! Oh, sorry, didn't mean to speak over the soft evening breeze and occasional snoring horse. Right, well, I'm going to head to the... Shh! Okie dokie.

What is it? Never mind the bloody microphone. What do you want? Your laptop. Where is it? It's in my bag. Sherlock, it... 3am, mate. The editing software. Open it. Now. Alright, just...

Oh, hold your horses for me. Put this SD card in. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. How do we see the waveform? The waveform of the audio? Just let me import it, yeah? Great. Six hours of audio. Brilliant. Show me the waveform. We need to see the audio. All right. Jesus Christ. Let it load, okay? There, look. It's a really flat waveform, mate. Nothing. Now, it's a sound of silence. The waveform confirms it.

Total silence. Yeah, sorry, Sherlock, I'm in my pants here, mate. We've got to check out in the morning. Are you trying to draw my attention to something? Yes. To the curious incident of the dog in the night time. The dog did nothing in the night time. That was the curious incident. MUSIC

To binge this adventure in full and without ads, go to patreon.com forward slash Sherlock and Co.