

The 'Happy Ploughman' food chain has won the franchise for the Police canteen, but is being subjected to deliberate vandalism. An obvious suspect is Flora McKee, a local baker who was not only rejected as a supplier to the firm, but was upset by improper advances made to her by its manager, Geoff Reece. Spurred on by Fisher, Henry tracks down the culprit and solves an old mystery into the bargain.
Henry and Margaret spend a day at the races with her new client Bob Bishop, who is resisting a take-over bid for his cider brewery. A mysterious man shadows Henry and then the corpse of stable lad Ben Tucker is found in a horse-box. Bob's brother Tony owns the stables, which are failing, and he is very curt with Henry when he comes to investigate. On the night he died Ben had argued with another stable lad Jerry Lawless over female jockey Jude O'Brien but he too is murdered and Bob's daughter Liz, another jockey, is found in his caravan with a bag full of bank-notes.