The Missing Horse Mystery

  Contents

  1. A Hot Beginning

  2. A Clue

  3. Thief!

  4. A Clean Getaway

  5. Suspicious

  6. Missing!

  7. A Secret

  8. A Risky Meeting

  9. A Bad-Luck Horseshoe

  10. Caught

  11. A Surprising Twist

  12. Puzzling Clues

  13. An Explanation

  14. Seeing Double

  15. Winners

  1. A Hot Beginning

  “Look at that gorgeous horse!” Bess Marvin exclaimed

  as she looked out the passenger-side window of Nancy

  Drew's Mustang.

  Nancy slowed the car and glanced at the horse being

  led along the grassy edge of the gravel drive. It was a

  sleek chestnut with rippling muscles.

  As they drove past, the horse pranced sideways. “It

  is gorgeous,” Nancy said. “I'll bet we see a lot of

  beautiful horses this weekend.”

  Nancy and Bess were at the Illinois Horse Park to

  attend the week-long Midwest Grand Prix Dressage

  Championships. They were meeting Bess's friend Lee

  Anne Suna. It was Friday morning, and Nancy and

  Bess were going to bunk with Lee Anne for a long

  weekend.

  For the past year Lee Anne had been working for

  and training with former Olympic rider Klaus Schaudt

  at High Hills Farm. Nancy and Bess had had lunch

  with Lee Anne a week earlier, and she'd spent the

  entire time talking about the equestrian sport of

  dressage. Intrigued, Nancy and Bess had decided to

  attend the competition, and Lee Anne had insisted

  they stay at the motel with her.

  Ned Nickerson, Nancy's boyfriend, was also meeting

  them at the show. His plan was to spend time with

  Nancy and Bess before his college semester got too

  busy.

  “Too bad George couldn't come,” Nancy com-

  mented.

  “I'll bet she's having a great time teaching at the

  soccer clinic,” Bess said as she scanned the

  showgrounds. She pointed to a large gray building.

  “There's Barn C. That's where Lee Anne said she'd

  meet us. All of the horses from High Hills Farm are

  there.”

  “It's good she told you exactly where we should

  meet her,” Nancy said. “I had no idea the horse park

  was so big.”

  “And crowded,” Bess added as a huge van rumbled

  by, enveloping the Mustang in a cloud of dust.

  The parking lot was filled with horse trailers, vans,

  and pickup trucks. Nancy drove around for a few

  minutes before she found a spot.

  After she climbed out of the car, she shaded her

  eyes from the hot September sun and surveyed the

  grounds. From the lot, she could see the indoor arena,

  a cross-country jumping course, and a few barns, which

  seemed to Nancy to be the size of warehouses.

  “The riding rings must be on the other side of the

  barns,” Nancy said.

  Bess gave Nancy a teasing look. “In dressage you

  ride in an arena,” she said with a laugh.

  “Well, excuse me for being so dense,” Nancy shot

  back, then both girls burst out laughing.

  Nancy reached inside the car and pulled out her

  baseball cap. She put it on over her reddish blond hair,

  pulling it down low to shade her face from the sun.

  Then she locked the car and joined Bess.

  “How many horses did High Hills bring for the

  competition?” Nancy asked as they headed for Barn C.

  Both girls were prepared for the warm weather,

  wearing shorts, sneakers, and sunglasses. They'd also

  packed jeans and sweatshirts for the cooler evenings.

  “I'm not sure. But the farm must share the barn with

  other competitors. The building looks big enough to

  hold fifty horses.”

  “At least,” Nancy said after they stepped through the

  double doors. Before them stretched a long aisle with a

  concrete floor. Nancy guessed there were about fifty

  stalls on either side of the aisle—a hundred in all.

  As Nancy walked down the aisle, she peered into the

  stalls. From each one a handsome horse looked back at

  her. Some were draped with coolers or fly sheets—

  lightweight covers to keep the flies off. Others had

  wraps only on their legs.

  The stalls were spotless and thickly bedded with

  straw. Ceiling fans whirled overhead.

  “Wow,” Bess said. “This is like a fancy hotel. I

  wonder if this place has room service.”

  “Bess! Nancy!” a voice called.

  Nancy looked over her shoulder and saw Lee Anne

  jogging down the aisle.

  “Hey, you two,” Lee Anne said. “I'm so glad you

  made it.”

  Bess's friend was small and slender. She wore cutoff

  jeans, a T-shirt that said “Dressage is my life,” and

  paddock boots. Her brown hair was pulled back in a

  ponytail. Since she wasn't wearing makeup, Nancy

  thought she looked about twelve years old instead of

  nineteen.

  “Lee Anne!” Bess gave her friend a hug. “We

  thought we'd never find you in this palace.”

  Lee Anne giggled. “Wait until you see our side of

  the barn. We really fixed it up.”

  “You mean there's another side?” Nancy asked.

  “Amazing, isn't it?” Lee Anne said. “Barn C holds

  two hundred horses. There are over six hundred horses

  competing this week.”

  Lee Anne grabbed Bess's hand. “Come on.” She

  began to tug her friend up the aisle. “I want you to see

  Aristocrat, Zanzibar, and Curio. Then I want you to

  meet Klaus and—”

  “Michael?” Bess teased.

  At lunch the week before, Lee Anne had talked a lot

  about a rider named Michael Raines, who was

  competing in the Grand Prix. From the way she'd

  described him, Nancy thought he sounded like a

  combination movie star, prince, and sports pro. Nancy

  and Bess couldn't wait to meet him.

  Lee Anne blushed at Bess's teasing. “Of course

  you'll meet Michael. He's getting ready for a test, so

  you're just in time.”

  “Test?” Bess grinned. “Like multiple choice?”

  “No, silly. His riding test. Dressage is a sport where

  the rider and horse perform a test made up of

  movements and figures. Michael's riding Intermediate

  Two tests. That's really advanced, but this fall he hopes

  to be riding Grand Prix, which is the highest level.”

  “Dressage seems pretty complicated,” Bess said. “I

  hope I'll be able to follow what's going on.”

  “Don't worry. You'll understand after you've been

  here for just a day.” Lee Anne glanced at her watch.

  “We'd better hustle. Michael's on in forty-five

  minutes.”

  Lee Anne set a pace that made Nancy and Bess jog

&nb
sp; to keep up. Halfway down the aisle, they turned right

  into a cross aisle that led to the other side of the stable.

  When they rounded the corner, Lee Anne said,

  “There's Michael with Curio.”

  A young man stood beside a horse at the end of the

  aisle. The horse was a glossy bay. Its mane was braided

  and its hooves polished. It was bridled, and a

  lightweight blanket covered it from head to tail.

  The man was elegantly dressed in a double-breasted

  black coat with long tails, a black top hat, and white

  breeches. High black boots reached to his knees.

  “He looks as if he's going to a wedding,” Bess joked

  in a low voice.

  “That's called a shadbelly coat,” Lee Anne said as

  she rushed up to Michael.

  When he saw Lee Anne, Michael frowned

  impatiently. “Where were you? We've got to hurry.

  Curio needs a long time to warm up.”

  “I went to meet Nancy and Bess,” Lee Anne

  explained. “You remember—the friends I told you

  about?”

  “Nice meeting you.” Michael gave them a polite

  glance before turning his attention back to Lee Anne.

  “Meet me in the warm-up arena in fifteen minutes.

  And don't forget the fly spray.”

  Clucking to his horse, he left the barn, his boots

  echoing on the concrete floor.

  Lee Anne flashed her friends an apologetic smile.

  “Sorry. He's really tense. This is his first time

  competing Curio, and his ride on Thursday in the

  warm-up class was just okay.”

  “Where's his regular horse?” Nancy asked.

  “Midnight Blue's owner decided to show him

  herself.”

  “So Michael doesn't have a horse of his own?” Bess

  asked.

  Lee Anne shook her head as she bent to put a jar of

  hoof polish into the grooming box. “Many dressage

  riders don't have horses of their own. Horses

  competing at Intermediate and Grand Prix levels cost a

  lot of money, so riders like Michael are at the mercy of

  the owners. He was ready to compete Midnight Blue

  this summer when his owner moved the horse to

  another stable.”

  “That doesn't seem fair,” Bess said.

  “It isn't. Curio's a fine horse, but still, Michael's had

  to start all over,” she said gloomily. “He's trying to rack

  up enough good scores to qualify for the Pan American

  team. But now I don't know.”

  She pulled a spray bottle from the grooming box.

  “We've just got time to see Aristocrat before I have to

  meet Michael.”

  “That's Klaus Schaudt's horse, right?” Nancy

  remembered Lee Anne talking about the stallion at

  lunch.

  Lee Anne's face brightened. “Right. Klaus has been

  competing him in Grand Prix since last year. They've

  done well, too, scoring in the sixty-five to seventy

  percentile range. They were even on the cover of my

  favorite horse magazine.”

  “So we're meeting a celebrity?” Bess said.

  “Kind of,” Lee Anne said. “Lots of dressage fans

  have come by to see Aristocrat up close and to get

  Klaus's autograph. Gilly's been busy.”

  “Gilly?” Nancy asked.

  “Aristocrat's groom.” Lee Anne walked over to a

  stall. “She even sleeps next to the horse.”

  The door to the stall was open, and Nancy glanced

  inside. A cot stood in one corner, a sleeping bag, duffel

  bag, and pillow neatly laid on top. Bales of hay filled up

  the other half of the stall.

  “Gilly must be with Klaus,” Lee Anne said. But

  here's Aristocrat.”

  Nancy joined Bess and Lee Anne in front of a steel-

  mesh door. In the stall, a brown horse was eating hay.

  When Lee Anne made a clucking noise, he turned his

  head to stare calmly at the trio. His coat gleamed, and

  his mane and tail were neatly brushed. Nancy was

  surprised that the celebrated horse looked like all the

  other brown horses in the barn.

  “He looks like a horse even I could ride,” Bess said,

  echoing Nancy's thoughts.

  Lee Anne chuckled. “In Aristocrat's case, looks are

  deceiving. When Klaus rides him into an arena, it's as if

  a spotlight hits him. He might look like an ordinary

  horse, but he's worth about two hundred thousand

  dollars.”

  “Wow,” Nancy said. “That is a lot of money.” She

  looked closer, trying to imagine the horse leaping and

  prancing. Aristocrat only snorted.

  Bess wrinkled her nose. “I guess we'll have to take

  your word for it.”

  “You don't need to take my word for it. Tomorrow

  you can watch him perform.”

  Anxiously, Lee Anne checked her watch. “Well, I'd

  better go help Michael. You guys should come and see

  his test. It'll be awesome, and I can explain what's

  happening.”

  “Sounds great,” Nancy said as they headed up the

  aisle. “I'm really curious about dressage.”

  “Nan and I have been riding since we were about

  eight,” Bess told her friend. “But we don't know very

  much about dressage.”

  As the three girls neared the cross aisle, Nancy

  stopped and sniffed the air.

  Bess and Lee Anne stopped, too. “What's wrong?”

  Bess asked.

  “Do you smell smoke?” Nancy asked.

  There were No Smoking signs posted everywhere.

  Still, some careless person could have dropped a match

  or sneaked a cigarette in a stall, Nancy thought.

  Lee Anne lifted her chin and sniffed, too. “I smell

  something. We'd better find out where it's coming

  from. With all the hay and straw in here, this place

  would go up like a bonfire.”

  Nancy turned in a circle, trying to figure out where

  the smell was coming from. When she moved down the

  aisle toward the other side of the barn, she noticed that

  the odor grew stronger.

  Breaking into a jog, she took off for the other side. A

  curl of gray smoke wafted up from a stall to her right. A

  horse danced in front of the closed mesh door, its eyes

  wild with fright.

  Nancy raced over to the stall. The horse whirled

  crazily, but Nancy spotted flames leaping up from a

  pile of hay in the far corner.

  “Fire!” Nancy screamed.

  2. A Clue

  Flipping the latch, Nancy threw open the stall door.

  The horse charged out, flattening Nancy against the

  outside wall, and bolted down the aisle.

  Nancy ran into the stall. In the corner she could see

  that a pile of hay was burning. Lee Anne raced up,

  carrying an extinguisher. “Bess went to get Security,”

  she gasped.

  She aimed the nozzle of the fire extinguisher at the

  flames and pressed the lever. Foam spewed onto the

  fire. Nancy stomped on the edges of the flames to put

  out the embers.

  “What are you doing in here?” a voice demanded.

  Nancy glanced over her shoulder. A woman wearing

  riding breeches stood in the doorwa
y. Her face

  expressed her horror. “Where's my horse?”

  “He ran down the aisle,” Nancy told her. “There was

  a fire and your horse was frantic. When I opened the

  door, I couldn't stop him from running.”

  The woman ran in the direction Nancy pointed.

  Turning off the extinguisher, Lee Anne let out her

  breath. “Thank goodness you smelled the smoke,

  Nancy.”

  “What's going on in here?” a deep voice boomed. A

  huge man wearing a cowboy hat strode into the stall

  with Bess close behind him. He wore a tan uniform

  with a gold badge that read Chief of Security. Nancy

  could see the name R. Texel written on a name tag

  above the badge.

  “There was a fire,” Lee Anne explained. “But it's out

  now.”

  “A fire?” Texel tipped his hat back and scowled at

  the girls. “How'd it start? Were you girls smoking in

  here?”

  “No, sir,” Nancy said.

  “Humph.” He knelt down by the burned pile, his

  knees cracking. Eyes narrowed, he studied what was

  left of the hay.

  Lee Anne nervously checked her watch. “Hey,

  everyone, I've got to run and help Michael. His test is

  in half an hour. You and Bess meet me at Arena One

  on top of the hill, okay?”

  “As soon as we can,” Nancy said. “I want to find out

  more about this fire.”

  Nancy was as curious about the fire as R. Texel. Her

  first hunch—that someone had dropped a match or a

  cigarette—didn't make sense. Would anyone do

  something so foolish? she wondered.

  Texel pointed to the ashes. “Hay doesn't just catch

  on fire by itself. Let's see if anybody knows what

  happened.” He turned and marched out of the stall.

  “What do you think happened, Nancy?” Bess asked.

  “I don't know. Let's look around and see if we can

  find anything.” Nancy crouched down and poked

  through ashes. Finding nothing unusual in the

  blackened hay, she began to sift through the sawdust

  that had been used as bedding on this stall floor. Her

  fingers felt something long and flat.

  “Look what I found.” Nancy held up an unlit match

  torn from a matchbook. The head had several white

  streaks on it. “I wonder if the person who did this

  struck this match first. When it didn't light, he or she

  dropped it.”

  Nancy stood up and spoke, “Either someone was

  really careless—or this fire was set on purpose.”