Photo Finish (7 page)

“This reminds me of our last mystery-solving Saddle Club project,” Carole said. “When we solved the horse-napping.” The girls had once tracked down and rescued several valuable horses that had been stolen from Pine Hollow.

“Actually, this time we’ll be just like Deborah when she’s on an assignment,” Lisa said. “We’ll investigate every
angle as if we were researching a newspaper story. It could be fun, even if we don’t find out anything. I’ll have my camera ready to record any suspicious characters.”

“That is, if they’re willing to stand still for half an hour while you get them in focus,” Stevie teased.

Lisa arched her eyebrows. “You’ll see. My camera could be the thing that cracks this case.”

“One thing we should definitely do,” said Carole, who had been thinking so hard she’d missed the whole exchange, “is keep a close eye on Monkeyshines for the rest of the day.”

Stevie and Lisa sobered instantly.

“That’s true,” Stevie said. “When whoever did it finds out Monk didn’t eat that hay, he or she might try again.”

“Come on,” Carole said. “Let’s go check on him now.”

As soon as they turned the corner into the corridor leading to Monkeyshines’s stall, they saw that the big colt already had a visitor. A short, wiry man wearing a green baseball cap was standing in front of the stall, staring at the horse, who was looking out at him curiously. Blackie was peering out of the stall too, chewing thoughtfully on the handle of a curry comb.

Stevie, immediately suspicious, strode quickly down the aisle toward the stranger. “Hey, you there,” she called. “What are you doing?”

The man looked startled for a second. Then his face twisted into a scowl. “Who’s asking?” he replied shortly.

Stevie stopped in front of him, her hands on her hips.
Her friends stood behind her. “I’m asking,” she replied loudly. “I’m a friend of Mr. McLeod’s, and I want to know what you want with his horse. If you’re not willing to tell me, maybe I should go get him.”

“You’re a friend of McLeod’s, huh?” the little man said with a snarl. “Well, there’s no law I know of that says I can’t come into a stable and look at any horse I want—even if it
is
McLeod’s precious Monkeyshines. And I don’t think I have to explain anything to him
or
to you. How do you like that?” Without waiting for an answer, he shoved his way past the girls and hurried down the aisle toward the entrance. A moment later he was gone.

The three girls stared at one another.

“Wow,” Carole said after a moment. “I think we just found suspect number four.”

Stevie nodded. “Definitely,” she said, gently pushing Blackie away from her shoelace, which he was trying to chew. “He acted like someone with something to hide. And he knew who Monkeyshines was,
and
Mr. McLeod.”

“There’s just one problem,” Lisa pointed out. “We don’t know who he is.”

“Let’s ask Eddie,” Stevie said.

As if on cue, the groom stepped out of the spare stall that was being used as a tack room. He didn’t notice the girls, however—he just walked quickly to the entrance and went out.

“Quick, we’ve got to catch him,” Carole said, leading the way. When she emerged into the morning sunshine,
she looked around and spotted Eddie striding away down the shed row, quickly glancing from left to right as he walked.

“There he is,” Stevie said beside her. She opened her mouth to call Eddie’s name, but Carole shushed her.

“Just a second,” she said. “I may be crazy, but doesn’t Eddie look as though he doesn’t want to be noticed?”

Lisa shook her head. “You
are
crazy,” she said. “Don’t tell me you’re so caught up in this conspiracy theory that you’d suspect even Eddie! He adores Monkeyshines—why would he want to hurt him?”

Meanwhile Stevie was staring intently after the groom. “I’m not so sure Carole is crazy after all,” she said. “It does look like Eddie doesn’t want anyone to see him, and I think I know why. Look where he’s heading.”

Carole gasped. “Garamond’s stable!”

Stevie nodded grimly. “I think that means we have
two
new suspects to add to that list!”

A
COUPLE OF
hours later Lisa glanced at her watch. “It’s only nine
A
.
M
.,” she exclaimed. “I can’t believe it! It feels as if a whole day has passed already.”

“Time flies when you’re having fun,” Stevie said. The three girls were outside Mr. McLeod’s stable, leaning against the wall and watching the activity surrounding them, which had slowed down only a little since earlier that morning.

“Being here is fun,” Carole agreed. “The only part that’s not so much fun is thinking that Eddie may have been the one who tried to poison Monk.” After seeing the groom sneaking over to Garamond’s stable, The Saddle Club had waited outside. Eddie had come out a short time later, glancing all around as he hurried back to his own stable. Reluctantly, the girls had added him to their
list of suspects along with the rude, wiry little stranger who’d been standing in front of Monkeyshines’s stall.

“If it was Eddie who did it, I hope he doesn’t try again,” Stevie said. “After all, he’s Monk’s groom. It would be easy for him.”

“Not that easy,” Lisa pointed out. “Now that all the horses have been exercised, Mr. McLeod and Judy and the trainer and jockeys and the other grooms and who knows who else will all be around the barn until race time. Eddie wouldn’t dare try anything with all those people around.”

“I guess not,” Stevie admitted, kicking at the dirt with the toe of her sneaker.

“Well, I for one am still not convinced he did it,” Carole said. “He just seems too nice. And he did seem truly surprised when we found the hay.”

“Acting,” Stevie said promptly. “Still, we should keep on investigating our other suspects. Especially the Kennemeres—whether they’re working on their own or in cahoots with Eddie, we need to find out more about them.”

“Agreed,” Carole said. “But how?”

“Easy,” Stevie said. “We spy on them.”

“Spy?” Lisa echoed. “I’m not sure that’s such a good idea.”

“Come on, Lisa, don’t be chicken,” Stevie said. “You wanted a chance to be an investigative photojournalist, right? Well, this is it!”

Lisa glanced at Carole. “What do you think?”

Carole thought for a moment. “I don’t know,” she said at last. “It does seem a little risky. But on the other hand, we’re doing it to find out who tried to hurt Monkeyshines. And I think that’s the most important thing right now.” That was a typical Carole response. She always put horses first and foremost in every decision.

Lisa rolled her eyes. “All right, I guess I’m outvoted. You guys win. Let’s go play James Bond.”

Ten minutes later The Saddle Club was hidden behind a stack of hay bales near the entryway of the Kennemere stables. By peeking around the corner of the bales, they had a view of the entrance as well as of Garamond’s stall. The big horse had watched curiously as the three girls peeked into the shed, held a quick whispered conference, and tiptoed over to their hiding place. But he hadn’t made a sound.

“It’s awfully lucky that no one was around,” Lisa whispered. “Otherwise our cover would have been blown right away when they saw us looking in.”

“I just hope someone shows up soon,” Stevie said worriedly. “Where are they all anyway? You’d think someone would be keeping an eye on Garamond.”

Carole was peeking out at the doorway. “Shh!” she hissed. “Here comes someone. It’s Kelly!”

“What’s she doing?” Stevie whispered eagerly.

“Just a second—I’ll tell you—okay, she’s looking at Garamond,” Carole reported in a low whisper. “Now
she’s turning around,” She ducked back as far as she could to avoid being seen. “She’s setting up that folding chair that was leaning against the wall. She’s sitting down on it, and pulling something out of her pocket—oh, it’s a paperback book. Now she’s sitting and reading.”

Carole moved back and crouched beside her friends. “There you have it. She’s relaxing with a good book. Now what do we do?”

“I knew we shouldn’t have done this,” Lisa moaned. “We could be trapped here for hours while she reads.”

“Don’t give up yet,” Stevie whispered. “Someone else could still come in and talk to her. Maybe Eddie will come back to go over their plot. Or maybe it’ll be her father. We have to wait.”

“No kidding,” Lisa said dryly. “What choice do we have?”

Carole was looking up at the topmost of the bales before them. “Don’t look now, but we have company,” she said quietly.

Stevie and Lisa looked up too. There, perched on the edge of the bale, looking down at them, was a very large, very fat white chicken.

“What do you think she wants?” Stevie asked.

“I don’t know.” Carole stared at the chicken. “Nice birdie,” she whispered tentatively.

As if in reply, the chicken let out a sudden loud squawk.

“What’s wrong, Lulu?” Kelly Kennemere’s voice asked
from the other side of the bales. The chicken squawked again and flapped its wings, still staring at The Saddle Club.

Lisa gulped. “Go away,” she ordered the bird. “Get lost, Lulu.”

But Lulu didn’t get lost. Instead, with another mighty squawk she hurled herself downward, straight at the girls.

“Aaah!” Carole shrieked, holding up her hands to protect herself. Lulu landed on the ground beside her with a thump. Carole peeked at the bird through her fingers, Lulu calmly bent down and started pecking at some stray pieces of hay on the floor.

Meanwhile, quick footsteps could be heard approaching the bales. “All right, who’s back there?” Kelly Kennemere demanded cautiously, her voice quavering a little. “Come out of there right now.”

Feeling very sheepish, the three girls crawled out of their hiding place and stood up. Lulu followed, clucking softly.

When she saw who the intruders were, Kelly looked surprised. “Aren’t you the girls from Maskee Farms?” she asked. “You came around here last night, right? What in the world were you doing back there?”

“Uh, that’s right, we were here last night,” Stevie said, thinking fast. “We were, um, so impressed with Garamond that we had to see him again.”

Kelly looked skeptical. “His stall is over there, not back behind the hay.”

“Right,” Stevie said. “But Lisa, here, is a photographer, you know?” She thumped the startled Lisa on the back. “Right, Lisa?”

“Oh, uh, right,” Lisa said. She held up her camera. “See?”

“So she wanted to get a few more pictures of Garamond,” Stevie continued, gathering confidence now. “The light wasn’t very good in here last night. There wasn’t anyone around when we came in, but we thought it would all right if we just came and took a few quick pictures. Then when Lisa took off her lens cap, she dropped it and it rolled away behind those bales.”

“And all three of you had to go back and get it,” Kelly finished, still looking suspicious.

“Well, she couldn’t find it at first,” Stevie said lamely. “We were helping her.”

“How long were you back there anyway?” Kelly demanded.

Stevie cocked an eyebrow at her. “Not long. Why do you ask?”

Kelly frowned at her. “No reason.” She nodded at Garamond. “You can take a couple of pictures if you hurry. But then you’ll have to leave. We don’t want him to get overexcited with too many visitors before the race.”

Stevie nudged Lisa in the ribs. “Oh, uh, okay,” Lisa stammered, raising her camera. She removed the lens cap and began her usual fiddling.

“Just get the picture, will you, Lisa,” Carole said, trying
to sound casual. She watched as Lulu the chicken strolled over to the stall next to Garamond’s and flapped her way up onto the top of the half-door. A chestnut horse moved over to the door and snuffled at the bird.

Kelly noticed where Carole was looking. “Lulu is Miss Philippa’s pet,” she explained.

“Does Garamond have a pet?” Carole asked curiously, watching the chicken.

“No,” Kelly said shortly.

Just then Lisa finally snapped Garamond’s picture. “Got it,” she announced, sounding relieved.

“All right, that’s all,” Kelly said. “You’ve got to leave. And it would be better if you didn’t come around here again before the race.” She shooed them toward the door.

The red-faced Saddle Club didn’t have to be told twice. They scurried for the door.

Once safely outside, they stopped to catch their breath.

“Well, that was embarrassing,” Lisa said, still blushing.

“Yeah, but did you see Kelly’s face when she caught us?” Stevie exclaimed, her eyes bright. “She had guilt written all over her! She was obviously afraid that we’d seen or heard something incriminating.”

Carole shrugged. “She did seem pretty nervous about something,” she admitted. “I think we can consider it a clue. Write it down, Lisa.”

Lisa flipped open the notebook and jotted down a few words. “It may be a clue, but it’s far from being hard
evidence,” she said. “We can’t accuse someone of horse poisoning just because she seems a little nervous.”

“The more clues we get, the closer we are to finding the culprit,” Stevie said wisely.

Lisa rolled her eyes. “All right, all right. Just promise me one thing.”

“What’s that?” Stevie asked.