Free Horse Thief by Bonnie Bryant

hoped that her suspicions about Denise were wrong.

L ISA LED P RANCER into her stall. The first half of the dressage rally was over. She, Carole, and Stevie had ridden well in the second round, which involved medium gaits, walk-canter transitions, counter-canters, half-turns on haunches, and other second-level figures. Stevie had managed to put her worries about the investigation aside, and she and Belle had competed beautifully, with grace and precision. The three girls were meeting for lunch to compare notes about their suspects. But first they had to take care of their horses.
    Lisa removed Prancer’s bridle and gave her some water. She left the saddle on, with the girth loosened, for the afternoon session of the rally. Then she dug into her jacket pocket and held out a fistful of carrot sticks.
    “Here, Prancer,” she said softly. “I brought some treats for you.”
    Prancer nosed her fingers, then suddenly gobbled down the carrot sticks, almost nipping Lisa’s fingers off in the process. Lisa quickly drew her fingers back. “What is wrong with you?” she asked in dismay. Normally Prancer was a polite horse, with manners that were almost dainty. Now she was butting Lisa with her nose, trying to get more treats.
    “I don’t have any more,” Lisa told Prancer sternly. “Especially not for a horse that acts as greedy as you do. What has gotten into you, Prancer?” The horse, after discovering that Lisa wasn’t handing out more carrots, started shifting restlessly and nosing around her stall.
    Lisa sighed. She was starting to think that Prancer’s behavior was a bigger mystery than who stole the money. She went to join Carole and Stevie.
    O UTSIDE WAS A colorful scene. Almost all the families had brought picnic lunches for the lunchtime break, and most of the riders were eating brown-bag lunches with their teams. People were good-naturedly angling for the best picnic spaces, crowding together under shady trees.
    The Saddle Club met at their favorite lunchtime spot, the grassy knoll overlooking Pine Hollow’s schooling ring and the paddocks beyond. Carole spread out a large blanketto sit on so that they wouldn’t get grass stains on their riding breeches.
    Stevie waved at her parents and brothers, who were sitting with the Marstens. Phil’s parents still looked concerned and upset about the scene earlier that morning, and Stevie hoped her parents could cheer them up. Just thinking about Veronica’s accusation made her angry all over again. Why would Veronica say that? Even by Veronica’s standards, that was low. Stevie shook her head. She could only hope that Carole or Lisa had learned something that might help.
    “I wonder where Phil is,” she commented.
    “Probably eating with his team,” said Carole. “And we would be, too, if it weren’t for this theft.” The three girls munched their sandwiches in gloomy silence. Then Stevie became all business.
    “Time to debrief each other,” she announced. “I saw Celeste and Howard together, and they were clearly plotting something. They had their heads together and were whispering. Well, Howard was whispering. She was mostly glaring. But it was definitely a
secretive
glare.”
    “Did you hear what they were saying?” asked Lisa, taking a bite of her peanut butter sandwich.
    “No,” admitted Stevie, “but they
looked
really guilty.”
    “So did Kurt,” said Lisa. “Before I could approach him, he ran away. And I couldn’t find him anywhere after that.”
    “Was he running away from you?” Carole asked.
    “I don’t think he even saw me,” Lisa said.
    “Guilty!” Stevie declared.
    “Look, this is not enough to go on,” reasoned Carole, taking a juice box out of her lunch bag. “We need more than someone just looking guilty. We need
proof
.”
    “Mo was completely normal when I saw her,” offered Lisa. “She said some really nice things about Max. I think we can pretty much cross her off the list.”
    “Not yet,” argued Stevie.