Free Hide and Seek by Alyssa Brugman

remember?'
    'Maybe,' Shelby mumbled. Even if it was dark and they couldn't tell how old he was, that didn't explain why they went past so many good quality horses to single out the stallion.
    If they did steal him, why didn't they try to hide him? They could at the very least have put a hood over his head! They had made no attempt to even disguise him.
    One interview down, and Shelby didn't think she was any closer to what really happened – if anything, she had more questions.

16 Capital
    Lindsey wasn't much more help than Erin in solving the mystery of Diablo's disappearance, although Shelby did find out some things she didn't know before.
    In the morning, before any of the trail riders arrived, Shelby, Lindsey, Erin and Hayley wormed the riding school ponies. All the horses were in the small triangular yard in the far corner of their paddock, which had once been a cattle race. It was a funny shape so they didn't use it very often.
    The girls worked in pairs – one holding onto the halter while the other squirted the worming paste into the horse's mouth. Once they were sure the horses had swallowed the paste the girls let them back into the larger paddock.
    'Wow, your horses are heaps easier to worm than mine!' Hayley remarked.
    'That's because your mum comes at them with the worming plunger as though it's a weapon,' Lindsey answered. 'It's no wonder they freak out. You can tell just by looking at her face that she expects a war.'
    Hayley shrugged. 'My mum attacks everything like it's a war.'
    'But she gets lots of things done,' Shelby added. She liked Mrs Crook, even though she could be aggressive.
    'How much do you think he weighs?' Lindsey asked, tilting her head towards the roan gelding Shelby was holding.
    'I'll get the measure.' Shelby fetched the weight/height tape that the girls had brought with them and passed it around the horse's girth. 'Three hundred and seventy-five kilos,' she told her friend.
    Lindsey wound the measuring dial on the tube of worming paste to the appropriate mark.
    'I heard those people who found Diablo got arrested,' Shelby said, trying to sound casual.
    'Where did you hear that?' Lindsey asked.
    'Mum told me,' answered Shelby.
    'I reckon they're gypsies, like in Famous Five ,' said Erin.
    'They're not gypsies! Besides, those people call themselves "Romany", you ignoramus!' Shelby told her.
    'Nobody says "ignoramus". That is so 1985,' Erin retorted.
    'How would you know?' Shelby snapped. 'You weren't even born then!'
    'I do have pay television, for your information,' Erin replied, raising her chin.
    'Romany,' repeated Hayley. 'Maybe I'll call Smarty's foal Romany?'
    Not long ago Hayley had bought a pony from the other three girls. She'd called the pony 'Quicksmart', and now the pony was being agisted at a stud with a view to being put in foal the next spring.
    'This one's done.' Lindsey passed Shelby the roan's lead rope so that she could take the newly wormed horse into the paddock. Outside the gate Shelby slipped off the halter and the horse sauntered away to graze. He still had white paste on his lips and poked his tongue out, as if he was thinking, 'Yucko!' Shelby stepped back into the yard to catch another.
    'So what do you think, Lin?' Shelby asked, trying again.
    'Think about what?'
    'About those people who had Diablo.'
    Lindsey bit the cap off another worming plunger and spat it into the dirt. 'I think there are good, strug-gling poor people, like your family, and then there are bad, drug-taking, stealing, no-fixed-address poor people,' Lindsey said.
    Shelby felt her mouth open with surprise. She had never heard her friend speak like this before. It made her uncomfortable. She had always thought that Lindsey's situation was the closest to her own.
    Hayley's parents gave her everything she wanted and Erin was pretty spoiled too. Neither of those girls knew what it was like to have to ask for things when you knew it would be a struggle for your parents.
    Lindsey and her mother worked