Free Scout and the Mystery of the Marsh Ponies by Belinda Rapley

the dust and chaos surrounding them with a look of mild horror, then carefully prised open the nearest box. She picked through the contents with the tips of her fingers, while next to her Rosie was busy throwingthe insides of another box over her shoulder in her search.
    “Nice!” Charlie laughed, opening a shoebox and finding an old picture of Rosie sitting on a swing with some seriously dodgy clothes on and an even dodgier haircut, before turning her attention to a different pile.
    Alice started to unwrap the newspaper around a tray of face paint.
    “Ooh!” Rosie suddenly squealed, leaning over Alice’s shoulder. “Look!”
    “Okay, stop right there!” Mia exclaimed, noticing at once where Rosie was looking. “There is no way I’m putting that greasy make-up on as a disguise, not for anything. Sorry, Alice.”
    “I’m not talking about the make-up!” Rosie tutted, picking up the bit of paper that Alice had just dropped. “I was talking about this!”
    As Mia leaned in to get a closer look, Rosie started to sneeze wildly. Mia squealed as she got sprayed, setting off Charlie and Alice.
    “Rosie, we’re meant to be looking for disguises,” Charlie said when she’d recovered, “not reading bits of old newspaper.”
    “But this might be important,” Rosie said as she scanned down the page. “Listen: ‘Woman Flees Following Pony-Owning Ban’! You’ll never guess who it is!”
    “Mrs Valentine?” Alice said hopefully, trying to see what Rosie was reading.
    “Guess again,” Rosie said, looking round at each of them like a quizmaster.
    “Just get on with it, Rosie!” Charlie said, striking gold as she pulled out a bright red wavy wig. She shoved it on, getting some dust up her nose and starting to sneeze too, sending the wig falling over her face.
    “Okay, okay,” Rosie replied, “keep your hair on.”
    “Never mind all that,” Mia said impatiently. “Who’s it about?”
    “Mrs Hawk,” Rosie announced dramatically,her face lit up unnaturally as she knelt below the light bulb.
    The others all looked over at the crumpled page from Rosie’s old local paper while she read it out:
    A LOCAL WOMAN has gone on the run after a number of ponies owned by her were found on Hollow Common, near Hollow Hill, in poor condition. The field they were grazing could not be seen from the roadside.
    All the ponies have been seized by the RSPCA after the identity of the local woman was revealed as that of Mrs Nora Hawk (47). She already faced a ban from owning ponies after neglecting them in the past. It’s now understood that Mrs Hawk has previously been on the run, in an attempt to avoid detection– and the ban. However, once she moved into this county she flouted the ban and continued to buy and sell ponies.
    Local residents were shocked by the news.
    “Mrs Hawk always kept herself to herself and I had no idea this was happening just down the road from me,” said one Hollow Hill resident, Mr Colin Bright (38). “I didn’t know anything about the ponies on Hollow Common because it’s hidden, but I do know she had a pony in the paddock out the back of her cottage when she disappeared.”
    Mrs Hawk left her Hollow Hill address in the middle of the night with this particular pony and fled once more before the ban could be issued. Any news on her whereabouts should be reported tothe RSPCA immediately. She is described as tall and thin, with short black hair. She is considered extremely devious.
    At the end of the article was a grainy black-and-white photo of a woman with short dark hair and small, beady eyes.
    “Mr Bright – that must be Beth’s dad,” Charlie said after they’d looked at the picture. “Beth said that Mrs Hawk had been involved in some kind of scandal when she left.”
    “The date on this newspaper’s April the twenty-ninth,” Mia pointed out.
    “Sammy said Mrs Hawk bought Scout at auction in April,” Alice said, frowning. “If the RSPCA had seized all her other ponies from Hollow