The Missing Horse Mystery by Carolyn Keene

Author:Carolyn Keene [Keene, Carolyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

9. A Bad-Luck Horseshoe

Nancy knew she had to act quickly. She jumped up,

startling Curio. The bay nickered nervously, then

banged the mesh door with his hoof. Nancy realized

she'd better get him out of the stall and away from

Gilly.

Speaking in a calm voice, Nancy grabbed the

dangling lead line. “Okay, Curio, let's put you in

Aristocrat's stall. Then I'll call for help.”

She opened the door, and Curio leaped out. “Easy.

Easy.” Nancy steered him to the empty stall. A

scuffling noise behind her made her whirl.

A dark figure darted from a stall and disappeared

down the cross aisle. The movement was so sudden

that Nancy thought she was seeing things. But Curio

was staring, too.

Quickly she put the horse in the stall and latched the

door. Then she raced down the aisle. The sound of

receding footsteps came from the other side of the

barn. Nancy dashed down the cross aisle, but when she

got to the other side, no one was there. Then she heard

a car engine rev up.

Nancy reached the open barn door just in time to

see a car speed past the guard's booth and disappear

from the showgrounds, dust and gravel pluming out

from the back tires. The morning light was so dim she

couldn't see the license plate. Still, Nancy thought she

recognized the vehicle as the old station wagon

Michael had driven the night before.

There was no time to think about what she'd seen.

She had to get help for Gilly.

Nancy raced to the guard's booth. Fred Dunlevy

stepped outside to meet her. “What's going on?”

“Call an ambulance,” she puffed. “There's been an

accident. One of the grooms is hurt!”

Fred hustled over to the phone while Nancy told

him what she'd discovered. After he'd finished calling,

she asked him about the car that had left.

“It roared by so fast that I couldn't identify it,” Fred

said apologetically. “I'd stepped out of the booth on the

other side to check the pass of a van coming in.”

Nancy considered what Fred had said. She would be

the only witness, and she wasn't at all sure about what

she had seen.

Ten minutes later Texel arrived, followed by the

ambulance crew.

“She's been hit on the head,” Texel told Nancy as he

left the stall to make room for the three emergency

medical technicians, who bustled in with trauma kits.

Nancy was leaning against the doorjamb. She was

exhausted from lack of sleep and from worrying about

Gilly.

“Now show me the horse that was with her when

you found her.”

“Over here.” Nancy led Texel to Aristocrat's stall.

Curio stared at them, stalks of hay sticking out of his

mouth. “Gilly was braiding him for the show. See?”

Nancy pointed to the needle and thread still dangling

from his mane.

Texel rubbed his chin. Shadows ringed his eyes, and

Nancy figured he hadn't gotten much sleep, either.

“Can you hold the horse for me? I want to check his

hooves,” he asked her.

“What for?”

Texel swung around to look at her. “Now, Miss

Drew, haven't you figured out what happened yet?

This here horse must have kicked that girl. Not much

of a contest when it's a thousand pounds of critter

versus a hundred pounds of human.”

Nancy's jaw dropped. “Curio? He wouldn't hurt a

flea.”

“I've squashed plenty of fleas myself, and I'm a

pretty nice guy.

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