Charlotte and the Starlet (3 page)

Leila galloped hard towards the low hedge she was
meant to jump. She could see one truck shooting in front
of her and knew there would be one behind. Good.

'Move it, Leila,' Sarah-Jane yelled in that irritating
high-pitched voice of hers, digging her heels in again.

I'll move it all right, you freckled freak, thought
Leila. As she approached the hedge, she suddenly
broke right and charged directly at a big oak tree with
heavy, low branches. On her back she could feel
Sarah-Jane fighting for control.

Time for the kid to 'branch' out. Leila drove Sarah-Jane
into the lowest branch.

She heard the impact of Sarah-Jane's helmet on the
wood, and felt the sudden weightlessness as she
tumbled off. Like the good horse she pretended to be,
Leila came to an immediate halt. She turned and
smiled, watching Sarah-Jane lying there, moaning.
That would teach her to dig her heels in.

'People say it's hard to lose weight,' Leila tittered to
herself. 'Nothing to it.'

The truck had stopped and Tommy and his crew
had jumped out.

'Did you get the shot of her hitting the branch?'
asked Tommy of his cameraman in a careful whisper.

'You bet,' came the reply.

Tommy could feel things going his way. That was
going to look great on the big screen. And that
moment when she hit the branch, that was one of the
most satisfying in his whole life. There was justice in
the world. He ran for Sarah-Jane, sounding solicitous.

'Sarah-Jane, are you okay?'

'No, I'm not okay. That dumb nag just ran right off
course.'

With a degree of satisfaction, Leila looked over at
Sarah-Jane shouting and throwing a tantrum. Good,
Tommy wouldn't like that. Plenty of other freckle-faced
kids waiting in the wings.

Leila would not have been so happy had she known
that, at that moment, watching her from a distance
were two men who saw in Leila not a beautiful bay
filly but a large bundle of cash. One of the men was
big and fat. He didn't wash very often and he rarely
shaved so that his face resembled flypaper covered in
dead flies. His name was Ralph. Right now, he was
eating his third chocolate bar of the day. His friend
was skinny with a face like a weasel. This was Bobby.

'You sure this is gonna work?' asked Bobby. He had
known Ralph for a long time and while Ralph always
had great ideas for easy money, they usually backfired.
Like the time they were going to steal money from a
vending machine. Bobby got his hand stuck in the coin
slot and they had to get the fire brigade to cut it out.
Then the police fined them and they had to pay for a
new vending machine as well. But Ralph had no doubts
about his new scheme. He tossed down the chocolate
wrapper and wiped his sticky fingers on Bobby's shirt.

'Course this is gonna work. That horse is worth
twenty million bucks to Joel Gold. You think he won't
pay at least a couple of million to get her back?'

Bobby didn't answer right then as two paramedics
walked past, carrying Sarah-Jane on a stretcher. She
was screaming at them. 'Keep it level, you bozos,
you're making me nauseous.'

Tommy Tempest was following his young star. He
looked over to Ralph, who he knew as the plumber
who supplied the requirements on location. 'You get
the shower rigged yet?'

Ralph nodded. 'Yes, Mr Tempest, all done.'

When they were alone again Ralph whispered to
his confederate. 'Just make sure, no slip-ups.'

Bobby hated the way Ralph acted as if he was
hopeless. 'I told you, I got it all figured out.'

Feathers was dozing on his perch, dreaming of a faroff
land where there were other pink and grey birds
like him circling in the sky, squawking merrily. A
particularly attractive female cockatoo was giving him
the eye and now he was flying up to her, showing off,
looping the loop and flying upside down. He could
see she was impressed ... then CRACK! Heck,
somebody was taking shots at them!

Feathers woke with a start, momentarily losing his
balance. He was forced to flap crazily to regain it. The
sound, he realised with relief as he became fully
awake, had come from outside the trailer and was not
a rifle shot. It had been the sound of a twig snapping.
Feathers looked out to see a skinny man sneaking
through the woods. One glance told Feathers he was
untrustworthy. Beady eyes. Never trust a man with
beady eyes and the shadow of a beard ... especially if
he's sneaking through the woods.

This walking through woods was tough going. Bobby
much preferred the nice, smooth concrete you got at
places like racetracks. Who wanted trees and leaves
and ... Yuck! His lip curled as he realised he'd walked
right into a spider-web. He clawed it off. It was only
the thought of the money that made him carry on.
Bobby checked his watch. The tranquilliser he had
slipped into the security guard's coffee would have
worked by now. He'd be out like a light. Bobby crept
forward until he was only twenty metres from Leila's
shower. The security guard was passed out. Everything
was going to plan ...

He stopped. What was that? There seemed to be
some dreadful out-of-tune singing coming from
behind the shower. Was somebody else in with the
nag? Oh no, what was he going to do? Ralph was
going to kill him. He might kill himself if that horrible
racket kept up.

Luxuriating in the stream of warm water in her
purpose-built horse shower, Leila was imagining that
she was singing like her favourite singer, Kelly
Clarkson. Well, actually, she thought she sang much
better than Kelly. Singing came naturally to Leila.
Maybe she'd put out an album ... anonymously, of
course. Just as she hit the high note, she realised that
she was actually singing. Oops! It was the kind of
thing that could get a girl out of sequins and into a
hospital gown. She clammed up. She'd seen earlier
that her security guard had fallen asleep but you
couldn't be too careful. Somebody else might come by.

Leila could stay under that warm water all night
but finally the thought of dessert dragged her out. The
caterers did a fabulous chocolate mousse and she
knew exactly when they arrived each evening – eight
minutes from now. She stepped out of the shower and
onto her special warm air-blower, which she could
operate with her hoof.

Close by, Bobby said a silent prayer. The horrible
screeching had stopped. He parted the bushes and
saw the horse step out by itself onto its dryer. Good,
whoever had been there must have gone. Time for the
next stage of the plan. He reached into his bag, pulled
out a warm pizza in a cardboard box and opened the
lid. He looked in the direction of Leila's shower.

'Come on, baby,' he softly urged.

Her mane flowing in the warm air, Leila imagined
her film clip. She'd be galloping along a white beach.
The song would be some rubbish about being in love
in the summer sun.

Leila suddenly stopped and her eyes flew open. An
aroma had crash-tackled her in the midst of her
reverie. Mouth-watering pepperoni pizza. If there was
one thing Leila couldn't resist, it was pizza. Especially
pepperoni. Her nose told her it was close by. Maybe if
one of the crew had it she could nuzzle him and he'd
feed her a piece? It usually worked.

Like the children of Hamelin following the Pied
Piper, she left the shower and trotted into the woods,
following the scent.

From his cage in the trailer, Feathers saw Leila
disappearing into the woods. He screeched at the top
of his voice. 'No, you dumb filly! It's a trap. A trap!'
But even as he shouted, he knew it was hopeless.
Once Leila got pizza in her brain the only thing that
would stop her would be a double-chocolate sundae
with nuts. And right now he didn't have a double-chocolate
sundae with nuts.

Leila followed the smell. It seemed tantalisingly
close but each time she turned a corner, no pizza.
Finally she emerged into a small clearing. Bingo!
There was a truck with the back down, forming a
convenient walkway to where the pizza lay. She could
almost taste it now. She trotted into the truck. Finally!
There was the pizza, right in front of her. She was just
about to take a bite when ... BANG! Everything went
black. For a second she thought somebody must have
let off a bomb or something and she was dead, but
then she felt the truck move. What was going on? Oh,
now she got it, somebody had accidentally shut her in
the truck. That was okay, when they stopped they'd let
her out. In the meantime, there was nothing like pizza
after a warm shower!

In the front of the truck Bobby was pleased with
himself. Some people thought he was dumb but this
time he'd proved himself pretty darn smart. Everything
had gone one hundred per cent to plan. Of
course, Ralph would say it was all his idea and give
Bobby none of the credit he deserved.

The next part of Ralph's plan entailed driving the
horse to the deserted soap factory. Bobby wasn't sure
this was such a good idea. Let's face it, in every second
movie somebody was hiding something illegal in
some deserted old factory. If he were a cop, it was the
first place he'd look for the horse. He'd tried to tell
Ralph but Ralph just bullied him like always. Looking
out of the truck window Bobby saw a field filled with
horses. He suddenly had a very, very good idea.

Back at the scene of the crime, the police had been
called. The security guard was still fast asleep,
resisting all efforts to wake him. Tommy Tempest
and his producer, Joel Gold, were tearing their
hair out. Actually, Joel Gold didn't have any hair so he
was grabbing handfuls of Tommy's hair and pulling
that.

'We're ruined,' he wailed. 'Without Leila, we're
ruined.'

Tommy mentioned gingerly that there were
standby horses.

Joel Gold almost cried. 'Compared to Leila, they're
just nags.' His cell phone rang. 'Joel Gold,' he
mumbled, sniffing back tears.

A muffled voice said something.

'What? I can't hear you,' snapped Mr Gold.

On the other end of the line, in the cab of a truck
littered with trash, Ralph pulled away the handkerchief
he'd been using to disguise his voice. 'Listen to me,
Mr Gold: we got the horse.'

The producer turned quickly to Tommy Tempest
and whispered, 'It's the nag-nappers.' He spoke into
the phone. 'Who are you?'

'Ra–' Ralph just stopped from giving his name. He
saw Bobby smile at him smugly, as if he knew he'd
nearly messed up. 'Rabbit. Call me Rabbit.' He gave
Bobby a knowing smile, as if to say 'fooled you'. Then
he turned back to the phone. 'I want four million.'

'Done,' said Joel Gold.

'Really?' Ralph was surprised and delighted as he
peeled open another chocolate bar. 'We would have
settled for two.'

'Okay, then,' said Gold. 'Two.'

Ralph realised he'd put his foot in it but it was too
late now. He chomped on the chocolate bar. 'Okay,
two it is.' He reached for the note he'd taken all night
to write and read it out: 'Leev the monee in unmarked
bills in the trash can by the Nantville exat Interstate
106.'

'How do we know you have Leila?' Joel Gold wasn't
a fool.

'You'll find a slice of pizza with the impression of
her teeth in it, outside your trailer.'

Joel Gold felt queasy. He'd eaten that piece of pizza
when he got the news of the nag-napping. It was a sort
of nervous response. 'So, where is she now?'

'In a disused factory,' said Ralph confidently. Then
he noticed Bobby waving frantically. 'Hold on a
second.'