Horse Thief (12 page)

“But what does this have to do with your being in Max’s office?” Stevie asked.

“I got up the courage to talk to Max today,” Kurt said. “The owner of Mendenhall won’t listen to me—my parents board ten horses at his stable. Worse yet, he’s best friends with them. He’s ridden with them ever since they were all little kids. He also can’t believe that I’m not into horses. But Max understood. He told me to come in here and call my parents and to be firm with them about quitting riding. He even offered to talk to them if I wanted. But I don’t think I’ll need him. I’ve made up my mind.” He straightened his shoulders and stuck out his chin determinedly.

“You’re not the thief,” said Stevie in wonder.

“No, I’m not,” answered Kurt.

Now Stevie believed him. She stuck out her hand. “I’m sorry I suspected you,” she said. After a moment’s hesitation, Kurt took her hand and shook it. “And I
don’t think you should jump to conclusions about everyone. You’re right, my friends and I are crazy about horses. And I can understand how we would appear to you; we must seem just like your family. But we like other things, too.” Stevie searched her brain to think of other hobbies the girls had in common. At the moment she couldn’t think of any—a dilemma Carole and Lisa would have found hilarious. “Anyway, we’re always willing to listen to other people’s problems,” she said instead. “I think it’s great that you’re going to do your own thing.”

Kurt looked at her for a long moment. “Thanks,” he said finally. “I think I believe you. And I’m sorry for being so rude to you and your friends. Now if you don’t mind, I’d like some privacy.” He went into Max’s office.

As Stevie walked out of the tack room, she mulled over Kurt’s story in her mind. She found it interesting—and incomprehensible, too, since she couldn’t understand how someone could be afraid of horses.
I guess it would be like me having to join … the math club, or something like that, and go to meetings every day of the week
, she thought.

Suddenly she realized something. Kurt’s explanation meant that a huge problem still remained. The theft was still unsolved because now his strange behavior was completely explained. Not only that, but they still had four suspects left! She winced as she remembered Phil’s strange behavior and his unexplained wealth. Maybe they had
five
suspects left!

Stevie went to find Carole and Lisa. She bumped into them in the stable aisle as they were looking for her.

Carole grabbed her by the arm. “We were just looking for you.”

Stevie nodded. “I have some news for you, too. Emergency Saddle Club meeting—right now!”

The three girls went into the tack room, which was still empty. Carole started talking in a rush. “I have a new theory about how to solve the crime! I know a way to eliminate almost all of our suspects!”

“Wait!” Stevie interrupted her, in her usual impulsive fashion. “I can
definitely
eliminate at least one of the subjects.” She told them what Kurt had said.

“Poor Kurt,” said Lisa when Stevie was finished. “Imagine being forced to do something you hate—although I can’t imagine being scared of horses.”

Carole had listened to Stevie in silence. As Stevie’s story sank in, she looked up, her eyes shining. “So Kurt is out as a suspect,” she said slowly.

“I couldn’t doubt his story,” said Stevie. “I couldn’t believe,” she added, giggling, “how totally
sincere
someone could be about hating horses!”

“Then I know exactly who the thief is,” Carole said excitedly. She leaned forward and began telling Lisa and Stevie her theory.

* * *

A
FEW MINUTES
later, the three girls emerged from the tack room. They quickly searched the stable and then the indoor ring.

Mo was standing in the ring, feeding Indy an apple. When The Saddle Club saw her, they walked up to her and said hello.

“Hey,” Stevie said eagerly. “We need your help, Mo. We know who stole the money, and we want to set a trap for the thief!”

Mo’s eyes sparkled. “What great news!” she said. “I’ll do anything to help.”

Carole grabbed her arm and began pulling her toward the stable. “Come this way,” she said.

“The trap is in the tack room,” Lisa whispered to Mo.

Mo allowed herself to be dragged to the tack room. Along the way, she excitedly asked questions.

“Celeste and Howard did it, didn’t they? They’re always up to something,” Mo said.

“You’ll see,” Carole replied enigmatically.

Mo stopped suddenly, a look of horror on her face. “Oh, no, it’s not your friend Denise, is it?” she asked. “She’s so nice. But then again, I did see her counting all that money.”

“It’s not Denise,” Stevie said. She pulled Mo’s sleeve to get her moving again. The four girls entered the stable and walked toward the tack room.

“Well, that’s a relief,” said Mo. “I really like her. I
guess Veronica really had it in for your boyfriend, right? She took the money to get her revenge, huh?”

Stevie shrugged. “Veronica always has it in for one of us,” she said cheerfully. “But money is one thing she doesn’t need.”

“C’mon, you guys,” Mo said impatiently. “Who did it? How are we going to trap the thief?”

“Shhh,” whispered Carole. She looked around nervously. “Mustn’t talk here. Not safe.”

“Yes, we have to make sure the trap works perfectly and the thief suspects nothing,” added Stevie.

When they entered the tack room, the group first made sure that no one else was there. Then Stevie carefully shut the door behind her. She swung around to face Mo. “The trap has worked,” she said. “We know everything, Mo.
You
took the money!”

Mo gasped. “Wh-Wh-What are you talking about?” she stammered, turning pale underneath her freckles. “How could you say such a thing?”

Carole stepped forward. She had a stem expression on her face. “We’ve all been doing a little investigating.” she said. “We knew we needed to clear Phil’s name and to get that money back to Max. We realized that the thief had to be someone who saw Max hide the money on that shelf.”

“And then we eliminated suspects, one by one,” said Lisa.

“We knew it couldn’t be one of us,” said Stevie. “And we knew it couldn’t be Phil, either.”

“Then we found out more about Denise and Kurt,” said Lisa.

“Then I figured it out,” Carole said proudly. “Stevie found a bit of black yarn on the shelf. The thief was someone who needed black yarn for their horse’s mane. That eliminated Celeste, Howard, and Veronica as suspects. None of their horses have black manes! Gold Rush is a palomino, and Ghost and Danny are both gray. Only you and Kurt have bay horses with black manes and tails, and we’ve just ruled out Kurt. That leaves you, Mo. You’re the thief!”

Mo looked as if she were about to protest her innocence again, but then her expression became sly and cunning. Suddenly she no longer seemed like the friendly girl they had met just several hours before. If they had had any doubt about her guilt, her expression now confirmed it. “What about your boyfriend, Phil?” she asked Stevie. “He rides a bay gelding, too. Your little theory doesn’t prove anything.”

“Phil would never steal money,” replied Stevie. “He’s known Max for too long, and we know Phil too well. Give it up, Mo. We know you did it.”

Mo’s face crumpled, and her eyes filled with tears. She began sobbing. “I needed that money!” she wailed. “You
don’t understand! My family doesn’t understand me. I have no friends.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Lisa asked.

“I decided to run away from home last night,” Mo said. “I knew I could get a head start if I left from here, since it’s so far from home. But I needed money. When I saw how much was in the envelope and the jar, I didn’t stop to think. I just took it!”

Carole, Lisa, and Stevie were disconcerted. Mo sounded so desperate. What was going on in her life? How badly did she need that money?

“Maybe running away isn’t the answer,” Lisa said.

“What do you know?” Mo asked. Her tone was so bitter that Stevie felt a pang. She knew by looking at Carole and Lisa that the initial anger and triumph behind their accusations were fading and that they were all starting to worry about what could be so terribly wrong with Mo’s life.

Just then the door from Max’s office opened and Kurt walked in. Mo took advantage of the open door to scurry away before they could stop her. She was in such a hurry that she collided with Kurt, nearly knocking him over. “Hey, where’s the fire?” he said, irritated.

“Let her go,” Stevie said. “We should tell Max what happened and let him handle it.” She then looked at
Kurt, who, to her complete shock, was grinning happily. They had all gotten used to Kurt’s dour expression. He looked weird with a big smile plastered on his face.

“Hey, good news,” he announced. “I did it! I convinced my parents to let me quit riding!”

The girls were silent for a second; then Carole spoke. “Uh, congratulations?” she said in a doubtful tone. Stevie added her own lukewarm support.

Lisa smiled at Kurt. “We’re really happy for you,” she explained. “We’re just having a little trouble understanding how someone could hate riding. But now you can do what you want, and that’s terrific.”

Gruffly Kurt said, “Well, listen, I’ve already explained myself to Stevie, so I’m not going to go through it again. I’m sorry I was such a jerk to you this morning. I really didn’t know how I was going to go through with the rally. But Max helped me out, and I feel loads better.” The girls could tell that he was uncomfortable talking about it, so they didn’t press for details. Kurt jerked a thumb in the direction in which Mo had vanished. “What’s wrong with Mo? Is she acting up again?”

The girls exchanged glances. “What do you mean,
again
?” asked Stevie.

“She’s a real problem at Mendenhall,” Kurt replied. “She’s always lying, teasing other people, and generally
causing serious trouble. She’s been kicked out of too many riding lessons to count.”

Although Carole, Lisa, and Stevie had witnessed for themselves how devious Mo could be, they were still shocked at Kurt’s news. “So Celeste didn’t arrange for Howard to injure her main rival and put her in the hospital for weeks?” Stevie asked.

“What?” asked Kurt, startled. The Saddle Club filled him in on the story Mo had told them.

“Well, Celeste is kind of ruthless,” chuckled Kurt. “And she
does
treat Howard like her personal servant. But she pretty much keeps to herself. That thing with Mo’s tack was really payback for something Mo did to her last week. When Celeste was practicing, Mo blew up a brown paper bag and popped it. Gold Rush almost bolted and threw Celeste, but she’s such a good rider, she managed to calm him down.”

The three girls looked at each other. Mo’s story about Celeste and Howard was true—only Mo was the culprit and Celeste was the victim!

Then they told Kurt how they had discovered that Mo was the thief. “We were totally taken in by her,” Carole said ruefully.

“Yeah,” said Stevie. “She even told us that you and your two brothers were in trouble with the law and that you had to report to a probation officer once a week.”

Kurt looked insulted. “I don’t have any brothers and I’ve never even gotten detention at school,” he said.

Stevie shook her head. “Wow,” she said. “That was some snow job she did on us.”

Lisa agreed. “And to think we wanted her to join Pine Hollow! She made us think she wanted to switch stables so badly because of Celeste.”

“Not to mention the fact that she tried to incriminate Denise,” put in Carole. “How mean can someone get?”

“Pretty mean,” said Stevie. “I bet that she was the one who sabotaged Howard’s stirrup. I just assumed that Celeste had done it because we knew how determined she was to win the rally and because I saw her coming out of the indoor ring around that time. But Mo was in there, too.”

Kurt nodded. “It was definitely Mo. She’s pulled that stunt on a couple of riders at Mendenhall. And the only reason she wants to switch stables so badly is that the owner is finally at the end of his patience. He’s kept her on for so long because Mo’s parents have begged him to, and because Mo takes really good care of Indy. But lately she’s started to put a lot of riders and horses in danger.”

Lisa suddenly remembered what Mo had told them about her problems. “Maybe she had a good reason for taking that money,” she said. “She told us how desperate she was to run away. Maybe things are really bad at home
for her right now and she’s acting out her frustration at the stable.”

Kurt shook his head. “That doesn’t explain everything,” he said. “My parents know Mo’s parents. They’re in the process of getting a divorce, and I know Mo is taking it hard. But they’re also two really nice people. They’re trying to make things as fair as possible for Mo, and the two of them have been spending tons of time with her. I don’t know everything,” he added, “but I know that whatever is going on with Mo’s life, it’s not enough to make her act the way she’s been acting. She’s put a lot of us at Mendenhall in real danger, and now this.”

“I have a hunch that the owner of Mendenhall is about to get a really good reason to bar Mo from that stable—permanently,” Stevie said grimly.

After saying good-bye to Kurt, the three girls hurried off to find Max and tell him they had solved the mystery.