Contents
1. A Hot Beginning
2. A Clue
3. Thief!
4. A Clean Getaway
5. Suspicious
6. Missing!
7. A Secret
8. A Risky Meeting
9. A Bad-Luck Horseshoe
10. Caught
11. A Surprising Twist
12. Puzzling Clues
13. An Explanation
14. Seeing Double
15. Winners
1. A Hot Beginning
“Look at that gorgeous horse!” Bess Marvin exclaimed
as she looked out the passenger-side window of Nancy
Drew's Mustang.
Nancy slowed the car and glanced at the horse being
led along the grassy edge of the gravel drive. It was a
sleek chestnut with rippling muscles.
As they drove past, the horse pranced sideways. “It
is gorgeous,” Nancy said. “I'll bet we see a lot of
beautiful horses this weekend.”
Nancy and Bess were at the Illinois Horse Park to
attend the week-long Midwest Grand Prix Dressage
Championships. They were meeting Bess's friend Lee
Anne Suna. It was Friday morning, and Nancy and
Bess were going to bunk with Lee Anne for a long
weekend.
For the past year Lee Anne had been working for
and training with former Olympic rider Klaus Schaudt
at High Hills Farm. Nancy and Bess had had lunch
with Lee Anne a week earlier, and she'd spent the
entire time talking about the equestrian sport of
dressage. Intrigued, Nancy and Bess had decided to
attend the competition, and Lee Anne had insisted
they stay at the motel with her.
Ned Nickerson, Nancy's boyfriend, was also meeting
them at the show. His plan was to spend time with
Nancy and Bess before his college semester got too
busy.
“Too bad George couldn't come,” Nancy com-
mented.
“I'll bet she's having a great time teaching at the
soccer clinic,” Bess said as she scanned the
showgrounds. She pointed to a large gray building.
“There's Barn C. That's where Lee Anne said she'd
meet us. All of the horses from High Hills Farm are
there.”
“It's good she told you exactly where we should
meet her,” Nancy said. “I had no idea the horse park
was so big.”
“And crowded,” Bess added as a huge van rumbled
by, enveloping the Mustang in a cloud of dust.
The parking lot was filled with horse trailers, vans,
and pickup trucks. Nancy drove around for a few
minutes before she found a spot.
After she climbed out of the car, she shaded her
eyes from the hot September sun and surveyed the
grounds. From the lot, she could see the indoor arena,
a cross-country jumping course, and a few barns, which
seemed to Nancy to be the size of warehouses.
“The riding rings must be on the other side of the
barns,” Nancy said.
Bess gave Nancy a teasing look. “In dressage you
ride in an arena,” she said with a laugh.
“Well, excuse me for being so dense,” Nancy shot
back, then both girls burst out laughing.
Nancy reached inside the car and pulled out her
baseball cap. She put it on over her reddish blond hair,
pulling it down low to shade her face from the sun.
Then she locked the car and joined Bess.
“How many horses did High Hills bring for the
competition?” Nancy asked as they headed for Barn C.
Both girls were prepared for the warm weather,
wearing shorts, sneakers, and sunglasses. They'd also
packed jeans and sweatshirts for the cooler evenings.
“I'm not sure. But the farm must share the barn with
other competitors. The building looks big enough to
hold fifty horses.”
“At least,” Nancy said after they stepped through the
double doors. Before them stretched a long aisle with a
concrete floor. Nancy guessed there were about fifty
stalls on either side of the aisle—a hundred in all.
As Nancy walked down the aisle, she peered into the
stalls. From each one a handsome horse looked back at
her. Some were draped with coolers or fly sheets—
lightweight covers to keep the flies off. Others had
wraps only on their legs.
The stalls were spotless and thickly bedded with
straw. Ceiling fans whirled overhead.
“Wow,” Bess said. “This is like a fancy hotel. I
wonder if this place has room service.”
“Bess! Nancy!” a voice called.
Nancy looked over her shoulder and saw Lee Anne
jogging down the aisle.
“Hey, you two,” Lee Anne said. “I'm so glad you
made it.”
Bess's friend was small and slender. She wore cutoff
jeans, a T-shirt that said “Dressage is my life,” and
paddock boots. Her brown hair was pulled back in a
ponytail. Since she wasn't wearing makeup, Nancy
thought she looked about twelve years old instead of
nineteen.
“Lee Anne!” Bess gave her friend a hug. “We
thought we'd never find you in this palace.”
Lee Anne giggled. “Wait until you see our side of
the barn. We really fixed it up.”
“You mean there's another side?” Nancy asked.
“Amazing, isn't it?” Lee Anne said. “Barn C holds
two hundred horses. There are over six hundred horses
competing this week.”
Lee Anne grabbed Bess's hand. “Come on.” She
began to tug her friend up the aisle. “I want you to see
Aristocrat, Zanzibar, and Curio. Then I want you to
meet Klaus and—”
“Michael?” Bess teased.
At lunch the week before, Lee Anne had talked a lot
about a rider named Michael Raines, who was
competing in the Grand Prix. From the way she'd
described him, Nancy thought he sounded like a
combination movie star, prince, and sports pro. Nancy
and Bess couldn't wait to meet him.
Lee Anne blushed at Bess's teasing. “Of course
you'll meet Michael. He's getting ready for a test, so
you're just in time.”
“Test?” Bess grinned. “Like multiple choice?”
“No, silly. His riding test. Dressage is a sport where
the rider and horse perform a test made up of
movements and figures. Michael's riding Intermediate
Two tests. That's really advanced, but this fall he hopes
to be riding Grand Prix, which is the highest level.”
“Dressage seems pretty complicated,” Bess said. “I
hope I'll be able to follow what's going on.”
“Don't worry. You'll understand after you've been
here for just a day.” Lee Anne glanced at her watch.
“We'd better hustle. Michael's on in forty-five
minutes.”
Lee Anne set a pace that made Nancy and Bess jog
; to keep up. Halfway down the aisle, they turned right
into a cross aisle that led to the other side of the stable.
When they rounded the corner, Lee Anne said,
“There's Michael with Curio.”
A young man stood beside a horse at the end of the
aisle. The horse was a glossy bay. Its mane was braided
and its hooves polished. It was bridled, and a
lightweight blanket covered it from head to tail.
The man was elegantly dressed in a double-breasted
black coat with long tails, a black top hat, and white
breeches. High black boots reached to his knees.
“He looks as if he's going to a wedding,” Bess joked
in a low voice.
“That's called a shadbelly coat,” Lee Anne said as
she rushed up to Michael.
When he saw Lee Anne, Michael frowned
impatiently. “Where were you? We've got to hurry.
Curio needs a long time to warm up.”
“I went to meet Nancy and Bess,” Lee Anne
explained. “You remember—the friends I told you
about?”
“Nice meeting you.” Michael gave them a polite
glance before turning his attention back to Lee Anne.
“Meet me in the warm-up arena in fifteen minutes.
And don't forget the fly spray.”
Clucking to his horse, he left the barn, his boots
echoing on the concrete floor.
Lee Anne flashed her friends an apologetic smile.
“Sorry. He's really tense. This is his first time
competing Curio, and his ride on Thursday in the
warm-up class was just okay.”
“Where's his regular horse?” Nancy asked.
“Midnight Blue's owner decided to show him
herself.”
“So Michael doesn't have a horse of his own?” Bess
asked.
Lee Anne shook her head as she bent to put a jar of
hoof polish into the grooming box. “Many dressage
riders don't have horses of their own. Horses
competing at Intermediate and Grand Prix levels cost a
lot of money, so riders like Michael are at the mercy of
the owners. He was ready to compete Midnight Blue
this summer when his owner moved the horse to
another stable.”
“That doesn't seem fair,” Bess said.
“It isn't. Curio's a fine horse, but still, Michael's had
to start all over,” she said gloomily. “He's trying to rack
up enough good scores to qualify for the Pan American
team. But now I don't know.”
She pulled a spray bottle from the grooming box.
“We've just got time to see Aristocrat before I have to
meet Michael.”
“That's Klaus Schaudt's horse, right?” Nancy
remembered Lee Anne talking about the stallion at
lunch.
Lee Anne's face brightened. “Right. Klaus has been
competing him in Grand Prix since last year. They've
done well, too, scoring in the sixty-five to seventy
percentile range. They were even on the cover of my
favorite horse magazine.”
“So we're meeting a celebrity?” Bess said.
“Kind of,” Lee Anne said. “Lots of dressage fans
have come by to see Aristocrat up close and to get
Klaus's autograph. Gilly's been busy.”
“Gilly?” Nancy asked.
“Aristocrat's groom.” Lee Anne walked over to a
stall. “She even sleeps next to the horse.”
The door to the stall was open, and Nancy glanced
inside. A cot stood in one corner, a sleeping bag, duffel
bag, and pillow neatly laid on top. Bales of hay filled up
the other half of the stall.
“Gilly must be with Klaus,” Lee Anne said. But
here's Aristocrat.”
Nancy joined Bess and Lee Anne in front of a steel-
mesh door. In the stall, a brown horse was eating hay.
When Lee Anne made a clucking noise, he turned his
head to stare calmly at the trio. His coat gleamed, and
his mane and tail were neatly brushed. Nancy was
surprised that the celebrated horse looked like all the
other brown horses in the barn.
“He looks like a horse even I could ride,” Bess said,
echoing Nancy's thoughts.
Lee Anne chuckled. “In Aristocrat's case, looks are
deceiving. When Klaus rides him into an arena, it's as if
a spotlight hits him. He might look like an ordinary
horse, but he's worth about two hundred thousand
dollars.”
“Wow,” Nancy said. “That is a lot of money.” She
looked closer, trying to imagine the horse leaping and
prancing. Aristocrat only snorted.
Bess wrinkled her nose. “I guess we'll have to take
your word for it.”
“You don't need to take my word for it. Tomorrow
you can watch him perform.”
Anxiously, Lee Anne checked her watch. “Well, I'd
better go help Michael. You guys should come and see
his test. It'll be awesome, and I can explain what's
happening.”
“Sounds great,” Nancy said as they headed up the
aisle. “I'm really curious about dressage.”
“Nan and I have been riding since we were about
eight,” Bess told her friend. “But we don't know very
much about dressage.”
As the three girls neared the cross aisle, Nancy
stopped and sniffed the air.
Bess and Lee Anne stopped, too. “What's wrong?”
Bess asked.
“Do you smell smoke?” Nancy asked.
There were No Smoking signs posted everywhere.
Still, some careless person could have dropped a match
or sneaked a cigarette in a stall, Nancy thought.
Lee Anne lifted her chin and sniffed, too. “I smell
something. We'd better find out where it's coming
from. With all the hay and straw in here, this place
would go up like a bonfire.”
Nancy turned in a circle, trying to figure out where
the smell was coming from. When she moved down the
aisle toward the other side of the barn, she noticed that
the odor grew stronger.
Breaking into a jog, she took off for the other side. A
curl of gray smoke wafted up from a stall to her right. A
horse danced in front of the closed mesh door, its eyes
wild with fright.
Nancy raced over to the stall. The horse whirled
crazily, but Nancy spotted flames leaping up from a
pile of hay in the far corner.
“Fire!” Nancy screamed.
2. A Clue
Flipping the latch, Nancy threw open the stall door.
The horse charged out, flattening Nancy against the
outside wall, and bolted down the aisle.
Nancy ran into the stall. In the corner she could see
that a pile of hay was burning. Lee Anne raced up,
carrying an extinguisher. “Bess went to get Security,”
she gasped.
She aimed the nozzle of the fire extinguisher at the
flames and pressed the lever. Foam spewed onto the
fire. Nancy stomped on the edges of the flames to put
out the embers.
“What are you doing in here?” a voice demanded.
Nancy glanced over her shoulder. A woman wearing
riding breeches stood in the doorway.
Her face
expressed her horror. “Where's my horse?”
“He ran down the aisle,” Nancy told her. “There was
a fire and your horse was frantic. When I opened the
door, I couldn't stop him from running.”
The woman ran in the direction Nancy pointed.
Turning off the extinguisher, Lee Anne let out her
breath. “Thank goodness you smelled the smoke,
Nancy.”
“What's going on in here?” a deep voice boomed. A
huge man wearing a cowboy hat strode into the stall
with Bess close behind him. He wore a tan uniform
with a gold badge that read Chief of Security. Nancy
could see the name R. Texel written on a name tag
above the badge.
“There was a fire,” Lee Anne explained. “But it's out
now.”
“A fire?” Texel tipped his hat back and scowled at
the girls. “How'd it start? Were you girls smoking in
here?”
“No, sir,” Nancy said.
“Humph.” He knelt down by the burned pile, his
knees cracking. Eyes narrowed, he studied what was
left of the hay.
Lee Anne nervously checked her watch. “Hey,
everyone, I've got to run and help Michael. His test is
in half an hour. You and Bess meet me at Arena One
on top of the hill, okay?”
“As soon as we can,” Nancy said. “I want to find out
more about this fire.”
Nancy was as curious about the fire as R. Texel. Her
first hunch—that someone had dropped a match or a
cigarette—didn't make sense. Would anyone do
something so foolish? she wondered.
Texel pointed to the ashes. “Hay doesn't just catch
on fire by itself. Let's see if anybody knows what
happened.” He turned and marched out of the stall.
“What do you think happened, Nancy?” Bess asked.
“I don't know. Let's look around and see if we can
find anything.” Nancy crouched down and poked
through ashes. Finding nothing unusual in the
blackened hay, she began to sift through the sawdust
that had been used as bedding on this stall floor. Her
fingers felt something long and flat.
“Look what I found.” Nancy held up an unlit match
torn from a matchbook. The head had several white
streaks on it. “I wonder if the person who did this
struck this match first. When it didn't light, he or she
dropped it.”
Nancy stood up and spoke, “Either someone was
really careless—or this fire was set on purpose.”