Mystery of the Midnight Rider (Nancy Drew Diaries #3)(12)

The horse lurched forward, speeding up and zigzagging a bit.



But Dana kept him straight with her legs and the reins. With one last kick, she sent him leaping over the jump. He cleared it by about two feet and landed snorting and with his head straight up in the air. But Dana calmly circled around and came again. By the fifth or sixth time, the horse was jumping calmly.

As she brought the gelding to a walk and gave him a pat, Dana noticed me standing there. “Hello,” she said, riding over. "You’re Payton’s friend. Uh, Lucy, right?”

"Nancy,” I corrected. I smiled and nodded at the horse. "Looks like you were making him face his fears.”

Dana chuckled and stroked the gelding’s sweaty neck. "He’s a good jumper, but a huge chicken about certain types of things. All he needs is a little patience and he gets over it. I just wanted to make sure it was now, with me, and not in the show ring with his twelve-year-old owner.”

I nodded, a little surprised. The Dana sitting in front of me right now seemed like a whole different kind of person from the one I’d seen with Payton yesterday. But I pushed the thought aside.

"Listen, I know you’re probably really busy,” I said, “but I was hoping to talk to you about something. Do you have a second?” "Just barely.” Dana checked her watch. Then she dismounted and led the horse out through the gate nearby. "I need to get this guy back to the barn, then meet a student at a different ring for a lesson. What did you want to talk about?”

I hesitated, not sure what to say. My usual method was to treat everyone as a suspect until the evidence indicated I should do otherwise. Dana was Payton’s longtime trusted trainer. But did that mean she was innocent?

"It’s about Payton,” I said, deciding to keep it vague—just in case. "I’m, um, worried about her.”

Dana stopped fiddling with the horse’s stirrups and turned to face me. "Oh?” She peered into my face. "That’s funny. I’m pretty worried about Payton myself.”

“Really? How so?”

Dana unsnapped her riding helmet and pulled it off, running a hand through her short hair. “She’s not herself lately. I’m afraid she’s losing her competitive edge.”

"You mean because of what happened yesterday?” I asked. "The accusation that she drugs her horses?”

Dana blinked. “Actually, I almost forgot about that. No, this has been going on since way before yesterday. At least a month, maybe longer. It’s like somewhere along the way, she just lost it.”

“What do you mean?”

Dana shrugged, some of that impatience I’d seen yesterday creeping back into her expression. "Hard to describe. Just that these past few shows, it’s like she’s not that into it anymore.” The horse shifted his weight, and Dana glanced over at him.

“Okay.” I could tell the trainer was getting antsy. "So is there any chance this drug thing isn’t the first time someone tried to psych her out, started a rumor or whatever? Could there be other incidents she didn’t tell you about?”

"I suppose it’s possible. Payton’s a teenager, after all, and everyone knows they aren’t always super forthcoming.” Dana glanced at me, then grimaced as she belatedly remembered—or noticed—my age. “No offense.”

"None taken. Do you know if Payton has any enemies? Like competitors who might want to throw her off her game or something?”

"Funny you should ask.” Dana frowned. “For such a sweet, hardworking girl, Payton has managed to make a couple of enemies.”

I held my breath. Now we were getting somewhere! I wondered if one of the enemies Dana was alluding to could be Lenny Hood. The more I thought about the comments he’d made yesterday, the more troubling they seemed.



“Who are—,” I began.



The shrill buzz of Dana’s phone cut me off She whipped the phone to her ear. “Dana here,” she said.

She listened to whoever was on the other end for a moment. Her expression went grim. When she hung up, she didn’t keep me in suspense about why.



“Well, that does it,” she said. “Midnight just flunked his drug test!”





CHAPTER FIVE




Test Case



“WHAT?” I EXCLAIMED. “WHAT DO YOU MEAN, he flunked?”

Dana dropped her phone into her pocket. “What do you think I mean?” she snapped. “They found a forbidden substance when they tested his urine. Theobromine, to be specific.”

"Theobromine? What’s that?”

“What do I look like, a chemist?” Dana said. "All I know is it’s an ingredient in chocolate, and tea, and maybe some other stuff like that.”

I wrinkled my nose in confusion. "I don’t get it. Who would give chocolate or tea to a horse, and why? And even if they did, who would even know something like that was against the rules?”

Dana’s frown deepened. “Anyone who shows seriously on the A circuit, that’s who. Or they should, anyway. I know for a fact that Payton knew. Someone she knows at another barn got in big trouble for letting her horse drink cola at shows. Similar kind of thing.”