Mystery of the Midnight Rider (Nancy Drew Diaries #3)(13)

I almost smiled at the image of a horse drinking cola. But this wasn’t the time.

“How does the testing work?” I asked. “I mean, did someone just go grab Midnight out of his stall just now and—”

“Not just now.” Dana stared at me as if I were the stupidest person on the face of the earth. Or at least at this horse show. "He was chosen for testing at a show a few weeks back. Takes a while to get the results, and if it’s negative you never hear anything. But if it’s positive...”

“I see.” This put a new spin on the case. If Payton was being framed or psyched out, it clearly hadn’t started at this particular show. “Could someone have slipped him something with theobromine in it, then set him up to be tested that day?” I asked. “Like the same person who gave the stewards that anonymous tip, for instance?”

"It doesn’t work that way.” Dana shook her head. “The testing is totally random. There’s no way to tell which horses will be pulled at any given show.”

I could feel my theories deflating in the face of the facts Dana was telling me. "All right, then who does the actual testing? Any chance there was some hanky-panky there?”

"No,” Dana replied flatly. "The testers are mostly vets or other outside people, and they send the samples to an independent lab. Everything’s carefully monitored by the USEF—that’s the national governing body of these shows. There’s about a one in a zillion chance of hanky-panky in the process.”

“So you’re saying it’s got to be true,” I said. “Midnight really did have theobromine in his system. How did it get there?”

"That’s what I'd like to know.” Dana sounded testy. "Apparently the level of theobromine they found is borderline, so there’s going to have to be some kind of official ruling made about whether a suspension is warranted. Luckily, our records are clean, but...” "You mean yours and Payton’s?”

"And Midnight’s, too.” Dana yanked her phone out of her pocket. "I need to talk to Payton about this. Now. Here, take him back to the barn.”

She tossed the chestnut gelding’s reins at me. I gulped. “Wait, I—”

It was too late. Dana was already stomping away, madly texting as she went. A moment later she disappeared around the comer of the nearest building.

I stared up at the horse, who suddenly seemed a lot taller than he had a second ago. Definitely a lot taller than those ponies from my long-ago lessons.

"Nice horsie?” I said uncertainly. "Urn, good boy?”

I gave an experimental tug on the reins. The horse yanked his head up, almost ripping the reins out of my hands. He regarded me suspiciously, then took a step backward.

"Wait,” I said. "Don’t do that. Um...”

"Hi,” a friendly voice said behind me. "You’re Payton’s friend, right? Are you okay?”

It was one of the teens who had filled us in about Lenny Hood the day before. "Oh, hi,” I greeted her with relief. "Listen, Dana just left me with this horse, and I’m not sure what to do with it.”

The girl reached out to take the reins from me. “That’s Dana,” she said with a touch of fondness in her voice. "When she gets hyped up about something, she tends to forget that not everyone is there to be her servant.” She giggled. "One time my grandma came to one of my shows, and Dana wanted her to jog a horse so Dana could see if it was lame. My grandma’s seventy-six, uses a cane, and never touched an animal bigger than her Pekingese!”

I smiled. "So is Dana your trainer too?” That explained how the girl knew so much about Payton.



"Uh-huh. I’m Rachel, by the way.”



"Nancy. Thanks for rescuing me.” I gestured at the horse, who now stood placidly at the other end of the reins. "I think he was about to take off for the hills.”

Rachel giggled again. "No problem. See you later.”

She headed off with the horse in tow. My smile faded as my mind returned to what Dana had just told me. As if Ned’s parents and my anniversary plans weren’t enough, now I had an even more important reason to want to solve this case quickly. If I didn’t, and the horse show officials decided against Midnight, Payton could lose her chance to ride in front of the Olympic chef d’equipe tomorrow!

I pulled out my phone and called Ned. “Sorry, it looks like I might need a rain check on those anniversary plans after all.” I filled him in on the news about the drug test.

"Wow,” Ned said. “That’s serious business.”

"I know. So did Dana find Payton and tell her? What does she think?”

"I don’t know.” Ned sounded worried. "I was actually about to call you for two reasons. The first is that I lost track of Payton a few minutes ago.”

“What? But you promised your parents you’d stick with her.” I wasn’t really that worried about Payton’s physical safety while she was on the busy horse show grounds. But still, we’d promised.

"I know, but it’s really their fault,” Ned said. “My mom called me a little while ago, and I guess Payton must have wandered off while I was on the phone.”

I leaned against a handy fence post. “Okay. What’s the second reason you were going to call me?”