Mystery of the Midnight Rider (Nancy Drew Diaries #3)(15)

"Yeah.” The leather seat was a total loss. Every inch of it was sliced all the way down to the padding underneath.

“Who would do something like this?” the younger girl wondered, her voice shaking a little.

I turned to face her. “I was just going to ask you two the same thing,” I said. “Do you know of anyone who dislikes Payton?”

Rachel and the younger girl traded a look. Then they both shrugged.

“Out of the junior riders on the circuit, it’s mostly just Jessica,” Rachel said, "Jessica Watts. She’s this rider from another bam near ours. She’s always super rude to Payton when they compete against each other.”

“Or even see each other,” the second girl added.

"Yeah, I’m pretty sure we’ve seen her in action.” George grimaced.

"She’s around Payton’s age, right?” I said. “Brown hair, narrow chin, rides a tall gray horse?”

“That’s her,” Rachel confirmed.

“Why doesn’t she like Payton?” Bess asked.

“We don’t know,” Rachel said, as the other girl nodded. “Probably just because Payton usually beats her, I guess.”

“Does Jessica hate Payton enough to do something like this?” George waved a hand at the ruined saddle.

Rachel glanced at it, looking dubious. "I don’t know. I always thought she was just kind of snotty. But you never know, I guess.”

A thought occurred to me. “That big jumper class Payton won—the one you mentioned just now—did Jessica ride in that class, too?”

"You mean the one that got Payton’s dad to buy her the saddle?” the younger girl asked. "That wasn’t a jumper class, it was an eq class.”

“A what class?” George asked.

“Eq—that’s short for equitation,” Rachel explained. “That’s where the rider is judged instead of the horse. You know—for having the proper riding position and stuff.”

"Okay,” I said. "But was Jessica in it too?”

"Jessica doesn’t do eq,” Rachel said. “She only rides jumpers.” “And hunters, sometimes,” the other girl put in. "At least she used to, before she sold her pony.”

My head was spinning with all the horse show jargon. But the one fact I needed seemed clear enough regardless of the details. "So Payton didn’t beat Jessica out for some big prize in that particular class?”

"Not that one.” The younger girl giggled. "Just, like, every other class Jessica’s ever been in.”

So the saddle probably wasn’t some kind of symbol of a particularly heinous defeat. That didn’t necessarily mean Jessica couldn’t still be the culprit. But I didn’t want to jump to conclusions.

“Anyone else you can think of who might have it out for Payton?” I asked, waiting for Rachel to mention Lenny Hood. After all, she was one of the ones who’d told us about his history with Payton.

Instead it was the younger girl who spoke up. "Um, maybe,” she said hesitantly. She paused, shooting a look at Rachel. “What about Cal?”

At that moment Dana burst into the room like a small tornado. "This is the absolute last straw!” she exclaimed breathlessly. "I’m serious. Payton has to stop messing up my life, or I won’t be around to live it! Then where will you all be? Who will be there to fix all your disasters and help pick up the pieces, huh? I ask you!” She glared at the two girls, who didn’t answer. In fact, both of them were inching backward toward the door.

"Did you find Payton?” I asked, stepping forward. "What did she say about—”

"No, I didn’t find Payton!” the trainer cut me off irritably. "You’d think at a small-town show like this, she wouldn’t be so hard to track down. Just one more way she’s making my life difficult.”

She pushed past Bess and snatched the ruined saddle off the rack. Then she stomped toward the door.



"Wait!” I said. "I need to ask you—”



"Sorry,” she cut me off again. "I need to find Payton. Like, seriously, now”

"Wow,” Rachel said once the trainer was gone. "She seemed really mad.”

"Yeah.” The younger girl grabbed Rachel’s arm to check her watch. "We better go start tacking up, or she’ll be mad at us next.” The two of them rushed out of the room without another word. “Leave it to Nancy,” George said.

“Leave it to Nancy what?” I asked, distracted by my thoughts. George smirked. "To show up at an innocent, fun-filled day at the horse show, and have everything go down the drain.”

Bess rolled her eyes. "You’re blaming Nancy just because a mystery happened to show up where she happened to be?” she said. “That makes about as much sense as Dana blaming Payton because someone vandalized her saddle.”

“Right.” I was kind of disturbed by the trainer’s reaction myself. "It’s like Dana can’t wait to criticize everything Payton does.”

"Think she should be a suspect?” George asked.

"You never know,” I said. "But there are a few better ones I want to check out first. Like Jessica Watts, and Lenny Hood, and maybe this Cal that girl just mentioned, whoever that might be.”