Mystery of the Midnight Rider (Nancy Drew Diaries #3)(23)

I hid in the hayloft with a view of Cal’s area and waited to see what he did next. For a while, that wasn’t much. He puttered around for a good twenty minutes—first checking on each of his horses, then sweeping the aisle by his stalls. Finally he grabbed a magazine with a horse on the cover, sat down on a tack trunk, and started flipping through the pages.

Sneaking a peek at my watch, I wondered what to do. By the looks of things, I could stand here all day and see nothing important. Why waste time when every second counted? Still, Cal was on the suspect list. I had to figure out whether he needed to stay there.

That meant it was time to stop spying and take some action. I climbed down from my hiding place and walked right over to Cal.

“Hello,” I said. "You’re Cal Kidd, right?”

He glanced up from his magazine. "That’s me. And you are?”

"My name’s Nancy,” I said. “I’m, uh, a journalism student. I’m here interviewing people at this horse show as part of a class project.”

"Cool.” Cal’s smile was polite but a little distant. “So lay it on me. What do you want to know?”

I scanned my mind for a good opening question that wouldn’t make him suspicious. “Urn, you’re a jumper rider, right? What made you get into that?”

"It’s kind of a family thing.” Cal tossed aside the magazine and stood, stepping over to pat the nearest of his horses. He had only a couple of inches on me, though he was so lean that he seemed taller. "My mom rode when my sister and I were kids, and we just kind of followed along in her footsteps. Or boot steps. Whatever.” He grinned.

I had to admit he was kind of charming. No wonder he’d had so many clients and admirers before his fall from grace. Then again, I’d learned long ago that appearances could be deceiving. Some of the worst criminals I’d nabbed—or that Dad had helped convict— could seem like the most agreeable people in the world.

"Okay,” I said. “What’s your favorite thing about the sport?” "The horses, of course. Though the speed and thrill aren’t bad, either.” Cal glanced at me. "Hey, don’t you need to, like, write this down or record it or something? I’m feeding you pearls of wisdom here!” His grin faded slightly as he studied my face. “Wait a minute, you look kind of familiar—didn’t I see you hanging around with Payton Evans yesterday?”



Oops. I hadn’t realized he’d even seen us by the ring after Payton’s round. “Um, yeah,” I said. "I was interviewing her, too.” "Hmm.” Suddenly Cal looked a lot less friendly. "Well, here’s some more info for your class project. The big-time show-jumping world is a tough business, not a game of My Little Pony, okay?” "I’m not sure what you mean.” I backed away, feeling nervous all of a sudden.



His eyes narrowed. "I mean it’s no place for little girls,” he growled. "You can tell your friend Payton Evans that the next time you interview her. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have business to attend to.”

He stalked off, glowering, and disappeared around the comer. I collapsed against the wall, my heart pounding. I knew I should probably follow him to see where he was going. But after the threat he’d just made, I was none too eager to face him again.

“If it was a threat,” I murmured to myself, still not quite sure what had just happened. Either way, his reaction was weird enough to keep his name on the suspect list for sure.





*****





"Here she comes,” George said.

Following her gaze, I saw Bess jogging toward us. We were behind the show office again. I’d texted both my friends after leaving Cal’s barn, telling them to meet me there whenever they were finished.

"I hope you guys found out something interesting.” Bess was huffing and puffing as she reached us. "Because my detective work was a total bust.”

"Really? What happened?” I asked.

Bess leaned against the wall to catch her breath. “Nothing, pretty much,” she said. “Lenny went back to his barn and talked on his cell phone for a while. Not about anything interesting, as far as I could hear. Then he went over to one of the rings to watch some of his students ride. He was still there when I left.”

"Okay.” I turned to George. She’d arrived just moments before Bess, so we hadn’t had a chance to compare notes yet. “What about you?” I asked.

“I followed Jessica back to her barn,” George said. “She sat down on a tack trunk and started texting, so I got bored and took a look around.”

Bess snorted. “Some detective you are, Ms. Short Attention Span.”

George ignored her. “Anyway, I ended up chatting with Jessica’s trainer. And guess what I found out?”

“What?” I asked.

"It turns out Jessica might be a jerk, but she’s not our culprit.” George looked pleased with herself. "Because she wasn’t even at the show where Midnight got tested.”

“Are you sure?” I asked.

“Positive. The trainer lady knew exactly which show I was talking about. I guess she’s friends with Dana—she’d just heard the gossip and seemed pretty bummed out that Midnight might get suspended. She said the rest of the barn was at the show in question, but Jessica had the flu or something that week.”