Mystery of the Midnight Rider (Nancy Drew Diaries #3)(34)

I sort of wished it hadn’t been.

Dana managed to keep Midnight still long enough for Payton to slide down before the saddle could slip any further. Then the trainer grabbed the girth for a closer look, her expression going grim as she examined it.

“It looks like this girth was cut almost all the way through. If it had broken while Payton was going over a jump. . . But how did this happen?” she blustered. “I always check all tack myself before my clients go in for—oh. Wait.” She shot Payton a confused look. “Except this time I didn’t…

“Let’s get out of here,” I urged, suddenly aware of the murmurs of the crowd as they watched. "We don’t need an audience for this.” Noticing that the jump-crew guy was moving toward me again, I gulped. "Um, Dana, can you tell them to back off? Please?

I can explain.”

Dana frowned at me, seeming undecided for a second. Finally she shrugged. “It’s okay,” she told the men. “I’ll sort it out and let you know if we need help.”

By the time we got out of the ring, my friends, the Nickersons, and Payton’s parents were waiting for us. “What happened?” Dr. Evans cried, wrapping her daughter in a hug.

“Oh my gosh, Payton!” Bess exclaimed at the same time. "If your girth had broken over the top of one of those huge jumps, you could’ve been killed!”

George was staring at me. "Nancy, how did you know that was going to happen?”

"Because I finally figured out who’s behind everything that’s been happening,” I said.

Ned gasped. "You mean the same person who drugged Midnight and slashed Payton’s saddle did this, too? Messed with her girth so she’d fall off?”

“That’s cold!” George shot Dana a suspicious glance. "So who was it?”

“Not any of the people you’re thinking of” I turned and gave Payton a meaningful look.

She met my eye, her lower lip trembling slightly. Then she nodded and squared her shoulders.

"It was me,” she said. “I did it. All of it.”

"What?” several voices exclaimed at once.

"That’s right. I messed up my girth, and my saddle, too.” Pay-ton took a deep breath. “And I fed Midnight chocolate to make him flunk that drug test.”

Dana looked grim. “Payton, you’re the last person I ever thought would cheat to give yourself an edge.”

"That’s not why I did it!” Payton protested quickly. She pulled off her helmet. "Please, just let me explain.” She shot her parents an unreadable look.

"Payton?” her father prompted. "What’s this about?”

"I just wanted a break, you know?” Payton blurted out. Her eyes filled with tears. "From the pressure, the need to be the best at all costs. From not having a life outside of showing. From always being afraid I was going to let someone down.” She paused. “And especially from feeling like I was pushing my horses way too hard. Especially this guy.”

Midnight had turned his head to stare at the ring as another horse-and-rider pair entered. At Payton’s touch, he turned and nuzzled her hair, the rings of his bit clanking against her head.

There was a babble of voices, some confused and some angry, as everyone reacted to Payton’s revelation. I ignored them, watching Payton.

“So you decided to frame yourself,” I said. "Make everyone think you were in danger so they’d let you quit. Maybe even insist you quit.”

Payton ran her fingers lightly over Midnight’s face. "That wasn’t my first plan,” she said. "First I tried to get myself suspended. I’ve been slipping chocolate to any of my horses that’ll eat it for months.”

"Ever since you first started signing as your own trainer?” I guessed.

She nodded. "I definitely didn’t want Dana to get in trouble. . . .”

After that, the words poured out of her like water out of a broken dam. At first she’d been willing to wait however long it took for one of her "drugged” horses to be selected for random drug testing. But then the chef d’equipe had announced that he was coming to the River Heights show—and Payton’s parents and Dana insisted that Payton skip her cousin’s wedding to attend.

That had made Payton desperate enough to plant that note on her father’s car. That hadn’t done the trick either, obviously. Pay-ton ended up in River Heights anyway. Even so, she’d decided to do whatever it took to avoid riding in front of the chef d’equipe, which she seemed to see as the point of no return. First she’d called in that anonymous tip to the stewards about herself. Then she’d sneaked the second note into the grill, hoping that when Mrs. Nickerson saw it, she’d put pressure on her old friend to pull Payton from the show.

That didn’t work either, so next Payton slashed her own saddle. She tried calling Ned and me, pretending a shadowy man was stalking her. She even let the news about Midnight’s drug test slip to Jessica Watts, knowing the gossip would be all over the show grounds in a heartbeat, which Payton hoped would influence the decision of the officials.

But when even the long-awaited failed drug test failed to stop her from reaching the Grand Prix ring, Payton had really panicked.

“I didn’t want to hurt Midnight,” she said, still stroking her horse’s neck. "So I figured it was going to have to be me.”