Horse Trouble Read Free

knew exactly what she’d just remembered.
    “Let’s go,” Carole said. The girls left TD’s in a shot, leaving behind a confused waitress.
    “We’ll be right back!” Carole called.
    “Right after we get out of prison!” Stevie added.
    The restaurant door slammed behind them. They didn’t even hear it, they were running so fast.
    TD’s was just a short distance from Pine Hollow. The girls often walked it after class, and it usually took them about ten minutes. This time they covered the distance in less than five minutes—at a run.
    “It’s got to be in the locker area!” Lisa said breathlessly over her shoulder.
    “Yeah,” Carole agreed. “That’s where it was when we had to save Prancer.”
    “We’ll find it. Don’t worry,” Stevie said. They all liked the sound of those words. They just hoped they were true.
    There was nobody in the locker area when they got there. That wasn’t surprising. All the young riders—the only ones who used this room, were long gone. Nobody would be back there until tomorrow. Lisa dropped to her hands and knees to look at the floor. Stevie looked at every surface in the place—tables, benches, and shelves. Carole focused on the tops ofthe lockers, and when they proved clean (not of dust, just of pins), she began looking in the lockers.
    There wasn’t a sign of the pin.
    The locker area was small, and it didn’t take the girls long to be absolutely sure that the pin wasn’t there. To be definitely, positively, totally sure, they each switched levels and repeated the search. Then the three of them worked together to move the lockers away from the wall just to see if the pin might have slipped behind them. They found a riding crop there. They didn’t find a gold pin with a diamond in it.
    “Veronica,” Lisa said. “She was the one who was holding it when the cat and the mouse came through. Maybe she took it.”
    “Veronica would never take a piece of jewelry she thought wasn’t real,” Stevie said.
    “Maybe so, but I think I’d better call her to see if she remembers what happened,” Lisa said. Stevie and Carole agreed that was a good idea, and Lisa went to use the phone in Mrs. Reg’s office. Normally riders were expected to use the pay phone, but in the case of an emergency, they were allowed to use the stable phone. Lisa thought this qualified as an emergency.
    Mrs. Reg’s office was empty and dark. When she turned on the light and sat to use the phone, she was struck by the fact that the desk, which had been in itsusual state of disorganization when she’d last been in there just over an hour earlier, was now neat as a—she didn’t even want to
think
the word—pin. Perhaps Mrs. Reg was turning over a new leaf, Lisa mused quickly as she picked up the phone. Then she cringed as she thought of the more likely answer. Mrs. Reg had straightened everything up looking for her pin. Lisa hated the idea of causing anybody such trouble. She dialed Veronica’s number.
    Veronica answered the phone herself, which was not surprising since it was her own private telephone line. Lisa explained that the girls had been looking for the horse pin and wondered if Veronica knew what had happened to it.
    There was quite a pause. “Pin, pin,” Veronica said, repeating the word to remind herself what Lisa was talking about. “Oh, that old pin that Stevie’s brother gave her?” At least she remembered it. “I don’t know,” Veronica went on. “I think I threw the darn thing at the cat. Is that all you want to know?”
    It was. Lisa told her so and hung up, now more worried than ever.
    “Lisa, is that you?” It was Max. He was surprised to find Lisa in his mother’s office.
    “I just had to make a call,” Lisa said quickly. “I’m sorry, but I didn’t have change.”
    “No problem,” Max said. “Just don’t tell the whole world I didn’t make a fuss, okay?” He grinned at her. Max was really a wonderful person. That made it particularly hard on Lisa,