Phantom: One Last Chance

by Belinda Rapley

  “And about losing this picture,” Charlie said, suddenly realising how precious it must be to her. She carefully put it back in her pocket, all thoughts of jealousy over Neve’s handling of Phantom long forgotten. “We’d better get it back to her as soon as possible.”

  “There was a diary in here I was going to show you,” Fran continued, looking puzzled. “At least, I thought it was in here, but I must have put it somewhere else. Caitlin wrote in it, all about the months she spent with Fable – detailing what she tried to settle her. She thought it might be useful for dealing with other tricky horses that came to Hope Farm. Typical Caitlin, she always wanted to help as many as she possibly could.”

  “Sounds like you could do with that diary for Phantom,” Rosie joked, nudging Charlie.

  “Really?” Fran said, looking round the piles of boxes surrounding them. “Difficult, is he?”

  Charlie nodded.

  “That’s an understatement,” Alice said.

  “Well, it’s here somewhere,” Fran said. “I’ll dig it out and drop it off so you can have a read through. If it helps a horse in need, that’s exactly what Caitlin would’ve wanted.”

  The girls thanked Fran and they all made to leave. Mia looked at the book lying open on the desk and frowned. The Sellotape which had been used to stick down the missing photos was clear and shiny. She leaned forward, peeled a piece back and touched it, as Fran walked to the door. She nudged the others.

  “What?” Alice whispered.

  “That tape,” Mia said under her breath, “it’s still sticky.”

  “Is that important?” Alice asked, quietly.

  “If those photos had been taken out of that book six years ago, the tape would have dried out and gone brown by now,” Mia replied, as they stepped out onto the yard to get the ponies ready. The others nodded.

  “Looks like they disappeared much more recently,” Rosie said, hugging Dancer.

  THE girls rode along the bridleway, taking the long route home via the village so that Charlie could drop off the photo at Neve’s grandparents’ house.

  As they rode back through the woods, Alice slipped her feet out of the stirrups, circling her ankles and trying to wiggle her toes. Her feet had turned into ice blocks, and as she leaned down to try to feel one she noticed a flash of red in the distance.

  “There!” She pointed. “Neve!”

  They peered ahead and saw Neve stooped over, raking her feet through the fallen leaves not far from where they’d bumped into her before. Neve stopped and waved, walking towards them but constantly sweeping the ground with her eyes as she came. Under her red coat she was wearing a black hoodie, pulled up over her head, and had a black scarf wrapped around her neck. As she got nearer her face looked even paler than when they’d last seen her; her eyes had dark shadows under them and her lips looked blue. She said a shivery hello, frowning slightly when she noticed Charlie was on her bike. Without thinking, Neve put her hands either side of Dancer’s neck, trying to warm herself up. Dancer curled her head to look at her, her eyes soft rather than goggly, for once.

  “Is this what you were looking for?” Mia asked as Charlie carefully drew the photo from her pocket.

  Neve’s face lit up in an instant and happy tears sprung to her eyes.

  “We found it today just off the path, a bit further up from here,” Alice explained.

  “Thank you so much! I thought I’d lost it!” she breathed, colour briefly coming into her cheeks. Then she looked again at Charlie. “Is… is your horse okay?”

  “Oh, Mum’s banned me from riding Phantom at the moment,” she explained, feeling herself go pink and wondering what Neve must think of her. “After my fall last weekend, Mum put him on his final warning.”

  “What happens after that?” Neve asked, the colour draining from her face again.

  “Well, I’ve only got him on loan,” Charlie explained, “so I guess he could go back to his owner, but she gave me the ride because she’s terrified by him. So, who knows, he might end up being sold unless I can figure him out pretty quickly.”

  Neve looked at the photo for a moment, deep in thought.

  “My… my mum used to take her rescue horse, Fable, with her everywhere – she walked her all the way to Whispering Bridge with me once. She spent as much time with her as she could,” Neve said, her voice shaking slightly. “Fable didn’t like it at first, but eventually she got used to Mum and learned to trust her. It… it really helped.”

  Charlie nodded, remembering what Fran had said about how dedicated Caitlin had been to Fable. She felt a rush of guilt – because of the way Phantom behaved, she’d pretty much given up trying to get to know him. She’d spent less and less time with him, not more.

  Neve shivered.

  “Do you fancy coming back with us for a hot chocolate and mince pie?” Mia asked. “You look half frozen.”

  Neve shook her head.

  “Thanks, but I better get back to Nan and Granddad’s, otherwise they’ll start panicking again,” she said quietly.

  “Sure?” Rosie checked.

  “Sure.” Neve half smiled. “Although maybe I will some other time – it might stop Nan and Granddad going on about me helping out at Hope Farm to give me something to do.”

  “We’ve just been there!” Charlie smiled, then realised what she’d said, quickly adding, “Fran helped us work out who the photo belonged to.”

  Neve flushed for a second, then stiffened. The girls felt awkward, knowing that Neve had realised that they knew about her mum and Fable.

  “I’d love to help somewhere like Hope Farm,” Rosie said, trying to lighten things up.

  “I’m not going back there,” Neve said darkly. “I… I can’t.”

  A tear suddenly rolled down Neve’s cheek, which she quickly brushed away. “I just want to go back to Ireland – back to my friends and all the ponies at Fable’s Rest. I miss everyone so much… I’m sure I could go back there and live with Mum’s friends, but my grandparents won’t let me. Either way, I’m never going back to Hope Farm.”

  Neve sniffed and looked at the photo once more. “Anyway, thanks again for finding this.”

  She carefully slipped it into her inside coat pocket and turned away.

  The girls stared after her tiny, forlorn figure as she disappeared back into the woods, then they joined the bridleway that led towards the village. None of them knew what to say.

  As they headed to Blackberry Farm in thoughtful silence Charlie kept her head down, pedalling at the back. She couldn’t help going over and over Fran’s words about Caitlin and Fable. It was too late for Fable, but it didn’t have to be for Phantom. Feeling ashamed, she thought about how she was pretty much ready to give up on the black horse, just like Fable’s owners had been.

  “Are you okay, Charlie?” Alice asked, holding Scout back for a second. Charlie looked up and realised that Mia and Rosie were looking down at her too.

  “Kind of,” she said. “I, well, I was wondering if I should call Mrs Millar, the dealer who Pixie bought Phantom from.”

  “What, to ask her to take him back?” Rosie asked, astonished.

  “No, to see if I can find out more about Phantom’s past,” Charlie explained, suddenly feeling a bit shy as she admitted out loud what the other Pony Detectives could already see – that she was struggling to cope with her new horse. “Maybe it’ll help me understand him better if I know more about what he’s been through, like Caitlin did with Fable?”

  “Sounds like a good plan to me,” Alice smiled. Charlie smiled back. She didn’t want to wait a second longer, and pulled out her mobile, resting her bike against one leg. The phone rang at the other end, then went to voicemail.

  “Hello, Mrs Millar. It’s Charlie here, Phantom’s rider. I was wondering if you knew much about Phantom’s life before he came to your yard? Or if you knew his old owner, so that I could speak to her? It’s… it’s really important. Thanks.” Charlie began to smile excitedly, finally feeling that there might be
a glimmer of hope.

  But as they approached the track which led out of the woods between the turnout and schooling paddocks, Charlie’s heart sank again. She’d expected to see Pirate’s head poking over the gate to welcome them back. Only he wasn’t there. Instead, she saw him standing in the far corner, looking away from them.

  “Sulking,” Rosie announced knowingly. Charlie sighed and called out to him, suspecting that Rosie was right. While the others took their ponies into the yard, Pirate turned, his ears pricked, then trotted jauntily across the field to the gate. Charlie picked up the headcollar from the post, where she’d slung it earlier, and went to put it on. Then she noticed that the lead rope wasn’t attached to the central ring as normal: it was clipped onto the side ring. Charlie frowned, trying to remember if she’d changed it that morning, but she was sure she hadn’t. She moved the lead rope back into its usual place, then slipped the headcollar on Pirate. Charlie patted him and did a double take. His mane normally spiked up all over the place, and fell both sides of his neck. But now it was lying smoothly on just one side. He lifted his nose to nuzzle her.

  “You’ve eaten some mints!” Charlie gasped, as she smelled the coolness on his breath. It was ages since she’d given him that mint before they’d all gone out riding – the smell wouldn’t have lingered that long. She turned and quickly trotted Pirate back into the yard. She popped him in his box then ran straight over to the tack room, where the girls had just dumped their saddles and bridles. She got to the door, just in time to hear Mia tutting loudly while she stared at her grooming kit.

  “Another long black hair! In my dandy brush this time!” she cried. “What’s going on?”

  “It’s hardly a mystery, Mia,” Rosie said. “Hairs do float about and there are ponies with black hair on this yard.”

  “Considering I cleaned all my brushes last night and brought them in with me this morning, free from black hairs,” Mia huffed, “I think it is a mystery.”

  Rosie and Alice exchanged a smile, but Charlie chipped in.

  “I think Mia’s right,” she said.

  “Are you being serious?” Rosie asked, half laughing.

  “Totally,” Charlie nodded. “Someone’s been here while we’ve been out.”

  “IS the hair in place?” Mia asked the next morning before the Pony Detectives set out. Alice and Charlie nodded. They were going to test Mia and Charlie’s theory that someone had been into the tack room and used Mia’s grooming kit while they were out riding. So they’d set a trap and taped one of Scout’s grey tail hairs, which was almost see-through, across the tack-room door.

  “Okay,” Rosie said sceptically. “So now we go out and pin up adverts for loaning Pirate in the post office and on various trees – again. And, when we get back, if the hair isn’t broken but there are black hairs in Mia’s grooming kit, we know it’s just the air that’s been moving the hairs about.”

  “Correct,” Mia agreed, “but if the hair is broken, we know Charlie and me are right – someone’s been sneaking onto the yard.”

  Rosie looked unconvinced, but the others felt a tingle go up their spines as they mounted. Charlie got onto her bike again, having turned out Pirate on his own in the paddock. They rode out onto Duck Lane and stuck to a walk all round the lanes on their way to the village. Then they cut back across the bridleway and into the woods, and pinned up postcard-sized adverts on a few of the big trees where bridleways forked off, hoping that as many people as possible would see them. Charlie sighed.

  “This is the third time we’ve done this,” she said, pressing in the final pin.

  “Hopefully it will be the last,” Mia said, trying to sound optimistic.

  Suddenly Wish, Dancer and Scout all raised their heads at exactly the same time and stared into the depths of the woods.

  “What have they seen?” Alice said, peering through the lightly hanging mist at the bare tree trunks ahead. The wood looked empty.

  “Come on – time to head back,” Rosie said, thinking of the hot chocolate and her mum’s mince pies sitting in a tin in the hay barn. They turned their ponies away, taking the path back to Blackberry Farm.

  “Charlie, do you mind if we have a bit of a trot?” Alice asked, looking down at Charlie on her bike a bit guiltily.

  “No, course not,” Charlie said, wishing for the umpteenth time that she was still on Pirate, or at least on a Phantom that she could control. “See you back there.”

  Charlie smiled as the others set off, with Scout powering away at the front, Wish behind him, neatly arching her caramel neck, and Dancer trundling along at the back. As the hoofbeats and the calls of the girls faded, everything fell silent. Charlie heard a twig snap, and then another, echoing through the trees. She turned round, peering into the wood, but it was difficult to pinpoint where the noise had come from. She froze, holding her breath. Everything was eerily still.

  “Must have been a deer or something,” she whispered to herself, instinctively reaching out her hand to pat her bike as if it were Pirate. Her heart started to pound. She turned back and pushed off. With one glance over her shoulder, she began to pedal furiously to catch up with the others.

  When Charlie reached the yard, it was pandemonium.

  “The hair’s broken!” Mia called out as Charlie squeakily braked by the gate.

  “And Hettie’s loose!” Alice added, trying to shepherd the runaway sheep with one hand and hang onto Scout’s reins with the other as her pony ducked in the opposite direction. Rosie was trying to help Alice, but Dancer seemed to have decided that sheep were on her list of things to be scared of, her eyes goggling wildly as she planted herself near her stable and refused to budge another inch.

  Rosie passed Dancer’s reins to Alice, then helped Charlie to usher a reluctant Hettie out of the yard and back into her field.

  “There are black mane hairs wrapped round my mane comb,” Mia said, holding Wish’s reins at the buckle end as she ducked into the tack room.

  Charlie doubled back to the turnout paddock, unsure what she’d find. But after discovering Pirate’s mane had been combed the day before, she suspected that the black hairs would be linked to her pony again. He was standing in the far corner, his head over the post-and-rail fencing and looking out into the woods.

  “Pirate!” she called. At first her little bay didn’t respond, then when she called again he slowly turned and looked towards her. She climbed the gate, starting to panic in case anything had happened to him. She jogged over the rutted ground until she reached him, her cheeks puffing great white breaths. Pirate whickered softly to her. She glanced over him: he looked exactly the same as usual – except for his mane. It had been neatened so that it was hanging much more smartly than was normal. And there, in a small pile by the side of the fence, was a bundle of black hair.

  Charlie stepped up to the fencing and peered over, but there was nothing to see except the bushes and tree trunks beyond. She strained to listen, but everything was silent, except for a few birds tweeting and the occasional rustle and flap of a pigeon in the trees above. Then she noticed that the leaf-strewn area just the other side of the fencing was the only bit that didn’t have white frost over it, and the leaves had been flattened as if someone had sat there, watching. She frowned, then with one last sweeping glance out into the woods she turned to head back to the gate.

  “Come on, Pirate,” she said quietly, clicking her tongue. Pirate followed her across the field and she put him back into his box as the others emerged from the tack room.

  “We’re heading to the hay barn,” Alice told her. “Rosie’s just getting the hot chocolates.”

  Charlie nodded, and they climbed the ladder and huddled together in the loft. Charlie kept an eye on the yard through a small hole in the barn wall. When Rosie joined them and everyone had snuggled into blankets, Mia found her notebook and her pen. She flipped it open, turning to a fresh page. At the top, she wrote ‘Pirate’.

  “I know we all want a new mystery to solve,” Rosie said,
slurping her drink as Pumpkin, the huge ginger yard cat, leaped onto her lap and tried to snaffle some of the cream from the top, “but isn’t this one just a totally obvious case?”

  “The fact that everything’s focusing around Pirate,” Alice agreed, “and with him being groomed and smartened up, it definitely points to one culprit.”

  “That and the presence of Hettie on the yard,” Rosie added. “It has to be Megan.”

  “Maybe,” Mia said, making some notes.

  “For a starter, she can see from her window when we’ve left the yard,” Charlie said, “so she knows when it’s safe for her to come over.”

  “And she was desperate to prove that she was the perfect partner for Pirate,” Alice said. “She put so much effort into that plan. I think that she’s carrying on with it to get Pirate looking like a dressage pony so that Charlie will change her mind.”

  “Or so that if Charlie can’t find anyone else for Pirate,” Rosie added, “she can step back in and still be kind of on track.”

  “Really? I’m not so sure,” Mia said, looking up from her notebook. “Didn’t any of you notice anything odd in the tack room when we got back from that hack with her last week?”

  “What kind of thing?” Charlie asked, looking up.

  “Well, Megan looked pretty shaken up by how fast Pirate flew when we took off after Phantom,” Mia pointed out. “And when we got back, she’d already taken her plan down from the wall.”

  “So you think Megan had already made up her mind not to loan Pirate,” Charlie said, frowning, “even before I said anything?”

  “It’s possible,” Mia said. “I didn’t think that much of it at the time, but now, with all this going on, it might be relevant.”

  “But if you don’t think it’s Megan, how do you explain what’s going on with the black hairs and Hettie?” Rosie asked, unconvinced.

  “That’s just it,” Mia sighed. “I can’t.”

  “So what do we do now?” Alice asked, as Rosie finished her hot chocolate and reached for the tin of mince pies.