The Riverdale Pony Stories Box Set (Books 1-6)

by Amanda Wills

  The last glimmer of dusk was fading into blackness as they inspected their work.

  ‘Good job,’ said Scarlett, shining her torch at the electrified gate and Poppy's tripwire. ‘He's going to wish he never picked on Redhall.’

  ‘We'd better make sure we get up early enough to take it all down before Gran gets home,’ said Sam.

  Scarlett chuckled. ‘Good point. We should all set the alarms on our phones for five o'clock.’

  Poppy yawned, wondering if she would ever enjoy a lie-in again. ‘Let's try and get some sleep while we can. It could be a long night.’

  Cloud blew in her hair as she let herself into his stable and she kissed his nose. She wrapped herself in her duvet and wriggled around in the straw until she was comfortable. She closed her eyes and listened to her pony chewing hay. Scarlett was murmuring to Blaze in the stable next door.

  ‘'Night Scar,’ Poppy called, her voice already drowsy.

  ‘'Night Poppy.’

  Poppy's limbs grew heavy and her breathing deepened. Soon she was asleep.

  Poppy woke with a start and she sat up, looking around her groggily. It was dark. Too dark to see her hand in front of her face. She felt a fizz of fear pulse down her spine. Cloud stirred beside her and she relaxed. He was safe. And then she heard someone tapping gently on the stable wall.

  ‘Scar, is that you?’ she whispered.

  ‘I thought I heard a car,’ Scarlett whispered back. ‘It's either driven off or stopped, I can't tell which.’

  Poppy cocked her head and listened. ‘I can't hear anything.’

  ‘Nor can I now. But I'm telling you, I'm sure I heard a car's engine a minute ago.’

  ‘I'll text Sam,’ whispered Poppy, groping in the straw for her mobile. She tapped out a text.

  This is a Code Red. I repeat, this is a Code Red. Stand by your stations.

  A few seconds later her phone vibrated.

  Copy that. I am standing by. Over and out.

  Poppy slipped her phone into the back pocket of her jeans, picked up her torch and edged out of the duvet, trying to make as little noise as possible, but every time she moved the rustle of straw seemed to reverberate around the walls. Cloud was staring out of the stable, his nostrils flared as he sniffed the wind. Suddenly he gave a snort and wheeled around, almost knocking Poppy off her feet. She ran her hand along his flank, trying to calm him, even though her own heart was thudding.

  ‘It's OK baby. I won't let him hurt you,’ she whispered.

  She stiffened as she heard the unmistakable sound of a car door clunking shut. She crept over to the stable door and peered into the yard. But the moon was veiled by thick cloud and she couldn't see a thing.

  Was that the crunch of gravel? Poppy strained her ears to hear but it was impossible to tell. She jumped out of her skin when one of the thoroughbreds whinnied loudly, the sound slicing through the still night air like a speedboat through water.

  Her phone vibrated in her pocket. She was just reaching for it when a guttural cry and a string of expletives rang out. Scarlett gasped in the stable next door and Poppy's fingers tightened around her torch. She stared into the dark, willing her eyes to distinguish between shadow and shade. As she stared the outline of a hunched figure began to take shape, like a drawing in one of Charlie's dot-to-dot picture books.

  It was the same man Poppy had seen the night Treacle was hurt, Poppy would have bet her life on it. And he was heading straight for them.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Poppy narrowed her eyes and watched the hooded figure stumble over the tripwire and curse again. She braced herself for a confrontation as he approached Cloud's stable. But he strode straight past, heading for the padlocked barn. As he walked by Poppy noticed he was carrying a pair of bolt croppers and a red plastic petrol can. It took her a moment to grasp the significance of the can but when she did white-hot anger began bubbling up inside her, giving her courage.

  ‘Oh my God, he's going to burn down the barn!’ she cried, sotto voce.

  ‘What do we do?’ Scarlett hissed through the wall.

  ‘Call the police. Tell them there's an intruder and they'll send out a patrol car. I need to stop him.’

  She laid her face against Cloud's cheek as if to draw strength and let herself out of the stable. As she did she saw Star's stable door swing slowly open and Sam appeared, his finger on his lips. He pointed his thumb towards the intruder. Poppy joined him and they crossed the yard in silence. The man had reached the barn doors and had lifted the bolt croppers to the heavy-duty padlock when Sam whispered.

  ‘Ready? On the count of three. One, two, THREE!’

  Sam yelled, ‘Stop right there!’ And they simultaneously switched on both their torches. The man dropped the bolt croppers and his hand shot to his forehead as he tried to shield his eyes from the glare of the two torch beams.

  ‘What the -?’ he roared, lunging towards Sam.

  ‘Not so fast! The police are on their way,’ shrieked Poppy, hoping with all her heart that they were.

  ‘You've called the police?’ he asked in such a menacing voice that Poppy's blood froze. ‘Now why would you want to be doing that?’

  Poppy watched in horror as he turned his back on them and began unscrewing the top of the plastic can. The noxious smell of petrol filled her nostrils.

  ‘In an ideal world I'd have got inside the barn. But needs must,’ he muttered to himself, splashing petrol up the huge double doors of the barn.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Poppy cried. ‘You'll destroy everything!’

  He turned to Poppy. She kept the torch trained on his face, though the dancing beam gave away her trembling fingers. She lifted her chin and met his gaze. Under a deeply-lined forehead his eyes were emotionless.

  ‘Bella Thompson deserves to lose everything.’

  He turned back to the barn, reached into his pocket and pulled out a box of matches. ‘Why don't you children run along and leave me to it?’

  Poppy heard Sam move away but her feet were rooted to the ground. She had to keep him talking to stop him setting fire to the barn.

  ‘It wasn't Bella's fault Niamh fell off. I was there. I saw what happened. It was an accident!’

  He turned to face her again. ‘So you know who I am?’

  ‘Gordon Cooper,’ she whispered. ‘Niamh's dad.’

  ‘My beautiful Niamh is lying in a hospital bed unable to walk because of Bella Thompson,’ he spat. ‘She's ruined my daughter's life. And I'm going to make her pay.’

  Gordon Cooper's mouth stretched into a rictus grin and he pulled a match out of the box, his dead eyes never leaving Poppy's face. He struck the match against the box once, twice. On the third attempt the match splintered in two and he flung it on the floor at his feet. He took out another and struck it viciously.

  For a split second the smell of burning sulphur dioxide as the match ignited masked the petrol fumes. And then there was a whoosh as the sleeve of Gordon Cooper's coat caught fire. Poppy screamed as flames darted up his arm and set his coat alight. Within seconds he was engulfed in flames.

  Suddenly Sam was at her side, pointing the yard hose at the human fireball in front of them.

  ‘Scarlett, bring one of the duvets!’

  Poppy ran to Cloud's stable and grabbed his two buckets of water. As she ran back Scarlett joined her, holding the duvet in her outstretched arms.

  ‘Hold the hose,’ Sam shouted to Poppy. She took it from him and spurted it at Niamh's dad. Sam took the duvet from Scarlett and threw it over him.

  ‘Now roll on the floor!’ he yelled.

  Gordon Cooper's dead eyes were now filled with panic. He dropped to the floor and began rolling around on the ground by their feet.

  ‘The police are on their way,’ Scarlett said, just as the back door slammed and Sarah and Scott came running out.

  ‘What on earth's going on?’ Sarah shouted.

  Scott took one look at Cooper. The duvet had smothered the flames but he was still writhing around
on the concrete, his soot-blackened face twisted in fear.

  ‘Is this him?’ Scott asked.

  The children nodded.

  Scott hauled Cooper to his feet.

  ‘Are you burnt?’ he said.

  Cooper rubbed his arms gingerly and shook his head. Scott marched him across the yard, flung him in Merry's empty stable and bolted both doors.

  ‘You can stay in there until the police arrive,’ he said.

  The adrenalin that had given Poppy the courage to confront Cooper was seeping away and her legs had turned to jelly. She stumbled over to Cloud's stable, sank to the floor and listened as Sam and Scarlett told Sarah and Scott what had happened.

  ‘Some of the petrol must have splashed back onto him when he was dousing the barn doors,’ said Sam.

  ‘He's lucky he was wearing such a thick coat,’ Sarah said.

  ‘And that Sam knew what to do,’ Scarlett added.

  Sam shook his head. ‘I can't take credit for the booby traps.’

  ‘Booby traps?’ said Sarah faintly.

  ‘Speaking of which, I'd better switch off the electric fence and move the barbed wire before the police arrive, otherwise they'll be arresting me as well as Niamh's dad.’ Scarlett headed for the gate, reappearing a few minutes later with a wide grin on her face and lengths of barbed wire, like a deadly bouquet, in her hand.

  ‘Our homemade stinger worked like a dream,’ she told them with satisfaction. ‘He had three punctures. Three! He'd never have got away in a million years.’

  The reassuring sound of sirens grew louder and soon a police patrol car, its blue lights flashing, pulled up behind Gordon Cooper's old van. Poppy hauled herself to her feet and joined the others by the gate. A female police officer emerged from the driver's side, followed shortly by an older male colleague who was talking into his radio. Poppy recognised the female officer immediately. It was PC Claire Bodiam, the kind and capable officer she and her friend Hope Taylor had met at Tavistock Police Station the previous year.

  PC Bodiam recognised her, too. ‘Hello Poppy! What on earth are you doing here?’

  ‘It's a long story,’ Poppy said.

  PC Bodiam took in the petrol can, the abandoned duvet and the strong reek of petrol. ‘So, who would like to tell me what's been going on?’

  She listened in silence as between them Poppy, Scarlett and Sam explained the events of the last week, Scott interjecting every so often.

  Soon the two police officers were leading Gordon Cooper away in handcuffs. His head was bowed and he looked utterly defeated, as if all the fight in him had gone. Perhaps he had finally realised Niamh's accident wasn't Bella's fault. Poppy hoped so, for Redhall's sake.

  Once he was safely in the car PC Bodiam walked back over.

  ‘He's been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and attempted arson, although there may well be other offences. We'll know more when we've taken statements from you all,’ she said. ‘In the meantime I've just called out our crime scene investigators who'll be here first thing to take photos of the petrol can, matches and bolt croppers, and to examine the barn doors, so please don't touch anything until they've been.’

  ‘OK,’ Sarah nodded. ‘Thank you.’

  ‘No problem,’ said PC Bodiam. She smiled at Poppy, Scarlett and Sam. ‘You did exactly the right thing back there. If you hadn't stopped the fire Mr Cooper could easily have died. And Niamh would have lost her dad, just when she needed him most.’

  ‘I don't suppose he's going to see it like that,’ said Sam bitterly. ‘He hates Gran's guts.’

  ‘Oh, I don't know. I think some time down at the station will give him a chance to reflect. I don't think he'll be giving your gran any more trouble. And if he does, you're to let us know immediately,’ she said.

  ‘What shall we do about his van?’ Sarah asked.

  ‘We'll push it out of the way for now and let his wife know she needs to arrange a recovery truck to come and collect it,’ said PC Bodiam's colleague.

  They watched the patrol car accelerate away towards Tavistock. Although the sky was still inky blue a lone blackbird had begun a fluty warble from the hawthorn hedge that bordered the Redhall drive, sounding the first mellow notes of the dawn chorus.

  ‘I can't believe Niamh's dad hates Mum so much that he was prepared to burn down the yard,’ said Sarah.

  ‘Tia did say she thought he was having some sort of a breakdown,’ said Sam.

  Scott scowled. ‘That's no excuse for putting the horses' lives in danger.’

  ‘I was wrong, wasn't I?’ said Scarlett. ‘I blamed Georgia Canning and Angela Snell. I thought the motive was money. But it wasn't. Gordon Cooper's motivation was revenge, pure and simple.’

  Chapter Seventeen

  Everyone was bleary-eyed but cheerful at breakfast. The nameless threat that had cast its menacing shadow over the riding school for the past week had evaporated the minute Gordon Cooper had been led away in handcuffs. Sun streamed through the kitchen windows as Sarah made pancakes drizzled with maple syrup and freshly-squeezed lemon juice. Poppy wolfed hers down, suddenly ravenously hungry. She was going to miss Sarah's cooking.

  They whizzed through morning stables in record time and the horses had all been groomed and turned out by the time the crime scene investigator sent by PC Bodiam arrived in her white van and started dusting for fingerprints.

  They showed her the barbed wire and the two pieces of cut water pipe and she photographed the abandoned petrol can, the bolt croppers, the box of matches and the petrol stains on the door of the barn. Poppy carefully undid the dressings on Treacle's legs and held the Welsh pony so she could take pictures of the wounds. The thin skin around Treacle's cannon bones was beginning to heal and there were no signs of an infection but Poppy knew that he would always bear the scars of the barbed wire.

  The crime scene investigator was reversing out of the drive when Bella pulled up in her dusty estate car. Poppy ran over and opened the gate so she could park in the yard.

  Bella yanked the handbrake up and wound down the window.

  ‘What was a police crime scene investigation van doing here?’ she asked, mystified.

  ‘How was the journey?’ Poppy asked brightly, hoping to deflect the questions until Sarah arrived. She didn't think Bella was the type to shoot the messenger, but you never knew. She could be a formidable character at times.

  Bella heaved herself out of the driver's side and slammed the door so firmly the whole car shuddered. She scanned the yard, her razor-sharp eyes falling on the petrol can. Treacle chose that moment to poke his head over the stable door and give a high-pitched whinny.

  ‘Never mind the journey. Why's Treacle in? Why is there a can of petrol by the barn doors?’ She fixed Poppy with a penetrating gaze. ‘And what was that crime scene investigation van doing here?’

  Poppy held up her hands in surrender. ‘The important thing is, everything is fine now.’ She lifted Bella's case out of the boot and gave her what she hoped was a beatific smile. ‘Why don't we go and find Sarah and she can fill you in.’

  Once Poppy had delivered Bella to the kitchen she wandered over to the paddock Cloud shared with Blaze. She leant on the gate for a while and watched the two ponies grazing side by side. Vaulting the gate, she gave the ponies a Polo each and sat down with her back against the knotty stump of an apple tree and turned her face to the sun. An introvert by nature, Poppy was beginning to crave some time on her own, so she could recharge her batteries. She let her mind drift aimlessly through the events of the past week. She couldn't believe the morning they'd turned up as Bella's pony camp guinea pigs was only seven days ago. It didn't seem possible. This was their last day at Redhall and Bill was due to pick them up at six o'clock. Poppy knew she would be sad to leave after everything that had happened, but she was looking forward to going home. And she and Scarlett still had five whole weeks of the summer holidays left to enjoy. It wasn't so bad.

  Scarlett found her in the paddock half an hour later. She waved
her mobile phone in Poppy's face.

  ‘Tia's just called. She'd heard about Niamh's dad being arrested and wanted all the gory details. She said it's the talk of their village. But she also had some good news about Niamh. She wiggled her toes this morning.’ Scarlett collapsed in a heap beside Poppy.

  ‘Does that mean she'll be able to walk again?’

  ‘Not sure, but it's a good sign, isn't it?’

  Poppy picked a daisy and began pulling the petals off, one by one. ‘Pity her dad didn't wait a week before he completely lost it. He might have thought twice about waging war on Bella if he'd known Niamh was on the mend.’

  ‘Tia said that according to village gossip his marriage is on the rocks and his building company is about to go bust. There was a fire in his warehouse a couple of weeks ago and the police hauled him in for questioning. Apparently they suspect he started it because he wanted to claim the insurance money. Niamh's mum packed his bags and chucked him out. He's been living in his van ever since. Sounds like Niamh's accident tipped him over the edge.’

  ‘That would make sense,’ Poppy said. ‘How did Bella take it?’

  ‘I think she's just relieved he's been caught and everyone is alright.’

  ‘Is she cross about losing Vile Vivienne?’

  Scarlett grinned. ‘Nope. She said she and Angela Snell deserved each other.’

  Poppy giggled. ‘It's a match made in heaven.’

  The two girls watched their ponies companionably. Poppy twirled the petal-less daisy between her thumb and forefinger.

  ‘We should go for a ride this afternoon. All of us. And we should go on the Barrow Tor ride. Finish what we started.’

  ‘Blimey, that's a bit deep.’ Scarlett picked a blade of grass and chewed it thoughtfully. ‘But it's an excellent idea. Let's go and tell the others.’

  Once again Bella led the way on Floyd. Sam and Scott, on Star and Otto, rode two abreast behind her. Scott was winding Sam up as usual, but they were both laughing - these days Sam gave as good as he got. Poppy and Scarlett rode side-by-side behind them on Cloud and Blaze.