“I don’t know much about cameras,” Carole protested. “Maybe Lisa should do it. She’s the photographer here—”
“Don’t worry. I’m sure you’ll do an awesome job,” the boy protested, extending a hand to help Carole to her feet. “By the way, my name’s Josh. Josh Stanton.”
“Hi, Josh,” Carole said weakly. “I’m Carole.” She followed him over to where his parents were waiting.
Stevie let out a low whistle. “This is really getting weird now,” she told the others. The girls had filled Deborah in on Carole’s two admirers during their drive that day.
Lisa nodded. “Could there really be three Joshes in Kentucky who all like Carole?”
“It sure looks that way,” Deborah said. They turned to watch as Josh carefully posed his parents on one of the lobby sofas. Carole stood waiting, camera in hand, looking a little forlorn.
“I think we’re going to have to come up with a new way to keep track of these guys,” Stevie said after a moment, a twinkle in her eyes. “A, B, and C just doesn’t have the Kentucky ring to it. Luckily, I have the perfect solution.”
“Josh, Josher, and Joshest?” Lisa guessed.
“One potato, two potato, three potato?” Deborah asked.
“Nope. Even better.” Stevie grinned. “Win, Place, and Show.”
The others laughed. “Sounds good to me,” Lisa said. “But which one is which?’ We don’t know which of the Joshes Carole likes best.”
“That’s okay,” Stevie said. “Josh A should be Win.”
“Because his last name is Winfield?” Lisa asked.
Stevie shook her head. “Of course not,” she said. “Because he came in first.”
“So that must mean that the Josh grinning his head off over there right now is Show,” Deborah guessed. “There’s just one problem with your brilliant idea, Stevie. What if a fourth Josh comes along?”
Stevie glanced over at Josh, who was sitting between his parents and smiling broadly at Carole as she tried to focus the complicated camera. “No way,” she said firmly. “Four Joshes? Come on. What are the odds of that?”
They were still laughing when Carole rejoined them a moment later. “What’s so funny?”
“We’ll tell you when we get inside,” Lisa said. She had just noticed the hostess gesturing to them. “It looks like our table is ready.”
“I’ll join you in a second,” Deborah said as they all stood up. “I just remembered, I promised to call my editor when I got back. I’m just going to find a phone and then I’ll be right in.”
The girls ate rolls and talked about the Josh situation while they waited for Deborah. Stevie told Carole about her new names for the three boys, and Carole laughed. Then she turned serious again. “I just don’t get it,” she said once more.
“You don’t have to understand it,” Lisa advised her. “Just enjoy it. After this weekend, you’ll never have to see any of them again if you don’t want to.”
“Thank goodness,” Carole said, taking a sip of water. “I know I should be flattered, and I am, kind of. But I just don’t know how to act when they’re acting that way and I don’t even know them. It’s not at all like it was with Cam.” Cam was a boy Carole had met through her computer. They had chatted on-line about horses many times before they ever met, so Carole knew they had something in common. However, Cam’s family had moved away before Carole could really start thinking of him as a boyfriend.
Just then Deborah returned. She was humming a little as she sat down. “Okay. That’s taken care of,” she said cheerfully.
Stevie gave her a suspicious look. “So, how’s your editor doing?”
“Oh, she’s just fine,” Deborah replied with a big smile. “Very fine.”
“Did Max get her down for her nap okay without you?” Stevie asked innocently.
“She fell asleep right away once he started singing to her—Oops.” Deborah grinned sheepishly. “You caught me.”
The Saddle Club laughed. “We understand,” Lisa said. “We don’t blame you for wanting to check in on Maxi.”
“I really did call my editor first,” Deborah said, reaching for a roll.
“Uh-huh,” Stevie said. “We’ll take your word for it. Right now, I’m much more interested in talking about food. And I don’t mean baby food!”
The next forty minutes passed quickly as the group talked about everything they had done and seen that day. Before long, the topic turned to the next afternoon’s races.
“I can’t wait to watch C.C. break out of the starting gate in a real race,” Stevie said.
Deborah nodded. “I just hope I’m back in time to see it. I’ve got appointments at more farms tomorrow, and if all goes well, I’ll barely get back to the track before post time. I really hope I make it.”
Carole swallowed a big mouthful of mashed potatoes. “I hope you do, too,” she said. “C.C. looked really great out there this morning. I’m sure she’s going to … uh …” Her voice trailed off as she stared across the room.
“Win?” Stevie supplied helpfully.
“No,” Carole said grimly. “Show.” The others turned and saw the newest Josh and his parents taking their seats several tables away.
“Let’s pretend we don’t see them,” Lisa suggested. “Maybe they won’t notice you.”
But they did. Before long, Carole glanced over and saw that Mr. Stanton had raised his camcorder again and was taping her. Josh saw her looking and waved.
“Oh no,” Carole moaned. “He’s getting up. I think he’s going to come over here. What should I do?”
“I think you should do what C.C. would do,” Stevie said helpfully. “Run.”
Carole nodded. “I think I just might do that,” she said. She was already feeling confused enough about all the male attention she was getting. The last thing she wanted to do was deal with more of it while she was trying to eat. “Did anyone happen to notice where the rest rooms are?”
“I did,” Deborah told her. “They’re right around the corner from the phone I was using. Past the check-in desk and down the hallway near the hotel bar.”
“Thanks.” Carole didn’t wait around a second longer. She raced for the restaurant entrance, not pausing to see if Josh was trying to follow. He couldn’t follow her into the women’s room, at least.
She found the hallway and paused, taking a quick look over her shoulder. There was no sign of Josh.
“Good,” she muttered. She didn’t really have to use the rest room, so she leaned against the cool cement wall in the narrow hallway behind the phones and thought about what to do. If she went back in now, he would be waiting for her. She decided it would be best to hang out here for a while until the coast was clear. Luckily she had already eaten most of her dinner.
What is going on with these guys? she wondered. Back home, this kind of thing never happened to her. All three Joshes seemed perfectly nice, and all three were cute and interesting in their own ways. But why had all three suddenly decided that Carole was the girl of their dreams?
As she pondered the question, Carole gradually became aware of a familiar voice talking quietly and urgently nearby. She started to listen. It sounded like Garvey. He was talking on one of the pay phones just around the corner.
Carole was about to step forward and say hello to the trainer, but his next words froze her in place.
“You’d better not back out now,” he said angrily, his voice getting a little louder, so that Carole could hear him more clearly. “You said you’d do it. And the race is tomorrow.”
Carole frowned. Who could Garvey be talking to that way? She hoped it wasn’t Toby. Garvey seemed to yell at the friendly jockey a lot.
“Ride her any way you want,” Garvey continued, still sounding irate. “But when the right time comes, you’d better come through. Don’t forget, it pays to be loyal to where you come from.”
Maybe he was talking to Toby, Carole thought. Maybe he was telling Toby that he had better prove his loyalty to Maskee Farms b
y winning on Cookie Cutter the next day. But why would he call the jockey from a hotel to tell him that?
“Would you stop worrying so much?” Garvey snapped after a moment of silence. “I told you, you’ll be well rewarded. And the stewards aren’t going to suspect a thing. You’ve got a good record, right? They’ll think it’s just an accident.”
Carole gulped. That didn’t sound good. The stewards were the officials who watched every race and made sure the jockeys rode clean and fair. They had the power to change the official order of finish if they decided that one horse had interfered with another’s performance or a jockey had done something improper or dangerous. She could hardly believe what she was hearing. Earlier, she and Lisa had made fun of Stevie for suspecting Garvey of something, but now it seemed she might really have stumbled onto another racetrack mystery.
She had to make sure it was really Garvey she was hearing After all, a lot of people sounded alike, and she wouldn’t want to accuse him unfairly.
Feeling proud of herself for thinking so rationally, she carefully peered around the corner. It was Garvey on the phone, all right. Unfortunately he was facing her way.
Carole drew her head back quickly, but it was too late. A second later she heard the phone clattering back onto its cradle. Before she could move a muscle, Garvey was in front of her, looking furious.
“Were you spying on me?” he roared, grabbing her arm. His giant hand covered her almost from shoulder to elbow, and his grip was so tight that it hurt.
“Let me go!” Carole cried, trying to twist away. “I didn’t hear anything.” She looked around desperately, but nobody else was in the hallway. And she hadn’t seen anyone go into either of the rest rooms since she’d been standing there.
“You better not have,” Garvey growled, leaning down to stare into her face. “And if you did hear anything you shouldn’t have, you’d better forget it right away. Bad things happen to little girls who poke their noses into other people’s business.”
“Oh yeah?” Carole said, trying to sound braver than she felt. “Well, cheaters never prosper.” It was something one of her teachers was always saying, and it had just popped into her head.
“What?” Garvey looked confused, and his grip loosened for a split second.
That was all the time Carole needed. She yanked her arm away and raced for the women’s room. Once she was inside, she locked the door with trembling fingers.
“Hey!” Garvey pounded on the other side, sounding angrier than ever. “I know you’re in there. Just listen up. Whatever you may think you heard, you’re wrong. And don’t you forget it.” A second later there was the sound of heavy footsteps moving away.
CAROLE DIDN’T UNLOCK the door until she heard Stevie’s voice calling her name outside.
“Thank goodness you’re here!” Carole exclaimed, letting her in. “You’ll never believe what just happened.”
“You won’t believe what happened to me, either,” Stevie said. “I was just coming into that hallway outside to look for you, and guess who I ran into? Literally, I mean.”
“Garvey,” Carole said.
Stevie looked surprised. “How’d you guess?” she asked, leaning against the sink behind her. “He was in such a hurry I don’t think he even recognized me. He certainly didn’t stop to apologize for practically knocking me over.” She rubbed her shoulder. “When a guy like that runs into you, believe me, you feel it.”
Finally Stevie seemed to notice how upset Carole looked. “Hey, what’s the matter?” she said. “Don’t tell me the other Joshes ganged up on you as you were crossing the lobby.”
“Worse,” Carole replied. She filled Stevie in on her encounter with Garvey.
Stevie’s eyes widened. “Wow,” she said. “It sounds like he was threatening you.”
“It sounded that way to me, too,” Carole said. “And just in case I forget it, the huge bruise on my upper arm will be there to remind me.”
“I think it’s time for a Saddle Club meeting,” Stevie said. “We were all almost finished eating when you left, and Deborah has to go meet someone for her article now, so we ordered our desserts to go. Come on, let’s go up to our room. If anything can help us figure out what to do about all this, it’s double-chocolate mud cake.”
“Sounds good to me,” Carole said. She already felt better now that her friends were ready to help. Still, she couldn’t help remembering the angry scowl on Garvey’s face as he had yelled at her. She shivered a little as Stevie led the way to the lobby, where Lisa was waiting. Suddenly the three Joshes didn’t seem like the worst of her problems.
“ARE YOU SURE he was talking to a jockey?” Lisa asked for the third time.
Carole licked some chocolate frosting off her plastic fork. The Saddle Club was sitting on one of the beds in their hotel room, polishing off their cake. “I’m pretty sure,” Carole replied. “He told the person, ‘Ride her any way you want to tomorrow,’ or something like that. Who else could that be but a jockey?”
Stevie nodded. “I knew he was up to no good from the second I laid eyes on him,” she declared.
“Well, I guess it’s possible that you were right,” Lisa admitted slowly. “There’s only one question. What exactly is he up to?”
“I have no idea,” Stevie said. “Maybe it’s got something to do with gambling. Garvey could owe someone a huge amount of money and need to fix a race to pay off his debt. Or maybe the jockey he was talking to owes him money.”
“I don’t think so, Stevie,” Lisa said, flicking a few crumbs off the bedspread. “Garvey told us he doesn’t gamble, remember?”
Stevie shrugged. “Maybe he was lying.”
“I doubt it,” Carole put in. “Toby heard him say that, too, remember? He seems so honest that he probably would have said something if he knew Garvey was a big gambler.”
“If he knew about it,” Stevie argued.
But Carole had just had another thought. “Actually, now that I think about it, are we sure Toby is so honest? I hate to say it, but we don’t know him that well. And if Garvey really was talking to a jockey, Toby would be the obvious suspect. He’s riding both of the Maskee horses that are racing tomorrow.” The bay colt was entered in a later race than the one in which Cookie Cutter was competing.
Lisa let out a sigh. “You know, the more we talk about this, the more I wonder if we’re not way off base here,” she said. “I mean, we already know that the racetrack has all kinds of terms and stuff that we don’t know—like saying furlongs instead of yards or miles, and maiden races, and all sorts of other things. Isn’t it possible—maybe even probable—that what Carole overheard was part of some totally innocent conversation?”
“But Garvey was so mad when he saw me,” Carole protested, her hand automatically moving to rub her arm where the big man had grabbed it. It was still throbbing a little.
“He sure looked mad when I saw him,” Stevie added helpfully.
Lisa shrugged. “So what? He got mad when Toby asked him a simple question about C.C.’s training. He was furious when he saw that we were younger than he was expecting. And he was practically fuming when Deborah mentioned his boxing career. Face it. The guy isn’t exactly the most easygoing person in Kentucky. Maybe he was just angry because he thought you were eavesdropping.”
Carole thought about her encounter with the trainer. “I suppose that’s possible,” she said slowly. “He does have an awfully quick temper. And he didn’t really say anything that incriminating.” She felt slightly relieved at Lisa’s theory. Just because Garvey was gruff and easily annoyed didn’t mean he was out to get her.
“But my hunch—” Stevie began.
“That’s another thing,” Lisa interrupted her. “I think we’re just looking for mysteries because we found one the last time we were at a racetrack. But just because we’re looking for one doesn’t mean we’re going to find one.”
Carole almost smiled at that. When Lisa said “we,” it was obvious she really meant “Stevie.” And it
was true. Stevie had been ready to distrust Garvey from the moment she met him. That wasn’t fair—and it didn’t make any more sense than the three Joshes falling all over themselves to talk to her. “I think you may have a point, Lisa.”
“I think I do,” Lisa said with a nod. “Garvey is a young, well-regarded trainer with everything going for him. That’s why Deborah’s putting him in her article, right? So why would he want to mess that up by doing something shady?”
Stevie looked ready to argue, but then she gave in and smiled. “Okay, okay,” she said, swallowing her last bite of cake. “I still don’t think it would hurt to keep an eye on Garvey, but maybe we should give him the benefit of the doubt. We’re going to be busy enough tomorrow without any mysteries anyway.”
“Good,” Lisa said. “Then we’re all agreed. Garvey’s just a jerk with a bad temper. He isn’t out to get us—at least, not any more than he’s out to get the rest of the world. Right?”
“I guess so,” Carole said. As she remembered Garvey’s angry eyes peering into her own, she just hoped Lisa was right.
THE NEXT MORNING The Saddle Club was up early again. Deborah walked with the girls to the Maskee shed.
“I’ll see you around post time, I hope,” she said.
“Okay,” Carole said, remembering that Deborah had to go back out to visit more farms that day. “I hope you make it. C.C. will be counting on having you there to cheer her on.”
The girls greeted the horses and then helped the grooms with a few chores while they waited for Garvey to arrive. After her encounter with him the evening before, Carole was still feeling a little nervous about seeing the big man. But her friends had convinced her that he probably would have forgotten all about it by this morning.
Garvey arrived around six o’clock, just as the three girls stopped by Cookie Cutter’s stall to feed her a few cabbage leaves. Toby was with the trainer. They were talking about the filly’s chances in her race.
“I think if I can just keep her clear of the gray filly, she’ll have no trouble with the others,” Toby was saying.
Horse Race Page 5