Camp Club Girls Get a Clue!

by Renae Brumbaugh

  “McKenzie and Bailey, line up!” a voice called. McKenzie looked up as Derek led Sahara up the aisle toward them.

  McKenzie thanked Maggie and stuffed the napkin back into her pocket. She took Sahara’s reins from Derek. They arrived at the arena gate as the announcer was calling their names.

  McKenzie had no time to get nervous. She grabbed her lasso in one hand and mounted Sahara. Bailey climbed on behind her.

  The moment the calf came out of the chute, McKenzie darted after it. The calf kicked as it ran, but McKenzie focused and as it lifted its head, she tossed the lasso. The loop sailed through the air and landed around the calf’s neck. Keeping a firm grip on the lasso, McKenzie slid from Sahara’s back.

  She raced to the calf with Bailey close behind her. Together, the girls wrapped the other end of the rope around the calf’s legs so it couldn’t run away.

  McKenzie had no idea whether their time was good compared to the other competitors. Right now, her thoughts were on Diamond Girl. Winning the calf-roping competition was the last thing on her mind.

  They rode out of the arena while McKenzie glanced at the horses and riders lining up for the women’s barrel-racing competition. Darkness had settled over the crowd, but the overhead pole lights had come on. She stopped beneath a light near a hitching post and pulled the crumpled napkin and the threatening note from her pocket.

  “Look, Bailey. The handwriting is identical,” McKenzie whispered to Bailey. “Maggie’s pickup was in the parking lot of the feed store yesterday.”

  Bailey gasped. “You mean Maggie wrote both notes? So that’s why you asked Maggie to write down those names.”

  McKenzie nodded. “Remember that candy bar Maggie was eating? That’s the kind of candy wrapper that was in the dugout.”

  McKenzie glanced around her. Maggie stood in line for the barrel racing, adjusting Frisco’s saddle. A man in a black jacket and cowboy hat stood beside her.

  McKenzie gasped. He was the man who had ridden the spotted horse. As he turned away from her, McKenzie saw the red lettering on the back of his jacket: Whispering Pines Horse Therapy Ranch.

  “Oh, Bailey,” she whispered. “We’ve got trouble. Big trouble!”

  The announcer’s voice boomed over the loudspeaker, interrupting the girls’ conversation. “The third-place trophy in the girls’ calf-roping contest goes to McKenzie Phillips and Bailey Chang.”

  McKenzie quickly slid from Sahara’s back and looped the reins around the hitching post. Bailey’s eyes gleamed as the girls hurried into the arena. Bailey’s hands trembled as she accepted her trophy.

  The girls hurried out of the arena, not even waiting to hear the first-and second-place winners. McKenzie whispered in Bailey’s ear. “Let’s get out of here. We have to get back to the trailer lot. Quickly! I know a shortcut.” She nodded toward a narrow street beyond the stables.

  “What’s going on?”

  “I think I know where Diamond Girl is,” McKenzie said. “We have to hurry to rescue her. But we can’t look obvious. As soon as Maggie races with Frisco, she’ll head out of here, taking Diamond Girl with her.”

  The girls quietly rode Sahara through the stable area to the back street. They could hardly hear the loud voices of the crowd and blaring music of the rodeo.

  Hurrying beneath the dim streetlights, they arrived at Maggie’s trailer and pickup. McKenzie slid off Sahara’s back and peeked inside the trailer.

  “She’s not here,” McKenzie whispered. “She can’t be far. Wait here. Tell me if anyone comes.”

  McKenzie set off for the grove of trees, keeping to the shadows and calling, “Hey, girl, are you here?”

  A soft whinny came from inside the grove. McKenzie pushed through the brambles. Soon she saw the white spots on the horse, barely visible in the darkness.

  As she touched the horse, Bailey’s cry reached her.

  “Someone’s coming, McKenzie. Run!”

  McKenzie quickly untied the horse’s reins and led her out of the trees. “Go get Derek,” she cried to Bailey.

  She jumped on the horse’s back and dug in her heels. McKenzie knew the spotted horse was Diamond Girl. She had to get her to safety. She raced the horse as fast as she dared. She heard hooves thunder behind her. She turned. In the moonlight she glimpsed the strange man chasing her on Frisco!

  He screamed at her to stop. She dug in her heels, urging Diamond Girl to run faster. “Dear God, please help us,” McKenzie prayed.

  Where could she hide? She couldn’t run forever. The hooves continued to pound the ground behind her. More voices shouted at her to stop. Glancing behind her, she saw two more figures on horses approaching. It was too dark to recognize them. She urged Diamond Girl onward. Soon the thundering hooves began to fade. She was losing at least two of them.

  Suddenly, a horse came from the darkness behind her. “McKenzie,” a voice cried out. It was Derek, riding Sahara. McKenzie pulled Diamond Girl to a walk.

  “Ian stopped the guy who was chasing you. We’ve called security. You’re safe and so is Diamond Girl,” Derek said. “Bailey told us about her. But who did this to her?”

  McKenzie brought Diamond Girl to a halt.

  “It’s Maggie,” she said frantically. “Maggie stole Diamond Girl to use at a horse therapy farm. We have to stop her before she gets away.”

  Derek stared at her and then snapped the reins. “Let’s go!”

  McKenzie and Derek spun their horses around. They raced back to the lot where McKenzie’s family and Emma had gathered.

  Maggie’s accomplice had broken free from Ian. He’d already loaded Frisco into the trailer. Maggie was behind the wheel, trying to move the pickup out of a tight parking spot.

  “Don’t let them go!” McKenzie screamed. “They’re the horse thieves.”

  Mr. Phillips looked at his daughter and jumped into his pickup. Seconds later he had parked in the roadway, blocking Maggie in. The rodeo security guards arrived at the scene, ordering Maggie and her accomplice to get out of the pickup.

  McKenzie hopped off Diamond Girl and led her to Bailey, Emma, and her family. Minutes later, McKenzie saw the flashing red-and-blue lights of the sheriff’s pickup. A police car followed. The sheriff listened to the girls’ story. After talking with Maggie and her friend, he ordered them into the police car.

  Questions came to McKenzie from different directions. She and Bailey quickly explained everything.

  First, they told about finding the spotted horse at Old Towne. They explained about snipping the hairs and sending them to Kate. When the girls saw Frisco in her stall at the rodeo, McKenzie knew the strange man carrying water to the trailer lot must have a horse hidden somewhere. She had come to suspect Maggie when she saw the moving boxes at Cedar Creek, so McKenzie had asked her to write down the riders’ names so she could compare the handwriting. Then McKenzie remembered where she had seen Maggie’s candy bar before. The same kind of wrapper was in the trash at the dugout! McKenzie thought.

  Then, when she saw Whispering Pines Horse Therapy Ranch on the stranger’s jacket, she realized the truth. Maggie and her friend, whose name was Chuck Hanson, had stolen Diamond Girl for their new therapy ranch.

  The sheriff commended the girls on their hard work. Maggie and Chuck had confessed to everything. Maggie admitted that with Diamond Girl out of the rodeo competition, Frisco was a sure winner. She had planned to leave with Diamond Girl while Sunshine Stables staff was preoccupied at the rodeo, not only with a prize-winning racehorse, but also a splendid therapy horse to draw customers to her new ranch.

  Mr. Phillips came to his daughter’s side as McKenzie watched Derek and Ian load the horses into the trailer.

  “Dad, you were right when you said that guilt is God telling us something.” McKenzie looked up at her father. “I suspected an innocent person of a crime. I don’t feel very good about it.”

  Mr. Phillips put an arm around his daughter’s shoulder. “Sometimes we have to forgive ourselves just like God forgives us.”
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  McKenzie thought about that as the sheriff drove away with Maggie and Chuck. Though she knew she would get over her anger at them, she still felt sorry for them and wondered what would happen to them next.

  “You girls were amazing!” Emma’s eyes lit up for the first time all week. “Thanks to you, Sunshine Stables will soon be back to normal!”

  “You were right when you said everything happens for a reason,” McKenzie said. “God had a purpose for bringing Diamond Girl back to you tonight.”

  Emma looked quizzically at McKenzie, “And what would that be?”

  “There are more barrel-riding competitions tomorrow night. You never withdrew after Diamond Girl disappeared. Why don’t you race her one more time? That is, if you feel like it.”

  Diamond Girl whinnied from inside the trailer. Emma laughed. “You know, McKenzie. By tomorrow, I may feel pretty well. I just might do that.”

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