Moonlight: Star of the Show

by Belinda Rapley

  Alice felt a tingle of excitement as they rode off the stubble field straight onto the drive. Poppy was a huge hero of hers, and here they were, at her yard, hoping to solve the mystery of her stolen pony! Suddenly a car roared past the end of the drive, followed by two more. Scout shied, and Alice noticed that the road at the end of the drive was busy, with cars passing pretty frequently just while they stood there. She glanced up in the other direction. The drive ended just past the cottage. There was a wooden signpost pointing to a bridleway that led up the drive and into a narrow path that disappeared into the woods that began where the drive finished.

  As Rosie reached in her pocket and handed round cereal bars, she began to wish she’d thought to bring a magnifying glass too, so she could feel like a proper detective. A couple of the ponies in the field lifted their heads and neighed loudly. They trotted over to the fence, propping and sliding to a halt and blowing heavily through their noses in greeting. Rosie felt Dancer’s sides heave as she stretched out her nose towards theirs, breathing hard. Dancer squealed, at which point Charlie suggested to Rosie that it might be wise to move her pony away before she kicked out.

  After Rosie had moved a reluctant Dancer the ponies in the field lost interest, and they wandered off and carried on grazing. The girls turned their attention to their surroundings.

  “The ad in Pony Mad said Moonlight had been stolen from his field, didn’t it? I wonder if it was this one?” Alice whispered in awe.

  “It’s the only field with ponies in,” Mia said, looking round at the other fields of sheep beyond. “It has to be the crime scene!”

  “Let’s look here first, then,” Charlie suggested in a hushed voice. “It may hold some clues.”

  “Solid metal gate,” Rosie said, staring at the entrance to the field.

  Mia pulled out her notebook and started writing.

  “Standard type,” she said, chewing her lip as she concentrated.

  “Padlocks and thick metal chains securing it to heavy posts either side.” Charlie leaned forward in the saddle and picked up one of the shiny, new-looking heavy chains then clanked it back down again.

  “Recent addition,” Alice added, suddenly feeling the urge to giggle in all the serious quietness.

  They squeezed their ponies towards the paddock gate and squished as close as they could to it, standing up in their stirrups and leaning forward to scour the field from the saddle. They silently raced each other to find the first proper piece of evidence, but everything looked disappointingly ordinary. There was post-and-rail fencing, but beyond that a thick hedge surrounded the field on all sides except the one they were standing by, with the gate. It was a well-hidden field, invisible from the busy road next to it.

  “Look!” Rosie suddenly exclaimed loudly, shooting out of her saddle as Dancer yanked the reins through her fingers. The mare ripped out a huge clump of grass from the verge and began to shake her head, scattering mud from the roots everywhere.

  The others all stared, following Rosie’s finger as it waved wildly at the ground.

  “What exactly are we meant to be looking at?” Charlie asked, squinting as Mia stood with her pencil poised.

  “Tracks!” Rosie said theatrically. “Lots of them!”

  They all looked again. Rosie was right – there were hoof prints all over the dusty drive. And they were recent. So recent, they could have been…

  “Ours,” Mia said witheringly, putting her pencil down again. “Honestly, Rosie, you’re hopeless.”

  Charlie and Alice shoved their gloved fingers in their mouths to stop themselves collapsing into fits of giggles. Pirate, taking advantage of Charlie’s moment of weakness, darted forward, bored with standing around. Charlie almost did a backwards roll, arms and legs flying in every direction, before falling to the ground in a dust-covered heap. Alice fell back onto Scout’s rump and laughed out loud.

  “Can I help you?”

  Alice stopped laughing in an instant, sat bolt upright and turned to see a grey-haired woman with a severe face standing by the yard gate, staring at the four girls suspiciously. They knew from seeing the woman at shows that she was Poppy’s mum. Alice wished instantly that she’d taken the trouble to pick out all the bits of mud from Scout’s flowing tail. Rosie, covered with cowpat smears, turned bright pink as Dancer raised her head, a grass ball with a clod of mud attached to it hanging from her mouth. Charlie picked herself up from the ground, coated with dust. Only Mia, in her electric pink T-shirt, lilac gilet and bright purple checked jodhpurs, looked respectable. She glanced over at the others critically before taking it upon herself to be the spokesperson for the untidy gang.

  “I’m sorry to disturb you, it’s just that we keep our ponies nearby – at Blackberry Farm – and we know Moonlight from seeing him at shows. We read about him being stolen and thought we might be able to help, if we knew a bit more about what happened,” she said, trying to sound professional. “We were wondering if any tack was stolen with him?”

  Mia kept very calm even though the other three were starting to crack under the icy looks they were getting.

  “No, it wasn’t,” Poppy’s mum replied. She peered a bit closer, then marched up to Wish and Mia. Suddenly her face softened and she smiled slightly. “Hang on, it’s Mia, isn’t it? I recognise your pony. Wins a lot in the showing ring, doesn’t she?”

  Mia couldn’t help but smile smugly and nod.

  “Wait there a moment,” Poppy’s mum said.

  She disappeared into the yard and spoke to someone in the tack room. A girl came to the door a second later with drooping shoulders, her face pale. The four of them recognised her at once – it was Poppy Brookes, Moonlight’s owner.

  Mia raised her hand and forced a cheerful smile. Poppy knew Mia to say hello to – she was as much of a celebrity locally in the show ring as Poppy was in the showjumping world – but as Poppy tried to smile back, seeing the four of them standing there with their ponies, her face crumpled and she ran back into the tack room. As her mum stalked back out, Alice thought she saw a bit of dirt on Scout’s reins and tried to clean it off with her nail.

  “Listen, it’s very kind of you to try to help, and if you do see anything please let me know,” she said, “but I hope you realise how serious this is for Poppy.”

  With that she went into the cottage next to the yard, calling Poppy to have a lemonade. As she left the tack room, Poppy wiped her nose and looked over at the girls, half waving a goodbye as if she was trying to say thank you without having to speak in case she got choked up again.

  Alice felt herself go red and patted Scout as she turned him round. It struck her as she felt his warm, sturdy neck beneath her fingers that Moonlight was as real a pony as Scout, and with a rush she suddenly knew what it would be like if that feeling was taken away for ever. She’d had Scout on loan for just over a year after falling in love with him when she caught sight of him wandering on the marshes, thin and neglected. His owner had agreed to loan him and Alice knew already that her life would never be the same if he wasn’t around. He was everything to her, her best friend in the whole world.

  She guessed everyone else was feeling the same because after Charlie swung into the saddle they headed back to Blackberry Farm in silence.

  “Maybe we should just give up,” Rosie sighed as she collapsed onto a hay bale in the den, rubbing Beanie behind his ears.

  “No way,” Charlie replied, quick as a flash.

  Although no one had said anything, it was pretty clear as they looked round at one another that they were all thinking the same thing: that the case was hopeless and Moonlight would most probably be miles away by now. But that didn’t mean they could just give up, whatever the odds were of actually finding Moonlight.

  After the visit to Hawthorn Farm, somehow they all seemed to understand that looking for Poppy’s pony was no longer a game, or a way to get a reward or to appear in a magazine. It was something they had to do. It felt as desperate as if it was one of their own ponies that had
been stolen.

  “I agree,” Mia sniffed, pulling out her notebook. Her eyes looked slightly red from where she’d been wiping them as they’d ridden back. “Let’s look at what we’ve got so far.”

  They all gathered round. Mia had stuck in the ‘missing’ advert from Pony Mad at the top of the page. Underneath she had written, in her neat handwriting:

  Clue 1

  Solid metal gate, standard. New padlocks on there – maybe put on since the theft of Moonlight?

  Clue 2

  No tack was stolen with Moonlight.

  Clue 3

  Tracks on the pa…

  “It’s not much to go on,” Charlie said, trying hard not to sound disappointed. Alice kept staring at the page. She couldn’t help thinking that they were missing something but couldn’t work out what. Then she jumped up.

  “I’ve got it!” she cried, so loudly that even Scout started out in the field. “Rosie was right!”

  Everyone looked up at Alice expectantly.

  “I knew it!” Rosie said proudly, a grin spreading all over her round, pink-cheeked face. Then she frowned. “Er, how am I right, exactly? I mean, I know I am, that much is obvious, it’s just that I can’t quite see…” She bent over the notebook again, scanning the few lines of handwriting. Her hair, still smelling of cowpat, fell forward and marked the page with a green streak, much to Mia’s disgust.

  “I mean that your observation about the tracks might not be so useless after all. In fact, it might prove crucial to our investigation.” Alice paced up and down as she thought. “Because when we looked at the lane, there were hoof prints everywhere in the dusty pathway.”

  “Lots of hoof prints,” Rosie nodded enthusiastically, “but I still don’t get how that’s a clue…”

  “Well, it’s not so much the hoof prints themselves,” Alice explained. “It’s just that we were so busy looking at them that we didn’t think about tyre tracks, did we?”

  Alice absently picked up the ginger yard cat, Pumpkin, as he rubbed purring around her legs.

  “So?” Charlie asked, confused. “What about them?”

  “Well, that drive was only short, wasn’t it?” Alice said, frowning as she thought hard but starting to feel a buzz of excitement at the same time. “At one end was a seriously busy road, at the other a narrow bridleway into the woods. The only place to have loaded Moonlight into a trailer or a horsebox would have been right outside the yard.”

  “And there’s no way that could have been done without making loads of noise!” Mia said, catching on and nodding. “Either from the engine or from Moonlight’s hooves clattering up the ramp!”

  “So he must have been led away,” Alice said, getting wildly enthusiastic, “either up the little bridleway into the woods or the way we came – across the stubble field.”

  “And it must have been at night, when no one was around to see,” added Charlie.

  They grabbed the map, laid it out flat on the floor of the barn and studied it. The busy road went on for ages, with lots of twists and bends and no turn-offs.

  “And that must mean that whoever took him was local,” Mia said, her pen scratching fast to keep up with all the ideas flying round, “because they must have known they’d have to lead him away on foot.”

  Alice nodded. “Which must mean they couldn’t have taken him that far.”

  “And remember,” Charlie added, getting excited, “that field was completely cut off from sight nearly all around. I mean, you wouldn’t just stumble across it, or be able to pick out a good pony as you drove past. This wasn’t a random theft, it can’t have been!”

  “Exactly – Moonlight must have been taken by someone local,” Alice said. “Someone who knew how talented he was…”

  Mia looked up, her eyes wide. “So Moonlight was targeted!”

  “It’s starting to look that way,” Charlie said. “But why?”

  “And who by?” Alice added.

  They were silent for a second.

  “Oh, I know! I’ve got it!” Rosie started to giggle. “I’ve got it!”

  “Who?” Charlie asked, hardly daring to, knowing from the look on Rosie’s pink face as she giggled that it had to be someone ridiculous.

  “It must have been Daisy!” Rosie squeaked.

  Charlie laughed behind her hand. “Of course! The barmy Major’s determined she’ll win the Cup. Maybe he just needed to get his hands on the best pony in the area to prove he’s right, even though poor Daisy keeps telling him that she doesn’t even like jumping!”

  Alice was about to giggle but the look on Mia’s face silenced her at once.

  “Listen, you lot, we really don’t have time to mess about, so can we please take this seriously and concentrate on proper suggestions? Even though Moonlight must have been taken by someone local that doesn’t mean he’s still in the area. But, on the slim chance that he is, we need to think about who has fields and yards nearby.”

  Charlie wiped her eyes and looked away from Rosie, who was still desperately trying to control her giggling fit behind Mia.

  “I know – what about a local horse dealer?” Charlie said in a high voice before clearing her throat. “They’d have ponies going in and out all the time so a new one arriving out of nowhere wouldn’t cause a stir.”

  “Ooh – what about Harry Franklin? He’s got a yard close to Hawthorn Farm,” Rosie suggested. “Mum and Dad went there to look for a pony before we found Dancer. They didn’t hang around long, though – said he seemed a bit rough and scary.”

  “I wonder if he gets asked by people to find specific ponies,” Mia mused.

  “Maybe he’s stealing to order!” Alice gasped as she looked round wildly at everyone’s excited faces. “Someone asks him for an awesome show jumper and he knows exactly where to find one!”

  Suddenly it felt as if they were really starting to get somewhere.

  “We need to pay this Harry Franklin a visit,” Mia said darkly.

  “Agreed, only not today,” Rosie replied, standing up and stretching. “Mum’s cooking my favourite tonight – shepherd’s pie – I can almost smell it, so I can’t be late getting back to the cottage…”

  Mia rolled her eyes, but when she checked her watch they realised that it was nearly five o’clock.

  As they caught the ponies and led them back round to the yard in the hazy late afternoon sun, everyone agreed they would set off to Harry Franklin’s yard the next day. Before she left, Alice gave Scout a special evening feed with heaps of extra carrots and apples mixed in with the chaff, molasses and pony nuts. Looking sideways, she noticed the others quietly doing the same too.

  Scout dived in greedily, waving his front hoof as he slurped and munched. He didn’t know why he’d deserved the bumper feed, but he was delighted with it. After he’d finished Alice hugged him goodnight, smelling his sweet breath over her face. As she turned him back out into the field for the night, she wished for the first time ever that she could keep him padlocked in a stable, safe from any silent thieves who might visit.

  As Mia’s dad arrived in his huge sleek car to collect her, she waved goodbye to the others and Rosie disappeared inside the sunny yellow cottage, closely followed by Beanie and Pumpkin. Charlie and Alice picked up their battered bikes and left the yard reluctantly. Even Rosie promising to sleep with her curtains open hadn’t made them feel any easier.

  “Probably because she’s the heaviest sleeper…” Charlie began, starting to smile.

  “… and the loudest snorer out of all of us!” Alice cut in.

  Alice and Charlie started to laugh as they pedalled home in the early evening, looking forward to the next day.

  “SO, what do we do now?” Rosie asked, pink-faced and harassed as Dancer pulled hard on her reins, diving for a particularly tasty-looking bit of hedge. They’d managed to fit in two long gallops and the jumps through the wood that they’d found the day before on the way over to Harry Franklin’s. Now they’d dismounted and were loitering in a field that overloo
ked the dealer’s sprawling yard and paddocks, positioned behind a not particularly tall hedge.

  “Obvious – let’s just go down there and confront him,” Charlie suggested, as Pirate pawed the ground, impatient with all the hanging about.

  “We can’t just tell him we’re looking for a stolen pony and he’s our number-one suspect,” Mia scoffed. “He’d throw us out in no time. No, we need to look round his yard without arousing suspicion.”

  “I don’t get why we can’t just stay here and keep an eye on the place,” Rosie muttered, leaning against Dancer’s roan neck and giving her a hug as the pony happily munched the mouthful of hedge she’d snaffled.

  As they got into an argument about what to do next, Alice looked down at the yard and saw a big white horse being ridden along the lane by a huge, burly looking man not wearing a hard hat. As he turned into the drive that led to the yard, she saw him look up and figured that it must be Harry.

  “Duck!” she shouted. She wasn’t quite sure why, even as she obeyed her own panicky order.

  The other three quickly followed, but the hedge was small and, even though they managed to hide, their four restless ponies were still highly visible from every direction, including the one from which Harry Franklin was now rapidly approaching.

  Despite realising how ridiculous it was, Alice stayed down because she wasn’t sure what to do next. She could feel Scout’s warm, inquisitive breath on her neck and hear Charlie’s muffled squeals as she gripped onto Pirate’s reins and was dragged across the grass by the restless pony. Alice got as small as she could, not daring to look up. Over the sound of Dancer noisily cropping grass and munching, Alice heard hoof beats getting louder and louder until they stopped right in front of her.