Ten minutes later Nancy and Bess were showing their parking passes to the guard at the front gate. Nancy wondered if they’d beefed up security since the attempted theft. Though even if they had, the person who’d tried to take Sweet and Klean probably had a legitimate pass.
Nancy parked in front of Barn C. There were no other cars in the lot outside. The door at the end of the barn was open, and the aisle was dark.
“Are you sure we should go in?” Bess asked.
“It does look deserted,” Nancy replied. She opened the car door and stepped out. “Still, I’d sleep a lot better if I knew where Lee Anne was.”
Bess jumped out to join her. “Me, too.”
The barn was illuminated by dim ceiling lights. Slowly Nancy walked down the aisle, glancing into each stall. The horses were quietly munching hay or sleeping in the straw.
“Let’s check to see if Gilly’s awake,” Nancy whispered. “She may know where Lee Anne is.”
Nancy went over to the stall Gilly slept in. The cot was neatly made up as if no one had been in it yet.
“She’s not here,” Nancy said.
“Neither is Aristocrat.” Bess was peering into his stall. “Maybe she’s out walking him or something.”
“At this hour?” Nancy hurried over and peered into the horse’s stall. The door was open, the stall empty.
“What are you guys doing here?” a voice asked.
Startled, Nancy jumped a foot, and Bess squeaked. Gilly was striding down the aisle.
“Looking for Lee Anne,” Nancy replied. She gestured to the empty stall. “Where’s Aristocrat?”
Gilly’s eyes widened in alarm. “What do you mean? I just checked on him,” she said as she rushed over. When she saw the empty stall, she clasped a hand over her mouth, stifling a cry. “He’s gone. Someone must have taken him!”
7
A Secret
Nancy put a hand on Gilly’s arm. “Don’t panic. Maybe Klaus moved Aristocrat.”
Quickly Nancy, Gilly, and Bess raced up and down the aisle, checking every stall. There was no sign of the stallion.
“This is terrible,” Gilly moaned. “Klaus will kill me. I left for just a second to get a soda, but some of my friends were hanging around at the little coffee shop that’s open all night, and we started talking and…” Her voice trailed off, and she hung her head.
“How long were you gone?” Nancy asked.
“No longer than twenty, maybe twenty-five minutes.” Gilly wrung her hands. “I’ve got to call Klaus.”
Bess patted her shoulder. “Maybe there’s a simple explanation,” she said in a reassuring voice, but the look she gave Nancy was full of concern.
“In the meantime we’ll alert Security,” Nancy told her. “There’s a guard checking the cars coming in and out of the grounds. Maybe he saw someone enter the barn.”
“Maybe,” Gilly repeated, but she didn’t sound convinced. When she left to call Klaus Schaudt from the barn’s pay phone, Nancy and Bess headed for the booth at the gate. The security guard paged Texel at home, then called for two guards to report to the barn.
While they waited for the chief of security to show up, Nancy and Bess told the guard at the gate, Fred Dunlevy, about the missing horse. “Did anyone leave with a horse in the last half hour?” Nancy asked him.
Fred shook his head. “No trailers or vans went by here. So the horse must be on the grounds somewhere. We’ll find him.”
“Gilly will be glad to hear that,” Bess said.
Five minutes later Texel roared into the showgrounds, gravel flying from beneath his truck tires. “Get in,” he growled, swinging open the passenger door.
Without a word, Bess and Nancy scrambled inside. Texel wasn’t wearing his cowboy hat, and his thinning hair stuck up as if he’d just gotten out of bed.
“You girls better not have dragged me from a sound sleep in air-conditioned comfort for nothin’.” He cast a disgruntled look at them. “I mean, this isn’t part two of your Halloween prank, is it?”
“No,” Nancy said. “Klaus Schaudt’s stallion, Aristocrat, is missing. We checked every stall in Barn C. His groom says she was away from him for only about twenty minutes.”
Texel grunted, then took a mug from a cup holder on the dashboard. “Schaudt’s stallion, huh?” he repeated after taking a sip. “Well, we’d better find him, or I’ll never hear the end of it.”
The barn was ablaze with light. When the three went inside, Gilly and two guards were checking all the stalls.
Texel was about to say something when a loud voice barked, “Have you found him? Have you found my horse?”
Nancy turned to see Schaudt stride down the aisle toward them. He was elegantly dressed in a navy blazer over a white shirt and a canary yellow vest.
“Mr. Schaudt,” Texel said in his own booming voice. “We have not found your horse yet, but I have alerted my entire security crew. We will have an answer for you as soon as possible.”
Schaudt didn’t break stride. Scowling, he marched up to Gilly, who seemed to shrink into the concrete.
“Miss Phillips has some explaining to do,” Schaudt said, his steely gaze riveted on her. “Like why she was gone long enough for this to happen.”
“I just went to get a soda,” Gilly said, her voice a whisper.
