For Sale or Swap - Alyssa Brugman [51]
Sergeant Everard – the policewoman who had come to her house about Blue – appeared in the doorway and asked Shelby to make her statement. They went into a small room with timber panelling on the wall and a table in the middle. Her mother sat next to her, and Shelby started the story from the very beginning. When she got to the part about the plan the girls had made, she hesitated.
'. . . So we came up with a plan – more of an idea. We thought if we could get him to come to the stables we'd be able to get his number plate. But we forgot.'
Sergeant Everard frowned. 'Who's "we" ?'
'I meant "I" . I came up with an idea.' Shelby glanced at her mother's face and saw embarrassment there.
'Can you go through this plan for me?' asked the sergeant.
Shelby squirmed in her seat. 'Well, the Mulligans said that they didn't want to swap, but Mr Morgan came back and took Poppy anyway, and we . . . I thought if I could lure him to the stables, he might try to steal a horse, and if I had his number plate, you could find him, and it wouldn't be civil. You would arrest him, and he would have to tell you where Blue was. Then everyone could get their horses back, and he would go to jail, so he could never do it to anyone else.'
The sergeant scribbled on her notepad for a moment. She put down her pen and laced her fingers together on the desk.
'Shelby, you do know that your plan was very foolish, don't you? It was the wrong thing to do.' Sergeant Everard looked at her severely.
Shelby nodded, biting her lip. She took a deep breath. 'Can . . . can you tell me what the right thing would have been?'
'It was a civil matter, as I told you at the time. Your solicitor would have requested that the horse be returned, and if your Mr Morgan didn't agree, it would be decided in the courts. Most likely, he would have had to provide you with a sum equal to the value of the property in question.'
'But we didn't know who he was!' Shelby paused. 'You're saying that he wouldn't have to give back Blue anyway, only the value of him? Not go to jail?'
'That's right.'
'But that's not fair!' she blurted.
Sergeant Everard blinked.
'What will happen to this man now?' Shelby's mother asked.
'As it turns out, there were a number of horses on the property which this fellow can't account for, and unless he can, he will be facing prosecution. We'll also investigate a few other leads that turned up when we searched the place looking for you.'
'So he might go to jail?' Shelby asked.
'It depends on his record, and a few other things. It's complicated,' the Sergeant replied. 'It's possible that he will.'
'But my way was the dumb way?' Shelby said.
Sergeant Everard sighed. 'Shelby, we thought you had been abducted. You put yourself and your friends at considerable risk. You worried your parents half to death, and you jeopardised Lindsey's mother's business. You also put in danger all the horses at the stables. Not to mention that you have broken several laws. I don't think you realise how many police officers – how many citizens, too – were involved in the search for you this morning. Your little stunt wasted a great deal of our time and resources – at the tax-payer's expense.'
'Yes, but –' Shelby interrupted.
'Time and resources that could have been better used elsewhere on much more serious and, I might add, genuine cases, where the victim did not deliberately generate the hazard.'
'But I –'
'We have a very important job to do here, and I don't appreciate – the community doesn't appreciate – police time being wasted on frivolous young ladies who decide to take the law into their own hands. And you still don't have your horse back.'
Shelby closed her mouth. The car she'd heard before she ran, the helicopter. Now she understood.
Sergeant Everard continued. 'There is no way this man is going to incriminate himself by telling us where your horse is. So frankly, after all this kerfuffle, you're no better off than you were before.'
Tears of anger and frustration welled in Shelby's eyes.
Her mother rubbed her shoulder.