Hide & Seek - Alyssa Brugman [22]
It made sense to Shelby. On occasions she had jumped to conclusions herself.
'Brenda has her horse back now,' her mother added. 'I'm sure in a few days' time, when she has calmed down, she will drop the charges against Chad and his friends. She might even be a big enough person to apologise.'
Shelby stared at her mother. 'Chad has been arrested?'
Shelby's mum frowned. 'I assumed you knew. When Chad rang he'd just come home from the police station. Brenda Edel has pressed charges against them all.'
By now the car was in their street. Shelby's mother pulled the car into their driveway and turned off the ignition.
'But Chad only just met those people! He's got nothing to do with them stealing Diablo,' Shelby protested.
Her mother blinked. 'According to Chad, they didn't steal him.'
'But Erin said . . . I don't get it,' Shelby said.
'He left a phone number for you.'
Shelby opened the car door.
Her mother stopped her. 'Shelby, he sounds like a nice boy – very straightforward and sensible. Lots of boys his age don't talk to adults. They just grunt. Chad's parents must have brought him up well. I'm looking forward to meeting him. Perhaps you could invite him around for a barbecue some time?'
Shelby smiled. Her mother approved of sensibleness above all other virtues. It was odd, though. Her mother didn't usually encourage her to bring friends home. Erin had slept over a few times, but mostly Shelby went to other people's houses.
'Now you're jumping to conclusions, Mum. It really was just hot chips.'
Her mother arched an eyebrow at her. 'Hot chips in a skirt.'
Inside the house, Shelby took a deep breath and dialled the number her mother had written down. When he answered she felt a surge of adren-aline in her belly like when she was approaching a big jump.
'Hello, is this Chad? This is Shelby.'
'Hi.' Chad sounded dejected.
'Mum told me what happened.' Shelby waited. In the background she could hear the hum of conversa-tion. When Chad didn't say anything Shelby felt stupid, wishing she hadn't rung after all. 'So what happened at the police station? Who did you have to talk to there?'
'It was a woman. A sergeant,' Chad replied.
'Sergeant Everard? Was she mean to you? She must find her job stressful or something. She's always frowning.'
Chad asked. 'You know her?'
Shelby sighed. 'Yeah. She's yelled at me a few times. Actually, one of the times was the day you gave me a lift home from the Gully. Remember that day? My parents thought I'd been kidnapped, and when Sergeant Everard found out I wasn't, she told me off for wasting police time.'
Chad sighed. 'I've never been in trouble with the police before. I can't really afford to. My whole family has big plans for me. Mum wants me to go into politics. Dad wants me to be a professional footballer. My sister wants me to be a vet.'
'What do you want to do?' Shelby asked.
'I'd like to be a PE teacher,' he answered. 'I don't think you can be a teacher if you have a police record.'
'You're a juvenile. It doesn't count.'
Chad was quiet again for a while and then he spoke. 'Everything was going well for me, you know? I was doing OK at school and in sport. Now this. These things stay with you forever. They always do.'
Shelby remembered how Sergeant Everard behaved when Diablo first went missing – how she spoke to Shelby as though she had done something wrong. Sergeant Everard had formed an opinion about Shelby that would always follow her; no matter what good things Shelby did afterwards.
'My mum says it will all blow over,' Shelby assured him. 'She said Mrs Edel will calm down now she has Diablo back.'
'Man, that lady is a complete fruit loop! She drives in like a mad woman and starts screaming and threat-ening people. I was sure she was going to deck someone. She attacked us! She was trespassing, verbally assaulting, and about half a dozen other illegal things. She should be the one arrested.'
These were the same details but a different emphasis to the version that Erin had given. Shelby wondered who was telling the truth, or whether the real