Hide & Seek - Alyssa Brugman [27]
'You've heard of shares, haven't you? Basically you pick a company that you think looks good and you buy a little part of it. With the extra money the company tries to make more money, and if it does, then all these other people want to own a little bit of it as well, so that means your share is worth more. Then you can sell your share and start again with a different company.'
'Kind of like buying a horse at the sales and educating it,' Shelby said.
'Or gambling,' Hayley joked.
'Yeah, but Mum has this guy that runs it all.'
'A professional gambler,' Hayley teased.
Lindsey continued, 'Except sometimes just for fun we'll pick something random, like a goldmine or something.'
'Just for fun?' Shelby repeated.
Lindsey nodded.
'You could buy whatever you wanted!' Shelby said. 'Why don't you buy more stuff?'
'Like what?' Lindsey asked. 'What don't I have?'
Shelby led Beaumont out to the yard, frowning while she thought about it. 'Nice new furniture for your house?' she suggested.
'Are you kidding? All that stuff is antique! One-off collector's items. Besides, I only go in there to sleep.'
'More horses then,' Shelby said.
Lindsey looked around. 'How many more horses do you think I need, Shelby?'
17 A Clue
When the trail riders had left for the day and Shelby had finished making up the feeds, she continued with her investigation.
She wandered up the laneway between the stable blocks. There were lots of people around making a day of it as the weather had cleared and the trails were much drier.
Over near the jumping arena one family had set up a barbecue and were selling sausage sandwiches for a dollar a pop. Shelby could smell the frying onion and her mouth watered. She felt in her pockets but she didn't have any change.
She stopped at the stable rented by her friend Monica, who had a fine thoroughbred hack that she showed with some success. Monica was sitting on the step to her tack shed, cleaning her bridle. There was a pile of dirty rugs and saddle blankets near the gate. Shelby assumed that Monica was taking them home to wash.
'Good time for a clean out,' Shelby observed.
'Yep, every school holidays. Mum dreads it. She says I'm wrecking her washing machine.'
'Weird about Diablo going missing, eh? Wonder how he got out?' Shelby stole a glance at Monica.
Monica put down the bridle. 'Actually, I saw some-thing funny around then, but it wasn't to do with Diablo. I was going to tell Mrs E. Come on, I'll show you.'
Monica led Shelby down the laneway and into the broodmares' paddock. 'Now, where is she?' she muttered to herself. Having spotted the horse she was after, Monica led the big mare towards the gate to the back paddock – the one with the latch that Shelby had noticed before. Now it was tied closed with baling twine.
'That's the mare that Lindsey thought was Diablo,' Shelby said.
'You think?' Monica looked the mare up and down. 'Maybe in the dark. Can you untie that baling twine for me?'
Shelby did so and waited on the other side.
The big mare strode purposefully towards the gate. 'Be ready to catch her!' warned Monica.
The mare nosed at the latch, at the same time kicking the bottom of the gate. She flicked the latch with her lips. Soon she had the latch lifted, and simul-taneously her kicking of the gate made it ricochet forwards. She nudged the gate open with her nose and squeezed through.
Shelby caught hold of the mare's hood to prevent her from escaping any further.
'She's clever, isn't she?' said Monica, smiling. 'I've found her in here a few times. That's why I put the baling twine around it. All she does is stand on the other side wanting to be let back in again.'
'Have you seen any of the others come through?' Shelby asked.
'She can't do it from the other side,' Monica explained. 'The gate always swings back and relocks itself. It's weird, though, because I told Kim about it, and she said that she found her in the laneway between this paddock and Diablo's the other day. So she must be able to open that gate as well, but I've only ever seen her open this one.'
'What day was that?'