Horse Race (14 page)

Carole was still shaking minutes after the trainer had disappeared. “Wow,” she said at last, her voice quavering.
“That was close.” She glanced at Josh. “You can turn off the camera now.”

“Oh!” The boy seemed a little surprised. He glanced at the camcorder, which had fallen into his lap after the big man’s departure. He flipped the Off switch. “Who
was
that guy, anyway?” Apparently he hadn’t recognized Garvey from when the girls had pointed him out that morning. But Carole didn’t want to take the time to fill him in right then.

“I’ll explain everything in a little while,” she said, grabbing Josh’s hand and squeezing it. “Okay? Right now we need to take that tape and show it to someone.”

“Okay.” Josh glanced down at their joined hands and smiled.

Carole gulped and let go of his hand. She hadn’t even been aware of what she was doing. Somehow, in the last few minutes, she had stopped thinking of Josh as a guy who liked her and started thinking of him as just another coconspirator. But now most of her embarrassment flooded back in full force. Still, this time she was determined not to hurt anyone’s feelings.

“Um, all right then,” she said. She held out her hand, and Josh popped the tape out of the camcorder and handed it to her. “Thanks, Josh. We’ll—I’ll come find you in your parents’ box in a few minutes. I promise.”

Josh nodded and crawled out of the hiding place. The three girls followed. With a quick wave, they left him and set off toward the shed row.

“I really hope Deborah is back by now,” Lisa muttered as they jogged along the path.

Carole hadn’t thought of the possibility that Deborah hadn’t yet returned from her trip into the country. “If she’s not, maybe we can give the tape to an official for safekeeping,” she said. “Or maybe Toby will help us.”

“Or maybe we’ll just have to hide in the bathroom until Deborah gets back,” Stevie suggested with a grin. “Hey, I just realized something. This will give Deborah another really big scoop to write about, won’t it?”

Lisa nodded, but she wasn’t really thinking about Deborah’s reporting career at the moment. “At least we shouldn’t have to worry about running into Garvey,” she pointed out. “That bay colt is in the fourth race. Garvey’s probably already in the paddock with him.”

Lisa was in the lead as the trio rounded the corner into the shed row, so she was the one who actually ran smack into Garvey, who was standing just inside the doorway. Stevie ran into Lisa, and Carole stopped just short of colliding with Stevie. She clutched the tape tightly and looked up at the towering trainer.

“Uh-oh,” she said.

Garvey seemed a little surprised at their abrupt arrival, but he didn’t waste any time. He grabbed Lisa’s arm in one hand and reached for Stevie with the other. “Just the little girls I was looking for,” he growled.

Carole backed away a few steps and cast a desperate look
around. The Maskee shed row was deserted, and the bay colt’s stall door was standing open. She guessed that the rest of the staff had gone to the paddock for the fourth race. That meant that The Saddle Club was alone with Garvey.

“Let them go,” Carole said. She was hoping to sound brave, and was embarrassed to find that her voice came out in a high squeak.

Stevie and Lisa were twisting and wiggling, but they couldn’t break Garvey’s grasp. “Come here,” Garvey said menacingly, staring at Carole.

Carole took another step backward and stuck the tape behind her back. “Why should I?” she challenged him.

Garvey caught the motion and his eyes narrowed. “What’s that you have?” he said. “A videotape?” He was silent for a second, his mind working that one over. As he realized what it might mean, his frown grew deeper still.

“Run, Carole!” Stevie shouted. “He doesn’t dare do anything to us—ouch!” she yelped, as Garvey’s grip tightened on her upper arm.

Carole hesitated, not sure what to do. Would the trainer hurt her friends if she left them and ran for help? Or would he let them go and chase her? She didn’t like the sound of either option.

Before she could decide what to do, Garvey started dragging her struggling friends farther into the building. Carole took a tentative step after him. “Where are you going?”

Garvey gave her a nasty smile. “I’m moving this discussion
to someplace more private.” He continued down the aisle, pulling Stevie and Lisa as easily as if they were bales of hay, despite their best efforts to hook their feet around pillars and drag their heels on the dirt floor. A moment later he had dragged them into the tack room, which was really just a large box stall.

Carole hurried to the doorway and peered in. “Carole, no!” Lisa cried. But it was too late. Garvey’s arm darted out and yanked her inside. When she caught her breath, Carole saw that Garvey had let Lisa go. She was cowering in the corner, while Stevie continued to squirm in Garvey’s other hand.

Suddenly Lisa darted forward, trying to get past Carole and out of the stall. But Garvey moved so that his huge bulk blocked the doorway. Carole managed to jerk free, but she and Lisa were both still trapped inside the makeshift tack room. Stevie, who was still trapped in Garvey’s steely grip, finally stopped her efforts to escape and stood still.

“There, that’s better,” Garvey said with satisfaction, surveying his three captives. “Now maybe we can have a reasonable discussion about this little situation. What do you say?”

There was a long moment of silence as the girls stared at him, then turned to look at each other. What would happen now? Carole felt the bulky videotape she still clutched in her hand. If she gave it to him, would he let them go? Or would he keep them here and try to make them promise not
to tell anyone what they knew? Maybe they could convince him somehow that this was all a big misunderstanding. If he thought they didn’t know anything about the payoff, they might still get away free.

“Well?” Garvey said at last, letting go of Stevie and crossing his arms on his massive chest. “I’m waiting.”

One look at his expression convinced Carole that it would be useless to pretend at this point. He knew they were onto him.

“Yo!” yelled a familiar youthful voice from just behind the trainer.

Garvey looked surprised, then turned slowly to face the newcomer. The girls could see Josh C standing just outside the doorway, his hands on his hips.

“Josh!” Carole cried in amazement and fear. He must have followed them. Now he would be in just as much trouble as the rest of them.

At that moment, Josh A stepped forward, taking his place at Josh C’s side.

“Josh!” Lisa exclaimed.

Next, Josh B came into view on Josh C’s other side.

“Josh!” Stevie said. “I mean, Joshes!”

Garvey scowled at the three boys. “What’s this all about?” he said. “Who are you kids, and what do you want?”

“We’re here to make sure you don’t hurt our friends,” Josh A spoke up bravely.

“Oh yeah?” Garvey put his hands on his hips and surveyed
his challengers. A small smile played around the corner of his lips. “Do you really think you three puny little boys can stop me?”

Carole wasn’t sure about that at all, and she hated the thought that the Joshes might get hurt because of her. She briefly wondered how and why they had teamed up, but there was no time to think about that now. She had to stop this before it went any further.

“Garvey, just listen to us for a minute,” she pleaded. “We all know what you did.” That wasn’t strictly true, since as far as she knew the three boys were still in the dark about the whole scheme. But she plowed on. “If you’ll just turn yourself in and promise never to do it again, I’m sure Mr. McLeod will forgive you.”

Garvey laughed humorlessly. “Don’t be an idiot,” he hissed. “Nobody’s ever going to know about this except you kids. And I’m going to give you a little hint right now about what might happen if you decide to blab to anyone about it.” He grabbed Josh A by the collar of his shirt and dragged him forward. He drew back one huge fist and then paused. “Which do you like better, your stomach or your nose?” he growled.

“He likes them both, and you’d better not touch either one,” called an authoritative voice from just behind the boys. As Garvey dropped his fist in surprise, a man The Saddle Club had never seen before stepped into view. He was wearing slacks and a sports jacket, and a horseshoe-patterned tie was knotted loosely around his neck.

“Wh-Wha—” Garvey sputtered, but before he could complete the thought, two more people joined the man.

“Deborah!” Lisa cried out in relief.

“And Toby!” Stevie exclaimed when she saw the jockey.

“What’s going on here?” Deborah demanded. She hurried forward and shoved her way past Garvey, who stepped aside to let her past, looking stunned. “Was he threatening you, girls?” she asked, putting one arm around Lisa and the other around Carole.

“He sure was,” said Josh A, giving Garvey an angry glance. He straightened his lucky T-shirt where the trainer had grabbed it. “Until we showed up, that is.”

Carole almost laughed at the boy’s defiant words. Even if you put all three Joshes together, they would still have only half Garvey’s strength.

“I see,” Deborah said. But she still looked confused.

“I can explain it all, Uncle Lou,” said Josh B, turning to the man in the tie.

Stevie gasped. “You’re Josh’s uncle?” she asked. “The track manager?”

The man nodded. “That’s right, young lady,” he said. He gave Garvey a suspicious glance. “And we’re going to get to the bottom of whatever’s going on here, don’t you worry. Why don’t we all move to my office?”

“There’s really no need for—” Garvey began.

“Quiet,” Uncle Lou snapped in a no-nonsense voice. “We’ll discuss it in my office.”

Garvey gave The Saddle Club one last murderous glance
before meekly turning to follow the track manager. Toby, looking very confused about what was going on, had to excuse himself to hurry to the paddock for the fourth race. But he promised to join them as soon as it was over.

“I wonder why Uncle Lou turned up just in the nick of time?” Stevie asked as the girls and the Joshes followed the adults down the shed row.

Josh B turned and grinned at her proudly. “I called him,” he said. “When I ran into these guys in the grandstand”—he gestured to the other two Joshes—“we all compared notes and realized something strange was going on. We thought you might need some help, so I asked Uncle Lou to meet us here.”

“Unfortunately, he was a little late,” Josh A said ruefully. “I was afraid we were all going to be flattened to a pulp before he got here.”

Josh C flexed his muscles. “I wasn’t scared at all,” he declared. But when Carole gave him a dubious glance, he grinned. “Well, hardly at all,” he amended.

“I can’t believe it,” Lisa said. “You mean you three guys recognized each other and decided to get together and help us?”

“Sure,” Josh A said with a shrug. “I can always recognize my competition, whether it’s a horse or …” He let his voice drift off, but The Saddle Club knew exactly what he meant. He had seen both the other Joshes and recognized that both were also interested in Carole.

“Right,” Josh C continued. “At first our little chat wasn’t
exactly … um … polite, but as soon as we all realized you girls might be in trouble, we decided we’d better try to find out what was going on.”

“Wow,” Carole said.

Josh B turned to her and smiled. “Now we have just one question for you,” he said. “What
was
going on?”

At that, The Saddle Club laughed so hard that Deborah and Uncle Lou turned to look at them. Garvey glared at the three girls, but Uncle Lou’s hand on his arm reminded the trainer to keep his mouth shut. Finally Carole got control of her giggles. “I think you’ll find out in just a minute when we get to your uncle’s office,” she told Josh B. “If anything is still unclear after that, we’ll explain everything, okay?”

“Okay,” Josh B said, and the other two boys nodded agreeably.

They soon reached the grandstand, and Uncle Lou led the way inside, turning down a corridor the girls hadn’t noticed before. Offices lined both sides.

Josh A had looked thoughtful as they walked. Now he turned to Carole. “Whatever was happening back there, it looked like you were lucky we turned up when we did,” he said somberly.

Carole nodded. That was true. Even if the boys couldn’t have held Garvey off for very long, their arrival had surprised the trainer enough to buy them a few very crucial moments. Otherwise, he might have grabbed the tape and made his escape before the other adults turned up. “It was very lucky,” she told him.

“And you know what that’s called, don’t you?” Stevie said.

The boys looked confused, but Carole and Lisa knew exactly what she meant. The Saddle Club grinned. Then, in one voice, the girls exclaimed, “Racing luck!”

S
TEVIE YAWNED BROADLY
. “I can’t believe Deborah still has the energy to drive after such a long day,” she murmured, closing her eyes.

Lisa nodded. “I know what you mean. But she misses her baby,” she reminded Stevie. “I guess that gives her extra energy.”

“Food is supposed to give you energy, too,” Stevie said, opening one eye for a moment. “But all that food we just had made me awfully sleepy.”