Secret Pony Society by Janet Rising Page B

somebody had to know where his daughter and her pony were.”
    â€œI know that. Katy told me yesterday. I told you!”
    â€œOh, yes, I forgot. Anyway, now everybody knows Jazz is missing. And then, as if that wasn’t enough…oh, hold on a sec…”
    Everything went quiet. What was Bean doing now? It was like torture, being given glimpses and then nothing again. Would I ever get to the bottom of things with Bean as my confidante? I wondered whether she could put Drummer on the phone, I’d get a more concise report from my pony than my friend! Maybe I should have asked Katy to help me after all…
    â€œHello, are you still there?” Bean’s voice whispered out of my phone again.
    â€œYes, but where do you keep disappearing to?” I asked. Then I wished I hadn’t.
    â€œWell, Mrs. Bradley keeps walking past Tiff’s stable—you know how she keeps forgetting things and makes about a zillion trips from Henry’s stable to the tack room and back—she must get her riding boots resoled every few weeks—and Katy’s around, too, and I don’t want anyone to overhear me, for reasons which will become obvious ( When? I thought!), and Dee’s just come back from schooling Dolly. When I first dialed your number, the yard was deserted, but as soon as you answered, it seems the whole world and his wife, dog, cat, ferret, and bag of candy suddenly turned up. It’s not easy being a spy!”
    â€œCandy?” I asked.
    â€œHuh?”
    I closed my eyes and groaned. “Nothing, go on, tell me what else has happened!”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œYou said that wasn’t all,” I said slowly. I wanted to scream.
    â€œWhat wasn’t?”
    â€œI don’t know—you’re telling me, remember?” I hissed.
    â€œEr, oh, yes!” Bean took a deep breath. “James and Cat came back, and Cat was spitting nails, totally fed up with being shouted at by Jazz’s dad, and she made a lot of noise about how she just knew you had something to do with Jazz’s disappearance, you know, really stirring things up for you, so I had to be particularly spyish and look innocent. And then this morning, Jazz’s dad turned up at the stable in his huge black 4x4 with a big dog inside, which threw itself at the car windows looking like it wanted to eat us all for lunch. And Jazz’s dad banged on Mrs. Collins’s front door, making Squish go ballistic, and he shouted that someone was hiding his daughter and they had better tell him where she was or there was going to be trouble, and he would see to it that whoever was helping her would wish they hadn’t been born, as well as plenty of other unpleasant things, which I’m trying to put out of my mind.”
    â€œWhat did Mrs. C say?” I gulped, closing my eyes.
    â€œShe gave as good as she got! She may be bonkers, but you know she’s as tough as old boots. She stood there in her slippers, shoved her fist in his face, and told him that no one at her yard knew anything, which was a lie, but she didn’t know that, and that she was going to call the police if he didn’t leave immediately.”
    â€œThen what?” I held my breath. How much worse could it possibly get?
    â€œHe went, but not until he’d stuck his face over most of the stable doors, saying he knew his pony was somewhere around, which freaked out all the ponies, not to mention Cat and Sophie, who added their protests at his behavior. Oh, and Bambi almost bit him, you know how she snakes her head about over her top door whenever anyone goes past her stable?” Bean added, taking a deep breath before continuing.
    â€œBut, hey, get this, Twiddles had climbed on the 4x4’s hood, ’cause it was warm, which was another reason why the dog in the car had been in such a tizzy, especially as Twiddles just stared at it like it was crazy, which it probably was, and Twiddles had snuggled down