The Penny Pony (5 page)

As I was pulled through the door, I turned
and looked at Sam, the liar, the cheat, the scum! “Don’t think you
can get away with it,” I said. “Miss Julie is onto you!”

The sheriff put us in his patrol car and took
us to his office, the same one we stood in yesterday, trying to
uphold the law and prevent animal abuse. Only now we were the
criminals.

He sat us down in big wooden chairs while he
called our parents. Addie and I could only look at each other. What
would happen to us? Grounded for a year, probably.

The door opened and Sam Applegate strolled
in.

“Somethin’ else you need, Sam?” asked the
Sheriff.

“Yeah, I just wanted to ask Patsy what she
meant about my mom being on to me and me getting away with
something.”

“My name is Piper,” I stated with as much
dignity as I could, “Piper Jones. You should know me. You used to
give me rides on Dotty. And you know what I meant. Dotty is alive,
even though she was almost murdered by Creepy Jake. She could have
died from cruelty and neglect! You lied and told Miss Julie she
died, so it’s all your fault.”

“Piper Jones, yeah, I remember you. Your
parents got divorced last year.”

I rolled my eyes, but Sam looked puzzled.

“Dotty is alive? Are you sure?”

“Miss Julie saw Dotty today and knew it was
her horse right away. We rescued her.”

“But, I sold her to a man in Louisville for
his little girl. He told me later that Dotty died. I had no reason
to think he was lying.”

Sam seemed worried all of a sudden. Maybe he
wasn’t a liar and a cheat. But I was still mad at somebody.

“You should go get Nasty Jake and make him
tell you where he got her. I bet he stole her.” Then it clicked.
The something I had seen earlier that didn’t make sense. “You
should ask Ugly Jake why he has bags of horse feed in his kitchen,
too, when all the rest of the feed is outside by the fence.”

Sheriff Martin and Sam Applegate looked at
each other.

“What do you think, Harvey?”

“I don’t know, Sam, but after I get these
little ladies sent home, maybe I’d better have a talk with Jake. He
was nasty about losing that pony, but if he can’t prove that he
owns it, then could be Miss Julie is the legal owner.”

“I’d like to talk to him, too. I’ll follow
your patrol car,” said Sam.

Chapter Nine

~ A Confrontation ~

I had to sit there in
the sheriff’s office for a while and think about going to jail.
Addie’s mother came to pick her up, crying and biting her nails.
Addie was crying and biting her nails, too. Like mother, like
daughter, I guess. My mom came and got me about twenty long minutes
after that.

“Don’t talk,” she said through her teeth.
“Just don’t talk yet.” She had a look in her eyes that I’d never
seen before. A mother bird must get that look before she pushes her
chicks out of the nest. They don’t really do that. I hope.

When we got home, Mom sent me to my room and
called my dad. Even though I was in my bedroom with the door shut,
I could hear the yelling. Putting the pillow over my head didn’t
work this time. The phone kept ringing and so did the doorbell. It
felt like the entire neighborhood was there to watch me and Addie
being taken to the penitentiary in chains. I wasn’t sure what a
penitentiary was, but I knew it was a prison sort of place. I hoped
there was a wing for kids, but didn’t know because I never paid
attention to those things before. I wasn’t worried about myself,
but I didn’t think Addie could deal with being in prison. She liked
to run a lot and I didn’t think they’d let you do that in prison. I
thought about sunshine and fresh air, and hoped they would let my
parents visit me. And I worried about this really messing up my
parents, so they wouldn’t speak to each other anymore...or me.

Mom came in then and asked me to come
downstairs. That terrible eat-your-young look in her eyes was gone.
It was late and I was really tired, but wanted to get it over with.
Maybe the beds in prison weren’t too hard.

My dad was standing at the bottom of the
stairs with Sheriff Martin, who was talking on his phone. I was not
surprised to see Addie and her mother Sandy sitting in my living
room, but I jumped a little when I saw Miss Julie beside them.
Addie was holding tightly to a wad of tissues and wiping her eyes.
Sandy Davis was wiping her eyes, too. Behind Miss Julie stood Sam
Applegate. I guessed that he was here to press charges against me
and Addie. But why was Miss Julie smiling at him?

My dad stood beside me and cleared his
throat, so we all looked at him. He stood there with his hands
hanging down. He cleared his throat again. I twisted my bracelet
like crazy.

“I don’t know how to start,” he said.
“Piper...you scared your mother and me more than we’ve ever been
scared in our lives. And Addie, you did too. You won’t know that
fear until you have children of your own.”

“And they do crazy things without thinking
first,” added my mom.

I looked at the floor, which was suddenly
blurry.

“On the other hand, I’ve never been so proud
of anyone in my whole life,” my dad went on. “You saw a situation
that was unacceptable and none of the adults you went to would help
you.”

Was I hearing wrong? This sounded...not
bad.

“You took control of the situation and helped
that pony, got her somewhere safe and took care of her. You may
have saved her life,” Dad went on, but this time he smiled and
shook his head. “Breaking and entering with a library card and a
Girl Scout flashlight!”

I stared at my dad. He was actually smiling
at me.

“If you ever do any of those things again,”
Mom said, “I will ground you for the rest of your life, and you
will never get a driver’s license. But you did what you did for the
best of reasons, and some good things came out of your actions.
Your dad and I maybe didn’t do so well at being married to each
other, but we sure raised a wonderful kid. You never cried when we
got divorced, and I sometimes wondered if you had lost your ability
to cry. Now I see you were just saving it for that pony.”

How could I tell her how much I had cried
when I was alone? All I could do was hug her hard. I looked over at
Addie, who kind of smiled a little at me through her tears.

“Piper and Addie,” Miss Julie spoke up, “you
made me wonder about Sam, but then tonight he called me back. He
wanted to know what I knew about two girls who had broken into his
Serendipity Springs office, saying things about him. He wanted to
know if the pony really was Dotty. I told him I was one hundred per
cent sure it was Dotty and also about how you girls rescued
her.”

When Sam spoke, his voice was deep and sad.
“When I sold Dotty to a man I knew in Louisville, he told me she
was going to his daughter who’d wanted a pony all her life. I gave
the guy Dotty’s papers, not suspecting anything. When I bumped into
him a year later, he told me the pony had died, so that’s what I
told my mom.” So Sam wasn’t a bad guy at all. And he was kind of
cute. I wondered how old he was. Maybe Mom was crabby because she
was lonely. Maybe if she had a job and a boyfriend she’d be
happier. I mean, she and Dad had been divorced over a year now. She
could move on.

Harvey Martin hung up his phone. “I’ve been
talking with the state police. Seems Jake has a long criminal
record of drug-related offenses. There’s a warrant out for his
arrest in three counties. When we catch up with him, he’s going to
have some explaining to do.”

“You didn’t find him?” Dad asked.

“We went to his trailer, but he’s long gone.
Left everything but the feed sacks and scrammed out of town. If I
knew who he had contacts with in town and where, I’d go find him
and arrest him.”

“I know where he is,” I blurted out. This was
what had been nagging at me. “I saw a map to a house by the
lake.”

“Where did you see it, Piper?” asked Mom. I
realized they didn’t know about that break-in.

“Um, maybe peeking into his trailer.” Was I
never going to be able to quit lying?

My dad looked at me for a long time. “Uh,
huh. Piper, are you training for a life of crime?” he asked softly
and I felt ashamed of what I had done.

“Seriously, Piper, Addie, where were you and
what did you see? This guy could be really dangerous,” Dad
said.

“Um...so...me and Addie were checking out his
trailer because we saw him go in earlier with a sleazy-looking guy,
and they were probably up to no good. We saw all the feed sacks in
the kitchen and there was a map on the table. There was a
funny-looking house drawn on the map.”

“And,” added Addie, “we got a really good
look at the roads around the lake. Then we heard him snoring and
got out fast.”

“And,” I said, taking a deep breath, “I will
never break into anywhere again. Or lie about anything. Ever. And I
will always think before I do something. Or I’ll try to.”

Sandy Davis stared at Addie and cleared her
throat hard. Addie swallowed and promised all the same things, too.
We looked at each other and knew we might be off the hook soon if
we didn’t say anything stupid or sassy.

Harvey Martin pocketed his cell phone and
looked at me. “Makes me wonder what was in them sacks. But we don’t
have the map. It was gone by the time I got there.”

I realized that I remembered most of the map
and the drawing of the house.

“I saw the map. I would know the house if I
saw it and I can show you where it is,” I said.

“He probably took it to find that house. But
I remember the roads,” said Addie.

“Oh, no,” my mom said, “you two can’t go
there. This is getting too dangerous.”

“Way too dangerous,” said Addie’s mom.

“Your daughters don’t seem to be worried
about a little danger,” said Sam. Wonder of wonders, my mother
smiled at him.

“I can’t see getting the girls involved
here,” said my dad. “We’re talking real criminals who probably are
wanted in other parts of the country.”

The grown-ups argued for a while, but Harvey
finally said, “Look, people, I didn’t want those kids to get
involved either, but they are. We need to find that house and find
Jake before he leaves the state. How ‘bout if Patsy just rides with
me and helps find the house? She can wait in my car with the doors
locked until I check it out.”

“Not without me,” said my dad, and Mom looked
relieved.

“Or me,” said Sam.

“Okay, Sam and Dan, you can back me up,” said
Harvey. “I’m the only one on duty tonight and I don’t want to do
this alone.”

“I have to go, too,” said Addie. “You can’t
take Piper without me. I’m her backup.”

More arguments followed, but finally everyone
agreed that Addie had seen the map and the picture, too, and might
be able to help spot the house. My mom, Miss Julie and Addie’s mom
decided to stay at my house and worry together.

“You call me, Dan,” Mom said to Dad. “Right
away, no matter what.”

So, Sam in front, and Dad, Addie and me in
back, we piled into Harvey Martin’s squad car and went in search of
Sweaty Jake.

Chapter Ten

~ Warrior Princess ~

We drove south of
town and down the winding road around Serendipity Lake. Trees
closed in along the road; the moon shone silver on the water. It
would have been a beautiful night drive, except that we were trying
to catch a criminal. Addie and I looked at each other now and then,
but mostly we kept quiet and watched the houses we passed. Things
were looking good for us now. I didn’t think we were still in
trouble, but helping to catch Jake would help us be on everyone’s
good side again and would save Dotty forever. I was scared, but
also excited, and I could tell that Addie felt the same.

Addie sat up. “There,” she said. “Turn left.”
We made the left and drove slowly along the narrow road. Rocks
crunched as the blacktop turned to gravel. We passed lots of old
lake houses with mailboxes stuck out at funny angles. I could hear
rock music coming from one of the houses where it looked like there
was a party. It seemed odd that someone was having a party when we
were looking for criminals. The lane turned again and went down a
hill to where there were no other houses around. The cool air from
the lake made me shiver.

“That’s it!” we both said breathlessly
together. There was the funny, squinchy house, completely dark
except for a light on in just one room. There was what my dad
called a beater car parked in front of it. The sheriff passed the
house, stopped the car and said, “You girls wait here. Sam and Dan,
ready?”

“You bet!” said Sam Applegate as he got out
of the car. My dad got out, too, and said, “Lock the doors, and
stay here!” to Addie and me as he closed his door softly.

Dad, Sam and Harvey walked back to the
driveway and toward the house. They knocked on the front door, and
stood there, but no one answered it. Addie nudged me, and I looked
where she was pointing. A shadow was sneaking through the trees
away from the house. It was Jake. He wasn’t looking at us, but was
watching the house as he slipped through the woods.

I looked at the three men in front of the
house. One of them had started to walk around to the back, but none
of them could see Jake sneaking away.

“It’s him! He’ll get away!” I said, grabbing
Addie’s arm.

“What should we do?”

“We have to stop him,” I said, reaching for
the door.

“No! You can’t go out there. We have to let
the adults handle this”

I stared at Addie and she stared back.

“If we don’t stop him,” I said, “he’ll get
away and somehow get Dotty back, and then Dotty will die. She can’t
take that treatment any longer. And Miss Julie will have a stroke
or heart attack or something and she’ll die, too. It’s up to us.”
By now I had totally convinced myself of the urgency for
action.