Photo Finish by Bonnie Bryant Read Free Book Online Page B

focused on the hay and snapped a few pictures of it. Then the girls drifted back toward the stable entrance, discussing possible suspects.
    “The first thing we need to figure out,” Stevie said, “is a motive.”
    But before she could go any further with that line of thought, Max and Deborah entered and spotted them.
    “There you are,” Max called. “Judy thought we might find you here.”
    Deborah held up several white paper bags. “We brought breakfast.”
    “Breakfast,” Carole repeated blankly. Her stomach grumbled. “Oh! What time is it?”
    “It’s after seven,” Max said brightly. “We brought doughnuts and juice for all of you.”
    “Great!” Stevie said, taking one of the bags Deborah was holding and peering hungrily inside.
    “Enjoy,” Max said. “We’ve got to get going.”
    “Aren’t you going to have breakfast too?” Lisa asked.
    “We already ate,” Deborah told her. “I’ve got a ton of work to do on my story before post time. Max is going to help me.”
    “That’s right,” Max said with a grin. “Deborah has been such a good sport about learning everything there is to know about
my
job and pitching in at Pine Hollow that I thought I’d return the favor. I’m now her official pack mule and gofer. So you girls are on your own for a while.”
    After Max and Deborah had left, The Saddle Club settled down in an empty stall to eat their breakfast and continue discussing the moldy hay incident.
    “All right, first of all, let’s come up with a list of likely suspects,” Stevie said.
    Lisa shook her head. “We can’t do that until we figure out what anyone would gain by poisoning Monkeyshines.”
    “That’s obvious,” Carole said. “Someone must have wanted to keep him from racing today so that Garamond would win.”
    “That seems a little
too
obvious,” Lisa pointed out. “I seriously doubt anyone from Garamond’s stable would do something so risky.”
    “Don’t be so sure,” Stevie said, poking a straw into her juice box and taking a big gulp. “After all, everyone around here keeps talking about how much money is at stake. Who knows what someone would do for money?”
    Lisa dug a notebook and pen out of her camera bag. “All right,” she said. “I’m still not sure there’s really a crime here to be solved, but just in case there is, we’d better look at this logically.”
    Carole and Stevie grinned at each other. Lisa could always be counted on to bring logic into any dilemma.
    “Great,” Stevie said. “First, write down all the possible motives someone could have.”
    Lisa nodded and wrote MOTIVES at the top of the page. Under that she wrote MONEY . Then she paused and stared at her friends. “Well?”
    “How about revenge?” Stevie suggested.
    “Revenge?” Carole said. “Where do you get that?”
    “I don’t know.” Stevie shrugged. “That’s always a motive in the movies. Maybe someone out there hates Mr.McLeod passionately and wants to make sure his horse doesn’t win.”
    Lisa looked more doubtful than ever, but she wrote REVENGE under MONEY . “I have another one,” she said. She wrote ACCIDENT .
    Stevie looked over her shoulder. “Accident?” she said.
    “Yes. If we’re going to investigate, we have to consider the possibility that there’s no big conspiracy at all behind that moldy hay,” Lisa said, looking a little stubborn.
    Carole knew there was no point in arguing with Lisa when she had that expression. Besides, there was just the slightest chance she was right. “Okay, then,” she said. “We have the motives. Now let’s move on to suspects.”
    “Great,” Stevie said quickly. “I nominate Kelly Kennemere.”
    Carole raised her eyebrows. “Good one!” she said approvingly. “She was really nasty to us yesterday. Maybe it was because she knew we were from Monkeyshines’s barn and she had a guilty conscience.”
    Lisa wrote SUSPECTS and jotted Kelly’s name underneath. “Who else?” she asked.
    Stevie thought