Cookie drove up as the children rode into the corral. They quickly told her about the horse thieves and they all ran inside to call the police. Slim sat at the office computer. He jumped up when they came in. “Just a little computer work,” he said, quickly turning off the computer. He looked at the serious group. “What’s going on?”
Henry picked up the phone, dialing. “I’m calling the police to arrest your horse-thieving brother and your friend.”
Slim’s face turned white. “My what!?”
“You stole horses,” Jessie said, “and you stole my camera.”
“W-why would I do that?” His Adam’s apple bobbed wildly.
“Because,” Violet said, “your friend at the old barn saw us taking pictures of your horses. Our photos were proof that your ‘rescue horses’ were really stolen horses. You tried to get rid of the evidence by stealing Jessie’s camera.”
“Why, that’s crazy talk,” said Slim.
“No one saw the camera thief come into this office,” said Violet. “Cookie told us you’re in here all the time using the computer, so no one suspected you were the thief.”
Henry hung up the phone. “The police are on their way,” he said.
Slim lunged for the door. Suddenly, Bucky stepped into the doorway. His short wide body blocked Slim’s escape. “I always thought you were a terrible vet,” said Bucky. “Any vet worth his salt would have known Dragon needed a special square-toed shoe. I was the one who spotted it. I had to tell you. Even then, you didn’t know what I was talking about.”
“You told Alyssa to keep Dragon in the west pasture until his leg healed,” Jessie said. “His leg was fine. You just wanted to steal him. You used black shoe polish to cover the white dragon marking on his back. You’re the one who dumped oats near the fence. When Dragon and the other horses came to eat the oats, you stole Dragon and took him to the old barn.”
Sirens wailed in the distance. Soon, Slim and his friends were all on the way to jail.
The Aldens sat with the ranch hands cooking hot dogs over the campfire. Kurt had stacked a pile of wood to keep the small fire going. Benny dropped two hot dogs into the fire before he finally got one to stay on his stick.
“I’m so mad at myself,” Kurt said. “I should have seen that Slim was a fake.”
“You were too busy trying to get Alyssa fired,” said Cookie. “You weren’t paying attention to your work.”
Kurt turned to Alyssa. “I’m real sorry about that,” Kurt said. “I was just trying to help my friend get a job.”
“You let Honey and Bunny go, didn’t you?” said Henry. “Then you broke the fence, and put the tree branch there to make it look like it was an accident.”
The cowboy hung his head, ashamed. “I thought losing a couple of horses would make Alyssa look bad. I had to make it look like she let them wander away from the pasture.”
Bucky smiled. “Those two lazy bones didn’t wander far. Slim’s brother confessed that he saw them wandering along the fence. He was afraid that a couple of missing Dare to Dream horses might bring the police. And he sure didn’t want the police sniffing around this ranch. Not with all the stolen horses they’d hidden in the old pasture. So he loaded Honey and Bunny into his trailer and brought them back.”
Cookie narrowed her eyes at Kurt. “I should fire you right this minute,” she said. “For all the trouble you’ve put Alyssa and the rest of us through.”
“I’m all right,” Alyssa said. She turned to Kurt. “I’m tougher than you think. And maybe a little smarter. Last night I went to the library to find that book Slim said he wrote, How to Raise Dogs. I wanted to read it today on my day off. The librarian couldn’t find it anywhere. So, I drove here to ask Slim if I had the right title. I saw that big horse trailer sitting in the west pasture. Slim didn’t tell me he had horses coming in or going out. So I went to check it out.” She looked at the children. “When I saw your horses saddled up and wandering loose in the hay field, I knew something was wrong.”
Kurt took off his hat and held it over his heart. “Cookie, Alyssa, I’m sorry for all the hurt I caused,” he said, sadly. “But I would like a second chance.”
“I don’t know …” said Cookie.
“Don’t be too hard on him,” said Bucky. “We all make mistakes. At least his mistake was done out of friendship.”
Benny squirted mustard on his hot dog. “Bucky, you said we all make mistakes. Did you make mistakes when you were my age?” he asked.
“Sure,” said Bucky.
“Like what?” Benny asked.
Even in the light of the campfire, the children saw Bucky’s face turn deep red. “Well,” he said, “like when I was a boy, just a little older than you, I moved away from my best friend in the whole world. And I never once picked up a pen and paper to write her a letter. I never once told her … how much I missed her.”
Cookie leaned forward, staring hard at Bucky’s face. “Trevor?” she said. “Trevor Austin? Is that really and truly you?” The old man nodded. Cookie jumped up. “Why in tarnation didn’t you say something?”
“I wasn’t sure you’d remember me. I thought if I came here and volunteered, you’d get to like me. It’s been fifty years. I never once wrote. I wasn’t sure you’d want to see me.”
“Want to see you!” She reached out and gave him a giant hug. “I’ve spent the last fifty years wondering what in the Sam Hill happened to you. Of course I want to see you! You’re my best friend, always and forever.” They hugged and hugged until Benny had to remind them it was time to make s’mores.
Later, as the fire cooled, Cookie sat next to Bucky, both of them glowing in the campfire’s light. Henry put one last piece of chocolate on one last graham cracker and added one last marshmallow on top. “I think I figured out the mystery of the hearts carved into the maple tree and in Dragon’s stall,” said Henry, “the ones with TA and LM carved inside … Trevor is you, Bucky—Trevor Austin.”
Bucky smiled shyly.
Henry went on. “And, Cookie, I know your last name is Miller. But what is your real first name?”
Cookie tilted her head to one side, a secret smile on her lips. “Well, now,” she said. “Folks have called me Cookie since I was knee high to a grasshopper. I’m afraid my real name is one mystery the Alden children are just going to have to leave unsolved.”
And they did. |