The Mystery at Saratoga

eyes from getting swollen.”
    Honey nodded, still unable to speak, then took the cloth and put it over her eyes. Trixie sat down again and waited quietly for a few more minutes. “Do you think you can talk about it now?” she asked finally.
    Honey nodded, pulled the cloth off her eyes, sat up on the bed, and blew her nose loudly. “I was so excited when the cabdriver told us about giving a ride to the redheaded man. But then, as you started talking about how close we are to finding Regan, I suddenly felt really terrified. A voice in the back of my mind screamed, ‘I don’t want to find him!’ And then I felt guilty and frightened and confused, all at the same time, and I—” Honey’s voice broke, and she swallowed hard and blew her nose again, then sat silent, staring down at her hands.
    “I think I understand,” Trixie said quietly. “I had some of the same feelings today, after we talked to Carl Stinson.”
    “Trixie, I wouldn’t say this to another soul in the whole world, but I—I really have a hard time keeping faith in Regan’s innocence. Carl Stinson must be an honest person—Mr. Worthington wouldn’t have kept him on as a trainer and given him so much responsibility if he weren’t. And Carl Stinson really believes that Regan is guilty. The Regan that we’ve always known is completely trustworthy. I’d trust him with my life. But the fact is that? somebody gave drugs to Gadfly seven years ago. And we don’t know what Regan was like seven years ago, as a poor, frightened, troubled, runaway teen-ager.”
    Trixie nodded sadly. “I thought that exact same thing this afternoon, Honey, when I almost forgot about your father’s generosity. It occurred to me then that loyalty must be a hard thing to ask of someone who’s desperate for money.”
    “I keep remembering, too,” Honey said, “that Regan ran away when Mr. Worthington appeared at the Manor House. That seems like the action of a guilty person.”
    “Not necessarily, Honey,” Trixie replied. “Don’t forget, Regan ran away to Saratoga. We know that much for sure. If he were running away for fear of being caught by Mr. Worthington, he could have gone to the Midwest or to California. There are racetracks and stables all over the country where he could find work. I still believe that his coming here shows that he’s trying to clear himself.”
    “That’s true,” Honey agreed. “I guess I’d lost sight of that fact. Does that mean you’re sure Regan is innocent?”
    Trixie didn’t answer for a long moment. “All I can say,” Trixie said finally, “is that I’m sure that the Regan we know couldn’t drug a horse. The Regan of seven years ago might have been forced, by things he couldn’t control, to do something that was against the law. But whatever the truth is, I want to know the whole story. And the only way to learn the whole story—”
    “Is to find Regan,” Honey concluded. “You’re right, I know. It’s—it’s just so frightening to think that when we find Regan, he might confess to drugging Gadfly.”
    “We’ll stand by Regan no matter what,” Trixie said firmly. “But if we do find out that he was responsible, we’ll have to convince him that he should turn himself in. I’m sure that your father will hire him the best lawyer in New York, and that a judge will take the circumstances—whatever they were—into account.”
    “But a judge will also take into account the fact that Regan ran away and stayed hidden for seven whole years. Besides, Trixie, I don’t know if anyone could persuade Regan to do something he didn’t want to do. What if he tells us that he is—or was— guilty of drugging Gadfly, and then refuses to turn himself in? What will we do then?”
    As Trixie looked into Honey’s searching eyes, her stomach tightened as she realized what their alternatives would be: either to turn Regan in against his will or have it on their consciences that they’d helped a guilty man escape.
    “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” Trixie said finally. Then she added silently, And we may come to it tomorrow , if we find Regan.

Complicated Theories ● 12

    THE NEXT MORNING at breakfast, following a plan they’d worked out the night before, Trixie and Honey told the Wheelers that they would prefer not to go to the track that day.
    “We spent all day yesterday looking at those beautiful, beautiful horses on the track, and it was wonderful, but it made us miss riding,” Honey