Notes: Thank you again to my kind readers and reviewers. Fast update, hope you enjoy. Bear with me, Max, I'm intentionally trying to progress this one more slowly. ;)

Chapter 4

"So where do we start?" George asked addressing the three detectives of the group with expectation. She had helped Nancy on cases before, but knew it would be best to defer to the experts.

"I know I wouldn't mind learning more about horseshoes," Bess joked. "It sounds soooo interesting!" She didn't have to add that she would also be interested in learning more about the hot guy handling those horseshoes.

"Oh, c'mon!" Joe groaned. "He's not that good looking."

"Yes, he is," the girls responded in unison causing him to groan even louder.

"Don't worry, honey," Vanessa coddled while ruffling her fiancé's hair, "you're good looking too."

"Well, naturally," Joe grinned his confidence returning as he spun around to give the ladies a better view. "Who could compete with this?"

"Alright, moving on!" Frank shouted eager to get started on the case, but even more eager to end this particular line of conversation.

"Don't be jealous, big brother," Joe teased. "Nancy must find you attractive she can't seem to keep her hands off of you."

Nancy blushed as she realized Joe was winking at her. Clearing her throat, she attempted to change the subject, "I think Frank's right, let's move on. We have our work cut out for us."

Purposefully ignoring his brother's knowing grin, Frank continued, "It would probably be best for us to split up. Nancy and I will try to find Steve Webber. Joe and Vanessa, why don't you see what you can find out from talking to the stable hands and exercise riders."

"What about us?" George asked warily having a feeling exactly where this was headed.

Nancy gave her friend a bright grin. "And Bess and George can go see if Roger knows anything," she said laughing as Bess squealed and George narrowed her eyes.

"You owe me," George insisted as Bess began dragging her away towards the stables. Nancy just gave her friend a knowing smile and a slight wink before turning her attention back to Frank and the search for the missing Head Lad.

"It just doesn't add up," Frank began once he and Nancy were alone. "He's the Head Lad. He's arguably the busiest person here. How could he just disappear and nobody know where he is?"

"It is strange," Nancy agreed. "Maybe he had a family emergency?"

"And he didn't tell anyone?" Frank looked doubtful. "I guess it's possible…"

Just then, Nancy stopped a boy of 12 or 13 as he started to rush by. "Excuse me, hi, I'm Nancy," she said sweetly. "We're looking for Steve?"

"Sorry, haven't seen 'em," he mumbled quickly starting to hurry off once again when Frank grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled him back.

Casting a weary glance over at Nancy, he turned to the boy and asked pointedly, "When was the last time you saw him?"

"I…I don't know," he stammered nervously. "I haven't seen him, Mister, honest I haven't!"

Frank looked at him sternly. "What's your name?" he asked gruffly watching as the boy's eyes widened uncertainly.

"Hh…Henry," he replied shakily looking over at Nancy helplessly.

"Well, Henry, I'm Frank. Do us a favor will you? Let us know if you see him. We would really like to meet him," he gave a tight smile as he released the boy's shirt.

"Yes, Frank, um, Sir," he managed to get out before seeing his chance and running away.

Waiting until he was out of earshot, Nancy burst out laughing. "What was that all about, Sir?"

Frank shrugged before joining in her laughter. "Everyone around here seems so reluctant to answer. I thought maybe I could find out if he was hiding something. Although thinking back on it, he was a teenage boy, you might have had more luck," he smirked.

Nancy snorted. "I'm almost twenty-five," she laughed. "He probably thinks I'm ancient."

It was Frank's turn to snort. "Ancient? Really?" he asked raising an eyebrow. "You clearly don't see yourself the way the way I do then."

"Oh yeah, how's that, Hardy?" Nancy asked flirtatiously momentarily forgetting where she was and what she was supposed to be doing as she so often did when Frank was around.

"Ahem!" a loud voice shouted startling them back to reality as they became suddenly aware they were standing much closer than they had been previously.

"Really, guys?" Joe said in feigned exasperation. Turning to Vanessa, "we leave them alone for two seconds. Can you believe this?"

"I hope they don't expect us to do all the work," Vanessa agreed playfully. She thought it was adorable how in love Frank and Nancy were, but couldn't resist giving them a hard time.

"Sorry, guys," Nancy said sheepishly. "We'll focus," she added as she forced a serious expression onto her face.

"See that you do," Vanessa said laughing as she pulled Joe away before he could further embarrass the other couple.

"Can you believe those two?" Joe asked Vanessa after they were a safe distance away. He could not believe how out of character his brother was behaving. His smart, sensible brother. And Nancy, too? It was too much.

"Of course," Vanessa answered honestly. "We used to be that way, after all," she shrugged. She remembered the early days of her relationship with the younger Hardy brother. We were pretty insufferable, she thought with a laugh. And we hadn't been pining away for years like Frank and Nancy, she added silently.

Joe rolled his eyes. "We were never like that," he insisted. He knew he and Vanessa were more 'comfortable' in their relationship now, but they had never acted so ridiculously.

Vanessa simply smiled in response. "Look," she said pointing at a group of riders dusting themselves off. "I think it's break time. Let's see if they can tell us anything."

Nodding in agreement, Joe led his fiancé over to where a group of two men and one woman in riding clothes were taking a water break. "Sorry," he began, "we are visiting here and were wondering if we could ask you a few questions."

"Of course," the female rider answered cheerfully. "What would you like to know?"

"Are you the ones here with Pauline?" one of the men interrupted gruffly. His expression and tone were far from friendly, but Joe chose to ignore that small detail.

"We are!" he said smiling brightly. "She has been so kind to invite us out here. I have always been so curious about horse racing. It is amazing what those horses can do."

"Ignore him," the female rider said shaking her head in disgust. "I'm Kate, she said extending her hand to Joe and Vanessa, "and I, at least, am happy to answer any questions you might have," she shot a look at her fellow riders.

"Joe Hardy," he said identifying himself as he accepted her hand. "This is my fiancé, Vanessa Bender. We're just here on vacation. I mean, uh, holiday."

"Ah, holidays," another of the male riders spoke up. "What's that?" he grinned, but Joe still noted a slight edge to his tone.

"It's been awhile since we've had a holiday," Kate explained. "John, here, is missing that a bit I expect. We all are, in fact."

"Why don't you take some time off?" Vanessa asked curiously. "Surely you have earned it."

"You would think," John answered dryly.

"Mr. Mitchell is not a big fan of holidays right now," Kate said as tactfully as possible.

"But surely he can't keep you from taking a vacation! I mean holiday," Joe added quickly. He had never heard of such a thing. Even in the States workers were given mandatory vacation time and he thought it was much more common in the UK.

"Legally, no," Kate agreed. "But that doesn't matter so much, does it?"

"Why not?"

"We're exercise riders," the gruff man said the exasperation still clear in his voice. "We don't want to be exercise riders forever," he said incredulously as if the answer was obvious.

"What Tom means is," Kate began giving the older man a pointed look, "that as riders a lot of us are training towards other jobs- head lad, jockey, even trainer. We don't need to rub anyone the wrong way. This is a smaller community than you would think. We need good references."

"So you just never get a break?" Vanessa asked incredulously. She had done a small amount of horseback riding as a child and knew it was more labor intensive than it seemed. She couldn't imagine never having a chance to really rest.

"Things aren't the best right now," Kate admitted. "Mr. Mitchell is…unhappy, you could say."

Tom snorted. "It's not our fault. Maybe if he spent less time canoodling with the help and more time running his business it would different," he said frankly.

"Tom!" both John and Kate exclaimed together.

"What? It's true," the other man said throwing his hands up in the air in disgust.

"What is true?" Joe asked suspiciously. He was more than aware they had stumbled on a source of conflict and he wanted all the details.

Kate smiled sadly before answering his question. "Everyone knows Mr. Mitchell and Ms. Clarke are, well, for lack of a better word, close," she said tactfully.

"Oh," Joe said slightly surprised. "Oohh," he added a moment later. "I think I take your meaning?"

Kate nodded solemnly before she and the others excused themselves. "It was nice meeting you."

"Yikes," Joe cringed as he turned to Vanessa. "Nancy isn't going to like this."

"No," Vanessa sighed. "Probably not."

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