"What are you talking about?" Maggie asked Henry in surprise.
"I thought we agreed that Kyle was our top suspect."
"He was," Henry said. "But he's not anymore.
He just told us that he didn't know Cole was interested in frogs.
That means he wouldn't know that Cole would be blamed for the prank!"
"I didn't think of that," Maggie said.
"Plus it would be stupid for Kyle to use grape sports drink for the ant prank," Henry added.
"Everyone saw him drinking it all day."
Maggie shrugged. "Maybe he's not very bright.
Or maybe he was lying about not knowing Cole liked frogs."
"Maybe," Henry said. "But I don't think so.
We'd better check out our other suspects. Starting with Tommy.
He definitely knew Cole liked frogs because of his parents' pet store.
Plus Tommy could have gotten the frogs there."
"Sure," Maggie said.
"But Cole isn't the only one who's a better swimmer than Tommy.
Why didn't Tommy try to ruin Daisy and Kyle's chances too?"
"Maybe that's why Tommy did the ant prank," Henry said.
"He was trying to get rid of the other two swimmers that way.
If Daisy got bitten by ants, she might not want to try out anymore.
And using grape sports drink meant Kyle might get the blame."
Maggie gasped. "Henry, you're a genius!" she exclaimed.
"That makes perfect sense! Let's go tell the coach!"
"Hold on," Henry said. "It's just a theory. We haven't proven anything yet."
"How are we going to prove it?" Maggie asked.
"I'm not sure yet. Let's go talk to Tommy."
Henry looked over at the pool.
Most of the swimmers were chasing the last few frogs.
Lauren was watching them.
Coach Phillips seemed to be counting the frogs that were already in the buckets.
But Tommy was nowhere in sight.
"Where is he?" Maggie wondered.
"I don't know," Henry said. "But there's his brother John.
Let's go ask him if he knows where Tommy is."
John was climbing out of the pool. He had an annoyed expression on his face.
Henry wondered if that was because tryouts had been disrupted again.
Everyone in town knew that John was a very talented swimmer.
"Hi, John," Henry said. "We're looking for your brother. Where did he go?"
"That's a good question." John looked more annoyed than ever.
"I was just looking for him myself."
"Why?" Maggie asked.
"Tryouts will start again in a few minutes, and he needs all the practice he can get," John said.
"Tommy isn't taking these tryouts very seriously."
Then he stomped away.
Maggie watched him go. "John sounded mad," she said.
"And did you hear what he said about Tommy?
Maybe John suspects his brother of causing all the trouble!"
Henry shrugged. "Brothers get mad at each other all the time.
John is probably just embarrassed because his brother is a terrible swimmer."
"Yeah, you're probably right," Maggie agreed.
Henry noticed Cole putting another frog in one of the buckets.
Most of the other swimmers were climbing out of the pool and grabbing their towels.
"It looks like they caught all the frogs," Henry said.
"We'd better hurry if we want to talk to Tommy before tryouts start again."
"There's Daisy. Let's ask her if she's seen him," Maggie said.
"I saw Tommy heading toward the pool building a few minutes ago," Daisy told them a second later.
"He probably went inside to use the bathroom."
"Thanks," Henry said. He wondered if he should ask Daisy more questions.
She was still a suspect too. "Hey, Daisy," he said.
"When Lauren made you jog, did you make it around the building first?"
Daisy smiled. "Not this time," she said.
"At first I was keeping up with Cole, Kyle, and John.
But then I saw a pretty flower growing beside the running trail, and I stopped to look at it.
I thought I might want to come back and paint it later.
So I was one of the last ones to make it back."
"Oh." Henry remembered that Daisy liked art.
He'd seen some of her paintings displayed at school.
Daisy walked away.
"Why were you asking her about jogging?" Maggie asked Henry.
"I thought we were in a hurry to talk to Tommy."
"I'm still trying to figure out who dumped those frogs the second time," Henry said.
"It had to be the first person who got back from that jog.
So Daisy's probably not our culprit."
"I could have told you that!" Maggie rolled her eyes.
"Our top suspect is Tommy now, remember?"
"Okay. Let's go find him."
Before they could move, Henry and Maggie heard an angry howl.
"Hey!" Kyle yelled. "Someone poured paint in my gym bag!"