"I wish Little Spot had turned out to be the thief after all," Maggie said with a sigh.
"Then the mystery would be solved.
And I wouldn't still be worried that Mom and Dad are going to make me stop riding."
Henry, Cole, and Maggie were at the lemonade stand talking about what had happened yesterday.
"We thought Little Spot was guilty at first," Cole said.
"But then Henry started thinking logically again."
Henry smiled. "Little Spot did grab your sandal," he reminded Maggie.
"But then I thought of something.
Why would a dog steal things only from you?
It didn't make sense. The other riders leave their stuff sitting around too."
"That's why we questioned everyone after your lesson," Cole went on.
"We wanted to make sure the thief wasn't stealing stuff from everyone."
"Nobody else is missing anything," Henry said. "Well, except for Ms. Wood."
Cole nodded. "She said the barn cat's bed has been missing for a few days.
But she's pretty sure a raccoon took that."
"We also did an experiment to see if Little Spot would try to grab anything else," Henry said.
"We used Cole's sock. Little Spot sniffed it, but he didn't pick it up."
"So we decided that Little Spot just likes to grab shoes," Cole said.
"My neighbor's dog is the same way, except he only steals TV remote controls."
Maggie sighed again. "Well, it definitely wasn't Big Spot either," she said.
"He might have been able to grab my sock.
But he couldn't have taken my bracelet.
I put it in my bag as I led him out, and it was missing as soon as I got back."
"Really? Then I guess we can rule out all of the animal suspects," Henry said.
Cole laughed. "Yeah. The barn cat couldn't have picked up your grooming brush."
"So who are our human suspects?" Maggie asked.
"All the other riders in your class," Henry said. "Plus Jill."
"Right," Cole said.
"We found out that Jill wishes she had more money for riding.
What if she stole your stuff so she could sell it?"
"Who would buy one sock?" Maggie asked.
"Nobody," Henry answered.
"We figured you might have lost that on your way into the barn."
Maggie frowned. "You're as bad as my parents! I didn't lose that sock.
I know it was in my bag when I put the bag down!"
Henry wasn't so sure.
He still didn't think Maggie was careless enough to lose the check or the other stuff.
But it would be easy for her to drop a sock without noticing, especially when she was excited about going riding.
He didn't say that though. He didn't want to make Maggie angry.
"How well do you know Eleanor?" he asked instead.
"Not that well." Maggie shrugged.
"We've only had four lessons together. But I doubt she's the thief."
"Why?" Cole asked. "You just said you don't know her very well.
How do you know she's not sneaky?"
"Because she takes such good care of her dog," Maggie said.
"She's just as crazy about Little Spot as I am about my kittens.
Someone like that has to be a good person."
"Okay," Henry said. "But what about the others?
We noticed Daisy was acting kind of competitive."
"Yeah, she's always like that." Maggie rolled her eyes.
"She wants to try everything first.
And she thinks she's the best at whatever we do."
"Then there's Zach," Cole said. "He was complaining about everything.
What if he's stealing stuff because he hates riding?"
"I still think his sister, Jill, is a better suspect," Henry said.
"She has the best motive. She needs money."
"I agree, Henry. But here come some customers."
Maggie pointed to several people heading toward the lemonade stand.
"We'll have to finish talking about this later."
"I hope we can solve the mystery today," Maggie said.
"Otherwise Mom said this might be my last lesson for a while."
She sounded upset. Henry didn't blame her.
It was a few days later, and The Lemonade Detectives were back at the barn.
"Do you have both of your socks today?" Cole asked.
Maggie made a face at him.
"You already asked me that twenty times," she said.
"I told you, I stuck them in my boots today.
There's no way they can fall out."
Henry noticed Ms. Wood hurrying toward them.
The barn owner had an anxious expression on her face.
"Maggie!" Ms. Wood said.
"There you are. I need to speak with you about something serious."
"I'm not late, am I?" Maggie asked.
Ms. Wood shook her head. "It's not that," she said. "We have a problem.
Right after you left the barn the other day, I realized something: Big Spot's saddle pad is missing!"