"Can you really fix my bike?" Nathan asked Tina. "Thanks!"
"You're welcome. This will only take a second."
Tina bent over the bike and expertly put the chain back in place.
Then she turned the pedals to test it.
"Good as new," she said. "It should be fine now."
"Thank you so much!" Nathan exclaimed. "I really appreciate it."
"No problem. Enjoy the rest of the ride!"
With a friendly wave to all of them, Tina pedaled off.
"Wow," Maggie said. "That was really nice of her."
Cole nodded. "Yeah, and she's one of our suspects," he said.
"Would someone who just slashed a bunch of tires do something nice like that?"
"I'm glad you guys are trying to figure out who slashed those tires," Nathan said.
"That means it won't be long until the mystery is solved.
The Lemonade Detectives solve all their cases!"
He rode off, humming happily.
Henry frowned, realizing that Nathan was right.
"It's true," he said. "We've solved every case so far.
But this one might be our toughest yet."
Maggie looked worried. "You're right.
What if we can't solve it before the ride is over?
The Lemonade Detectives' reputation will be ruined!"
"And so will the soccer team's fundraiser," Cole said. "But don't worry.
We already have it narrowed down to three suspects, remember?"
"Or maybe two," Henry said. "It's hard to believe Tina is the culprit.
She seems too nice.
And she seemed pretty mad when she accused Joey of slashing the tires earlier."
"But why would she help raise money for Belltown?" Maggie said.
"That doesn't make sense."
"I don't know," Henry said.
"But I know someone who might be able to tell us.
I just remembered I saw Tina sitting with Daisy for a while during the break."
"Oh yeah, I noticed that too," Cole said.
"I was surprised that Tina wasn't sitting with that Joey guy since they're both from Valley High.
Do you think Tina and Daisy are friends?"
"There's only one way to find out," Henry replied. "Let's go ask Daisy."
They rode ahead until they caught up with Daisy.
Maggie jumped right into questioning her.
"We saw you sitting with that girl from Valley High earlier," she said to Daisy.
"Do you know her?"
"You mean Tina?" Daisy nodded.
"We went to the same summer camp last year. She's cool."
"Is that why she came on this ride?" Cole asked.
"Because you two are friends?"
Daisy shrugged. "I'm the one who told her about the fundraiser.
But she probably would have heard about it anyway.
She's a really serious rider.
She trains all the time, and she enters every local ride and race she can find."
"Oh, that explains why she's here!" Henry said.
"It also explains how she knew how to fix Nathan's bike."
"Wait a minute," Daisy said.
"You don't suspect Tina of slashing those tires, do you?
Because she'd never do something like that.
She loves bikes, plus she's really nice."
"Yeah. We just figured that out." Henry smiled.
"Don't worry. She's off our list of suspects."
He, Maggie, and Cole rode off by themselves.
"So now we only have two suspects," Cole said. "William and the mystery man."
"Both of them have been acting suspicious all day," Maggie said.
"But neither has a good motive," Henry pointed out.
"At least not one we know about."
"William isn't having much fun on this ride," Maggie said.
"He acts like he doesn't even want to be here."
"And he tried to convince Ms. Hernandez to let him quit at the first rest break," Cole said.
"Maybe he slashed the tires because he thought the rest of the ride would be canceled.
Then when it wasn't, he had to figure out another way to quit early."
"Why would he come on the ride at all if he didn't want to be here?" Maggie wondered.
"Do you think his parents made him come?"
"I don't know," Henry said.
"But I can't stop thinking about how that guy lied to us about being a reporter.
Why would he do that?"
"Good question," Maggie said.
"I just don't know how we're going to figure it out.
He won't tell us anything. And nobody else here knows anything about him."
Soon they reached the next rest area.
Henry coasted to a stop behind the other bikes.
This picnic area was right beside a parking lot.
That was good since it meant that nobody could touch the bikes without being seen.
"We'd better figure out how to solve this case," Henry said.
"We're almost out of time."