"Way to go, Maggie!" Henry yelled. Cole let out a cheer too.
Maggie grinned proudly as Ms. Wood attached the blue ribbon to her pony's bridle.
Most of the other riders looked happy too.
Only one rider looked unhappy. That was Rebecca. She'd come in fourth.
"I knew it!" she yelled, riding out of the ring and jumping down from her pony.
"I would have won if I'd been riding Coco!"
She flung her pony's reins away and kicked at the ground.
Then she grabbed the white ribbon from the pony's bridle and stomped on it.
"Rebecca!" Ms. Wood exclaimed. "You should be ashamed of yourself!
That's very poor sportsmanship."
"I don't care!" Rebecca yelled.
"It's not fair! I wanted to ride Coco today. This stupid pony made me lose!"
"Don't say that!" another girl spoke up. "Red is a great pony too."
"Yeah," Maggie agreed.
"I rode him once. He was awesome! Almost as good as Big Spot."
"They're right, Rebecca." Ms. Wood sounded stern.
"Now stop complaining and go take care of your pony.
He did his best, and he deserves a nice grooming and some treats."
A woman pushed through the crowd.
"I think that's Rebecca's mother," Henry whispered to Cole.
"Stop this tantrum right now and do as Ms. Wood says!" Rebecca's mother said.
"Or you won't get to take riding lessons anymore."
"Fine!" Rebecca cried. "But it's not fair!"
She stomped off toward the barn, dragging her pony behind her.
"Wow. Did you see that?" Henry said to Cole.
"Rebecca is obviously still mad about not getting to ride Coco."
Cole just shrugged. "Yeah. She's probably the shirt thief, like you said."
Henry rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "She has a good motive.
And she definitely could have done it. Now all we have to do is prove it."
"That's not going to be easy," Cole said.
"If there were any witnesses, somebody would have said something by now.
Plus, if Rebecca hid that shirt somewhere, it will be tough to prove that she was the one who stole it.
Maybe we should just forget about this case and focus on selling lemonade."
Henry frowned at his friend. Cole wasn't acting like himself today.
"The Lemonade Detectives agreed to accept this case.
That means we need to try to solve it!
If you don't want to help, Maggie and I can do it without you."
Cole frowned too. "I'm not saying I don't want to help," he said.
"I'm just saying it's not going to be easy to prove anything.
Besides, Daisy's family lives in that big, fancy house over on Elm Street.
They have plenty of money to buy her another shirt. So what's the big deal?"
Henry was surprised to hear Cole say something like that.
"Stealing is wrong!" he reminded Cole.
"If Rebecca stole Daisy's shirt, she should give it back to Daisy and apologize.
And if she didn't do it, we should figure out who did."
Just then he saw Rebecca come stomping out of the barn.
"There's our suspect now," Henry told Cole.
"Stay with the lemonade stand. I'll be right back."
Henry hurried off without waiting for an answer.
He caught up to Rebecca near the parking lot.
"Hi, Rebecca," he said. "Can I talk to you?"
"Sure, what do you want to talk about?" Rebecca asked.
Henry shrugged. "I just wanted to congratulate you," he said.
"I saw you win fourth place just now.
That's pretty good, especially since you didn't get to ride your favorite pony."
"Tell me about it!" Rebecca scowled.
"I still can't believe Daisy stole Coco from me! It's totally unfair!"
"Yeah," Henry said, pretending to go along with her.
"So did you go visit Coco in her stall earlier?
You know, before the show started?"
"Huh?" Rebecca blinked at him.
"Yeah, I stopped by and gave her a carrot when I first got here. Why?"
"Just curious." Henry cleared his throat.
"Was that before or after Daisy arrived at the show?"
"How should I know?" Rebecca said.
"Why are you asking all these questions, anyway?"
"I, uh . . ." Henry tried to think of something to say.
Lots of people in Belltown knew about The Lemonade Detectives.
If Rebecca had stolen that shirt, Henry didn't want her to guess that he knew she'd done it.
Otherwise it might be even harder to prove.
Just then Henry heard a clatter of hooves behind him.
Turning, he saw Maggie rushing over, still leading Big Spot.
"I need to talk to you, Henry," Maggie said breathlessly. "In private."
She yanked him away from Rebecca.
"What is it?" Henry asked.
Maggie spun to face him. "I just found Daisy's missing shirt!"