"You found the shirt?" Henry exclaimed. "Where is it?"
Maggie grinned.
"On TV, detectives always want to examine the crime scene exactly as they found it.
So I left it where I found it."
"Let's go look," Henry said. "We should tell Daisy too."
"I just saw her in the barn."
Maggie headed back to the barn with Big Spot. So did Henry.
Daisy and Kira were brushing Coco's mane.
"Maggie found your show shirt," Henry told Daisy.
"Really? Where?" Daisy cried.
"Follow me." Maggie put Big Spot into his stall.
Then she headed out the barn's back door.
She stopped beside the water trough just outside.
"Look!" Maggie said, pointing.
A blob of white fabric was floating in the water.
"My shirt!" Daisy shrieked. She reached in and grabbed the wet shirt.
"Yuck! It's a mess! There's no way I can wear it for my class!"
"Attention, please!" Ms. Wood said over the loudspeaker.
"Riders in the next class, please come to the ring."
"That's us." Kira buttoned her show coat. "We'd better get our ponies."
"Okay." Daisy shoved the wet shirt at Henry.
"You have to find out who did this. Whoever it is should pay!"
The two older girls rushed back into the barn.
Henry was examining the shirt.
It looked just like Daisy had described, white with a ribbon on the pocket.
"Wow, this shirt is really a mess," he said. "It's not just wet.
It's stained too. There's a spot just below the ribbon."
"Maybe the colors in the ribbon ran when they got wet," Maggie suggested.
"That happened once when I did the laundry. All Dad's underwear turned pink."
"It can't be that," Henry said.
"The ribbon is pink and yellow. This stain is blue."
"Blue?" Maggie looked interested.
"Like the blue stuff Big Spot slobbered on me?"
"Maybe. It's hard to tell, since the shirt has been in the water and the spot is pretty faded."
"Let me see." Maggie took the shirt. "The stain is right on the pocket.
Maybe something in the pocket is staining it from the inside."
She stuck her fingers into the small pocket.
"Nope, nothing in here. But it feels sticky."
"Maybe Daisy left gum or candy or something in the pocket earlier," Henry said.
"That makes sense," Maggie said.
"Those lollipops at the Dessert Den come in all kinds of colors.
And Daisy was looking at them yesterday when we saw her there, remember?"
"Daisy was at the Dessert Den yesterday?" Henry said. "I didn't see her."
"She left a few minutes after we got there." Maggie laughed.
"Besides, you were busy drooling over the new chocolate cake.
But Cole and I talked to her."
"So did Daisy buy any blue lollipops?" Henry asked.
"If she didn't, this stain could be a clue."
Maggie shrugged. "Let's go ask her.
If she fed one to Big Spot, that would solve the mystery of the blue drool."
"Yeah. But it wouldn't explain who took Daisy's shirt," Henry said.
"Big Spot couldn't have put it in the water trough."
They walked to the ring. "Daisy's class already started," Maggie said.
Henry nodded.
He watched as Daisy, Kira, and several other students rode around the ring.
In the end Daisy won the blue ribbon, and Kira came in second.
"That was great!" Daisy exclaimed as she and Kira rode out of the ring.
"Hey, Kira, let's enter another class in the show.
How about the obstacle course class?"
"I can't," Kira said. "I don't have enough money."
"I know how that feels," Maggie told her.
Then she turned to Daisy. "Can we talk to you?"
"Sure. I'll catch up to you in the barn," Daisy told Kira.
She followed Henry and Maggie to a more private spot.
"What's up? Did you guys figure out who wrecked my shirt?"
She didn't sound as angry as she had earlier.
Henry guessed that she was in a good mood after winning her class.
"Not exactly," he said. "But we noticed a blue stain on the pocket.
Did you put anything blue in there?"
"Like one of those blue lollipops from the Dessert Den, for instance?" Maggie said.
"Did you bring one to feed to Coco?"
Daisy looked surprised.
"I love those lollipops, especially the blueberry ones.
But they're much too expensive to feed to ponies!
I didn't even buy any yesterday. I wanted to save my money for today's show."
"Oh," Maggie said. "Hey, I think Kira is calling you.
You'd better see what she wants."
"She is? Okay, see you guys later!" Daisy hurried off with her pony.
"Why'd you say that?" Henry said. "I wanted to ask her more questions."
"Because I just thought of a new theory," Maggie blurted out.
"Maybe the person who wrecked Daisy's shirt is . . . Daisy!"