"Urgent breaking news?" Henry said. "What is it?"
"I don't know," the receptionist said.
"Jackson didn't give me many details.
He just said he was heading to the corner of Pine and Church Streets."
"That's in our neighborhood," Henry said. "Let's go!"
The Lemonade Detectives rushed out of the newspaper office.
"What if Jackson is sabotaging our float?" Maggie exclaimed.
"He might have crashed a car into it while Dad was driving it to the high school.
And now he's pretending to cover the story!"
"I doubt it," Henry said. But he felt a flutter of nervousness too.
Maggie could be right.
They rushed to the corner of Pine and Church Streets.
As they got closer, they saw a fire truck parked there.
"Oh no!" Maggie cried. "What if Jackson set our float on fire?"
"I don't smell smoke," said Cole.
A ladder was leaning against a tree.
A fire fighter was near the top of the ladder.
Jackson was watching from below, along with a small crowd.
"What's happening?" Henry asked Jackson.
Jackson grinned. "It's big news. Tiny's cat got stuck in that tree.
When Tiny climbed up to rescue her, he got stuck too."
Henry looked up. Tiny was handing a cute calico cat to the fire fighter.
After the cat was safely on the ground, the fire fighter helped Tiny down the ladder.
"Thanks, guys." Tiny looked sheepish. "Sorry for the trouble."
The fire fighters laughed. "No problem," one said.
"This is our favorite kind of emergency—one that isn't serious!"
Tiny laughed too. Then he noticed that Jackson had a camera.
"Uh-oh, am I going to be in tomorrow's newspaper?"
"Definitely." Jackson replied.
"I'm sure this will be the story of the weekend!
Can I take some photos of you?"
Tiny grinned.
"Sure. If you wait a second, I'll get my cat to pose for a photo too."
Everyone laughed.
Then Tiny wandered off to look for his cat, while the fire fighters put their ladder away.
The Lemonade Detectives stayed with Jackson.
"So this was your urgent breaking news?" Cole said.
"We thought it was something important about the parade."
"Yeah," Maggie agreed. "Aren't you hoping something else happens?
Like more sabotage, or the parade gets canceled?"
"Of course not." Jackson looked confused. "Why would I want that?"
"Never mind," Henry said quickly.
"Come on, guys. Let's go." He led his friends away from Tiny's house.
"I guess Jackson isn't the culprit," Maggie said. "Neither is Mr. Fleming."
Cole nodded. "Who should we investigate next?"
"Nobody," Maggie said. "It's almost two-thirty. Time to go to the parade."
Henry felt uneasy about leaving the mystery unsolved.
But they didn't have much choice. Maggie was right—they were out of time.
"Wow," Cole said as The Lemonade Detectives rode their bikes into the high school parking lot.
"There are lots of people here!"
"And lots of floats," Henry added.
"I guess everyone wants to win those prizes."
"But we're going to win them," Maggie said confidently.
As he looked around for their float, Henry saw many people he knew.
Jill and Ashley were there with their soccer team.
They were climbing onto their float while some other teenagers watched.
Henry spotted Tiny and his friends and Snake and his band.
"Look." Cole pointed to a float decorated with candy in bright colors.
"There's Mrs. Sweet."
"Hi, Mrs. Sweet," Henry called. "Your float looks great."
She beamed. "Thank you, Henry.
Oh, and guess what—I found that missing candy."
"You found the candy?" Maggie exclaimed.
"But I thought someone stole it out of your shed."
Mrs. Sweet looked sheepish. "I thought so too.
But it was in the trunk of my car all along. Silly me!"
Henry smiled weakly. "See you later," he said, dragging his friends away.
"Wow," Cole said.
"I guess Mr. Fleming's threat wasn't the only red herring in this mystery!
Nobody was trying to ruin Mrs. Sweet's float."
"Yeah," Henry said. "The only problem left is the threat on the website."
"I wonder if that threat was even real," Cole said.
"Whoever wrote it deleted it pretty quickly."
"Look, there's Dad," Maggie cried. "Come on, let's go!"
Soon the parade began.
The Lemonade Detectives' float was right behind the mayor's car.
It seemed as if everyone in Belltown was gathered along Main Street to watch and cheer.
"This is fun," Cole said, waving to the crowd.
"Yeah." Henry smiled as he saw Mr. and Mrs. Fleming watching the parade.
By now he'd decided that this case was no mystery at all.
Everyone seemed to like The Lemonade Detectives' float.
"Mom!" Henry heard a boy cry. "Look at that giant lemon!"
Suddenly the mayor's car sputtered to an abrupt stop.
"Oh no!" the mayor cried. "Something is wrong with my car!"