"Nora?" Henry called. "Wait! What are you talking about?"
"Who cares?" Maggie said.
"We care," Henry said. "What if Nora took that painting?"
Cole gasped. "That actually makes sense!
Well, as much sense as anything Nora ever does, anyway.
Nora seemed really upset when she heard Nathan's painting might end up in the museum."
"Exactly," Henry agreed.
"And the stuff she was saying a minute ago made her sound guilty."
"So are we adding her to the suspect list?" asked Maggie.
"Definitely," Cole said.
"She's sneaky enough to snatch that painting and hide it somewhere."
"Luckily, we already know she's not very good at covering her tracks," Henry said, smiling.
He was talking about an earlier case involving Nora, which had led to her adopting Patches.
"Let's go look for clues at the scene of the crime."
"Okay." Maggie put out the Closed sign again.
"How much time do we have before judging starts?"
Henry glanced at his phone. "Almost an hour."
They hurried over to the art show.
When they arrived at the empty spot where Nathan's painting had been, Nathan wasn't there.
But someone else was.
"Hi, Mr. Collins," Henry said. "What are you doing?"
Mr. Collins spun around and laughed sheepishly. "Oh! You startled me."
"Were you looking for Nathan's painting?" Maggie asked.
"Yes, I admit it." Mr. Collins tugged on his flowered tie.
"It's been on my mind ever since I saw it this morning.
Can you believe two artists found such similar inspiration?
Young Nathan's subject could be the twin of mine!"
"Um, okay." Cole sounded doubtful. Henry knew what his friend was thinking.
Mr. Collins' crazy cat painting looked nothing like Nathan's!
"What if the judges think your paintings are too similar?" Maggie asked.
"Are you worried they might not pick yours for the museum?"
"I suppose not." Mr. Collins winked and smiled.
"Nathan and I are not even in the same age category, in case you couldn't tell.
I'm just worrying over nothing, as usual!
It's the curse of being a sensitive artist."
He glanced at the empty spot. "So where is your friend's masterpiece?"
"We're not sure," Henry said. "It disappeared about forty minutes ago."
"Oh dear!" Mr. Collins looked alarmed. "Is there an art thief at the show?"
"Maybe," Cole said. "Have you seen anything suspicious?"
"Where have you been for the past hour?"
Maggie demanded before Mr. Collins could respond.
Henry winced. Sometimes Maggie could sound rude when she questioned people!
Mr. Collins looked surprised. "Am I a suspect? Luckily I have an alibi."
"You do?" Henry was glad the man didn't seem insulted.
Mr. Collins nodded. "I've been at Mrs. Sweet's booth for the past hour or so, learning how to make candy.
She could tell you that too."
"Okay," Henry said. "Well, we'd better get back to investigating."
The Lemonade Detectives hurried away.
"Are we going to check his alibi?" Maggie asked.
Henry shrugged. "I suppose we should, just to be sure.
But I bet he's telling the truth."
"Yeah," Cole agreed. "His alibi explains why we couldn't find him earlier."
They walked toward the crafts fair.
As they passed the bandstand, Henry spotted Owen.
"Hi," Henry greeted him. "Have you seen Patrick?"
Owen frowned. "Not since I saw you guys earlier," he said.
"We were supposed to meet at the crafts fair ten minutes ago.
When he didn't show up, I came here to see if he was at the burger stand. But he wasn't."
Just then Henry noticed a tall, thin figure moving through the crowd.
"Look," he said. "It's that strange woman!"
"Quick! We have to catch her!"
Cole took off, with Henry and Maggie right behind him.
The woman was walking quickly toward the museum at the edge of the park.
"Excuse me!" Henry yelled. "Wait up!"
The woman glanced back.
When she saw Henry and the others coming, she gasped and dashed toward the museum.
She ran up the steps, disappearing inside.
"Stop!" Maggie yelled.
The Lemonade Detectives ran into the museum. It was cool and dim inside.
The sound of footsteps echoed off the walls, but Henry couldn't tell which direction they were coming from.
"This way!" Cole cried, pointing.
Henry turned just in time to see the woman disappear around a corner.
He ran after her and burst into a large room filled with sculptures.
"Where'd she go?" Maggie exclaimed.
"There!" Henry cried.
The Lemonade Detectives followed the woman through the next room, which was filled with paintings.
Then she escaped into a hallway with lots of doors.
Cole glanced at all the doors. "Which way did she go?" he asked breathlessly.
A door leading outside was swinging shut.
Henry hurried over and looked out into the Belltown Arts Day crowd.
He sighed. "I think we lost her."