The Lemonade Detectives hurried back outside.
Henry scanned the crowd, looking for the mysterious woman.
He spotted some shiny green fabric and stepped forward. Then he stopped.
It was just a man wearing a green shirt.
"I don't see her," Cole said.
Henry sighed. "Me neither. It's hard to see anything in this crowd."
"We need to figure out where she went," Maggie declared.
"Because she was definitely acting suspicious!"
"You're right," Cole said. "But why would a stranger steal Nathan's painting?"
Henry was wondering the same thing. "It doesn't make sense," he said.
Maggie frowned. "I told you, that woman is probably an international art thief.
Anyway, why would she run unless she's guilty?"
"I don't know." Henry checked his phone.
"We only have thirty minutes until the judging starts.
We need to keep investigating all our suspects."
Cole nodded. "We can watch for that woman along the way."
"Let's ask Mrs. Sweet about Mr. Collins' alibi," Henry said.
"After talking with her, we might be able to cross one suspect off the list."
They headed to the crafts fair.
It was easy to spot Mrs. Sweet's booth by the long line near the free candy samples.
"Hi, kids. How's the lemonade business?" Mrs. Sweet asked.
"Great," Maggie said.
"Good!" Mrs. Sweet beamed at them.
"Did you come to sign up for my candy class?
The next one starts right after the art show judging."
"Maybe," Henry said. "Actually, we were wondering something.
Was Mr. Collins here for your last class?"
"Oh yes." Mrs. Sweet chuckled. "I think that man ate more candy than he made!
I had to chase him away after the class ended so I could clean up for the next class."
"Okay, that's one suspect off the list," Cole said as The Lemonade Detectives left the candy booth. "Who's left?"
Maggie ticked them off on her fingers.
"Sunglasses woman, Nora, Hannah, and Patrick."
"Let's try to find Patrick first," Henry said.
"It's kind of suspicious that he didn't meet Owen when he was supposed to."
"True," Cole agreed.
"Maybe he was late because he was busy hiding Nathan's painting in the bushes somewhere."
They headed back toward the art show.
Halfway there they spotted Patrick and Owen standing in line at the burger stand.
"We've been looking for you," Henry told Patrick.
"Join the club." Owen laughed. He didn't seem annoyed anymore.
"You found me," Patrick said. "What's up?"
"Did you hear about Nathan's painting?" Cole asked. "It's missing."
"Yeah, I heard." Patrick didn't look very upset. "So?"
"So where have you been for the past hour?" Maggie blurted out.
Owen laughed again. "Hey, dude," he told Patrick. "They're detectives.
They must think you stole it!"
Patrick's eyes narrowed. "It wasn't me," he said.
"Why would I want a dumb cat painting?
Anyway, I was in the basket-weaving booth.
You can ask Hannah if you don't believe me."
"Okay," Henry said. "Thanks for talking to us." He led Cole and Maggie away.
"Another alibi," Cole said. "I guess we can cross Patrick off the list too."
"I guess so." Henry shrugged.
"We can double-check his alibi when we talk to Hannah."
Soon they reached the basket-weaving booth.
Hannah was arranging baskets on a shelf.
"Hi," Henry said. "We were just talking to Patrick.
He said he was over here earlier."
"Yeah." Hannah straightened a large blue basket.
"He wanted me to teach him how to weave a basket."
"Really?" Cole asked. "You mean he actually wove one himself?"
Hannah nodded. "He did a pretty good job for a beginner.
You can see for yourself if you want."
She gestured toward a large shopping bag in the back of the booth.
"His basket is in that bag.
He wanted to leave it here so he wouldn't have to carry it around all day."
"That's okay. We don't need to see it." Henry led the way out of the booth.
"I just realized something," Maggie said.
"Hannah is Patrick's alibi, right? That means Patrick is Hannah's alibi too.
They were together when the painting disappeared."
"So that's two names off the suspect list," Henry said.
"Wait, I just thought of something else." Maggie frowned.
"What if Hannah and Patrick are covering for each other?
They could be in cahoots."
"I doubt it," Cole said. "They don't know each other that well.
They're not even in the same grade."
"You're probably right," Maggie said.
"I still think the weird woman with the sunglasses did it.
Why else would she run away from us like that?"
Henry bit his lip. "I still don't know what her motive could be.
But I guess she's our only suspect left."
Suddenly he noticed Nora tiptoeing past them, looking rather guilty.
"Well, except for one."