Henry and his friends said good-bye to Nathan and Nora, and then hurried down the street toward the Martins' house.
On the way Henry explained how he'd realized that Marty was the thief.
"It's the only possibility," he said.
"We already proved that none of our other suspects did it.
Besides it makes perfect sense."
"It does?" Cole said.
"Sure," Henry said.
"Everyone else at the lemonade stand was distracted, remember?
Those two teenage girls were giggling together."
Maggie grinned. "They were probably planning their shopping trip to the drugstore!"
"Probably," Henry agreed.
"And Ryan was busy chugging his lemonade and doing tricks with his skateboard."
"And I was talking to Nathan and Nora," Maggie remembered.
"Even Mrs. Martin was distracted by her cell phone," Henry said.
"While nobody was paying attention, Marty must have grabbed the cash."
"And then what?" Cole asked.
"Like Maggie said, there was too much money to hide in Nora's hands.
And Marty's hands are even smaller."
"He didn't need his hands," Henry said.
"He stuffed it in that toy suitcase he was holding."
Maggie gasped. "Henry, you're a genius!" she shrieked.
"It's the perfect hiding place! Why didn't I think of that?"
"There was no reason to remember it," Henry pointed out.
"Little kids always have toys, right?"
"So how come you remembered?" Cole asked.
"I didn't at first," Henry admitted.
"But when Nora was talking about Marty, I started thinking about him.
That's when I remembered the suitcase and realized what must have happened."
They had almost reached the Martins' house.
Henry could see Mrs. Martin out in the yard with Marty.
She saw them coming.
"We were just about to go back to your house, Maggie!" she called out.
"I discovered something very interesting in Marty's suitcase."
"You did?" Maggie hurried over. Henry and Cole were right behind her.
Marty's suitcase was lying open in the front yard.
Cash was spilling out of it!
"My money!" Maggie cried happily.
"So Marty was the thief," Cole exclaimed.
Mrs. Martin smiled. "I just discovered Marty playing with all this cash.
At first I couldn't imagine where it came from, but then I figured out what must have happened," she said.
"Sorry, Maggie. Marty likes to grab everything these days.
He must have grabbed your money while I wasn't looking."
"We just figured that out ourselves," Henry said.
"Yeah," Cole chimed in.
"Henry put together all the clues and solved the mystery."
"You did?" Mrs. Martin looked impressed.
"Good work, Henry. Maybe you'll be a police detective when you grow up."
"It wasn't just me," Henry said. "These guys helped."
Cole grinned. "Yeah, solving mysteries is fun.
It's sort of like solving the puzzles on the Puzzle Pirates website, only better."
Mrs. Martin smiled back. "Well, keep up the good work," she said.
"Now I'd better get Marty inside and explain to him why we don't steal other people's things.
It would be awfully embarrassing to have to arrest my own son!"
"Don't worry, Mrs. Martin." Maggie started gathering up her money.
"I won't press charges."
Mrs. Martin chuckled. Then she picked up Marty and went into the house.
Maggie kept scooping up her money. Cole watched her.
"Aren't you going to share some of that with us?" he asked with a grin.
Maggie looked up. "Share my money?" she said. "Why would I do that?"
"Usually when people solve a mystery, they get a reward," Cole pointed out.
Maggie didn't say anything for a second.
She had a thoughtful look on her face.
"What's the matter?" Henry asked her.
"Are you trying to figure out how much our reward should be?"
"No," Maggie said. "But I am thinking about rewards.
What if we turned the lemonade stand into a detective agency?
That might be a faster way to earn money for my riding lessons!"
Cole laughed. "The Lemonade Detectives?" he joked.
"Why not?" Maggie smiled. "We did a great job solving this mystery.
We could solve other mysteries for people, and they could pay me."
"Pay you?" Henry said.
"Okay, okay. Pay us," Maggie said.
"You guys could each get 10 percent of our rewards."
Henry and Cole traded a look.
Without a word they turned and started to walk away.
"Wait!" Maggie ran after them. "I meant to say 15 percent."
Henry and Cole kept walking.
"Fine!" Maggie sounded annoyed. "We can split the money evenly."
"That's more like it." Henry stopped and turned around.
So did Cole.
"If you throw in all the free lemonade we can drink, you have yourself a deal," he agreed.
"Okay." Maggie nodded. "So let's have a cheer.
Hooray for The Lemonade Detectives!"
"Hooray!"
Henry grinned. He liked the sound of The Lemonade Detectives.
"Now all we need is another case!"