"How dare you accuse me!" John exclaimed as everyone else gasped.
"You can't prove anything!"
"I can't prove you dumped those frogs," Henry said.
"But I know you poured the paint in Kyle's bag.
Kyle, Coach Phillips, and I were the only ones who looked at the paint.
But you just said it was green paint.
How would you know that unless you poured it in there yourself?"
Daisy gasped. "He did say it was green!"
"That was just a lucky guess," John protested.
"Daisy is always painting pictures of trees and stuff.
I figured she'd use green paint!"
But the coach was frowning.
"Did you have anything to do with those frogs, John?" he asked.
"His parents own a pet store," Tiny spoke up.
"I bet he got the frogs there and dumped them in the pool when we weren't looking!"
"I just remembered something," Cole said. "John was the fastest jogger.
He got back to the pool before the rest of us."
"I remember that too," Kyle said. "Cole and I got there next.
But it took us a few more minutes than John.
He had plenty of time to dump the frogs back in the water."
"And place my flip-flops near the buckets," Cole added.
Tommy stared at his brother.
"Is that why you said you'd go inside and get Tiny's towel for Daisy, John?"
"Aha!" Henry said. "So John was behind the ant trick too!"
Finally John hid his face in his hands.
"Okay, you're right. It was all me!" he blurted out.
"I stained the towel and dragged it through an anthill.
Then I folded it so nobody would notice the ants until Daisy used the towel.
I dumped the frogs in the pool too. I'm sorry.
I thought if I got rid of everyone else, Tommy might make the team."
Tommy stared at John. "Why would you do that?
You know I don't care much about swimming."
"If you don't make the swim team, Mom and Dad will let you take tennis lessons instead," John said.
"I heard them talking about how expensive that is.
They might not have enough money to buy me a car for my birthday!"
"Wow," Maggie whispered to Henry. "John had a motive we didn't know about!"
The coach looked very serious. "Come with me, John," he said.
"We'd better call your parents."
The next day Maggie and Henry were at the lemonade stand.
"The last day of tryouts is almost over," Maggie said.
"I wonder if Cole made the team."
Suddenly they heard a shout.
"That sounds like Cole," Henry said.
Cole raced toward them, grinning. "I made it!" he cried.
"I'm on the swim team!"
"Congratulations!" Henry and Maggie exclaimed.
They each gave him a high five.
"Kyle must be mad that you got the spot," Maggie said.
"Nope," Cole said. "He made it too!
There was an extra spot after Coach Phillips kicked John off the team."
"Then Daisy must be mad," Maggie said.
Cole shrugged. "Not really.
Her parents said she could take horseback-riding lessons instead."
"What about Lauren?" Maggie asked next.
"Is she mad that you made the team?"
"Not anymore," Cole said. "I apologized again for saying she looked young.
This time she listened."
"That's great," Henry said.
"Another great thing happened," Cole went on.
"John's parents gave me the frogs John brought to the pool!
They wanted to apologize for John trying to get me in trouble.
They even gave me free frog food for one month!"
"That's really generous," Henry said.
Cole put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a five-dollar bill.
"I almost forgot. Coach Phillips was really grateful that The Lemonade Detectives solved the mystery.
He offered to pay our detective fee."
Maggie looked away for a second. Then she looked back at Cole.
"You didn't really do much to solve the case.
Plus you got all those free frogs.
So Henry and I should just split the money between the two of us."
"What?" Cole protested. "That's not fair!"
"The Lemonade Detectives are a team, Maggie," Henry reminded her.
"But I've almost got enough money to start horseback-riding lessons!" Maggie argued.
"I need money too!" said Cole.
While they were arguing, a man walked over.
"Would you like to buy some lemonade?" Henry asked.
"No, thanks," the man said.
"My son Kyle told me you three are pretty good detectives."
"That's right," Maggie said. "Do you have a case for us?"
The man sighed.
"Yes. My wife's birthday is this weekend, and I forgot where I hid her gift."
Henry smiled.
Finding a lost birthday gift wasn't the most exciting case in the world.
But that didn't matter.
The Lemonade Detectives solved all mysteries, large or small!