Watch destroying the snowpeople? The idea made Henry laugh.
“Watch wouldn’t do that,” he said.
Benny was angry. “He didn’t do it,” he said. “He was in the lounge the whole time.” Benny reached under the table and patted Watch’s head.
“Then how’d the tracks get there?” Jason challenged.
“We took Watch with us when we went out to see your snow sculpture,” Violet explained.
“He went wild,” Jessie added. “He ran around sniffing and barking. He knew something was wrong.”
“If Watch didn’t do it, who did?” Debbie asked.
“I’ll bet Watch knows,” Benny said.
“That’s silly,” Jason said.
“He’s right,” defended Violet. “Dogs’ noses are sensitive. Watch must have picked up the scent. He knows who did it.”
“A lot of good that does us,” Jason said.
“Did you see any other tracks out there?” Benny asked. He wanted to know if they had seen Pete’s boot prints.
“There were tracks all over the place,” Alan said.
“Lots of different tracks,” Jason put in.
Benny’s eyes widened. The only tracks he had seen were Pete’s. “Whose were they?” he asked.
Henry laughed. “They were probably ours, Benny.”
“Oh, right,” Benny said. “I forgot about that.”
Jason sank to a chair. “What’re we going to do now?” he asked. “We don’t have a chance of winning.”
“The judging isn’t until tomorrow afternoon,” Jessie said.
“But there’s so much work,” Jason argued.
Debbie sighed. “At least the forms are there. They weren’t destroyed.”
“And we have all morning to work,” Alan said.
“Why don’t we meet early?” Benny suggested.
“That’s a good idea,” Debbie agreed.
“Before breakfast,” Alan said.
“Before breakfast?” Benny repeated. He hadn’t meant that early.
“It’s the only way we have a chance of finishing,” Alan argued.
Alan was right, they finally decided.
The Aldens took their plates to the kitchen. Then, they went to check on the other snow sculpture. Watch padded along beside them.
Freddy’s snow builders had not made much progress. It was hard to tell what the sculpture would be. But it was easy to see that no damage had been done to it.
Benny still thought that Pete was guilty.
“But Pete’s angry at Freddy, not Jimmy,” Jessie said, repeating her earlier doubt.
“Maybe he’s acting,” Violet suggested. “Maybe Pete is only pretending to be angry at Freddy.”
“Why would he do that?” Henry asked.
“To throw everybody off the track,” Violet said.
Benny shook his head. “I don’t get it.”
“Suppose Pete really wants Freddy’s team to win, but he doesn’t think they have a chance,” Violet explained.
“He might do anything to make sure the team wins. Is that what you’re saying, Violet?” Jessie asked.
Violet nodded. “If he acts as if he doesn’t care about his team, no one will suspect him.”
“If Pete had a plan like that, he would have remembered to cover his footprints,” Jessie said.
“And what about the missing keys and the flat tires?” Henry said. “I think they’re all connected.”
“Let’s go back to Benny’s snowpeople,” Violet suggested. “We might see something we missed.”
At the site, Watch ran this way and that, sniffing as he had before. Benny searched for Pete’s boot prints, but they were gone, covered over by other tracks.
“Our evidence has disappeared,” he said.
Watch stopped beside a large chunk of snow. He sniffed. He scratched.
“What is it, Watch?” Jessie asked.
The dog kept scratching at the snow. Finally, he grabbed something orange, green, and yellow in his mouth, trotted over, and dropped it at Jessie’s feet.
“It’s a glove!” Violet identified.
“It’s Freddy’s glove!” Jessie said. |