I had laid the copies out on my bedroom floor, picking up each piece and studying it upside down, hoping to uncover a case-cracking clue. Genki sat at attention by my door, as if on lookout, although he probably just needed to pee. I ignored him while I moved from one piece of information to the next.
When I got to the receipt, Mom burst into my bedroom, and Genki dashed through the open door.
“Could you please put the dishes away?” she asked, looking from me to the floor. She took one large step to tower over my work, scooped up a handful of papers, and shuffled through them, the crease between her eyebrows deepening with each sheet. I was pretty sure she had already forgotten about the dishes. “What is this?” She shook the stack of papers at me.
“My notes on the case,” I said.
“Do you realize how dangerous this is?” Even though it was a question, I knew better than to answer. “Your father and I told you to stop this, this snooping. A policeman told you to stop snooping. But here you are…snooping!”
Luckily March and CindeeRae were reviewing the printouts from the hack, which left me and Madeleine with newspaper articles, Sleuth Chronicle notes, and the Crowley information I had found online. Still, Mom was not happy about it. I tried to stay calm and think through my response so that she could understand why detecting meant so much to me. But her face, twisted in disappointment, seemed to draw out all my emotions.
“I think this is important. You wouldn’t be mad about it if you thought it was important, too,” I said. “If you even tried to understand you would see that I want to find the dogs so they can go home.”
“You’re only eleven.” She mumbled more to herself than me. “What are you thinking?”
As if she were saving the printouts from a gust of wind, Mom scrambled to pick up the rest, snatching the Sleuth Chronicle last. She hastily shoved the loose sheets into the middle of the journal. “You are done with this.” Her voice was even, her eyes hardening. “If I see or hear one more word about investigating or detecting, you might never see the sun again.”
Even I could tell when parents exaggerated to make a point, but in that moment, I believed her. Snatching the receipt from my hand, she turned on her heels and marched out the door, slamming it behind her before Genki had a chance to slip back into my room.
March, CindeeRae, and I huddled on one of the benches lining the playground while Madeleine stood to the side, trying to edge closer to the group. Everyone held a file of clues, except me.
“You’re grounded?” CindeeRae asked.
“Kinda?” It shouldn’t have been a question, but it still came out as one. “From investigating?” I couldn’t help it.
“I don’t like this, Kazu,” March said. “Your mom has never taken away your Sleuth Chronicle before.”
I slumped against the bench, my lower back pushing into the wood. “I know. She’s really mad at me.”
“So that’s it?” Madeleine waved her folder like she was swatting away flies. “We’re just stopping the investigation like that?” She said it like she had been slaving over the case all year.
March shot her a look. Madeleine turned her nose up.
“No,” I said, even though my heart slowly deflated as I imagined them detecting without me. “You guys should definitely keep investigating.” Barkley and Lobster and Lenny needed help, even if I wasn’t going to be the one to give it.
Catelyn Monsen and another one of Madeleine’s soccer friends passed our group, eyeing us like we were a herd of mythical creatures. It was their second lap around the playground.
Madeleine didn’t seem to notice. “Sounds good to me,” she said. “Did anyone find anything in their search last night?”
March and CindeeRae shook their heads.
“I didn’t understand half this stuff.” Pushing her way onto the edge of the bench, Madeleine practically sat on top of me, and I scooted over to give her room. She splayed the file folder on her lap. Maybe I wouldn’t miss out on any more detecting; maybe we had finally reached a dead end.
Madeleine rambled on and on as she thumbed through her papers, talking about what everyone already knew about the case. When her copy of the receipt slipped from the folder and fell to the ground, I remembered what I had noticed the night before. I plucked up the sheet and studied it again. “Where do your parents buy dog food?”
“King Soopers on the other side of Federal,” CindeeRae answered. “It’s, like, two minutes away.”
“Mine too,” Madeleine agreed.
“I think it’s the closest store to our neighborhood,” I said. “So why would Crowley go to a King Soopers in the opposite direction? On Forty-Third Avenue?” I pointed to the address on the receipt: 5302 W. 43rd Avenue.
“Because he was visiting someone—” Madeleine was not following my train of thought.
March interrupted her, “Because it’s closer to doggie-holding headquarters.”
“Exactly!” I said.
“Great.” Madeleine slumped back against the bench next to me. “So we know he got dog food at another King Soopers. How does that help us?”
I leaned forward, looking at each of them as I asked, “What if the address of doggie-holding headquarters is close to where Dickinson Street and Forty-Third Avenue intersect?”
CindeeRae’s eyes lit up.
“Does anyone have a phone?” March asked. “Let’s look it up.”
Madeleine took her phone from her back pocket, finally catching on. She punched at the screen and gaped for a second. “You won’t believe this.” She waved her phone as if it were a wand. “The intersection of Dickinson Street and Forty-Third Avenue is where Magic Planet is.”
Magic Planet was an abandoned amusement park downtown, about fifteen miles from Lakeview Park. It would take thirty minutes to get there on bike.
“That’s it, right?” CindeeRae asked. “Magic Planet must be where they’re keeping the missing dogs.”
“It’s unlikely,” March said. “Those two things are probably not even related.”
“Maybe,” I said. “Maybe not. But there’s a chance that they might be, right? Either way, we don’t have anything else to go on—”
“Plus,” Madeleine interrupted, “Magic Planet would be a great place to hold the dogs. It makes sense.”
I had gone to Magic Planet when I was seven—the last year it’d been open—although I couldn’t really remember it. Dad talked me into riding the Jack Rabbit, a rickety roller coaster that looked like a white toothpick tower from far away. After passing through a tunnel shaped like a mine shaft, I decided it was easiest not to see where we were going, and I kept my eyes closed the rest of the way. As Madeleine, March, and CindeeRae argued whether or not they should visit Magic Planet that afternoon, I felt like I had reached the same place in the case; I wanted to close my eyes the rest of the way.
Suddenly I realized everyone had stopped talking to look at me. “So,” March said. “Are you coming with us?”
I remembered Mom’s face when she grabbed my Sleuth Chronicle, contorted with disappointment and anger. “I’m not allowed.”
“You’re not allowed to go on a bike ride?” Madeleine flipped through the pages in her folder without looking at them. “Because when you told us what happened, it didn’t sound like you were grounded from bike rides with friends.”
Catelyn and the girl passed again, and this time Madeleine saw them. “Should we meet at March’s house after school?” she asked quickly, directing the question to March and CindeeRae. Had I lost my place on the team already, replaced by Lenny’s best friend? My stomach twisted as I watched them.
“Yes!” CindeeRae’s eyes seemed to hold a Lobster-shaped reflection.
“I don’t know, guys.” March looked at me, and I knew he didn’t want to do any detecting without me.
“See you after school,” Madeleine called over her shoulder, not waiting for March to deliberate. She ran to catch up with her friends.