Hay!

The stable was a long white building as large as an airplane hangar.

“This is where Thunder lives,” Randall said. “Or, it used to be.”

When he pulled open the doors, a strong smell came floating out.

But it wasn’t what you think.

The smell was sweet. Like a garden.

“Look,” said Kelly, pointing to the ground inside the stable.

It was covered with yellow and purple flower petals.

“What happened?” I asked. “Why are there flowers all over the stable?”

“Thunder likes flowers,” Randall said. “He likes their smell and even likes to eat them. He’ll travel only if I fill his trailer full of flowers. He’s still scared and won’t move an inch once he’s in the trailer, but the flowers comfort him when we travel. These flowers were delivered first thing this morning.”

I wrote that down in my cluebook.

“In fact, there’s only one food Thunder loves more than flowers,” Randall said, “and it’s one of the reasons I called you—”

“I see footsteps!” Brian interrupted.

He sank to his knees, dug into a pocket, and took out a bendy straw, a folding toothbrush, and three quarters. He brushed and fiddled and rolled them on the ground for a minute, then he looked up. “Just as I thought. Recent footsteps!”

“They’re called footprints,” said Mara, staring at them through her big green glasses. “And they’re definitely not grown-up prints. They’re kid footprints!”

Randall blinked. “A lady was driving the flower truck this morning. The flower shop is called Petals and Buds. There were a couple of boys with her.”

I frowned. “Petals and Buds? A couple of—”

Mara gasped. “Joey Myers’s mother owns that flower shop!”

“And those weren’t boys,” Kelly said. “They were Joey and Billy! I knew it was them! Who are the pirate eyeballs now, I wonder?”

“Randall, when did you say Thunder vanished?” I asked, opening my cluebook.

“First thing this morning,” Randall said.

“The same time the boys delivered the flowers!” Kelly said, twisting her curls into a knot.

I jotted it all in my cluebook and snapped it shut. “Next stop, the flower shop.”

“Hey, that’s a rhyme,” said Brian.

“I do it all the time,” I said.

“You’re a poet,” Mara said.

“I know it,” I said.

Randall Crandall laughed. Then he frowned. “Please bring Thunder back safe and sound. I miss him.”

I knew what he meant.

Just after we had moved to Badger Point, my dog, Sparky, had gotten lost.

I was afraid I’d never see his scruffy face again. When he had finally found his way home, I didn’t stop hugging him for a long time.

Randall missed Thunder as much as I had missed Sparky.

“We’ll find Thunder,” I said. “There’s no case we can’t solve.”

“There are plenty of math problems we can’t solve,” said Mara.

“And some mysteries of the universe,” Kelly added.

“But no case,” said Brian.

“I believe you,” Randall said. “Thanks.”

We all waved good-bye as the rich boy slowly walked back to his gigantic house.

“I bet he wants to come with us,” Mara said.

Brian nodded. “I wonder if he wants to be a Goofball.”

“I’m pretty sure everybody does,” I said. “But first things first. Joey likes horses. He helped deliver flowers to Thunder this morning. Maybe he’s graduated from hamster hider to horse rustler.”

“Goofballs,” said Mara, “it sounds like we have our first real suspect.”

Kelly grinned. “My favorite word!”