Page 43 of Pumpkin Patch Peril
Finally, she straightened her head and stared directly at the board.
Then she spun around to look at the others. “We’ve been thinking about this the wrong way!”
Her gaze shifted to the clock on her mantel, and her face went pale.
Mona’s phone rang, cutting off her declaration. Brenda’s name appeared on the screen, and all four ladies froze.
“Oh no,” Helen whispered. “It’s starting.”
“Brenda?” Mona answered, putting it on speaker with trembling fingers.
“Mona!” Brenda’s voice was high-pitched with panic. “Where are you? The judging starts in thirty minutes! Thirty minutes, and I have nothing to show them!”
The four ladies stared at each other in horror. Ruth mouthed, “Thirty minutes?” while Ida frantically started shoving papers into her purse.
“I’m standing here at the fairgrounds watching everyone else wheel in their entries,” Brenda continued, her voice cracking. “Gertrude Hartwell just arrived with a pumpkin that looks enormous, and people keep asking me where mine is. I can’t keep making excuses! Will you ladies be here to support my claim that it was stolen? Please tell me you’ll be here!”
Mona looked around at her three friends—all of them disheveled from their all-night investigation, Ruth still wearingyesterday’s clothes, Ida’s hair sticking up at odd angles. They looked as exhausted and stumped as she felt.
But then something shifted in Mona’s expression. A spark of certainty that hadn’t been there moments before.
“Yes, Brenda,” Mona said firmly. “We’ll be there. And I know exactly what I’m going to say.”
“You do?” Brenda’s voice filled with desperate hope. “But what? Who stole it? Did you figure it out?”
Ruth, Helen, and Ida all stared at Mona with expressions of surprise and hope.
“Who is it?” Brenda pressed urgently. “Who stole my pumpkin?”
Mona smiled, and there was something almost mysterious in her expression. “Let’s just say I’m going to let that be a surprise.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
The pumpkin contest tent was full of eager spectators. At the front were Gertrude and two other contestants with their giant pumpkins, the judge holding the red ribbon he had just pinned on Sally Dinsmore’s entry.
Gertrude was beaming with anticipation as Mona and the others slipped into the tent.
Ruth whispered to Mona, “Why won’t you tell us what you found?”
“Shhh, I need to gather my thoughts,” Mona replied quietly.
Just as the judge was announcing the winner, Brenda shot up from her seat. “Wait, wait!” she called out. “I have something to say! Gertrude isn’t really the winner, you see. I have a bigger pumpkin! But mine was stolen!”
A grumble rippled through the crowd. Someone shouted out, “Doesn’t count!”
Gertrude nodded vigorously. “Yeah, doesn’t count. Mine is here!”
“But it’s not fair!” Brenda protested. “Even Mona can vouch for me, can’t you?” Brenda gestured toward Mona, who stood up, commanding the attention of the audience.
“Well, Brenda, I do know what happened,” Mona said calmly.
“See!” Brenda said, nodding smugly.
Mona added, “But I’m not sure you’re going to like it,” as she made her way to the front of the tent.
The crowd fell silent, all eyes fixed on Mona as she took her position near the judge’s table. She cleared her throat and began.
“Brenda hired us to find her prize-winning pumpkin that she claimed was stolen. She even gave us a suspect to start with—Gertrude, since she was her rival to win.” Mona turned to Brenda with a measured look. “But that might have been a mistake.”
