A Little Green Man?

Carrie and Carl, Laketon's youngest detectives, were walking to soccer practice when a neighbor called to them.

"There's a little green man in my backyard," she said. "Can you solve a mystery about him?"

Carrie thought Mrs. Olson was joking until she, too, saw a little green man -- or at least there was a small greenish-looking figure moving closer to them.

"Trevor!" Carl stared at the four-year-old. "What happened to you?"

Mrs. Olson sighed. "My son went out to play in his plastic pool a few minutes ago. When he sat down into the water, he changed color wherever it touched him. Someone put food coloring in there! Can you find out who did it? I can clean him up, but . . ."

"I like this color!" Trevor said, pointing to his legs. "I want to show the girls how I look."

"What girls?" Carrie asked.

"Down there," Trevor answered, waving his hand.

"He means Lori Matson, Debbie Potter, and Barbie Watson," Mrs. Olson said. "Those girls live on the next block, and they often come around the yard to talk to him. Maybe one of them did it."

"We'll be seeing all three of them at soccer practice," Carl said. "We'll see what we can find out."

"Someone put food coloring into Trevor Olson's little plastic pool," Carrie told each girl. "Did you do it?"

Lori laughed. "Not me! But if Mrs. Olson left a package of food coloring lying around, Trevor might have done it himself. One time he put his stuffed bear into the water. Every time I walk past their yard I see him doing something crazy."

"Well, I didn't do it," Debbie said. "But Lori's right. Trevor has a huge imagination. He likes pretending he's a man from outer space. So maybe he thought it would make him look more real if he turned green."

"I sure didn't go near his pool," Barbie told the twins. "I'm always afraid Mrs. Olson will ask me to watch Trevor. He's such a little pill that it would be hard. I talk to him when I pass their yard, but I don't stick around very long."

On their way back home, Carrie and Carl stopped at Mrs. Olson's house. "We know who put the food coloring in the swimming pool," Carrie told her.

Whom do the twins suspect and why?

Solution

It was Debbie. "OK, so I did it," she told the twins later. "I thought it would be funny. Trevor came out right after I'd dumped the food coloring. I didn't think he would actually sit down in green water! Now as punishment, my parents say I have to help Mrs. Olson with housework on Saturday. How'd you know I did it?"

Are you a good detective?

If so, you recall that Debbie was the only girl who mentioned the color of the food coloring. Since she knew it was green, she probably had been the one who colored the water.

"Well, we solved the swimming pool case," Carrie told her brother. "Too bad it was such a small pool! Wouldn't it be great if we had a regular-sized pool in our backyard? Some kids do have pools like that."

"Yeah," Carl sighed. "I'm turning green with envy just thinking about them."

Carrie laughed.

"We'd better not think about them, though, because anybody seeing us would think we were twins from Mars."

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Next week read Mike Mallory's new story, "Scotty's Ghost Hunt."