The Mystery at Maypenny's

to win. Now here you are, practically requesting a chance to lose.”
    Trixie pretended to throw the ball at Brian’s head, and he ducked, grinning.
    “Brian’s right,” Jim said. “He and Mart and Dan and I have a height advantage, and we outnumber you.”
    Trixie looked questioningly at Jim. It definitely wasn’t like him not to go along with a joke.
    Under Trixie’s probing gaze, Jim seemed suddenly to realize that her challenge had been a joke. Flustered, he tried to recover. “I’ll tell you what,” he said. “We will graciously consent to lend you one of our esteemed selves for the duration of the game. How about it, guys? Who wants to be an honorary girl?”
    Mart groaned and turned his back to avoid being picked. Dan grinned shyly. Brian shrugged and walked to the other side of the net. “I’ve always wanted to see how the other half lives,” he said.
    “All set?” Trixie asked, looking around at her teammates. “Volley for serve,” she said, tossing the ball into the air.
    A half hour later, the seven red-faced, exhausted Bob-Whites collapsed on the ground around the picnic basket.
    “I don’t think I like being a girl,” Brian panted. “It’s too tiring.”
    “Being a boy isn’t exactly relaxing when it means playing against female demons like you,” Dan replied.
    “At least we won,” Jim said.
    “Only by two points,” Honey retorted. “If I were two inches taller, you wouldn’t have won at all.”
    “Cease and desist!” Mart ordered. “We do not need post-competition commentary. We need sustenance!”
    Trixie rose to her knees and crawled to the picnic basket. “If you want to eat, you’d better help us unpack the lunch,” she threatened, handing Mart a bundle of plastic knives, forks, and spoons.
    It took only a few minutes to have Celia’s well-packed lunch spread out on the blanket. She had included roast beef and chicken sandwiches, vegetables and dip, potato salad, and a luscious angel food cake for dessert.
    Mart grabbed a sandwich with each hand as soon as Di had removed the foil covering from the plate. He looked from one to the other as if he couldn’t figure out where to start. Finally, he took a huge bite out of the chicken sandwich, chewed and swallowed, then rolled his eyes to express his happiness before taking a bite of roast beef.
    “Celia’s picnic lunches are super scrumptious, aren’t they?” Honey asked, helping herself to potato salad and a single sandwich.
    Trixie nodded, her mouth too full to speak. She was watching Jim, who had waited until the others started eating before helping himself to the food. Now he was staring at his full plate, poking holes in his potato salad with his fork.
    Trixie swallowed and started to take another bite. Instead, she put her fork back on her plate and blurted impulsively, “Jim, what’s been bothering you all day?”
    Jim looked up, startled. An angry look crossed his face, as if he felt his privacy had been invaded. Then he smiled. “I can’t fool you, can I, Trixie? Something has been bothering me, but I’m not sure I should tell you about it.”
    “Why not?” Trixie demanded.
    “Oh, Jim, you can tell us,” Honey urged. “We have to trust one another, or there’s no point in even having a club like the Bob-Whites.”
    Jim hesitated. “I suppose you’re right. I’ve been holding back partly because I didn’t want to worry you. Now that you know I’m holding back, you’ll probably worry even more if I don’t tell. You have to promise to keep this a secret, though.”
    “We promise,” Trixie said quickly. “What is it?”
    Jim set down his plate and folded his hands. “Just after Honey called you about the cookout, I got a call from the head of the state wildlife department. He asked if he could come out to the house and talk to me. When he got there, he had a map with him. The map shows the locations of all the ducks that have been found by the inspectors. He asked me to show him where I’d found those first two ducks we sent to the lab.
    “He marked those two places on the map, then he held the map up and told me to take a look at it. He asked me if there was anything that struck me right away.”
    “Was there?” Trixie asked as Jim paused for a moment.
    Jim nodded. “It didn’t take an expert to spot it. I found two ducks Friday night. The inspectors found three on Saturday morning and three more this morning. The two I found were a hundred feet apart. That’s just about how