The Paw Print Bookmark
A dark blue paw print bookmark sends Emily toward a porch basket with a puzzle hiding in plain sight. The treats are disappearing, but the real answer is sweeter than anyone expects.
A Clue with Toes
Emily opened her mystery notebook on the treehouse floor and set the paw print bookmark beside it.
Jack pointed at it. “Dog clue.”
“Maybe,” Emily said.
Nora tilted it toward the light. “There are three tiny dents in the corner.”
Emily leaned closer. Dot. Dot. Dot.
“Three marks,” she said. “And it smells like peanut butter.”
Jack sat up fast. “That is a clue I respect.”
Emily wrote in her notebook: paw print, three marks, peanut butter smell.
“Three houses on Maple Street,” Nora said. “And two of them have dogs.”
Emily tucked the bookmark into her notebook. “Then Maple Street first.”
The Porch Basket
At the third house, Emily slowed down.
On the porch sat a wicker basket with a painted bone on the side. Inside were a leash, a tennis ball, and a bag of dog treats.
“Three,” Nora said.
Emily looked at the basket, then at the bookmark. “And dog treats.”
Mrs. Carter stepped outside with a watering can. “Hello, detectives. Have you come to solve my porch mystery?”
Emily blinked. “You have one?”
Mrs. Carter nodded. “Every morning this week, a few treats go missing from that basket. Not all of them. Just some.”
Jack looked delighted. “A snack mystery.”
“A dog snack mystery,” Nora said.
Mrs. Carter smiled. “My puppy, Pip, is usually nearby, but I never catch him doing anything.”
Emily opened her notebook. Missing treats. Porch basket. House number three.
“May we look around?” she asked.
“Please,” said Mrs. Carter.
Following the Trail
Emily studied the porch boards first. Near the bench were tiny crumbs.
Jack pointed at the step. “Dusty smudges.”
Nora knelt near a flowerpot. “Paw prints.”
Emily followed the little prints down the steps and across the yard to the side gate.
“So something small carried the treats away,” she said.
“A squirrel?” Jack guessed.
Emily shook her head. “The bookmark is a paw print. And these prints are close together, like a puppy walking carefully.”
They searched under the bench and behind the hedge. Emily found half a dog treat near the gate.
“The treats are leaving the porch,” she said, “but not disappearing.”
Jack peered through the fence. “There’s Pip.”
A fluffy tan puppy trotted across the side yard with something in his mouth, then vanished behind the hedge.
Emily snapped her notebook shut. “After him.”
A Wrong Guess
They found Pip beside his water bowl. His mouth was empty.
“Maybe he ate it,” Jack said.
Emily frowned. “Then why only take a few each day?”
Pip zipped to the back gate, then back again.
Nora watched him. “He keeps looking through there.”
Emily opened the gate.
In the shade beside the neighbor’s fence lay a big old dog on a folded blanket. He had a gray muzzle and calm eyes. A water dish sat nearby.
Pip squeezed past Emily, trotted over, and dropped a dog treat beside the old dog’s paw.
The old dog ate it slowly.
Nora pressed her sketchbook to her chest. “He’s been sharing.”
The Real Answer
Emily felt the whole mystery click into place.
“Pip can reach the basket from the bench,” she said. “He takes a few treats and carries them here.”
Mrs. Carter came through the gate behind them and stopped short. “Oh. That’s Rusty. He belongs to Mr. Benson next door.”
Mr. Benson opened his back door and waved. “Rusty rests a lot lately,” he said. “Pip visits him every day.”
Jack smiled. “And brings lunch.”
Emily wrote fast in her notebook. Crumbs. Paw prints. Gate path. Half-chewed treat. Pip sharing with Rusty.
“Mystery solved,” Nora said.
Emily nodded. “Yes. Nobody was being sneaky. Pip was being kind.”
Just then, Pip gave a happy shake. Something shiny slipped from his collar and landed in the grass with a tiny clink.
Jack picked it up. “Emily?”
In his hand lay a small brass button, bright in the middle from age and rubbing. On the front was a tiny carved letter M.
Emily turned it over. On the back, scratched very lightly, was a little notebook shape.
Her breath caught.
Mr. Benson looked over the fence. “Funny thing. Rusty’s blanket used to belong to my sister when she was a girl. She kept old odds and ends in this yard for years.”
Emily closed her fingers around the button. “Then this might belong to the first mystery in my notebook.”
Jack looked at Nora. Nora looked at Emily.
Emily opened to a fresh page and wrote four neat words.
The Brass Button Mystery.
Follow-Up Questions
- Which clue helped Emily most: the crumbs, the paw prints, or the gate path?
- Why do you think Pip took only a few treats instead of all of them?
- What do you think the brass button might have to do with Emily’s notebook mystery?