The Sleuth Squad (eBook)

The Case of the Red Shoe

LaTonya T Dudley (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025
470 Seiten
Publishdrive (Verlag)
9798993851204 (ISBN)

Infos

When a single red shoe appears on the beach, Zoe Harper and her friends uncover a mystery that links their small town to a lost scientist and the sea itself. Armed with curiosity and courage, they discover that even the smallest clue can light the darkest path. A heart-warming adventure of friendship and wonder for readers 8-13.

Textauszug

Chapter 1 - The Floating Clue

The morning the mystery began, the sea was calm enough to hear Milo’s paws thump the boards of the Harbor Glen pier. Zoe Harper let him lead the way, one hand on his leash and the other shielding her eyes from the sun. The tide had slipped back like a blanket being folded, leaving shiny ribbons of seaweed and tiny shells that clicked when the water kissed them. 

“Slow down, detective,” Zoe said. Milo’s golden ears perked at the word detective, as if he understood. Maybe he did. He was very good at finding things—mostly snacks, but still.

A gull swooped low. Something red bobbed between the pilings, catching the light. At first Zoe thought it was a piece of a soda label, but then a small wave rolled it closer, and she saw the curve, the strap, the tiny bow on the toe.

“A shoe?” she murmured. “In the water?”

Milo wagged so hard his tail thumped her leg. He crept to the edge and sniffed.

The shoe bumped the pier post and spun slowly, as if it were listening. It was bright red—cherry red—with a scuffed toe and a thin strap that had come unbuckled. Zoe knelt, stomach pressed to the warm boards, and reached down as far as she could. The shoe slipped away. She bit her lip, scooted forward another inch, and stretched until her fingers touched cool leather.

“Got you,” she whispered, and lifted.
Water spilled out in a glittering stream. The shoe felt heavier than she’d expected. Sand, maybe. Or a tiny rock. She set it on the boards and Milo’s nose went to work, whuff-whuff-whuff, as if each breath could tell him a chapter of its story.

It was definitely a girl’s shoe, but older—like something from the dress-up rack at the thrift store. The strap had a little silver button with a design stamped into it.

 Zoe wiped it with her sleeve. The design looked like a tiny wave curling around a circle. She ran a finger along the inside and winced. Something hard was tucked under the lining near the toe.

“Hold on,” she told Milo, who was trying to edge the shoe closer with his paw. “Evidence handling, please.”

She checked the pier. No one else was out this early; just a fisherman setting up his line at the far end. Zoe hooked her finger under the loose edge of the lining and gave a careful tug. The fabric lifted with a soft rip, and something slipped free and tapped the wood.

A key.

Not a house key. Not the gold kind her mom kept on a ring. This one was thin and silver, with teeth like tiny stairs and a round head stamped with the same curling wave. It was smaller than her pinky but heavier than it looked. She turned it in her fingers and felt a prickle on the back of her neck. Keys meant locks. Locks meant secrets.

“Where did you come from?” Zoe asked the shoe. Milo sneezed, as if that were an answer.

She peered inside again. The leather was worn but clean. A faint line of stitching ran along the arch, and a single sand grain clung there, sparkling. Zoe tipped the shoe and another sound chimed—a light, hidden clink. She shook it gently. Clink. Something else was still inside, caught in the seam.

“Okay, okay.” Zoe rummaged in her tote for the little notebook she carried everywhere. On the first clean page she wrote: Clue 1: Red shoe found at pier, 7:12 a.m. She drew a quick rectangle for the shoe and a circle for the key. Marking on button and key matches. She hesitated, then added, Note: Shoe is only one. Where is the other?

A breeze lifted the ends of her hair. Farther down the pier, the fisherman whistled a tune that hopped up and down like a frog. Zoe slipped the key into her pocket and held the shoe up to the morning light.

The leather made a dark arch on the boards, like a little cave. Milo pressed his snout under it, sniffed deeply, and gave a small, eager huff.

“You think it has a story?” Zoe asked. Milo’s tail answered. He pawed the shoe again, but this time more gently, as if he understood.

She flipped the shoe over. The sole was smooth from use, but there—near the heel—were two faint letters scratched into the leather. E.G.

Zoe traced them with her nail. “Initials,” she breathed. “Somebody wanted the world to know this was theirs.”

A sudden slap of water made her look up. The tide had started forward again, just a little, the way the sea tested the edges before it reached for more. The fisherman reeled in his line, checked his bait, and cast it again. A bell clanged on a buoy offshore, a slow, sleepy sound.

Zoe looked back at the shoe. It was strange and bright and very, very alone. People didn’t usually lose just one shoe. If it fell off, wouldn’t they notice?

Wouldn’t they look for it? She imagined someone—maybe a girl, maybe grown-up—hopping on one foot, laughing or crying or both, and then… what? Going home without it? Leaving a piece of themselves behind?

The thought made her chest feel fizzy, like she’d swallowed a sip of soda too fast.

“I’m taking it,” she told the air, and also the sea, in case the sea was listening. “For safekeeping.”

She wrapped the shoe in her beach towel and slipped it into her tote. The key she left in her pocket, where she could feel its cool shape to remind her this wasn’t just a lost-and-found situation. This was a clue. She stood, brushed sand from her knees, and tugged Milo’s leash.

“Come on, detective. We’ve got a meeting to call.” They walked the shoreline home, because the sand felt like a secret road. The waves kept pace at her left, folding over themselves with soft shhhh sounds, as if the ocean had its own opinion and wasn’t telling.

Every so often Milo stopped and shoved his nose into a clump of seaweed, just in case treasure hid there. He found exactly one broken crab shell and looked extremely pleased about it.

By the time they reached the boardwalk stairs, Harbor Glen was waking up. A delivery truck rumbled past with racks of warm bread for the bakery. Ms. Ortiz swept the sidewalk in front of the ice-cream shop, even though it was still too early for scoops. She waved at Zoe with her broom and eyed the bulging towel in the tote.

“Beachcombing already?” she called. “Find anything good?”

“Maybe,” Zoe said, which was both polite and true.

At home, the kitchen smelled like toast and orange marmalade. Mom stood at the counter with a mug of tea and a pencil behind her ear, laptop open. She was already dressed for work—a navy skirt and the necklace Zoe had made her from shells last summer. It bumped the top of her shirt when she turned.

“You and Milo beat the sun,” Mom said. “Everything okay?”

Zoe set the tote carefully on a chair. “I found something. Can I show you after I feed him?”

Mom smiled. “Of course. He’s been telling me all morning he’s starving. I don’t believe him.”

Milo wagged as if to say, Believe me, and thumped his bowl with a paw for emphasis. Zoe scooped his kibble and added exactly seven pieces of the good chicken bites, because seven felt lucky. While he crunched, she peeked into the living room. The clock over the fireplace ticked. The photograph of Grandma on the mantle caught the light—Grandma on the beach, hair wrapped in a bright scarf, toes pointed at the tide.

Grandma loved stories. If she’d been here, she would have said, Ah, a red shoe! That’s how a legend starts. She would have made tea and listened with both elbows on the table and her chin in her hands, like secrets were her favorite snack.

Zoe lifted the shoe from the towel and set it on the kitchen table. Mom blinked.

“Well,” Mom said. “That’s unexpected.”

“I found it at the pier,” Zoe said. “It has a key inside. And letters on the bottom—E.G. And—” She caught herself. Words were lining up in her mouth, ready to race each other. She took a breath to make them behave. “I think it belongs to someone. Or it used to. And I don’t know why it was in the water.”

Mom came closer. She touched the button on the strap, then the place where the lining had lifted. “What kind of key?”

Zoe took it from her pocket and set it beside the shoe. It tinked against the table. Up close, the wave design in the metal looked even more careful, like whoever made it wanted it to be more than just a key. A symbol. A promise.

Mom tilted her head. “Not for a house,” she said softly. “Maybe a jewelry box. Or an old suitcase.”

“Or a secret door,” Zoe said, before she could stop herself.

Mom’s mouth quirked. “Or that.” She glanced toward the clock. “I’ve got a meeting in ten minutes, kiddo. But I have…” She hunted in the drawer near the sink and pulled out a small purple flashlight. “…this. From the science fair last year. Remember the invisible ink pens? The light picks up weird stuff sometimes. If there’s anything written on the inside, it might show up.”

Zoe’s heart did a quick, excited hop. She clicked on the light and held it over the shoe’s inner sole, reading the blank leather like it might whisper. At first there was nothing. Then, slowly, faint letters bloomed up from the pale surface, thin as spider threads and the color of ghost-lilacs.

Two words. Four more. Then a period.

Zoe read them twice to make sure. She felt the fizz again, but this time it wasn’t soda. It was the beginning of something. It was a door being cracked open from the other side.

“What does it say?” Mom asked.

Zoe swallowed. “Return what was taken.”

They stood there looking at the shoe, at the shine where the light touched the letters, at the key catching a stripe of sun from the window. In the hallway, the clock...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 11.11.2025
• Reihe/Serie: Harbor Glen Mystery Adventures
• Illustrationen: Ai generated
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Kinder- / Jugendbuch ► Bilderbücher ► Religiöse Bilderbücher
• Schlagworte: Harbor Glen • kids detective series • middle grade mystery • ocean adventure • red shoe mystery • STEM fiction for children • teamwork and courage
• ISBN-13: 9798993851204 / 9798993851204