Solution

Who trashed the Green Thumb Garden?

Courtney LeGuin

Why did she do it?

Courtney was still very angry that the Green Thumb Club laughed at her idea to grow tropical flowers. She thought that by ruining the vegetable garden, they could re-plant the garden with tropical flowers.

How did she do it?

Courtney knew that the baseball team didn't like the garden. When Basher told her that the players were spotted in the garden, she saw a perfect opportunity to trash the garden and blame it on them.

When she got to the garden, Courtney remembered that the gnomes were still wet with paint. So she opened the shed with her key, put on Mr. Reed's gardening gloves, and started uprooting the plants and smashing the garden gnomes.

After the damage was done, Courtney panicked and ran from the garden, leaving the shed door open and the gloves lying on the ground.

How did Max and Alison solve the case?

Max and Alison knew that the vandal had to be a member of the Green Thumb Club because the lock on the garden shed was opened with a key.

That meant the vandal could not have been Ethan, the captain of the baseball team, although he had blue paint on his pants. Ethan lied about being in the garden but he was only looking for his baseball, which Alison found.

Max and Alison didn't have to speak to all the members of the club. Courtney gave herself away while she was trying to blame the baseball team for her crime.

When Max and Alison spoke to Michelle, she claimed she didn't know about the garden being trashed. Before they could tell her the details of the crime, Michelle said: "You don't see any blue paint on me, do you?"

If Courtney really didn't know anything about the crime, she wouldn't have known that the vandal would be covered in blue paint from smashing the garden gnomes!

Conclusion

Max and Alison confronted Courtney with the evidence and she confessed to wrecking the garden. The Green Thumb Club got together and re-planted the garden. With a lots of rain and a little luck things will be growing again very soon.

Thanks for helping crack the case!

Pick up this month's issue of Owl Magazine for another Max Finder Mystery!