Chapter 1.

It was a beautiful day in the early spring in Willow Creek. The Moondance clan was in the habit of staying on their land next to Pine Hollow during their off season.

The kids were on spring break and the Atwoods had the Whyte family, and the Ellisons over for lunch.

Jason Whyte's daughter Juliana Fortuna Whyte, "Lucky" to her friends, the Atwood twins Risa and Evie and their friend Matthias "Matt" Ellison stepped outside to the picnic table next to the Atwood family trailer to eat their dessert. Lisa had given each of them one of her famous pastries with the sweet strawberry filling and golden flaky crust.

They all sat down at the table and had all just bitten into their desserts when the peacefulness of the moment was shattered into a thousand fragments as Regulus Warner came flying around the corner at the end of the row of trailers and came blasting up the road in a fancy new go-kart.

When he reached where the friends were sitting, he suddenly fished tailed the cart and did a 180 right in front of them and in the process spewed dirt all over them and their food.

He realized what he had done when instead of applause from impressed friends he got angry glares from them and Lucky as they threw their desserts away in the nearby trash can and started brushing dirt off of themselves.

"Thank you very much!" snapped Lucky angrily, "four perfectly good desserts down the drain!"

Regulus chuckled guiltily

"Sorry," he said, "I guess I didn't think that through."

"No kidding," snapped Matt shaking dirt out of his jacket.

"Where did you get that go-Kart?" asked Risa

"He's been saving up for one," said Lucky as she pulled the tie out of her hair so she could shake the dirt out of it.

"We know that," said Evie, "But we didn't think he was anywhere close to having enough saved up to buy it."

"I got a great deal," Regulus announced proudly climbing out of the go-kart, "I got this road burner for just the four hundred bucks I had already saved up!"

Regulus turned to Lucky as she finished putting her hair back into a ponytail and threw his arm around her.

"Hey Lucky want a ride?!" he asked.

Lucky glared at him again.

"Those desserts you ruined were aunt Lisa's fried strawberry pies," she growled grabbing his pinky finger and using it to remove his arm from her shoulders, "and I haven't forgiven you for ruining them yet!"

"Okay, Okay," said Regulus taking the hint, "Maybe later."

Regulus jumped back in the go-kart and sped off.

Matt leaned over to Evie.

"Regulus has got to learn to stay on Lucky's good side." He observed

Evie smirked and nodded.

Later that night…Lucky was coming out of her room when she heard her dad talking on the phone. He had paused halfway down the stairs.

"Mr. Wilcox," he was saying, "I'm of course more than happy to look in to this for you, but I can't guarantee to get your stolen property back any more than the police can…okay let me know what you decide."

"Possible client, Daddy?" asked Lucky from the top of the stairs.

Jason looked up and smiled at his daughter.

"Yeah," he said, "That was Mr. Wilcox he owns a shop downtown. He and his fellow business owners have been the victims of a rash of robberies."

"You mean somebody's been holding them up?" asked Ashely meeting them at the bottom of the stairs.

"No, actually someone's been breaking in and stealing money from the registers and anything in the stores that isn't nailed down." Replied Jason, "Mr. Wilcox was hoping that if he, and the owners, hired a private eye to investigate, he might stand a better chance of getting his stolen property back. But, like I told him, there are no guarantees."

"What did Mr. Wilcox lose?" asked Lucky as they settled down in the living room for game night.

"Mr. Wilcox runs that shop with all the dirt-bikes and go-karts," replied Jason, "He lost the money in the cash register and his safe as well as one of his most expensive go-karts."

Luck had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"Oh no," she said to herself, "It can't be!"

To be continued

Should Lucky tell her dad about Regulus's new go-kart?

Is it even the same go-kart?