“Who?” Amara asked.
“Someone who knows this house inside out,” Nancy said. “Someone who knows how to make weird things happen.”
“Let’s find out who!” George said. She ran over to a mirror hanging on the wall. Written on its thick gold frame were the words MAGIC MIRROR.
“Mirror, mirror on the wall,” George began to chant. “Who is scaring us—once and for all?”
The girls crowded in front of the mirror. Everyone giggled, until the mirror began to crack!
“Guess what?” Amara said slowly. “This never happened before either.”
The girls stared at the mirror.
“That does it,” Bess said. “I’m out of here.”
“But you packed three pairs of pajamas!” George cried, waving her arms.
“Wait!” Nancy said. “There must be a way to find out who’s doing all this.”
“You mean as in another mystery, Detective Drew?” Mari asked, smiling.
Nancy smiled back. She loved solving mysteries. She even carried a blue detective notebook where she wrote down all of her suspects and clues. Sometimes she even used a magnifying glass!
“Sure,” Nancy said. “Solving a mystery at a sleepover could be fun.”
“Better than telling ghost stories!” Katie exclaimed.
George turned to her cousin. “Do you still want to go home, Bess?” she asked.
“Nope,” Bess said, shaking her head.
“Because Nancy is going to solve the case?” Amara asked.
Bess nodded. “And because we didn’t finish that yummy pizza!” she said.
The six friends laughed and gave each other high-fives.
“I’ll get my notebook and my magnifying glass,” Nancy said. “They’re both in my backpack in the library.”
“And I have my camera,” Mari reminded everyone. “To take pictures of clues.”
“I only packed my toothbrush,” Katie sighed. “Bor-ring!”
Before going into the library, Nancy checked the mirror for clues. She found a tiny silver spider on the frame.
“Ew!” Bess gasped. “Is it real?”
“It looks like a sticker,” Nancy said. She carefully picked at the sticker.
Mari leaned over Nancy’s shoulder and snapped a picture. The flash made Nancy see spots.
“Let’s go into the library now,” Nancy said, rubbing her eyes.
One by one the girls filed into the library. Nancy was about to get her notebook when Katie let out a shriek.
“Ohmygosh!” Katie cried. “Lester isn’t inside his cage—he’s gone!”
Nancy glanced at the cage. The door was wide open. “Maybe he kicked the door open,” she said. “He’s done that before.”
“No, I closed the latch!” Katie wailed. “I didn’t want him to get at our pizza!”
“Say,” George said slowly. “You don’t suppose Lester was . . . parrot-napped?”
“Parrot-napped?” Katie cried.
“But we were right outside the library all this time,” Nancy said. “We would have seen someone go in or out.”
“And there are no other doors in the library,” Amara added.
Nancy checked the window. It was locked shut from the inside. And she noticed something else. “The dust on the windowsill is pretty even,” Nancy said. “That means no one climbed in or out of the window.”
The girls called Lester as they searched the room. Nancy saw how worried Katie was when he didn’t squawk back.
This isn’t funny anymore, Nancy thought. This is serious!
“What do you think, Nancy?” George asked. “Who do you think took Lester?”
All eyes were on Nancy now.
“I think,” Nancy said slowly, “the person who took Lester is the same person who’s trying to scare us.”
She pulled out her notebook and turned to a clean page. On it she wrote the words TRUTH OR SCARE? Underneath the title she began her list of suspects.
“Who would want to scare us?” Mari asked, wrinkling her nose.
“How about Ernest?” Nancy asked, thinking. “He was mad that he wasn’t invited to the sleepover. He also told us we’d be scared—and that he had 'better things to do.'”
“And he probably knows this house inside out,” George said. “He lives here!”
Nancy wrote down Ernest’s name.
“How about that witch?” George asked. “We haven’t seen her since Lester bit her nose.”
“Nipped!” Katie corrected. “Lester does not bite.”
“Hey!” Mari said excitedly. “Maybe there’s a clue in my pictures.”
Mari spread her pictures on the rug. Nancy checked them all out. Something in the group picture caught her eye.
“There’s something red behind that plant,” Nancy thought out loud.
Nancy grabbed her magnifying glass and placed it over the picture. The red object was tall and pointy. Nancy recognized it right away. “The troll’s red hat!” Nancy said. “Maybe he was waiting to sneak into the library.”
“We did hear the troll say that he had a plan up his sleeve,” George said.
“Maybe the troll’s plan was to scare us,” Nancy said. “Then if we went home, he could watch the baseball game!”
“Sneaky troll!” Katie muttered.
Nancy added the troll to her suspect list. “Good work, Mari!” she said.
“Don’t mention it.” Mari smiled.
The girls searched the library for more clues. Nancy found another spider sticker on the mantel.
“There it is again,” Nancy said.
“And again!” Katie said. She pointed to a spider sticker on the bookcase.
“I never saw those spiders before,” Amara said. “Where did they come from?”
“Who cares?” Bess shuddered. “As long as they’re not real.”
Nancy sketched the spider in her notebook. Then she heard a deep snarling voice. It was coming from the hallway and it was singing:
“Blow the man down, maties! Blow the man down! Yo, ho, blow the man down!”
The girls bumped into each other as they tried to squeeze through the door.
Once in the hall, Nancy saw a man wearing a black cape and a red bandana around his head. His back was to the girls as he walked up the hall.
“Who’s that?” Nancy asked Amara.
“It’s Captain Hook from Peter Pan,” Amara explained. “But he never had a parrot before.”
A parrot? Nancy looked closer.
Perched on the pirate’s shoulder was a green-and-red parrot!
“It’s got to be Lester!” Katie cried.
The pirate stopped. He glanced over his other shoulder and raised his eye patch. Then he began to run!
“Stop! “Nancy called.
Could Captain Hook be the parrot crook?
4
Yo, Ho—Oh, No!
why would a pirate want a parrot anyway?” Mari asked as they chased Captain Hook down the hall.
“So he can repeat directions to buried treasure!” George said. “Duh!”
Captain Hook’s cape fluttered as he raced around a corner. The girls skidded around the corner, too.
Captain Hook glanced back before slipping through a door. The girls slowed down. Hanging on the door was a sign that read THE JOLLY JELLYFISH—DANGER!
“I don’t like that word,” Bess said.
“Me neither.” Mari shivered. “I was once stung by a jellyfish.”
“Not that!” Bess said. “I don’t like the word danger !”
“Neither do I,” Katie said. “But I have to get Lester back once and for all.”
Katie pushed the door open. The girls peeked inside. When Nancy didn’t see the pirate, she waved everyone into the room.
“Where are we?” Bess whispered.
Amara pointed to a big black and white flag hanging against a wall. “We’re inside the Jolly Jellyfish,” she declared.
Nancy knew it was just another room, but it really did look
like a pirate ship.
Instead of windows there were portholes. Nets hung from the ceiling. Treasure maps were strewn over the floor. But there was no Captain Hook!
“Looks like the captain jumped ship,” Amara said.
“Great,” Mari muttered. “Now I”ll never get his picture!”
“And I’ll never get Lester!” Katie moaned.
“You guys!” George interrupted. “Check it out.”
Nancy turned to George. She was dragging a medium-size chest to the middle of the room. Nancy thought it looked like a treasure chest.
“It must be Captain Hook’s treasure chest,” Mari said.
“Don’t open it!” Bess cried. “You know what Captain Hook did to Tiger Lily—he tied her up!”
“Bess, this is make believe,” Amara said. “I . . . hope.”
George lifted the lid. Nancy and her friends stared inside. It was filled with colorful plastic rings and bracelets!
“Awesome!” Mari cried. She slipped a bright green ring on her finger.
Amara pulled out a note and read it out loud: “Treasure your sleepover. Luv, Aunt Ellen!”
The girls had fun putting on the rings and bracelets.
“Purple and pink are my favorite colors!” Nancy exclaimed. “They match my— “
Creeeeeeak!
Nancy looked up. She saw a net sagging down from the ceiling.
The girls jumped up. It was too late. The net fell down over all of them!
“We’re trapped!” Bess cried, tearing at the net. “Get ready to walk the plank!”
Through the net Nancy saw Captain Hook—stepping out from behind the Jolly Jellyfish flag!
“Ahoy!” the pirate snarled. “Thought you could steal my swag, arrrgh?”
The parrot on his shoulder squawked. Its head spun around and around.
“Who’s a pretty bird?” it squawked. “Who’s a pretty bird? Arrrk!”
“Since when does Lester wear an eye patch?” George whispered under the net.
“He doesn’t,” Katie whispered. “And his head doesn’t spin like that either!”
The pirate used his hook-hand to flick a switch on the wall. The net slowly began to rise.
When the girls were free, Nancy studied the parrot. It looked more like some kind of robot.
“That’s not Lester,” Nancy said. “That parrot isn’t even real!”
“Neither is your jewelry!” the parrot joked. “Har, har, har! Arrrk!”
Captain Hook leaned over and whispered. “Aye—Sophie is mechanical,” he said. “But don’t let her hear that.”
“Why?” Mari laughed. “Does she think she’s a real parrot?”
“No,” Captain Hook said. “A real chicken!”
“Cluck, cluck!” Sophie screeched.
Everyone giggled except Katie. Nancy couldn’t blame her. The parrot she hoped was Lester was just a fake.
“You’re not going to take our jewelry, are you?” Bess asked Captain Hook.
“Shiver me timbers!” The pirate laughed. He held up his hook-hand. “Does this look like a hand that wears rings?”
The girls giggled.
“Besides,” Captain Hook said, “there’s an old pirate saying about finding buried treas-arrrgh!”
“What?” Nancy asked.
The pirate kicked up his heels and began to dance. “Finders keepers losers weepers!” he sang. “Arrrgh!”
Nancy was happy that the pirate was nice. But she still had some questions.
“Captain Hook,” she said, “do you know if anyone in the house is doing weird things?”
“Everyone in this house is weird,” Captain Hook answered. “What do you mean?”
Nancy was about to explain when— Splash! Water began gushing through the portholes into the room. And all over them!
“We’re sailin’ into a storm!” Captain Hook shouted. “Lower the sail! Close the cannon ports! Batten down the hatches!”
“You do that,” George told the pirate. “I’m outta here!”
“Arrk! Cluck, cluck!” squawked Sophie.
Nancy’s reddish blond bangs were soaked. She turned and reached for the doorknob. There she saw another spider!
What do all these spider stickers mean? Nancy wondered as they ran out.
Once in the hall, George turned to Amara. “Don’t tell me, let me guess,” she said. “That never happened before either.”
“No,” Amara said. “And if you ask me, Captain Hook looked pretty surprised, too.”
Mari, George, and Katie sat on the staircase. Nancy, Amara, and Bess leaned on the banister.
“What do we do now?” Amara asked.
Nancy saw a phone hanging on the wall. It gave her an idea. “I know!” Nancy said. “I’ll call my dad. He’s a lawyer and he always helps me with my cases.”
“Good idea,” George said.
But when Nancy placed the receiver against her ear, she heard a strange, deep laugh: “Mwah, hah, hah, haaaa!”
Nancy gulped and hung up. “Or maybe I’ll solve this case all by myself.”
Katie slumped back on a stair. “I can’t believe this is happening!” she said. “I can’t believe Lester is missing!”
“Don’t look now,” George said. “But someone else is missing.”
“Who?” Mari asked.
“Bess!” George replied.
“Bess?” Nancy gasped.
Her eyes darted around for her friend. George was right. Bess was gone!
5
Bubble Trouble
Oh, great,” Katie groaned. “First Lester— now Bess!”
“Or maybe Bess is playing a trick on us!” Mari said.
The girls ran up and down the hall calling Bess’s name. They checked behind plants, doors, even behind a tall clock. But Bess was nowhere to be found!
“Poor Bess!” George cried. “I’ll never call her clothes prissy again!”
“You promise?” a voice asked.
Nancy and her friends froze. The voice belonged to Bess!
“I think it came from around the corner!” Mari said.
The girls raced down the hall and skidded around the corner. There Nancy saw Bess. She was standing in front of a door that was covered with candy bars and lollipops.
“I thought I smelled chocolate,” Bess said, peeling off a chocolate-caramel bar. “But I never thought I’d find all this!”
“Why didn’t you answer when we called your name?” George cried, waving her arms.
“My mouth was full,” Bess said. She shrugged. “And it’s not polite to speak with your mouth full.”
George looked mad. “Be careful. Or you’ll get chocolate all over your prissy clothes!” she snapped.
“George!” Bess said. “You promised!”
“Stop fighting,” Nancy said. “The most important thing is that we found Bess.”
“And all this candy! “Mari said. She took a quick picture. “Let’s pig out!”
Nancy studied the candy-covered door. She had never seen anything like it.
“This is the door that leads to the witch’s cottage,” Amara explained.
“Which witch?” Mari asked.
“The witch from “Hansel and Gretel,’” Amara said. “The one who Lester bit.”
“Nipped!” Katie corrected.
“Uh-oh,” Bess said. She dropped a purple lollipop. “When she finds out I was eating her candy—she’ll bust a wart!”
“No!” Amara said, smiling. “She wants you to eat it. That’s why it’s there.”
But Nancy was more interested in what was behind the door. She reached out and grabbed the doorknob.
“What are you doing?” Bess asked.
“The witch is a suspect,” Nancy said. “She might be making all these weird things happen. And she might have Lester, too.”
The door creaked as Nancy opened it. Slowly she peeked inside.
The room looked like the inside of a tiny cottage. The walls were made of stone. A big basket sat on
a wooden table. There was a tall cabinet against one wall, and a big black pot against the other.
“Is the witch in there?” Mari hissed.
“No,” Nancy said. “But let’s go inside and look for clues.”
The girls stepped into the room. Bess ran straight to the basket and looked inside.
“Cool!” Bess said. “It’s filled with raisins, nuts, and dried fruit.”
“That witch may be mean,” Mari said, shaking her head, “but she sure knows how to throw a party.”
“I don’t think it’s from the witch,” Amara said. She opened a note next to the basket. “It’s from my aunt Ellen!”
Nancy read the note over Amara’s shoulder: “Sweets for a sweet sleepover! Luv, Aunt Ellen.”
“Who wants dried apricots?” Bess asked, reaching into the basket.
“Who wants nuts?” George asked.
“All I want is Lester.” Katie sighed sadly.
The treats looked yummy but Nancy wanted to look for more clues. She walked over to the cabinet and tried to open it. The door was locked.
Nancy was about to look for a key when she heard a strange gurgling noise.
“What’s that sound?” Nancy asked.
Her friends stopped eating to listen.
“It can’t be my stomach,” Bess said. “It’s too full.”
Nancy followed the noise to the black pot. Her mouth dropped open when she looked inside. The pot was filled with a thick, green, bubbling liquid!
The other girls ran to the pot, too.
“Yuck!” Bess said.
“What is it?” Katie asked.
“Well, it’s not chicken soup!” George said.
“I know,” Amara said. “It’s the witch’s brew. She always has something brewing in her cauldron.”
Nancy looked at the brew through her magnifying glass. She saw something red floating on the top. “Does the recipe call for feathers?” she asked Amara.
Katie gripped the rim of the cauldron. “Feathers!” She gasped. “The witch said she needed them for her brew!”
Nancy reached for a broom. Using the handle she fished out the red feather.
“Say!” Mari said. “Doesn’t Lester have- ”
George nudged Mari but it was too late. Katie put the pieces together.
“Lester!” Katie cried. “He was my only pet. Now he’s—parrot chowder.”