Space Case

“The note was a great clue,” Nancy said. “Now we know that Eddie got jelly beans for the boys.”

  “And he probably ate all the ice cream in the freezer room, too,” Bess said.

  Still shivering, Nancy, Bess, and George left the supermarket.

  “Didn’t you want to buy a box of Popsicles, Nancy?” Bess asked.

  “Are you kidding?” Nancy cried. “After being in that freezer, all I want is hot chocolate.”

  • • •

  The summer sun felt great. The girls went to the park to discuss the case. Nancy saw their friends Molly Angelo and Amara Shane. They were just leaving the playground with their jump ropes.

  “Brenda told us about the missing jellybean jar, Nancy,” Molly called. “We know you’ll find it!”

  “Good luck, Nancy!” Amara called. “We’re all counting on you.”

  “I know, I know.” Nancy sighed.

  The girls sat down on a bench. Nancy opened her notebook to a fresh page. Then she wrote, “Things We Know About the Missing Jelly-Bean Jar.”

  “The jar was made out of glass,” George said. “I know because I tapped on it when I tried to count the jelly beans.”

  “Mr. McCormick said the jelly beans inside were the tropical kind,” Bess said. “Like coconut, banana, and pineapple.”

  Nancy wrote the facts in her notebook. She turned the page and wrote,

  Reasons We Think the Boys Stole the Jelly Beans

  1) They had tons of jelly beans.

  2) They wrote Eddie a note.

  3) They’re all major pests!

  “Don’t look now, Nancy,” George whispered, “but look who’s in the playground.”

  “George!” Nancy complained. “How can I look and not look at the same time?”

  George pointed toward the playground. Nancy saw Jason, David, and Mike. They were chasing one another around the slide.

  “Let’s see what the boys are up to,” Nancy whispered. She shut her notebook. The girls quietly ran behind a big tree.

  Nancy peeked out from behind the tree. The boys were practicing karate kicks and hand chops. Suddenly Jason stopped and called out, “Jelly-bean break!”

  Jelly-bean break? Nancy’s heart skipped a beat. The boys reached into their pockets and pulled out handfuls of colorful jelly beans!

  “Eat as many as you want!” Mike told his friends. “There’s a lot more where those came from. A whole jar full!”

  “Did you hear what he said?” Nancy whispered. “They have a jar of jelly beans!”

  “And they’re eating the evidence!” George said. “I’m stopping them now!”

  “No!” Nancy warned. “First we have to make sure the boys are eating tropical jelly beans. Just like the stolen ones!”

  “How?” Bess asked. “The boys will never share their jelly beans with us.”

  Jason and Mike finished their jelly beans. David stuffed the rest of his jelly beans in the pocket of his T-shirt.

  “Follow me!” George whispered.

  The girls stepped out from behind the tree. They began walking toward the boys.

  “Jason, David, Mike!” George called. “Did you enter the space-camp contest?”

  “Yeah, we did,” David called back. “And we’re going to win, too!”

  Why are they so sure they’re going to win? Nancy wondered.

  “Well, you’d probably make horrible astronauts,” George told the boys.

  “Oh, yeah?” Mike asked.

  “How come?” Jason demanded.

  “There’s no gravity in space,” George explained. “Sometimes astronauts have to hang upside down for a long time. Bet you guys can’t do that.”

  The boys looked at one another. Then Jason said, “Bet you we can!”

  Jason, David, and Mike ran to the monkey bars. They climbed halfway up, grabbed the bars, and flipped upside down.

  “See?” Jason called.

  “Three . . . two . . . one,” George counted down. Suddenly a shower of jelly beans poured out of David’s pocket.

  “Grab them!” George shouted.

  Nancy smiled. So that was George’s plan for getting the jelly beans!

  The girls raced under the monkey bars and scooped up the jelly beans.

  “Hey!” David shouted upside down. “Those are mine!”

  “Finders, keepers, losers, weepers!” Bess said.

  The girls held the jelly beans as they ran away from the playground.

  “Some astronauts the boys would make,” Nancy said as they ran. “They can’t even get down from the monkey bars!”

  Nancy, Bess, and George found a water fountain. They rinsed off the jelly beans.

  “Let’s do a taste test,” Nancy said. “To see if the jelly beans are tropical.”

  Each of the girls popped a jelly bean into her mouth. But as Nancy chewed she didn’t taste pineapple. Or banana. Or coconut.

  “Sour milk!” Nancy gagged.

  “Raw liver!” George sputtered.

  “Rotten egg!” Bess cried.

  Nancy shuddered as the jelly bean slid down her throat.

  “These aren’t tropical jelly beans,” she cried. “They’re Smelly Jellies!”

  4

  Snooper Blooper

  Yuck!” George sputtered. “And I thought licorice jelly beans tasted bad.”

  Bess frowned as George spit her jelly bean on the ground. “Ewww, George!” she scolded. “That is so gross.”

  “So are the jelly beans!” George said.

  Nancy tossed the rest of her Smelly Jellies in the trash can. So did Bess and George. Then they raced back to the water fountain to rinse their mouths.

  “Those couldn’t be the stolen jelly beans,” Nancy said. “Mr. McCormick didn’t fill the jar with Smelly Jellies.”

  “Then what about the note the boys wrote to Eddie?” George asked.

  “And the jar the boys said they had,” Bess added.

  Nancy didn’t get it either. But she decided to be fair. She turned to a clean page in her notebook and wrote,

  Reasons We Think the Boys Didn’t Steal the Jelly Beans

  1) The jelly beans were Smelly Jellies.

  “We’ll see which page fills up first,” Nancy said. “And then we’ll know if the boys are guilty or not.”

  The girls started walking out of the park. Nancy could still taste sour milk on her tongue.

  “Maybe we should look for the glass jar next,” George suggested. “That’s missing too.”

  Nancy looked at her watch and shook her head. “Can’t,” she said. “I have to go home and walk Chocolate Chip.”

  Chocolate Chip was Nancy’s chocolate Labrador puppy. She walked him every day.

  “I promised my mother I’d help her cook dinner,” Bess said.

  “That sounds like fun,” Nancy said. “What are you eating for dinner, Bess?”

  “Who knows?” Bess scrunched up her nose. “As long as it’s not sour milk, raw liver, or rotten eggs!”

  The girls made plans to meet the next morning. Time was running out. They had to solve the case before Mr. McCormick called off the contest the next afternoon.

  By the time Nancy got home, Chip was happy to see her. She hooked on Chip’s leash and walked her out of the house. The frisky puppy tugged at the lead until they were two blocks away from Nancy’s house—on Mike Minelli’s block!

  “Let’s go back, Chip,” Nancy said. But when she looked at Mike’s house, she saw something on his windowsill. It was round. And clear like glass.

  It looks like a big jar, Nancy thought. But it’s too far away for me to be sure.

  Nancy didn’t want to walk across Mike’s yard.

  “Maybe if I look at it through my telescope,” Nancy thought out loud.

  Chip barked at Nancy.

  “You’re right, Chip!” Nancy said. “It’s not nice to snoop!”

  Nancy walked Chip all the way home. She was happy to find her dad in the backyard. He had come home from work early to barbecue dinner.

/>   While Mr. Drew fired up the grill, Nancy helped Hannah set the picnic table.

  “Hannah?” Nancy asked. “What are these greenish things under the plates?”

  “They’re place mats made out of cabbage leaves!” Hannah said. “Crafty Cathy made some on her show last week.”

  “Crafty Cathy?” Nancy asked. “I saw her at McCormick’s Supermarket today!”

  Hannah smiled. “Crafty Cathy thinks of everything, doesn’t she?”

  When Nancy was finished, she walked over to her dad. Mr. Drew was a lawyer and often helped Nancy with her cases. Today Nancy had an important question for him.

  “Daddy, is it okay for detectives to snoop?” Nancy asked. “You know, to use binoculars, tape recorders, telescopes?”

  Mr. Drew turned a chicken drumstick on the grill. He wore a red apron with the words, “Now We’re Cookin’” written on it.

  “Why, Nancy?” Mr. Drew asked. “Did you see something through your telescope?”

  “I think I saw something fishy,” Nancy said slowly. “But I’m not sure.”

  Mr. Drew shook his head. “Snooping isn’t a good idea, Nancy,” he said. “What you see isn’t always what you think you see.”

  “Really?” Nancy asked.

  “Really,” Mr. Drew said. He gave a little wink. “Stick to stargazing, Pudding Pie. Not people-gazing!”

  Chip padded over to beg for some chicken. Nancy gently led her dog away by her collar.

  Daddy’s right, Nancy thought. And I’m finding lots of evidence without my telescope anyway!

  Nancy ate a yummy dinner of barbecued chicken, potato salad, and cole slaw. When the sky got dark, Nancy went to her bedroom to look through her telescope.

  “I will not snoop,” Nancy told herself. “I will not snoop.”

  Chip sat at Nancy’s feet as she tilted the telescope out her window. She pressed one eye against the eyepiece and looked through. The stars seemed extra-bright tonight.

  “I heard there’s something called the Dog Star, Chip!” Nancy said. “I wonder if it’s shaped like a dog, too.”

  “Woof!” Chip barked. She tried to jump on Nancy’s lap. The telescope tilted down straight toward Mike’s room!

  “Down, Chip!” Nancy scolded. She was about to tilt up the telescope when she saw something through the lens. It was the round, clean thing she’d seen on Mike’s windowsill before.

  Nancy stared at it.

  Through the telescope it really looked like a jar. It looked about the same size and shape as the one missing from McCormick’s Supermarket!

  “Ohmigosh!” Nancy gasped. “Could that be the missing jelly-bean jar?”

  5

  Jar Too Far

  Chip nuzzled her nose against Nancy’s elbow.

  “I know I’m snooping, Chip,” Nancy said. “But I’ve got to get a better look at that jar!”

  Nancy twisted the knob on her telescope that made things look closer. Was the jar made out of glass? How could she tell?

  Suddenly Mike came to the window—and pulled down the shade. The jar was out of sight!

  “Phooey!” Nancy muttered. She leaned back in her chair. “But at least I have a great new clue, right, Chip?”

  Chip wagged her tail.

  Nancy grabbed her notebook. She turned to “Reasons We Think the Boys Stole the Jelly Beans” and added a fourth reason: “Mike has a jar on his windowsill.”

  “And tomorrow I’m going to find out if it’s the missing jar!” Nancy declared.

  • • •

  “Is that the jar you were talking about, Nancy?” George said. “The one in the window?”

  It was Wednesday morning. Nancy, Bess, and George rode their bikes to Mike’s block. They stood on the sidewalk and stared at Mike’s window. The shade was up. The jar was still on the windowsill.

  “That’s it,” Nancy said.

  “It’s the same shape as the missing jelly-bean jar,” Bess said. “And I’ll bet it’s the same size, too!”

  “What else can it be? It has to be the missing jelly-bean jar!” George asked.

  “We don’t know for sure,” Nancy said. “We have to get a closer look.”

  “Cool,” George said. “Let’s look through your telescope!”

  “No!” Nancy said. “Last night’s snooping was an accident. There has to be another way we can get a closer look.”

  “Snooping! Snooping!” a voice cried out. “Arrrk!”

  Nancy turned around and smiled. It was Katie’s parrot, Lester. He was sitting on Katie’s shoulder as he usually did.

  “What’s going on?” Katie asked. She walked over to the girls. “Why were you guys talking about snooping?”

  Nancy didn’t want to tell everyone what she’d seen through her telescope. But Katie was her friend. So Nancy told her about the telescope and what she’d seen.

  “Please solve the case and save the contest, Nancy,” Katie said. “I have to take Lester to space camp!”

  “Whoever heard of a parrot at space camp?” George asked.

  Katie shrugged. “There was a dog in outer space,” she said. “And a chimpanzee. Why can’t a parrot be an astronaut too?”

  Nancy couldn’t picture Lester in space. Would he wear a teeny, tiny spacesuit? Or eat freeze-dried crackers?

  “How do you know Lester wants to go to outer space, Katie?” Nancy asked.

  Lester blinked. “Mission control! Mission control!” he screeched. “Arrrk!”

  Katie smiled her biggest smile. “That’s how!” she said.

  Nancy turned toward Mike’s house. “Come on,” she said. “We have to get closer to that window.”

  The girls inched across Mike’s yard. Soon they were standing underneath Mike’s window and the jar.

  “Look!” Bess said, pointing up. “The jar has some jelly beans on the bottom.”

  “I’ll bet they’re Smelly Jellies,” Nancy said.

  “The green ones are probably pickle flavored,” George said. “And the yellow ones are probably sauerkraut!”

  “I’ll bet the white ones are turnip flavored,” Bess added. “Or maybe they taste like cauliflower—”

  Lester flapped his feathery wings. He began squawking, “Eat ’em up! Arrrk!”

  Nancy gasped as Lester flew right up to Mike’s window!

  “Lester—come back!” Katie called.

  Lester landed on Mike’s windowsill. He began pecking at the side of the jar!

  “What’s he doing?” Nancy asked.

  “I guess he’s trying to get to the Smelly Jellies,” Katie said.

  “Why?” George cried.

  “Parrots love vegetables,” Katie explained. “And most of the Smelly Jellies are veggie flavored.”

  “Chow down!” Lester screeched from Mike’s windowsill. “Raaaak!”

  “Oh, great!” Nancy groaned. “What if Mike is somewhere in the house? What if he finds Lester in his room?”

  Lester stretched his neck to reach into the jar. It toppled back and forth!

  “Oh no!” Bess cried. “Lester is going to knock the jar down!”

  Katie cupped her hands around her mouth. “Lester!” she yelled. “Step away from the jar. Step away from the jar!”

  “Oooh, boy!” Lester screeched. He gave a little jump, and the jar tipped over the windowsill!

  “Get back!” George shouted, waving her arms. “It’s going to crash!”

  The girls scattered in four directions as the jar fell from the window. Nancy squeezed her eyes shut as it landed on the cement path. But she didn’t hear it crash. Or smash.

  Nancy opened her eyes. The jar had bounced on the ground and rolled to a stop.

  “You guys,” Nancy said slowly, “I have a funny feeling that’s not the missing jelly-bean jar.”

  6

  Clue Out of the Blue

  How can it not be the jar, Nancy?” Bess asked. “It looks just like it!”

  “A glass jar would have smashed on the cement,” Nancy explained. She knelt down an
d tapped the jar. “This one is made out of plastic.”

  Everyone was quiet as Nancy pulled out her detective notebook. She turned to her not-guilty page and added “Plastic jar” to the list.

  “You mean the boys didn’t steal the jelly-bean jar, Nancy?” Katie asked.

  Nancy wasn’t sure. How could the boys seem guilty and innocent at the same time?

  Suddenly she heard a loud “RAAACK!”

  Everyone turned. Lester was zooming out of Mike’s window!

  “Get out and stay out, cracker breath!” Mike yelled. He was shaking his fist and was dressed in his Moleheads from Mars space suit. Moleheads from Mars was the boys’ favorite TV show.

  “He was eating the crackers on my bed!” Mike shouted out the window. “And he pecked my nose too! What are you doing here anyway?”

  Nancy pointed to the few jelly beans that spilled out of the jar. “Where did you get the jelly beans, Mike?” she asked.

  “My cousin Eddie bought them,” Mike shouted. “They’re Smelly Jellies!”

  Eddie? That explained the note. But it didn’t explain something else.

  “Why did Eddie buy you all those Smelly Jellies?” Nancy asked.

  “They’re the cheapest jelly beans in the store,” Mike explained. “Nobody likes them. Except my friends and me.”

  “We know that,” Nancy said. “But you still didn’t tell me why he bought them!”

  “None of your business!”

  Mike disappeared from the window. He reappeared with his Moleheads from Mars water blaster in his hands.

  “Return to your planet at once, invaders!” Mike ordered in a deep voice.

  The girls shrieked as he squirted a blast of cold water at them.

  “Lester hates water!” Katie said as she hurried away. “We’re out of here!”

  Nancy, Bess, and George raced to their bikes and put on their helmets. The cold water didn’t feel bad. But nobody wanted to deal with a pesty Molehead!

  They pedaled until they were a few blocks away from the Minelli house.

  “Are we going to look for more clues?” Bess asked. She twirled the pink streamers on her bicycle handle.

  “We don’t have time to look for more clues, Bess,” George said. “Mr. McCormick said he’ll call off the contest this afternoon if the thief isn’t caught.”