“This isn’t even your handwriting, George,” Nancy said. “You may have the messiest room, but you always get As in penmanship.”
“Thanks,” George said. “I think.”
“You also checked your cow’s pockets for a prize ticket before we went to the Cocoa Café,” Nancy added. “And you said they were both empty.”
“They were,” George agreed. “That means the nasty valentine was dropped off while we were at the Cocoa Café.”
Nancy tapped her chin thoughtfully as she imagined the time line.
“We got to the Cocoa Café at around four o’clock,” Nancy said. “I remember Hannah saying it was four thirty by the time we finished our cocoa.”
“So the crime was committed sometime between four and four thirty?” George asked.
“Yes!” Nancy said. “Write that down, George.”
Nancy was about to pick up the stuffed cow when she jumped back. Stuck to the bottom of the cow’s hoof was an icky wad of bubblegum!
“Since when do you chew blue bubblegum?” Nancy asked.
“I don’t!” George said. She looked to see where Nancy was pointing. “Even if I did, I wouldn’t stick it on anything.”
Nancy narrowed her eyes at the gum. “I’ll bet the creep who left you the creepy valentine did it,” she said. “But who could it be?”
“It was my cow,” George said. “Whoever did it was probably mad at me.”
The word “mad” made Nancy think.
“Colette Crawford!” Nancy exclaimed. “She was mad that you didn’t give her your cow.”
“She wasn’t the only one who was mad at me,” George said. “Remember how Tanya acted when I knocked over her pig pile?”
“Accidentally knocked over,” Nancy corrected.
George typed Colette’s and Tanya’s names. In the meantime Nancy pulled the picture that Hannah took of them out of her pocket. In it all three of them were still BFFs!
Nancy leaned over George’s shoulder. Using a pink plastic tack she pinned the picture on her bulletin board.
George looked up at the picture and sighed. “It’s weird solving a mystery without Bess,” she said.
“I know,” Nancy said. She forced a smile. “But the faster we solve it, the faster we’ll all be friends again!”
And Nancy wanted that more than anything in the whole wide world!
The next morning Nancy and George walked to school together. Bess usually walked with them, but not today. She also always hung her jacket between Nancy’s and George’s in the classroom closet. But not today.
“Nancy, look!” George hissed. “Bess is wearing the purple beaded bracelet I made her for her birthday.”
Nancy turned as she hung up her puffy parka. She could see Bess’s bracelet dangling from her wrist as she shoved her earmuffs into her jacket pocket.
“Maybe she’s not mad at me anymore!” George whispered. “What do you think, Nancy?”
“There’s only one way to find out,” Nancy replied.
Nancy strolled over to Bess and gave a little wave. “Hi, Bess,” she said. “Want to play kickball with us at recess today?”
“Who’s us?” Bess asked.
“Um … you know,” Nancy said. “Me … Kendra … Trina … George—”
“I’m not playing if George is playing!” Bess cut in.
“I can’t tell George not to play!” Nancy said. “She’s my best friend. Yours too.”
“Not anymore,” Bess said. “I think I’ll play kickball with Marcy at recess. Marcy is the most popular girl in the class now.”
“I know,” Nancy mumbled. She watched as Bess hurried over to Marcy’s desk. She didn’t know what was worse—having a fight or being smack in the middle of one!
“I heard everything,” George said, groaning. “She hates me.”
“She never said that,” Nancy insisted.
Nancy and George were about to head for their desks when their teacher, Mrs. Ramirez, called out, “Henderson!”
Nancy and George snapped around. Mrs. Ramirez was standing at her desk holding a bunch of valentines in her hands.
“Yeah?” Henderson asked from his desk.
“Some of your classmates came to me this morning,” Mrs. Ramirez said. “Did you hand out these valentines yesterday?”
“Um,” Henderson said, gulping. “What valentines?”
Mrs. Ramirez read one of the cards out loud.
“Roses are red, pumpkins are rust. Your face looks like a pizza crust.”
A few students snickered. But Nancy’s jaw dropped. That valentine sounded just like the one George got!
“George!” Nancy whispered. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
“But Mrs. Ramirez!” Henderson started to say. “Everybody likes pizza. It was a compliment—”
“Henderson,” Mrs. Ramirez interrupted, “writing mean valentines like that is inappropriate….”
As Mrs. Ramirez continued to lecture Henderson, Nancy turned to George.
“Henderson was at Barnyard Buddies yesterday,” Nancy whispered. “If he wrote those nasty cards, maybe he wrote yours too!”
Mrs. Ramirez told the class to take their seats. Instead of heading for their desks, Nancy and George headed straight to Henderson.
“What do you want?” Henderson said as he chomped on a piece of gum. “I’m in enough trouble already.”
Nancy pulled the nasty valentine from her backpack. She held it up in front of Henderson’s face.
“George found this in the pocket of her Barnyard Buddy yesterday,” Nancy said. “Look familiar?”
Henderson gave the card a quick glance. “Nah,” he said. “I ran out of valentines by the time I got to Barnyard Buddies.”
“You did?” George asked.
Henderson nodded as he gave his gum a crack. “If you wanted one so badly,” he said, “why didn’t you just ask?”
Nancy felt her cheeks burn. Henderson was going to be a tough nut to crack!
“Nancy, George, take your seats, please,” Mrs. Ramirez said. “And Henderson, spit out that gum right now.”
Henderson yanked the gum out of his mouth. When Mrs. Ramirez turned toward the board, he quickly stuck it under his chair.
“I couldn’t tell if it was blue,” Nancy whispered.
“Watch this!” George said. Then she turned to Henderson and said, “Hey, Henderson, where did you get those dorky-looking sneakers?”
Henderson turned. He stuck his tongue out at George.
“Tongue’s not blue,” George whispered. “So his gum probably wasn’t either.”
“Girls, take your seats!” Mrs. Ramirez said.
“Yes, Mrs. Ramirez!” Nancy and George said together. They both smiled at Bess as they passed her desk. But Bess cast her eyes downward.
Nancy tried not to think about Bess as she worked on her math problems, social studies, and a pop spelling quiz. But the biggest challenge that day was questioning Colette. She didn’t have lunch or recess at the same time as Nancy’s class.
“How are we going to find Colette?” George asked.
Nancy gave it a thought as they hung upside down on the monkey bars.
“Let’s go to Colette’s house after school,” Nancy said. “I think it’s the one with the cow-shaped mailbox.”
“What a surprise.” George chuckled.
“Hey, there’s Bess!” Nancy said. “And it looks like she’s smiling at us!”
“She’s probably frowning,” George said. “We’re upside down, remember?”
“Oh … yeah.” Nancy sighed.
After school George had permission to go straight to Nancy’s house. Nancy got permission from Hannah to walk her puppy, Chocolate Chip, to Colette’s house.
Nancy and her friends had the same rules. They could walk up to five blocks away from their houses as long as they walked together.
“I can’t believe it!” Nancy said after ringing the Crawfords’ doorbell. “Even their bell sounds like a cow mooin
g!”
“I guess the whole family likes cows,” George said.
Nancy clutched Chip’s leash as the door swung open. Mrs. Crawford had a phone pressed to one ear.
“Hold on, Evelyn,” Mrs. Crawford said into the phone. She smiled at Nancy and George. “Colette isn’t home right now. She’s at the library returning some books.”
“Oh,” Nancy said, disappointed.
“But I’m sure she’d like you to see her new room,” Mrs. Crawford said cheerily. “It was just decorated!”
Nancy and George exchanged looks. Going up to Colette’s room would be a great way to look for clues!
“We’d like that very much, Mrs. Crawford,” Nancy said. “Can I bring my dog upstairs?”
“Oh, sure!” Mrs. Crawford said. She reached up and jiggled her cow earrings. “We love animals, as you can see!”
Mrs. Crawford continued her telephone conversation as she waved the girls into the house.
“Are we lucky or what?” George whispered.
Once upstairs the girls found the door leading to Colette’s room. It was the only door with a cow poster on it.
“This must be the place,” Nancy said. She clutched Chip’s leash while George opened the door.
As they stepped inside, their eyes popped wide open. Colette’s walls were covered with black-and-white cow-print wallpaper. There was a matching rug on the floor—and a cow-print bedspread on Colette’s bed!
“Holy cow!” George exclaimed.
Chip tugged on her leash as she tried to inch farther into the room.
“Stay, girl!” Nancy ordered.
Chip grunted softly as she sat down.
“Okay,” George said, rubbing her hands. “Let’s look for clues!”
Nancy dropped Chip’s leash as the girls searched the room. The first thing George found was a shoebox next to Colette’s bed. Inside were slippers with stuffed cow heads on the front. As George lifted one out of the box, it let out a loud mooo!
“Neat!” George laughed.
“Put it back, George,” Nancy warned. “Colette could come back at any minute.”
The girls searched the top of Colette’s desk. Among the books and loose papers Nancy found a box of unwritten valentines.
“These must have been the valentines Colette gave out yesterday,” Nancy said.
“Those cards have little cows dressed up like Cupid,” George pointed out. “They don’t match the card I found.”
Nancy picked up a book report that Colette wrote by hand. “Look how neat Colette’s handwriting is,” she said. “Not like the messy handwriting in the creepy valentine.”
Nancy was about to put it back on the desk when—
“MOOOOOO!”
The girls spun around at the sound.
Nancy froze. Chocolate Chip was chewing up Colette’s cow slipper!
“Chip, no!” Nancy said. She ran to the puppy and yanked the slipper from her mouth. The once-plush slipper was a wet, shredded mess!
“My cow slippers!” a voice cried out.
Nancy and George whirled around. Colette was standing in the door frame, and she looked mad!
“They’re not totally ruined, Colette,” Nancy said quickly. “See?”
Nancy held up the shredded slipper. Instead of saying “mooo,” it squeaked out a tiny “meee.”
“Yeah, right,” Colette muttered. She grabbed the torn slipper and tossed it on her bed. “What were you doing in my room anyway?”
“Your mom said it was okay to come up,” George said. “So we were just—”
“Snooping?” Colette cut in.
Nancy felt bad enough already. So she decided to tell Colette the whole truth.
“George found a mean valentine in her Barnyard Buddy yesterday,” Nancy explained. “We wanted to find out who wrote it.”
“You thought I wrote it?” Colette asked. “Why would I do a stupid thing like that?”
“Because you wanted my cow, remember?” George said.
Colette shook her head.
“I left Barnyard Buddies right after you took your cow back,” Colette said. “My dad drove me to the mall to buy me the cow slippers I wanted instead.”
Nancy glanced sideways at George. Was Colette telling the truth?
“But look at my cow slippers now,” Colette wailed. “They’re totally ruined.”
Nancy felt awful about what Chip did. If only she hadn’t dropped that leash.
“Can I buy you another pair of slippers, Colette?” Nancy offered. “I get an allowance every week. If I save—”
“Forget it,” Colette interrupted. “Dogs will be dogs. That’s why I like cows.”
The girls said a quick good-bye to Colette. Nancy clutched Chip’s leash tightly as they hurried out of the Crawford house.
“Do you think Colette was really at the mall?” Nancy asked when they were outside.
“We didn’t see her in the store yesterday after the big chase,” George said. “Maybe she was buying those cow slippers with her dad.”
“The ones Chip chewed up.” Nancy sighed.
When she looked down at Chip, she saw a piece of paper hanging from Chip’s mouth.
“Oh no!” Nancy wailed. “Don’t tell me Chip chewed up Colette’s homework!”
Nancy yanked the paper out. It didn’t look like homework.
“It looks like a store receipt,” Nancy said. “From a place called Fancy Feet.”
“That was the name on the shoebox!” George said.
The receipt was soggy and the ink was blurry. But Nancy could still make certain things out.
“The receipt has yesterday’s date on it,” Nancy pointed out. “And the time that Colette bought the slippers—four fifteen p.m.!”
“The crime happened between four and four thirty,” George said. “So Colette couldn’t have been at Barnyard Buddies at that time.”
Nancy remembered that Colette’s valentines were different too. And her handwriting was neat, not messy.
“Colette Crawford is innocent,” Nancy said. She frowned down at her dog. “And Chip is guilty of being a mischievous puppy!”
“Yip, yip!” Chip barked, wagging her tail.
Nancy carefully slipped the receipt under the Crawfords’ door, then made her way out of the yard with Chip and George.
“Tomorrow’s Saturday,” Nancy said. “Let’s spend the whole day working on the case.”
“We always spend Saturdays with Bess,” George said sadly. “I wonder what she’s doing tomorrow.”
“Probably nothing special,” Nancy said with a little smile. “Bess probably misses us, too.”
Nancy and George brought Chip home. After George left, Nancy did some homework. Then she went down to the kitchen with her scrapbook and valentines.
While Nancy sat at the table pasting cards in her scrapbook, she told her father about her new case. Mr. Drew was a lawyer and pretty good at helping Nancy with her cases. He was also a pretty good cook—although at times messy!
“We have two suspects left, Daddy,” Nancy said. “But not enough clues.”
Mr. Drew stood at the stove stirring a pot of spaghetti sauce. He had already dripped some red sauce on his shirtsleeve and the floor.
“Why don’t you and George go back to the scene of the crime?” Mr. Drew asked. “That’s the best place to look.”
Nancy smoothed a curling valentine heart onto a scrapbook page as she thought it over. “That would be Barnyard Buddies,” she thought out loud. “I guess we could look under the table Henderson sat at for stuck-on bubblegum.”
“It’s a gross job,” Mr. Drew teased. “But somebody’s got to do it!”
As Nancy squeezed glue onto a page in her scrapbook, Hannah came into the kitchen carrying a bag of groceries.
“I ran into Mrs. Marvin at the supermarket,” Hannah said. “She was buying a ton of heart-shaped cookies for Bess’s party tomorrow.”
Nancy froze with the bottle in her hand. “P-p-party?” she stammered. br />
“Aren’t you going to Bess’s party, Nancy?” Mr. Drew asked.
Nancy felt her heart break into a million pieces. She knew Bess was mad at George. Since when was Bess mad at her?
“No, Daddy.” Nancy sighed. “I wasn’t even invited.”
“Maybe it was a mistake,” Mr. Drew said with a smile. “Why don’t you give Bess a call and straighten it out?”
“Good idea,” Nancy said. She gathered her scrapbook materials and carried them into the den. Then she picked up the phone and dialed the Marvin house. After a few rings Bess answered.
“Hello?” Bess said.
“Hi, Bess,” Nancy blurted.
“Hi, Nancy!” Bess said. “What’s up?”
Nancy smiled. Bess didn’t sound angry at all. Maybe she did forget to tell her about the party. And maybe she’d invite George, too.
“Hannah heard you were having a party tomorrow,” Nancy said. “Are you?”
“Well … kind of,” Bess said slowly. “It’s a Valentine’s party.”
“Um … are you inviting me?” Nancy asked slowly.
After a moment of silence Bess blurted, “I would if I could—but I can’t so I won’t!”
“What does that mean?” Nancy asked.
“It means if I invited you I’d have to invite George,” Bess wailed. “And I can’t invite George after she wrote that creepy valentine to me!”
Nancy was about to defend George when she heard Bess’s mother calling her to dinner.
“My fish sticks are getting cold,” Bess said. “I’ll save you some heart-shaped cookies from my party if there are any left. Bye, Nancy.”
Click.
Bess had hung up, but Nancy stood staring at the phone. Not only had Bess dumped George as a friend—she had dumped her, too!
Nancy frowned as she flipped open her scrapbook. The first card she saw was from Bess. It was a pink paper heart that said, “Nancy, Bess, and George: BFF! Best Friends Forever!”
“Best friends forever,” Nancy said under her breath. “How did forever end so soon?”
“So here’s our plan,” Nancy said the next morning. “We’ll go into Barnyard Buddies and look for any clues we can find.”