“Pick up the cookies!” Nancy said. “Before Chip finds them!”
Nancy, Bess, and George bent down to pick up the cookies. By the time they stood up, Team Lollipop was gone. Walking away from the stand was Henderson, stuffing something into his pocket.
“We can make more lemonade, Henderson!” Nancy called.
“No, thanks!” Henderson called back.
Nancy watched as Henderson hurried out of the yard and up the block. What was his rush? Suddenly—
“Omigosh!” Bess cried. “I put Hannah’s recipe here on the table before I poured the lemonade. And now . . . and now . . .”
Nancy stared at Bess. Her heart began to pound as she thought the worst.
“Hannah’s recipe is gone?” Nancy cried.
“Well, yes . . . and no,” Bess said. She held up the ladybug paper. “The paper is still here . . . but the recipe is gone!”
RECIPE FOR TROUBLE
Nancy, Bess, and George stared at the ladybug paper. It was totally blank!
“What happened to Hannah’s recipe?” Nancy exclaimed.
“Maybe someone switched the recipe with the same ladybug paper,” George suggested. “A blank piece of ladybug paper!”
“That means Hannah’s secret recipe for pink-strawberry lemonade was stolen!” Nancy gasped.
“And it’s my fault!” Bess cried. “I was going to put the recipe in my bag, but when things got busy I forgot!”
Nancy shook her head and said, “It’s my fault. I should never have taken Hannah’s recipe out of my pocket!”
“Who cares whose fault it is?” George said. “Nancy, how are you going to tell Hannah her top-secret lemonade recipe was stolen?”
Nancy’s stomach did a double flip. Could she really tell Hannah that her recipe was stolen after they had promised to keep it a secret?
“We can’t tell Hannah!” Nancy blurted. “Not until I find the person who took the recipe.”
“Why, Nancy?” Bess asked slowly. “Whoever took the recipe already knows the secret ingredients.”
“I know,” Nancy said sadly. “But maybe the recipe thief will promise to keep it a secret too.”
“It’s worth a try,” George said.
Nancy nodded and said, “The Clue Book is in my room. Let’s clean up here, then get to work.”
“The Clue Book?” George said with a grin. “I know what that means.”
“So do I,” Bess said. “It means the Clue Crew is on the case!”
Nancy, Bess, and George carried their lemonade stand supplies into the kitchen.
“Closing your stand so soon?” Hannah asked, surprised. “Didn’t the kids like my top-secret lemonade recipe?”
The girls traded looks. What would they tell Hannah?
“Um—the kids loved it, Hannah!” Nancy said. “But then . . . then . . .”
“It got too hot for lemonade!” George piped in.
“How could it be too hot for ice-cold lemonade?” Hannah asked.
“If all our ice melted?” Bess blurted.
The girls left the kitchen and hurried up the stairs. Nancy felt awful for not telling Hannah the truth. But she couldn’t—not yet!
Once they were in Nancy’s room, the girls huddled around the Clue Book. Nancy opened it to a clean page. Then, using the pen George lent her, she wrote the name of their new case:
Who Took Hannah’s Top-Secret Recipe for Pink-Strawberry Lemonade?
Underneath that, she wrote:
Suspects.
“It’s got to be Henderson ‘Drippy’ Murphy,” George said. “I saw him stuff something inside his pocket when he left our lemonade stand.”
“I saw it too,” Nancy said.
“I saw it three!” Bess added.
“Did you also see how weird Henderson acted when he found out that our lemonade was strawberry-flavored?” Nancy asked.
“Maybe Henderson wanted a pink-strawberry recipe for his dad’s lemonade truck,” Bess suggested. “But what would he be doing with ladybug paper?”
Nancy thought hard. Maybe the recipe thief didn’t switch the ladybug papers.
“Maybe I accidentally wrote the recipe on two pieces of ladybug paper stuck together,” Nancy explained. “Henderson could have taken the top sheet, leaving a blank one underneath.”
Nancy wrote Henderson’s name in the Clue Book. His was the first name on her suspect list.
Henderson
“The Clue Crew has a suspect!” George said with a grin. “Sweet!”
Bess’s eyes popped wide open. “George, did you say ‘sweet’?” she asked.
“Yeah, so?” George said.
“Sweet makes me think of Team Lollipop!” Bess said excitedly. “They were at our stand right before the recipe went missing.”
“Team Lollipop could have taken the recipe while we were picking up the cookies,” George said with a nod.
“Buggy probably has ladybug paper too!” Bess added. She wrinkled her nose. “Anything to do with bugs!”
But Nancy wasn’t too sure about Team Lollipop.
“Why would Team Lollipop want our lemonade recipe?” Nancy asked. “It’s not like they have a lemonade stand.”
“Lily Ramos has a lemonade stand,” George said. “And she has the exact same ladybug paper, too.”
“But Lily left right after she tasted our lemonade,” Bess said.
“Lily could have hid somewhere,” George said. “To secretly snoop on us and our lemonade stand.”
“Lily said our lemonade was awesome,” Nancy added. “Maybe she wanted the recipe for her own lemonade stand!”
“You mean lemonade experience!” Bess giggled.
Nancy added Lily’s name to their suspect list.
Lily
She then shut the Clue Book and said, “Let’s go outside and see if we can find some clues.”
The three girls slipped past Hannah and out the front door. The table they had used for their lemonade stand was still in the front yard.
“Our picture of Katy Sloan is gone,” Bess noticed, pointing to the table.
“The wind probably blew it away,” George said. “I should have used more tape.”
Nancy spotted a piece of paper on the grass. It wasn’t their picture of Katy—it looked like some kind of list.
Nancy picked up the paper and studied it.
“Bess, George,” Nancy said. “This is a list of the food that’s going into Team Lollipop’s picnic basket!”
“You mean for the TV show Ready, Set, Cook! ?” Bess asked.
“It must be what Andrea put on the table when she paid for her lemonade,” George said. “So what’s cookin’?”
“Yummy stuff!” Nancy said as she smiled down at the list. “There’s chicken salad on rolls, crunchy coleslaw, potato salad, lemonade—”
Nancy stopped midsentence. Did she just see what she thought she saw?
Was Team Lollipop making lemonade?
COOKS . . . OR CROOKS?
The Clue Crew huddled around Team Lollipop’s list. At the end was the word “lemonade”!
“They didn’t say they were making lemonade yesterday,” Nancy said.
“They’re making it now!” George said. “What better way to win a cooking contest than with the best pink-strawberry lemonade recipe in the world?”
“How do we know it’s Hannah’s recipe?” Bess asked.
Nancy knew how they could find out. She looked at her watch. It was one thirty.
“Andrea said that the contest starts filming at three o’clock,” Nancy said. “We should go to the TV station too.”
“But we’re not on a team!” Bess said. “They’ll never let us in!”
“My mom is a caterer and works with lots of chefs,” George said, her eyes lighting up. “Chefs mean chefs’ hats!”
“Chefs’ hats, huh?” Nancy repeated slowly. “I like it. I like it.”
The Clue Crew was about to go undercover!
• • •
“H
ow do people cook with these things on?” Bess complained an hour later. “This hat keeps flopping in my face!”
“They’re chefs’ hats for grown-ups, Bess,” George said. “So grow up and quit complaining!”
Nancy carried a wicker picnic basket as the Clue Crew approached Station WRIV-TV. After filing through the front door, the girls were greeted by a guard. Her last name was embroidered on her jacket: BROWN.
“Can I help you?” Ms. Brown asked from behind her desk.
“We’re here for the Ready, Set, Cook! show,” Nancy said, flashing a big smile.
“That’s why we’re dressed like chefs!” Bess explained.
Ms. Brown raised an eyebrow and said, “And what’s the name of your team?”
“Um—Team Broccoli!” George blurted.
“Ew—not broccoli, George!” Bess cried. She smiled at Ms. Brown and said, “It’s Team Cupcake!”
“I happen to like broccoli, Bess!” George hissed. But Ms. Brown wasn’t buying it one bit.
“If you’re Team Cupcake,” Ms. Brown said. “Why do your hats read ‘Louise Fayne Catering’?”
Gulp! Nancy, Bess, and George rolled their eyes up to their hats. They hadn’t thought of that!
“Because . . . it’s good advertising for my mom?” George said. “She’s a caterer.”
Bess stepped forward. She pointed to the picnic basket in Nancy’s hand.
“Excuse me, Ms. Brown,” Bess said. “We have ice cream in here. If we don’t get to the studio soon, you’ll have a mint chocolate-chip puddle on your floor!”
Nancy tried not to giggle. Their basket was really empty—but Bess’s idea seemed to be working!
“Okay, okay,” Ms. Brown said pointing down a long hallway. “Ready, Set, Cook! is shot in Studio B.”
“Thank you!” Bess said sweetly.
Nancy, Bess, and George raced down the hall to the door marked Studio B. But when they stepped inside the studio, it was dark and empty.
“Where is everybody?” Nancy asked.
There were TV cameras, lights hanging from the ceiling, and three big, shiny cooking counters. But no people!
“It’s better empty,” George said. “Now we can look for clues without anyone knowing.”
The Clue Crew headed straight for the cooking counters. Each one had a sign reading one of the names of the three teams.
“ ‘Team Popsicle,’ ‘Team Pepperoni,’ ” Bess read out loud. “And ‘Team Lollipop’!”
Nancy, Bess, and George ran to Team Lollipop’s cooking counter. It was big enough to hold the cooking ingredients for the contest plus mixing bowls and spoons of all sizes.
“Here’s a bowl of lemons,” Nancy said, picking up the bowl. “Now we know they’re making lemonade!”
“Check it out!” George said. She reached under the counter to pull a square plastic container off a shelf. Written on the lid were the words “Top Secret!”
“Top secret?” Nancy said. She put down the bowl to look at the container. “Why would it say that?”
“Maybe it’s Hannah’s recipe!” Bess said excitedly. “It’s so good they don’t want anyone else to know what’s in it!”
“I’m opening it!” George said. But just as she was about to pop the lid—
FLASH!
Nancy, Bess, and George jumped as the huge lights suddenly came on all at once.
“I hear voices outside the door!” George whispered. “Somebody is coming!”
The girls didn’t want anyone to know they were snooping. So they ducked under the counter seconds before the studio door swung open. The counter was big enough to hide all three girls and their basket underneath.
Carefully, the girls peeked out. They could see people filing through the door into the studio. They were grown-ups wearing headsets, a man dressed in a jacket and tie, and the three cooking teams.
“The guy in a jacket is the host of the show,” Nancy whispered. “His name is Gordon Whimsy.”
“I know,” Bess whispered. “He’s strict with the teams!”
“But he’s an awesome cook,” George whispered, the top-secret container clutched in her hand.
One woman began calling out orders to the crew. Nancy guessed she was the director of Ready, Set, Cook!
“Okay, people!” the woman shouted. “That last-minute tech meeting put us all behind schedule, so everybody get in their places so we can start shooting the contest!”
“Sure, Ellen!” the stage manager said with a smile.
But Gordon wasn’t smiling as he groaned, “Delays, delays. Nothing but delays!”
The girls froze as three pairs of legs appeared outside the counter. It was Team Lollipop, ready to cook!
“Hey!” Andrea said. “That’s not where I put the lemon bowl.”
“And where’s my secret box?” Buggy said.
“What secret box?” Ben asked.
“Um . . . nothing,” Buggy replied.
Nancy, Bess, and George traded puzzled looks under the counter. Did only Buggy know about the box?
“Quiet, everyone, please!” the stage manager shouted before counting down. “Three . . . two . . . one!”
The show’s opening tune blasted through the studio. After that the voice of an announcer boomed: “Hey, let’s get cooking, kids, because it’s time for—”
“READY! SET! COOK!” the three teams yelled out.
Nancy, Bess, and George peeked out to see Gordon smiling straight at the camera.
“I’m your host, Gordon Whimsy,” Gordon said cheerily. “Now that you’ve met me, let’s meet our cooking-good teams!”
From the corner of her eye Nancy saw George fumbling with the secret box.
“What are you doing?” Nancy whispered.
“Trying to open this secret box!” George whispered. “If the recipe is inside, I want to know!”
The box popped open. George stared into it. She then sucked her breath in softly.
“Is it our recipe, George?” Bess whispered.
“Nope,” George whispered back.
“What is it?” Nancy whispered.
“It’s . . . ants!” George gulped.
GETTING ANTSY
“Ants?” Nancy hissed. She, Bess, and George peered inside the container. It was filled with ants. About a dozen of them!
“Gross!” Bess hissed. “Close the lid—quick!”
Bess reached out to shut the container. Instead she knocked the container out of George’s hand. It fell on the floor with a plunk, spilling the creepy-crawly ants onto the floor!
An army of ants crawled straight toward Team Lollipop’s feet just as they were being interviewed by Gordon Whimsy!
“And here’s a team that’s hard to lick—Team Lollipop!” Gordon announced. “Kids, what will be in your picnic basket today?”
“Ants!” Andrea screamed.
“Pardon me?” Gordon asked.
“I’ve got ants crawling up my leg!” Andrea shouted.
“And I’ve got ants up my pants!” Ben cried.
The girls crawled out from under the table—before the rest of the ants could crawl all over them!
“Nancy? Bess? George?” Andrea cried, shaking her leg. “What are you doing here?”
Nancy was about to explain when Ellen the director charged out of the control room.
“I said, ‘Cut!’ ” Ellen cried. “I want to know how those ants got into this studio!”
Nancy knew they had to tell the truth.
“They were in a box marked top secret,” Nancy explained. “George opened it while we were hiding under the table.”
“Why were you hiding under the table?” Ellen asked.
“We’re detectives,” Nancy explained. “Somebody stole our recipe for pink-strawberry lemonade and—”
“And you thought it was us?” Ben demanded as he slapped his pants legs silly.
“Not anymore!” Bess said. She pointed to the ingredients on Team Lollipop’s table. “There are no strawberries on t
he table at all. And you’re using sugar instead of—”
This time Bess clapped her own hand over her mouth before she could say “honey.”
Nancy studied the ingredients on Team Lollipop’s table. Bess was right. No strawberries. No honey. Team Lollipop couldn’t be making Hannah’s recipe without those.
“Excuse me,” Buggy said. “But can we start collecting my ants, please?”
Everyone turned to stare at Buggy.
“Your ants?” Gordon demanded. “Why on earth did you bring ants to a cooking show?”
“Because we’re making a picnic basket,” Buggy replied. “And what’s a picnic without ants?”
“Give me a break!” Andrea groaned.
“Thanks a lot, Bug Boy!” Ben snapped at Buggy. “You just lost the contest for Team Lollipop.”
“Well, that explains how the ants got in here,” Ellen said. She looked straight at Nancy, Bess, and George. “Now why don’t you girls tell me how you got in here?”
Before Nancy, Bess, or George could speak, Gordon pointed to the girls’ hats.
“Does that say Louise Fayne Catering?” Gordon exclaimed. “I worked there right after cooking school.”
“Louise is my mom,” George said.
“And my aunt!” Bess added with a smile.
“Brilliant!” Gordon exclaimed. “I loved working for Louise Fayne!”
He turned to Ellen and said, “These girls meant no harm. It was that Buggy boy who brought those ants here.”
“Sorry,” Buggy said with a shrug. “I told my mom I’d rather be in the Bug Club.”
A boy on Team Pepperoni raised his hand. “Are we ever going to start this contest?” he asked.
“Yeah,” a girl on Team Popsicle said. “Our Quickie-Queso Cheese Dip is getting lumpy!”
Everyone listened as Ellen made an announcement. The contest would be taped the next morning when the studio was sure to be bug free.
“We’re sorry that we caused trouble,” Nancy admitted. “We just have to find who stole our secret recipe.”
She turned to Team Lollipop and said, “It’s definitely not you guys.”
Nancy dragged the picnic basket out from under the table. Before they could leave, Gordon invited all three girls to be on the show next summer. As Nancy, Bess, and George left the studio they could hardly believe it.