The Crazy Key Clue

  “Not in the afternoon, she didn’t,” Bess said. “But what about at night? While we were out trick-or-treating?”

  “Could be,” Nancy said.

  Nancy turned to Grandma Marvin. “Mrs. Marvin, did Molly Angelo come in the house last night during trick-or-treat?”

  “I couldn’t say for sure,” Grandma Marvin answered. “I don’t know Molly Angelo. What does she look like?”

  “She has long curly dark hair,” George answered.

  Grandma Marvin shrugged. “I don’t know,” she said.

  Nancy thought hard. She tapped her pencil on her cheek.

  “Well, how many trick-or-treaters came inside the house last night?” Nancy asked.

  Grandma Marvin rolled out the cookie dough on the countertop. “Only one or two,” she said. “Most of them just stood on the porch and held out their bags for candy.”

  “Who came inside?” George asked.

  “Oh, mercy me, I don’t know,” Grandma Marvin said. “Who could tell, with all those masks and costumes?”

  Right, Nancy thought. And besides, Bess’s grandmother doesn’t live in this neighborhood. She wouldn’t know many of the kids.

  “Let’s go back to the foyer and search for clues,” Nancy said. “Maybe the thief left something there.”

  Bess ate the last two bites of her pancakes. Then she jumped up from the table. The girls hurried to the front door.

  “Look at that!” George cried out as soon as they reached the small table. “A clue.”

  “Where?” Nancy asked eagerly.

  “Under the table,” George said, pointing.

  Nancy went over to the table and bent down. She found a lollipop on the floor.

  “This isn’t a clue,” Nancy said. “It’s one of the lollipops Bess’s grandma made for Halloween. It probably fell out of the candy bowl last night.”

  “Oh,” George said.

  Nancy stood up and looked at the table. “But this is a clue!” she said suddenly.

  Bess ran to see. “What?” she asked.

  “This.” Nancy pointed to a few specks of white powder on top of the table. “I think it’s flour.”

  “Flour?” George asked. “We know who had flour on Halloween. Rebecca!”

  “Exactly,” Nancy said, smiling. “Maybe it won’t take so long to solve this mystery after all.”

  Nancy looked back at the table.

  Then she heard a terrible sound. Grandma Marvin was screaming for help!

  4

  Pumpkin Bombs

  Nancy, Bess, and George ran to the kitchen as fast as they could.

  Grandma Marvin screamed again and pointed at the floor. “Get that out of here!”

  Nancy’s puppy was in front of the refrigerator. Chip was playing with something on the floor. Something gray and yucky.

  Then Nancy saw her father. He was standing by the side door.

  “Daddy!” Nancy said. “What are you doing here?”

  “I came to pick you up, silly,” Carson Drew said. “And I brought Chip along for the walk.”

  “And she brought me a dead mouse!” Grandma Marvin said, still pointing. “Please, take it away.”

  “Is it really dead?” Nancy asked.

  “A mouse?” Bess screamed. “I hate mice! Get me out of here!”

  Bess backed away and hopped onto a chair.

  Nancy’s father shook his head. “That’s not a dead mouse,” he said. “It’s just a chewed-up rubber toy.”

  Carson Drew bent down and lifted the old rubber toy from the kitchen floor. Nancy let out a sigh of relief. At first glance, it did look real.

  “See?” Carson said. “Chocolate Chip must have found this outside. I didn’t notice it. But it really scared Bess’s grandmother when Chip dropped it at her feet.”

  “Yuck,” Bess said with a shiver. “I don’t blame her. It’s gross—even if it is rubber.”

  “Well, Pudding Pie?” Carson Drew asked his daughter. Pudding Pie was his nickname for Nancy. “You’d better get dressed. It’s time to go.”

  “Can’t I stay a little longer, Daddy?” Nancy said. “We’re working on a mystery. We have to find a missing key so we can open an old trunk in Bess’s attic.”

  “Well, that’s up to Mrs. Marvin,” Carson Drew said. “She might have her hands full with all three of you.”

  “Oh, no. It’s fine with me,” Bess’s grandmother answered. “Just take the dog and the mouse—please.”

  Nancy’s father laughed. “All right,” he said. “See you later.”

  Nancy gave her puppy a hug and thanked Bess’s grandmother. Then all three girls ran upstairs to Bess’s room to get dressed.

  When she had finished dressing, Nancy picked up her blue notebook. She opened it and wrote inside:

  Clues:

  Flour on the table. Thief might have had flour on hands.

  Then she added Rebecca to her suspect list.

  Bess peeked over Nancy’s shoulder to see what she was writing.

  “Do you really think Rebecca would steal something?” Bess asked when she saw Nancy’s notes.

  Nancy didn’t answer right away. “No,” she finally said. “Probably not. But a good detective has to follow the clues.”

  “And the flour points to Rebecca,” Bess announced.

  “Right,” Nancy said. “But we have other suspects, too. Let’s go talk to Brett first. We know for sure he was in the foyer alone last night.”

  “And he collects keys,” George reminded them.

  With their jackets zipped up tightly, Nancy, Bess, and George walked to Brett’s house. He lived a block away.

  “Gross!” George cried when they reached his front yard. “What a mess!”

  Nancy couldn’t believe it. Someone had taken a big carved pumpkin and smashed it on Brett’s front lawn. Broken pieces of pumpkin were smeared all over the walk.

  “Who would do that?” Nancy asked, shaking her head. She looked around. Suddenly a small carved pumpkin crashed on the ground beside her.

  Splat!

  “Yikes!” Nancy cried. She jumped out of the way just in time. “Where did that come from?”

  From the trees, she got her answer. She heard two boys’ voices laughing hard.

  “Gotcha,” Brett called as he jumped out of a tree.

  “What were you doing up there?” Bess asked. She put her hands on her hips and glared at him.

  “Dropping pumpkin bombs,” Brett said with a grin.

  “You could have hurt us,” Nancy said.

  “We weren’t going to hit you,” another voice said.

  A moment later Jeff Martin jumped down from the tree. He was Brett’s best friend.

  “That’s yucky,” Bess said, pointing to the squashed pumpkin on the sidewalk.

  “Don’t worry,” Brett said. “We’re going to clean it up later.”

  “Well, it’s still dangerous,” George said. “You’d better stop.”

  Nancy heard a jingling sound. Right away, she knew what it was.

  Keys.

  Nancy looked at Brett’s belt. A big key ring dangled from it. It had a lot of keys on it. But she didn’t see their key.

  “Uh, listen,” Nancy said. “We wanted to ask you something. Did you see a cool-looking key on the table when you were in Bess’s house last night?”

  Brett twisted his mouth into a funny shape.

  “What do you mean?” he said. “I wasn’t in Bess’s house last night.”

  “Yes, you were,” George said. “You came in for a drink of water. Remember? You were in that ghost costume.”

  “What ghost costume?” Brett asked.

  Bess opened her eyes wide. “Brett Sanderson, you told me you were going to be a ghost for Halloween,” she said. “And I saw you. That was you last night. I know it was.”

  “No way,” Brett said. “I changed my mind. I decided to be a pirate instead. If you don’t believe me, I’ll show you my costume.”

  Nancy and George looked at each other.
Nancy didn’t know what to think.

  “Okay,” Bess said. “Show us.”

  Brett went into his house. A minute later he came out wearing a pirate’s hat and carrying a sword. He had the other parts of his costume on a hanger.

  Nancy looked at Brett’s pirate costume.

  “What’s that?” she asked, pointing to some white stuff on his black hat and pants.

  “That’s dried shaving cream,” Brett said. “Jeff and I had a shaving cream war last night.”

  “Yeah,” Jeff said. “We were covered in the stuff. It was a lot of fun.”

  Nancy was quiet for a minute. She remembered seeing some kids squirting shaving cream at each other. One of them might have been Brett.

  “I guess that proves it wasn’t Brett, right?” Bess asked.

  Nancy nodded. “But someone came into your house last night dressed as a ghost. If it wasn’t Brett, then who was it?”

  5

  The Candy Clue

  You’re right,” Bess said to Nancy. “Who could it have been?”

  Nancy opened her blue notebook as they walked away from Brett and Jeff. She crossed off Brett’s name from her suspect list. Then she added: “Ghost. Who was it?”

  “Well, we still have two other suspects—Molly and Rebecca,” Nancy said. “Let’s go visit one of them.”

  “Molly lives on my block,” Bess said. “Let’s go there first.”

  The girls headed for Molly’s house. On the way there, Nancy thought about the mystery. She remembered how badly Molly wanted the crazy key. Maybe she wanted it so much that she came back and took it, Nancy thought.

  “We’re here,” Bess said. She pointed at Molly’s house. “What now? Do we just come out and ask her if she stole the key?”

  “No,” Nancy said. “Leave it to me. I have an idea.”

  Nancy marched up to Molly’s front door and rang the bell. Molly answered it. She was still in her pajamas. They were white with red ribbon trim.

  “Hi,” Nancy said. “Can we come in?”

  “Uh, hi,” Molly said. “Sure. What’s up?”

  “We’re trying to solve a mystery,” Nancy said as the three girls stepped into Molly’s house. She gave a quick wink to Bess and George.

  “What kind of mystery?” Molly asked.

  “We’re trying to find out who dressed up as a ghost last night for Halloween. Did you see any ghosts?” Nancy asked.

  “Sure,” Molly said. “I saw three or four different ones. But I don’t know who they were.”

  “Bummer,” Bess said. “Because someone came to our house dressed as a ghost and—”

  Nancy poked Bess in the ribs. She didn’t want Bess to mention the key.

  “—and jumped out and scared us,” Nancy said, finishing Bess’s sentence.

  “Ohhhh,” Molly said, nodding. “And you want to get back at them.”

  “Sort of,” Nancy said.

  Molly smiled. “I know what you mean,” she said. “Someone hid in the bushes and tried to scare me last year, too. But I never found out who it was.”

  Nancy didn’t know what else to say. She turned to the front door and started to leave. But then she got another idea. She knew a tricky way to find out a clue about Molly.

  “Hey,” Nancy said, turning back toward Molly. “Did you get a lot of candy last night?”

  “Yeah,” Molly said. “Almost a whole bag.”

  “Wow! Can we see it?” Nancy asked.

  “Sure,” Molly said. She motioned for them to follow her. “My mom made me put it in a big bowl in the kitchen.”

  Bess gave Nancy a strange look as they walked toward Molly’s kitchen. But Nancy couldn’t explain. Not now.

  “Tell you later,” she whispered to Bess.

  In the kitchen, Molly placed a huge glass bowl in front of the three girls. Nancy looked through all the Halloween candy carefully. While she did, Molly ate a piece of chocolate.

  “You can have this,” Molly said, pushing a box toward the girls. “I hate licorice.”

  “Thanks,” George said, taking the box. “I love it.”

  When Nancy was finished looking through the bowl, she and her friends said good-bye to Molly.

  “Well?” Bess said when they were back on the sidewalk. “What was that all about? Why did you want to see her Halloween candy?”

  Nancy smiled. “To get a clue, of course. I wanted to find out if she went trick-or-treating at your house last night, Bess. Then we’d know if she could have stolen the key.”

  “But how could you tell?” Bess asked.

  “I checked to see if she had any of the homemade lollipops your grandmother made.”

  “That was so smart!” George said to Nancy. She smiled at her friend proudly.

  “Yeah,” Bess agreed with an excited nod. “You’re a great detective.”

  “Did she have any of Grandma Marvin’s lollipops?” George asked.

  “No,” Nancy said, shaking her head.

  “So that means Molly is innocent,” Bess said.

  “Not really,” Nancy said. “She still could have done it.”

  6

  Grumpy Grandma

  How could Molly have done it?” Bess asked. “If she didn’t have any lollipops, then she wasn’t at my house, right?”

  “That’s what I thought at first,” Nancy said. “But then I saw Molly eating some of her candy. That’s when I realized the lollipops weren’t a good clue.”

  “Why not?” George asked. She opened up the box of licorice and popped a piece into her mouth.

  “Because she could have gotten a lollipop at Bess’s house last night and she could have already eaten it,” Nancy said.

  “My stomach is growling,” Bess said. “Let’s not talk about candy. Let’s go home and have lunch.”

  “Yeah,” George agreed. “Let’s take a break. I’m hungry, too.”

  Nancy didn’t want to investigate the mystery any more just then either. She wanted time to think about the clues. She took out her notebook and looked at the list of suspects again.

  Brett’s name was crossed off. And Nancy wasn’t sure about Molly. There were still two other suspects—Rebecca and the ghost.

  I hope Rebecca didn’t steal the key, Nancy thought. Rebecca was one of Nancy’s friends. The two girls often walked to school together.

  Nancy closed her notebook with a sigh.

  “What’s wrong?” George asked.

  “Oh, nothing,” Nancy said. “I just wonder if we’re ever going to find out what’s in that trunk.”

  “We will,” George said. “You’re great at solving mysteries.” She patted Nancy’s arm. “Let’s forget about that old key for a while. Come on. I’ll race you to the corner. Ready … set … go!”

  With that, George took off running. Nancy did, too. But Bess didn’t run. Bess never liked to run if she didn’t have to.

  In a few seconds, the race was over. George had won. George was a super athlete.

  “Hey! Wait for me!” Bess called.

  She half ran, half walked the length of the block to catch up with her friends.

  “Running really works up an appetite!” she said. “Come on. Let’s go in and eat.”

  Nancy and George laughed and followed Bess into the house. Bess’s grandmother had lunch waiting.

  “There’s chicken noodle soup and grilled cheese sandwiches,” Grandma Marvin said.

  “Yummy,” Bess said as she tossed her jacket on a chair.

  “I love grilled cheese,” George said.

  The girls washed their hands. Then they sat down at the table to eat their lunch.

  When their sandwiches were almost finished, the doorbell rang. Bess got up to answer it.

  “It’s the paper boy,” she called from the front door. She came back into the kitchen. “We owe him five dollars,” she said as she picked up her grandmother’s purse from the counter.

  “Oooh, hold it!” Grandma Marvin cried. She jumped up from her chair and grabbed the purse from Bess.


  “Don’t you know it’s not nice to go into other people’s things? I’ll take care of the paper boy.”

  Bess’s face turned red. “Sorry, Grammy,” she said. “Mom always lets me pay him. I thought it would be okay.”

  Nancy blushed, too. She felt bad that Bess had been scolded in front of her and George.

  Grandma Marvin headed toward the front door with her purse.

  Nancy stood up. She leaned over and whispered to Bess. “Let’s go back outside. Maybe your grandma is tired of having us in the house.”

  “Good idea,” Bess agreed.

  “We’re going out again,” Bess called to her grandmother.

  “Fine,” Grandma Marvin called back. She had just finished paying the paper boy.

  The girls put on their jackets and headed out the side door. Bess started to skip down the driveway.

  The wind blew some dried leaves across the sidewalk. The branches of the bushes and trees rustled.

  Then someone leaped out of the bushes and pounced on Bess!

  7

  The Ghost Returns

  Bess screamed.

  “Ha, ha,” said the boy standing in front of them. “Scared you again!”

  Nancy looked at the boy. She didn’t know who he was, but she could tell from the look on Bess’s face that Bess knew him.

  “Ooooh, you creep!” Bess yelled. “How could you do that?”

  “Easy,” the boy said. “Just like I did last night. I hid in the bushes and waited for you.”

  “Huh?” George said. “Last night? You were the ghost?”

  “Yup,” the boy said with a big grin.

  “Who is he?” Nancy asked, giving Bess a questioning glance.

  “This is Carl,” Bess said. “He’s a sixth-grader. He’s our paper boy.”

  Oh, Nancy thought. No wonder Bess knew him. He must have hid in the bushes while we were putting on our jackets.

  Nancy eyed Carl up and down. He was short for a sixth-grader.