The Secret in the Spooky Woods

  Contents

  Chapter 1: Some Spooky News

  Chapter 2: At the Park

  Chapter 3: Doggone Scary

  Chapter 4: Mean Mr. Garrison

  Chapter 5: Poodles and Clues

  Chapter 6: Back to the Woods

  Chapter 7: Sneaky Sneakers

  Chapter 8: Ghosts Busted!

  1

  Some Spooky News

  I wish, wish, wish I could go see Spook Story this weekend,” George Fayne moaned.

  Nancy Drew smiled at her best friend. “I know,” she said as she gathered up her books and jacket from the classroom closet. It was the end of the day on Friday, and everyone was getting ready to go home. “Too bad our parents said we’re not allowed.”

  Nancy’s other best friend, Bess Marvin, shivered. “There’s no way I’d ever see a movie like that no matter what my parents said,” Bess declared. “It sounds way too scary!”

  Nancy, Bess, and George were all eight years old and in Mrs. Reynolds’s third-grade class. In lots of other ways, though, they were all very different from one another. For one thing, they looked different. Nancy had reddish-blond hair, while Bess’s hair was blond, and George’s was dark brown. They also had very different opinions about scary movies. George loved them. Bess hated them. Nancy just thought they were silly.

  The girls’ classmate Jason Hutchings heard what Bess said. “What’s the matter, Bess?” he teased. “Are you a ’fraidy cat?”

  His friends David Burger and Mike Minelli started chanting, “’Fraidy cat, ’fraidy cat!” over and over again.

  Bess’s cheeks turned pink. “Quit it!” she cried. “I’m not a ’fraidy cat. I just don’t like ghost movies!”

  Mike grinned. “If you don’t like ghosts, you’d better stay away from the park,” he told Bess.

  “What do you mean?” Nancy asked curiously.

  Jason shrugged. “Everyone knows the park is haunted.”

  The boys rushed away before Nancy could ask any more questions. Nancy, Bess, and George walked toward the door more slowly. They stepped into the hall.

  “I wonder why he said that,” Nancy said. “I’ve never heard about the park being haunted.”

  “I have!” Lindsay Mitchell spoke up. She was right behind them with her friend, Jennifer Young.

  George wrinkled her nose at Lindsay. “Were you listening to our conversation?” she asked. Lindsay was famous around school for being a gossip. She liked to know what was going on at all times, and she liked to tell people about whatever she found out.

  “It’s okay, George,” Nancy said. She wanted to know what Lindsay had heard. Nancy didn’t believe in ghosts, but she thought it was strange that people were saying the park was haunted. Nancy loved to solve mysteries. Her father, Carson Drew, said she was a natural detective.

  Lindsay tossed her long hair over one shoulder. “Everyone’s talking about it,” she declared. Her voice got low and spooky. “They say there are strange noises and creepy lights in the woods behind the playground.”

  “That’s right,” Jennifer added. “I heard that even the police are afraid to go in the woods now! Like Lindsay said, everyone is talking about it.”

  George frowned. “Everyone isn’t talking about it,” she said. “Nancy and Bess and I didn’t know anything about it until now.”

  “That’s probably because we haven’t been to the park for a few days,” Bess pointed out. She wrapped her arms around herself, looking nervous. “And if there are ghosts there, it’s a good thing!”

  “There’s no such thing as ghosts,” Nancy assured her friend.

  Lindsay shrugged. “It sure looked like ghosts to me,” she said. “I saw some weird blue lights flashing in the woods yesterday.”

  “Really?” Nancy said thoughtfully. “I’m sure there must be some normal explanation. All someone has to do is figure it out.”

  George grinned. “Uh oh,” she joked. “It sounds like Nancy is getting ready to solve another mystery!”

  “You’d better not try,” Jennifer warned with a shudder. “It’s too dangerous!”

  “She’s right, Nancy,” Bess whispered, sounding scared. “Ghosts are nothing to mess around with!”

  “Hey, Jennifer!” a voice called.

  Nancy turned around and saw Brenda Carlton hurrying toward them. Brenda was in their class too. She had red hair and a bossy personality. Her father ran the local newspaper, and Brenda had started a school newspaper of her own called the Carlton News. She wrote all the stories herself and printed it on her computer.

  Jennifer looked over at Brenda. “What?” she asked, not sounding very friendly.

  “I heard you just got a new puppy,” Brenda said eagerly. “Can I interview you so I can write an article about it for my newspaper?”

  “You’re going to write a whole article about someone’s dog?” George asked.

  Brenda frowned. “I have to,” she mumbled. “I don’t have enough stories for the next edition. Nothing ever happens around this boring town!” She stared at Jennifer. “So what’s your puppy’s name?”

  “Princess,” Jennifer replied. “She’s a toy poodle.”

  Brenda started scribbling notes on the pad she was holding. “Does she bark a lot?” she asked.

  Lindsay giggled. “Princess barks all the time,” she said. “At least, she barked the whole time I was at Jennifer’s house last Saturday. She’s really cute, though!”

  “My dog, Chip, used to bark a lot when she was smaller,” Nancy said. “But we taught her not to.”

  Just then Alison Wegman came rushing up to the group. “Hey,” she said. “Why are you guys talking to her?” She pointed at Brenda.

  “Do you mind? I’m trying to interview Jennifer for the Carlton News,” Brenda whined. She suddenly looked very upset.

  “Well, mind your own business from now on!” Alison said nastily. “Come on, you guys.”

  She grabbed Jennifer and Lindsay by their arms and dragged them off down the hall. Brenda watched them go, still looking upset. Then she stomped off in the opposite direction without a word to Nancy or the others.

  “That’s weird,” Nancy said. “I thought Alison and Brenda were best friends.”

  George shrugged. “I heard they had another fight.”

  “Oh,” Nancy said. There was no mystery about that. Alison and Brenda were always fighting and making up. “Well, that’s one mystery solved. But that leaves another one—those so-called ghosts at the park.”

  “Don’t remind me!” Bess wailed. “Just thinking about it is going to give me nightmares.”

  George looked grumpy. “Thinking about ghosts just reminds me I’m not allowed to see that movie,” she said. “So what are we going to do today instead?”

  Nancy grinned. “I have a great idea,” she said. “Let’s go to the park!”

  2

  At the Park

  I can’t believe we’re at the park!” Bess moaned, sounding scared. “I can’t believe you guys talked me into it!”

  “Oh, be quiet, Bess,” George said. “Does this place look scary to you?”

  Nancy, Bess, and George were walking into the park. Their parents had all given them permission to go there as long as they were home before dinnertime. It was a nice day, and there were lots of people out enjoying themselves, including plenty of kids from school. Nancy was holding Chip’s leash. Chocolate Chip was Nancy’s Lab puppy, and she loved going for walks in the park.

  Nancy looked around carefully. A bunch of middle-school kids were sitting under the big maple tree. On the playground, a few kids from Nancy’s elementary school were playing on the swings and the monkey bars. Nearby, Brenda Carlton was getting a drink from the water foun
tain. Jason Hutchings and five or six other boys were playing soccer on the big, grassy field between the playground and the woods.

  Everything looked perfectly normal. But Nancy knew that didn’t always mean everything was normal.

  She patted her jacket pocket, checking to make sure her special blue notebook was there. Her father had given it to her. Whenever she was working on a mystery, Nancy liked to write down all her clues inside it. She still wasn’t sure if the ghost stories were a real mystery, but she wanted to be prepared—just in case.

  “Come on,” she said. “Let’s go over and check out the woods.”

  Bess shuddered. “No way!” she cried. “I’m not going into those woods. Not when there may be ghosts in there!”

  Nancy could tell her friend was really scared. “All right,” she said. “How about if we go talk to Jason and the other boys? Maybe they saw something mysterious.”

  Chip barked loudly. She was staring at the soccer ball the boys were kicking around.

  George giggled. “Chip says yes,” she said. “Come on, let’s go!”

  The three girls and the dog ran toward the soccer game. The closer they got, the harder Chip pulled on her leash. Her tongue flopped out of her mouth, and she barked loudly.

  “Stop it, Chip,” Nancy cried. “You can’t run off.”

  The boys heard Chip’s bark. Jason looked over as the girls reached the edge of the field.

  “Hey, look,” he called to the other boys. “Nancy brought a real dog.”

  Mike Minelli laughed. “Yeah,” he said. “Not like that wimpy little dog Jennifer was walking earlier.”

  “You mean Jennifer Young?” Nancy said. She had a good memory. She remembered what Jennifer had said earlier, even though she hadn’t been paying that much attention. “I heard she got a poodle puppy.”

  “It looked more like a fluffy little mouse to me,” Jason joked. He bent down and patted Chip. She licked his hand happily. “Your dog is cool, though. Can she play soccer?”

  “Sure,” Nancy said. “She loves it!”

  “Cool!” Peter DeSands called. “Let her off the leash so she can play!”

  Nancy hesitated. One of the park rules was that all dogs had to be under control. Because Chip was still a puppy, Nancy usually kept her on her leash.

  “Well, okay,” she said after a second. “I guess she won’t run off if there’s a soccer ball around.”

  She snapped off Chip’s leash. The boys cheered. Jason kicked the ball, and Chip barked and raced after it.

  “Look, she loves it!” George said.

  Nancy smiled. “I know. But help me keep a close eye on her, okay? I don’t want her to run off or anything.”

  Her friends nodded. Nancy watched Chip carefully for a minute or two. But then her eyes wandered toward the woods beyond the field. Even though it was a bright day, the woods looked dark and a little spooky. Could there really be ghosts in there?

  Nancy shook her head. She didn’t believe in ghosts.

  “Hey.” Jason Hutchings ran over to them, breathing hard. He flopped on the grass and looked back at the game. The other boys were still playing with Chip. “Your dog is awesome, Nancy.”

  Nancy smiled. “Thanks. I think so too.”

  Jason looked over at Bess. “You should be afraid of Chip, Bess,” he said with a smirk.

  “Why?” Bess looked confused.

  “Everyone knows that dogs love to chase ’fraidy cats!” Jason burst out laughing at his own joke.

  Bess frowned and stared at the ground. She looked upset. But she didn’t say anything.

  George rolled her eyes. “Grow up, Hutchings,” she said.

  Jason shrugged. “Whatever,” he said. “I just thought you girls might not like to sit so close to the woods.” He pointed toward the trees. “That’s where all the ghostly stuff happens, you know.”

  Nancy decided it was time to start solving this mystery. If she proved there were no ghosts, maybe the boys would stop teasing Bess.

  The first thing she wanted to do was figure out exactly what was happening in the woods. “What did you see?” she asked Jason. “Why do you think the woods are haunted?”

  “Well, I didn’t see anything,” Jason replied. “But Laura McCorry told me she was walking near the edge of the woods when she heard someone moaning. When she turned to look, all she saw was a shadowy figure floating up through the treetops.”

  Bess gasped. “Really?”

  “Uh-huh.” Jason nodded. “And Alison Wegman said she was walking down the main trail two days ago when she heard footsteps behind her.” He lowered his voice. “But when she turned around, no one was there!”

  Nancy pulled out a pencil and her notebook. She opened to a fresh page.

  She wrote “The Secret in the Spooky Woods” at the top.

  Below that, she wrote down what Jason had just said.

  Clues:

  1. Shadowy moaning figure (Laura M.)

  2. Spooky footsteps (Alison W.)

  “What are you doing?” Jason asked, watching her write.

  “She’s getting ready to solve the mystery,” George answered for Nancy. “Just wait—Nancy will figure out what’s happening in the woods if anyone can!”

  “Cool!” Jason grinned. “Hey, Nancy, if you catch a real ghost, maybe we’ll all be on TV.”

  Nancy looked up at him. “I won’t be catching any ghosts,” she said. “There’s no such thing. But if something is going on to make people think the woods are haunted, I want to find out what it really is.”

  “W-what else could it be?” Bess asked.

  Nancy looked down at her notebook. Then she looked over at the woods.

  “I don’t know,” she said. “That’s what makes it a mystery. But I don’t believe in ghosts.”

  George looked over Nancy’s shoulder at her notes. “That stuff sounds pretty ghostly,” she said uncertainly. “What else could it be?”

  “Well, it could be someone trying to scare us by making up stories,” Nancy said, looking over at Jason. She knew he liked to tease people.

  “Hey, it’s not me!” he protested. “Everything I said is true. I heard it all from Lindsay today.”

  “So that only leaves one possible answer.” Bess wrapped her arms around herself and shuddered. “Real ghosts!”

  Jason shrugged. “I think the ’fraidy cat is right,” he said. “I bet those woods are the home of an ancient burial ground. Or maybe a crime site!” He grinned at Bess. “Hey, ’fraidy cat, why don’t you go in there and find out?”

  Bess frowned. Before she could answer, there was a shout from the direction of the soccer game.

  Nancy looked over and let out a gasp. “Chip, no!” she cried.

  But her puppy didn’t look back. Barking eagerly, Chip ran off the soccer field—and straight into the woods!

  3

  Doggone Scary

  Nancy shoved her notebook back in her pocket and ran after Chip. George and Bess followed. They were all calling the puppy’s name. But Chip disappeared into the woods without slowing down.

  “Oh, no!” Bess cried as she ran. “What if the ghosts called Nancy’s dog toward them? They could have her already!”

  “You’re right!” George panted. “I saw that happen in a late-night movie on TV once. Only it was a bunch of chickens, not a Lab puppy.”

  All three girls skidded to a stop at the edge of the trees. Nancy was sure that ghosts had nothing to do with Chip running into the woods. But she was still worried.

  “I don’t know what would make her run off like that,” Nancy said, peering into the dim woods. There was no sign of her puppy. “Soccer is practically her favorite thing. Even a rabbit or squirrel running by wouldn’t distract her from that.”

  “S-s-so what are we going to do now?” Bess asked, sounding very nervous.

  Nancy took a step into the woods on the main trail. “We’ve got to find her,” she said. “Come on!”

  George followed her right away, taking a few ste
ps down the trail and calling Chip’s name again. Bess was scared, but after a moment she agreed to come too.

  “Good luck,” Jason called from the field. The soccer game was already starting up again. “Say hi to the ghosts for me!”

  “P-promise we’re just going to find Chip, then come right out again,” Bess said to Nancy in a quavering voice. “We’re not going to hang around looking for clues or anything!”

  “All I care about right now is finding my puppy,” Nancy said, walking a little faster.

  The wide trail was made of packed dirt and went winding between the tall trees. There were lots of roots sticking out everywhere, which meant the girls had to watch their step. They walked side by side, deeper and deeper into the woods.

  “Do you see any pawprints?” George asked, looking down at the ground in front of them.

  Nancy looked too. “I don’t think we’ll be able to see any,” she said. “The ground is pretty hard and dry.”

  “Plus, if the ghosts are carrying Chip, she wouldn’t leave any footprints,” Bess said with a shiver.

  George pointed ahead of them. “Hey, look at that,” she said. “It’s a fork in the trail. I don’t remember that being there.”

  Nancy looked where her friend was pointing. She had walked down this trail about a month earlier on a nature hike with her dad. “You’re right,” she said. “It wasn’t. I remember seeing it there, but that second trail was all overgrown. I remember because Dad called it ’impassable,’ and at first I thought he was saying ’impossible.’” She giggled. “Then he said it was both!”

  “That’s weird.” Bess stared at the new trail. “I wonder if the ghosts cleared it?”

  “Don’t be silly,” George told her cousin. “Ghosts don’t use trails. They can just float through trees and stuff, remember?”

  Nancy whistled loudly. “Chip!” she called. “Chip? Where are you?”

  Wrrruff!

  George gasped. “Did you hear that?”

  “Uh-huh!” Nancy’s heart jumped. She recognized that bark! “Chip!” she yelled again. “Hey, Chip!”