The Zoo Crew

  “You’re welcome,” Nancy replied. “I’m glad he wasn’t hurt.”

  Tyler’s mother gave the squirmy child one last hug. “I think we’d better go see about renting a stroller,” she told her husband wearily. “That might be safer.”

  Nancy glanced over at the zoo entrance. Just beside the gift shop was a sign that read STROLLER RENTAL: 75 CENTS PER HOUR.

  “That sounds like a great idea,” she said with a smile. “Good luck!”

  Tyler’s parents thanked Nancy one more time and hurried toward the stroller rental place. A moment later the rest of Nancy’s group reached the pond.

  “What was that all about?” George asked.

  Nancy quickly explained what had happened. “I think Tyler woke up the sea lions,” she added, pointing into the pond. The sea lions were swimming around more actively now. “Maybe we should take a few pictures here before we move on.”

  The others agreed. They all snapped a few pictures of the sea lions, laughing as the huge creatures dove and played and did flips in the water.

  Then they heard a loud cheer from somewhere around the corner. “Let’s go see what’s going on,” George suggested.

  “That’s the way I wanted to go in the first place,” Brenda muttered.

  Nancy was glad that George didn’t hear her. She didn’t care which way they went, but she wished there could be less arguing about it.

  Around the corner, they found some kids from their class watching a mother elephant giving her baby a bath. “Cool!” Mari said, pulling out her camera. For the next few minutes Nancy and her friends watched, took pictures, and laughed as the baby elephant danced and wriggled and squirted its mother.

  “Come on,” Brenda said after a while. “That’s enough of these elephants. I want to go to the aviary next.”

  “The aviary?” Mari said.

  “Yes, the aviary,” repeated Brenda impatiently. “That’s the place where the birds live.”

  “I know that,” Mari replied. “But going there right now would mean skipping the rhinos and the hippos.”

  George shook her head. “No way,” she said. “I want to see those guys. The birds can wait.”

  “But if we don’t get to the aviary soon, the others will scare the birds away into the treetops,” Brenda argued. “Then I won’t be able to get any good pictures of them.”

  Nancy sighed. She didn’t understand why Brenda kept trying to take over their group. Just then she heard a shout from nearby.

  Nancy turned to see Jason gesturing at them. “Come on!” he called breathlessly. “We’re all supposed to meet by the snack bar—RIGHT NOW!”

  George looked suspicious. “Really?” she asked. “Or is this some kind of trick?”

  “No way,” Jason said. “Mrs. Reynolds sent me. She seemed upset.”

  The girls looked at each other and shrugged. Jason liked to play pranks. But he looked serious this time.

  “Come on,” George said at last. “I guess we’d better go check it out.”

  They all followed Jason back toward the snack bar, which was near the main entrance. When they got there, they saw that most of the class was already gathered at the picnic tables outside the snack bar. Mrs. Reynolds and the other chaperones were there too, along with a tall, older man in a zoo uniform. Mrs. Reynolds looked grim and worried.

  “I wonder what’s going on?” Bess whispered anxiously.

  Nancy shrugged. “I guess we’ll find out soon.” The girls took their place with the rest of the group.

  “All right, class,” Mrs. Reynolds called when everyone was there. “Mr. Zane here is the head zookeeper. He needs to talk to you about something that just happened a few minutes ago.”

  “That’s right.” The tall man stepped forward and stared out at the kids, his face very serious. “Come with me, please. I want to show you.”

  Nancy and her friends exchanged glances. They had no idea what was happening. But they followed along with the others as the zookeeper led them out of the snack bar area into the main entrance plaza. He headed straight toward the lawn near the monkey cage.

  As soon as she got close enough for a good look, Nancy gasped. The neat flowerbeds they’d seen just a few minutes earlier were a mess! It looked like someone had stomped through them, crushing the delicate blossoms, ripping some plants out by the roots, and tipping over a few clay pots and small statues.

  “What happened?” she exclaimed.

  The zookeeper heard her. “That’s a good question, miss,” he said sternly. He glanced out over the entire class. “Which of you kids is responsible for this vandalism?”

  Nancy’s eyes widened. Vandalism? Nancy’s dad, Carson Drew, was a lawyer. He had told Nancy that vandalism was when one person wrecked another person’s property. Could someone from their class really have done this? It seemed too horrible to be true.

  Brenda stepped forward and started taking pictures of the damaged garden. “Wow,” she uttered under her breath, sounding excited. “This is what I call real news!”

  There was a loud murmur as the whole class started whispering about the destruction. Mrs. Reynolds stepped forward to talk quietly to Zookeeper Zane, who was frowning.

  Nancy leaned forward a little, curious about what the adults were saying. Why was the zookeeper so sure that someone from their class was the vandal? She was beginning to think she had another mystery on her hands!

  She stepped forward, almost bumping into Brenda, who was still taking pictures. “Watch it,” Brenda snapped, leaning down to photograph a broken flower stem.

  Nancy noticed Emily Reeves, Jessie Shapiro, and Phoebe Archer watching Brenda suspiciously. “Hey,” Phoebe said. “It’s pretty weird that Brenda just stumbled on this great ‘news’ scoop, isn’t it?”

  Emily nodded. “She was just complaining about needing stories for her next issue.”

  Nancy bit her lip. She wasn’t surprised the other girls had thought of Brenda first—she could be a real troublemaker sometimes. But not this time.

  “She didn’t do it, guys,” Nancy spoke up. “I’m sure of it. She’s in my group, and she was with us the whole time.”

  “Really?” Phoebe glanced at Brenda and shrugged. “Okay, sorry. It was just an idea.”

  Meanwhile Jessie was staring at Emily. “Hey,” she said. “You didn’t do it, did you? When you said you were leaving for a minute to go to the bathroom?”

  “No way!” Emily looked hurt. “I really did have to go. Maybe you guys did it while I was gone!”

  As the girls argued, Mrs. Reynolds called for attention again. “All right, class,” she said. “I would like anyone who knows anything about this vandalism to step forward right now. That means if you did it, or if you know who did it.”

  There was a long moment of silence. The kids looked at one another, everyone waiting for someone else to speak. Nancy craned her neck, trying to see all her classmates’ faces. Did anyone look guilty? She couldn’t tell.

  “All right, then,” the teacher said at last. “Since there’s no real proof that any of you were involved, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. You can go back to what you were doing.”

  The zookeeper looked grumpy. “Your teacher is right, there’s no proof. But I’ll be keeping a close eye on you kids from now on!”

  As the adults and the other kids drifted away, Nancy was thinking hard. She stared at the damaged flowerbeds, still shocked that anyone would do something like this.

  “It’s not fair that the zookeeper thinks it was one of us,” Bess said. “He said there wasn’t any proof.”

  George shrugged. “He probably just figured it was us because we’re kids.”

  “I know,” Nancy said. “But Bess is right—it’s not fair. It could have been anybody.”

  She reached into her backpack and pulled out her notebook. Bess’s eyes widened. “Do you think you can solve the mystery, Nancy?” she asked.

  Nancy shrugged. “I can try,” she said. “Come on, let’s check out the s
cene of the crime. There must be some clues there somewhere.”

  Brenda was still busy taking pictures, but the other four girls stepped forward carefully. Nancy was examining a tipped-over statue when George let out a shout. “Check this out!” she called.

  The others hurried forward and looked where George was pointing. “A handprint!” Mari exclaimed.

  Nancy leaned closer, peering at the print in the soft dirt of the flowerbed. “Yikes,” she said. “And it’s kid-size!”

  4

  Looking for Suspects

  Uh-oh,” Bess said. “I guess this means one of us really is the culprit!”

  Nancy’s heart sank as she realized Bess was right. “It looks that way,” she admitted. “I haven’t seen a single other kid at the zoo today. Well, except for . . .”

  Her gaze wandered over toward the nearby stroller rental stand. She remembered little Tyler—he’d already escaped from his parents long enough to cause trouble twice. Could he be the vandal?

  Nancy bent over and stared at the handprint. The edges of the print were soft and sort of crumbly, making it hard to tell exactly how big it was. Was it small enough to be Tyler’s?

  “Do you think that little kid could have left it?” George asked, guessing what Nancy was thinking.

  Nancy shrugged. “I’m not sure,” she said. “But I’m sure of one thing. This is turning into a real mystery!”

  She flipped open her mystery notebook to a clean page as she sat down on the nearest bench. Pulling out her favorite purple pen, she wrote THE ZOO MYSTERY at the top of the page.

  Then she chewed on the end of her pen for a moment, thinking. Bending over the page, she wrote:

  Clues

  1. Kid-size handprint in dirt

  Then she looked up at Bess, George, and Mari, who were watching her write. “I guess that’s the only clue so far,” she said. “Now I need to list our suspects.”

  “You should definitely put Tyler at the top of the list,” Bess said. “He’s so hyper, he totally could have done it.”

  Nancy nodded and wrote:

  Suspect Number 1: Tyler

  Mari looked worried. “That zookeeper seemed so sure it was one of us,” she said. “Maybe you should check it out?”

  Just then Brenda wandered over. “What are you guys talking about?” she asked. Then she spotted Nancy’s notebook. “Oh!” she said. “Are you trying to solve the mystery? If you are, then I think Jason Hutchings and his friends should be your top suspects.”

  Nancy blinked. “Jason?” she said. “Why?”

  Brenda tossed her head. “Isn’t it obvious?” she said. “They love to cause trouble. Remember how they were blabbing on the bus about causing trouble at the zoo?”

  “I guess,” Nancy said doubtfully. “I think they were joking, though.”

  Still, she had to admit that Brenda had a point. The boys did love to play pranks. What if this was their way of pulling one on Brenda? Maybe they knew she would get all excited about the news story, and they were trying to make it look like she’d done the damage herself.

  She added their names to her list. “Okay,” she said. “Anyone else?”

  Nobody had any other ideas. Nancy stood up and tucked her notebook into her backpack.

  “I’ll be right back,” Brenda announced. “I want to take a few more pictures of that handprint.”

  “We should really start investigating,” Nancy said. “There’s not much time if we want to solve this mystery before we have to leave.”

  “What are we going to do?” Bess asked.

  “I want to see if Tyler and his family are still at the zoo,” Nancy said. “Also, I think we should interview some of the other kids to see if anyone knows anything.”

  Brenda tried to argue, but the other girls sided with Nancy. Soon all five of them were hurrying along the zoo path looking for their classmates.

  The first group they spotted was the one that included Emily, Jessie, and Phoebe, as well as Josie Blanton and Julia Santos. The five girls were at the big cat exhibit watching a tiger chew on a giant plastic bone.

  “Hi,” Nancy greeted them, pulling out her notebook. “Can I ask you guys a few questions?”

  Phoebe stared at the notebook. “Are you trying to solve this mystery?” she asked.

  Nancy nodded.

  “Cool! Maybe you can convince that mean old zookeeper that it wasn’t one of us who ruined his silly flowers,” Phoebe continued.

  “That’s what I’m trying to do.” Nancy smiled. “I need to figure out where everyone was when it happened. So what were you guys doing right before you heard we were supposed to meet at the snack bar?”

  “We were taking pictures of the giraffes,” Josie said.

  Jessie giggled. “Right,” she said. “That baby giraffe is so cute! I got a really good shot of it scratching its neck on a tree—”

  “That’s cool,” Julia broke in. “But wait until Mrs. Reynolds sees the picture I just took of that tiger! I’m sure it’s going to win the photo contest!”

  Bess looked worried. “I hope there still is a photo contest,” she said. “What if Mrs. Reynolds cancels it because of what happened?”

  “Oh, no!” Phoebe exclaimed. “I never thought about that.”

  “I just thought of something else,” Jessie said anxiously. “What if she lets us have the contest, but makes us leave the zoo early?”

  “That would be terrible!” George exclaimed. “I don’t have anywhere near enough photos yet, and—”

  “BE QUIET!” Emily yelled suddenly. “All of you, just stop talking about the stupid photo contest, okay?”

  5

  Questions Without

  Answers

  Nancy blinked, startled, as Emily stomped away to the other end of the exhibit. What was that all about? she wondered.

  She remembered Emily’s similar outburst on the bus earlier. Emily had been acting weird all day. Could she know something about the vandalism, or was it just a coincidence?

  Nancy knew there was just one way to find out—she had to investigate. Leaving the other girls behind, she hurried to catch up to Emily.

  “Hey,” she said to Emily, who was staring into the tiger area. “What’s the matter? Are you okay?”

  Emily shrugged. “I’m fine,” she said, not looking at Nancy. “Whatever.”

  “Are you sure?” Nancy asked. “You seemed a little upset about the contest.”

  “I’m not upset,” Emily said. “Look, my group is leaving. I have to go.”

  She hurried away. A few seconds later her group wandered off to the next exhibit.

  Nancy rejoined her friends. “Did you find out anything from Emily?” Bess asked.

  “No,” Nancy said. “It didn’t seem like she wanted to talk to me.”

  “That’s suspicious,” George declared. “Better write her down as a suspect.”

  Bess shook her head. “But that doesn’t make sense,” she said. “Her group would know if she’d left for long enough to do the damage.”

  Nancy gasped. She’d just remembered something. “Hey!” she blurted out. “She did leave—her group mentioned it earlier, when we were all gathered around the crime scene. They said she went to the bathroom without them.”

  Mari’s eyes were wide. “Wow,” she said. “Do you really think she did it? She seems so nice!”

  “I don’t know,” Nancy said. “But I’m going to write her down as a suspect.”

  She quickly added Emily’s name to the list in her notebook. Then she stared at the page.

  “What’s wrong?” George asked. “You look worried.”

  “I am,” Nancy admitted. “We have a few suspects now, but we don’t have enough clues. Just that one handprint in the dirt.”

  Bess nodded. “Maybe we should go back and-”

  A loud whoop of laughter interrupted her. “What was that?” asked Nancy.

  “Sounds like those stupid boys,” Brenda commented sourly.

  Nancy walked out to th
e path. Just across the way was the bear enclosure, which was a big island surrounded by a moat and a low wall. Jason, Mike, and Peter were over there watching some young bears wrestle in the grass on the island. Orson Wong and Stevie Sikes were there too.

  “Oh, no,” George groaned. “Those boys are probably going to come over here next and get in our way!”

  “Maybe not,” Nancy said thoughtfully. “They’re on our suspect list too, remember? I should talk to them.”

  She led the way over to the bear exhibit. Brenda spotted the active bears and rushed over to the wall to take pictures. Bess and George hung back and watched as Nancy walked up to Jason, who was hanging over the fence watching the wrestling bears.

  “Hi,” Nancy said, tapping him on the arm. “Can I ask you a few questions?”

  “I don’t know, can you?” Jason responded with a grin.

  Nancy rolled her eyes. “Okay,” she said. “I was just wondering where you were around the time of the vandalism.”

  “Are you accusing me, Detective Drew?” Jason put a hand over his heart. “Horrors!” He fell down on the ground, pretending to faint.

  The other boys ran over, laughing. “Oh, no!” Mike yelled. “You killed him! He’s dead!”

  “Good,” Peter shouted, nudging Jason with his foot. “Let’s feed him to the bears!”

  Nancy sighed. “Listen,” she said loudly as the boys continued to clown around. “I really need to know where you were when those flowers got ruined.”

  “Did you say the flowers got bruined?” Stevie asked with a grin. “Bruin means bear, right?” He turned to his friends. “Hey, guys! Detective Drew solved the case—the bears did it!”

  “The bears did it! The bears did it!” the other boys chanted, jumping around and laughing.

  Nancy tried to keep her patience. Couldn’t the boys answer a simple question without turning it into a big joke?

  She was opening her mouth to try again when she heard a shriek from nearby. A second later something barreled into the back of her legs. She almost went tumbling forward onto Jason, who was still playing dead.