The Lost Locket

  The Lost Locket

  Bess marched over to where George was standing.

  “Georgia Fayne, don’t you dare ignore me!” Bess said. “Nancy is trying to find my locket—the one you lost! How can you stand there reading that stupid newspaper?”

  “Oh, sure,” George said. “My soccer game is stupid. But your stupid locket is the most important thing in the whole world!”

  When George said that, Bess’s face turned bright red. She grabbed the newspaper clipping.

  “I hope your team loses every game for the rest of the year!” Bess yelled. Then she tore the newspaper into a dozen tiny pieces—and threw them on the ground!

  Contents

  Chapter 1: Furious Friends

  Chapter 2: Too Many Suspects

  Chapter 3: Telephone Tricks

  Chapter 4: Sniffing Out the Proof

  Chapter 5: Yuck for Lunch

  Chapter 6: Brenda’s Sneaky Trick

  Chapter 7: Bus Buddies

  Chapter 8: Locket Found

  1

  Furious Friends

  It’s all your fault! I’ll never forgive you. Ever!” Bess Marvin shouted at her cousin George.

  Big tears filled Bess’s eyes. She kicked at a pile of leaves. They had fallen from the biggest maple tree in the park.

  “Don’t be stupid!” George yelled back. “It’s not my fault.”

  “It is, too!” Bess yelled.

  “Is not!” George shouted. “I didn’t do anything!”

  “That’s right!” Bess cried. “You didn’t do anything! And now my locket is gone!”

  George brushed a leaf out of her dark curls. “Oh, yeah? Well, ask Nancy,” George said.

  She pointed to their best friend, Nancy Drew. Nancy was hurrying across the grass toward the playground. “Go on and ask her. She’ll tell you it’s not my fault.”

  Eight-year-old Nancy held the straps of her bright blue backpack in her right hand. She swung it back and forth as she walked through the park.

  The cool October air blew through Nancy’s reddish blond hair and made her feel good. It was Friday. Now she had the whole weekend to be with her friends.

  “What’s going on?” Nancy asked as she came up to her friends.

  “George lost my locket,” Bess answered. Tears streaked Bess’s cheeks.

  “I did not!” George said. She put her hands on her hips.

  “Did, too!” Bess yelled.

  “But what happened?” Nancy asked. She dropped her backpack at the base of the huge maple tree. That was where everyone always put their things when they came to the park after school.

  “Tell me everything,” Nancy said, looking from Bess to George. They were her two best friends. She had never seen them fight. “Is your locket really gone, Bess? The beautiful one—the fancy gold heart?”

  “Yes!” Bess cried. Her voice almost cracked.

  Nancy put her arm around Bess. No wonder Bess was so upset! Bess’s aunt Sarah had given the locket to her for her birthday.

  The locket was a gold heart that opened. Bess’s name was engraved on the front. There was a tiny pearl in the middle.

  “That’s terrible if it’s gone,” Nancy said. “But will somebody just tell me what happened?”

  “I’ll tell you,” Bess said. She pulled Nancy to one side by the arm. “Don’t listen to George. She won’t tell you the truth.”

  Bess brushed her blond hair out of her face and adjusted her navy blue headband. When she was all set, she took a deep breath.

  “I was wearing the locket,” Bess said, looking only at Nancy. “And I didn’t want anything to happen to it. But all the girls were taking turns jumping rope. I wanted to jump rope, too. So I took off my locket and handed it to George. I asked her to hold it for me while I jumped. But she didn’t hold it! She put it in her backpack instead. Now it’s gone.”

  Nancy looked at George to see what she would say. George looked unhappy.

  “I didn’t lose it on purpose,” George explained. “I only put it in my backpack because I thought it would be safer there.”

  “Well, maybe it’s not even gone,” Nancy said. “Maybe it just fell out of your backpack into the leaves.”

  Nancy walked over to George’s backpack near the big tree. She started to look through the leaves. But Bess stopped her.

  “No. It’s not in the leaves,” Bess said. “I looked. It’s been stolen. And look what the thief left instead.” Bess picked up a plastic sandwich bag with a soggy sandwich inside. “This was in George’s backpack.”

  “Yuck!” Nancy said. She could smell relish, even before she opened the bag. Relish, ketchup, and mustard were leaking all over the white bread.

  “It’s really gross,” Bess warned her.

  Nancy took the sandwich out of the bag, anyway. She held it far away from her. Then she peeled the layers of bread apart to see what was inside.

  Peanut butter? With ketchup, mustard, and relish? It was all mushed together between the bread. It was the grossest sandwich Nancy had ever seen.

  “Whoever stole my locket was trying to be mean,” Bess said. “They left this sandwich just to make me sick!”

  Nancy thought about that for a minute. It was a mean trick. But who would do it? And why?

  Nancy looked inside George’s backpack again. She checked every pocket. But the locket was not there. The only thing Nancy found was George’s new notebook. The notebook was red with a silver stripe on the cover. It matched the stripe on the backpack flap.

  “Don’t worry,” Nancy said, getting excited. “This is a mystery. And I’m good at mysteries. Maybe I can figure out who stole the locket and get it back.”

  “Good,” Bess said. “Because if you don’t, I’m never speaking to George again.”

  Nancy frowned. That would be terrible!

  “Where exactly did George put the locket?” Nancy asked Bess. “In the big main part? Or in the little pocket?”

  “Don’t ask me,” Bess said. “George? George! I don’t believe it. Look! She’s not even listening!”

  Nancy looked. George had moved away. She was standing by a bench with some girls from her soccer team. She had a newspaper clipping in her hand.

  Nancy could guess what it was—the picture of George that had been in the River Heights newspaper a few days earlier. It showed George kicking the winning goal in Monday’s soccer game.

  “George!” Bess yelled. “Get over here!”

  George glanced over at Bess. “Just a minute,” she called to her cousin. Then she went on talking to her other friends.

  Bess stamped her foot and marched over to George. Nancy followed.

  “Georgia Fayne, don’t you dare ignore me!” Bess said, using George’s full name. No one ever called her Georgia. Bess knew it would make her mad. “Nancy is trying to find my locket—the one you lost! How can you stand there reading that stupid newspaper?”

  “Stupid newspaper?” George said. “Oh, sure. My soccer game is stupid. But your stupid locket is the most important thing in the whole world!”

  When George said that, Bess’s face turned bright red. It was exactly the color of George’s backpack—except that it didn’t have a silver stripe down the middle.

  Bess grabbed the newspaper clipping. “I hope your team loses every game for the rest of the year!” she yelled. Then she tore the newspaper into a dozen tiny pieces—and threw them on the ground!

  2

  Too Many Suspects

  That s it!” George said, glaring at Bess. “I don’t care if you are my cousin. I’ll never speak to you again, Bess Marvin.”

  “Oh, yeah? Well, that goes double for me, Georgia Fayne!” Bess yelled.

  With that, Bess turned around and stormed out of the park.

  Geo
rge marched over to the tree and picked up her backpack. Then she stomped out of the park, too.

  “Wait!” Nancy called. “Wait! Come back!”

  But it was too late. Her friends were too far away to hear.

  A lump formed in Nancy’s throat. “I hate it when people fight,” she said out loud. “And I hate it when people walk away from me!”

  Nancy wanted to run after Bess and George. But they were going in opposite directions. How could she choose?

  Now her two best friends were mad at each other. Maybe they were angry at Nancy, too!

  Nancy frowned. She almost wanted to cry. But she stopped herself. There was a mystery to be solved. Maybe if she found the lost locket, Bess and George would be friends again.

  Nancy reached into her own backpack. She pulled out the special notebook that her father had given her. It was shiny blue, with a pocket inside.

  She opened it to a fresh page and wrote “Bess’s Missing Locket.”

  Then she quickly looked around the park. Who could have stolen it?

  Some third-grade girls were playing jump rope again, a few feet away. One of them looked over at Nancy. She laughed a mean laugh. It was Brenda Carlton.

  Brenda wasn’t very nice—at least she wasn’t nice to Nancy. She always acted as if she thought she was smarter. And her clothes were prettier. And her handwriting was neater.

  Maybe she stole the locket, Nancy thought. Nancy wrote down Brenda’s name in her notebook. Then she wrote the other girls’ names down, too. Laura Anderson, Rebecca Ramirez, and Katie Zaleski were there.

  A minute later two boys zoomed up to Nancy on their bikes. They rode around the big tree in circles. Finally one of them leaned down and grabbed a backpack.

  Is he stealing that backpack? Nancy wondered.

  Nancy wanted to write down the two boys’ names, but she didn’t know them. Then she looked around again.

  There were so many kids in the park!

  I’ve got to hurry, Nancy thought. She wanted to get all their names—before the suspects got away.

  She counted the names on her list. Eleven in all.

  Too many suspects! Nancy thought.

  And it was getting late. It was time for Nancy to go home. She put her notebook away and picked up her backpack from under the big tree.

  But just as she was about to leave, a fourth grader, Karen Koombs, came up beside her.

  While Nancy was watching, Karen picked up a jean jacket and started looking through the pockets. Then she put the jacket down and picked up another.

  Nancy couldn’t believe it. Karen was going through the pockets of the second jacket, too!

  “What are you doing?” Nancy asked.

  “Nothing!” Karen said. But she jumped when Nancy asked her. “Just looking for some gum. Why?”

  “But those aren’t your jackets,” Nancy said. “It’s not your gum.”

  Karen scowled. She looked angry. “What are you doing?” she said. “Spying on me?”

  “No,” Nancy said. “I’m trying to find out—”

  “Did you ever think this might be my friend Melissa’s jacket?” Karen asked. “She said I could have some of her gum. But I didn’t know which jacket was hers. I looked in the wrong one.”

  “Oh,” Nancy said.

  Karen didn’t say anything else. She just took the gum and ran off.

  She’s probably telling the truth, Nancy thought. But why was she acting so guilty?

  Nancy hurried through the park and toward her house.

  “Hannah! I’m home!” Nancy called when she reached the kitchen door. Then she raced up the stairs to her room.

  “Hannah?” Nancy called again.

  Hannah Gruen was the Drew family’s housekeeper. She had been living with Nancy and her father for five years, ever since Nancy’s mother died.

  “In here,” Hannah answered, but her voice was muffled. She was in the closet in Nancy’s bedroom, cleaning it out. When she stepped out of the closet, Nancy saw she had a piece of fuzz stuck in her gray-and-brown hair.

  “What’s wrong?” Hannah asked, seeing the unhappy look on Nancy’s face.

  “George and Bess are fighting,” Nancy said. “They’re never going to speak to each other again.”

  Hannah smiled a little and brushed the fuzz out of her hair. She sat down on Nancy’s bed. Nancy sat down, too. She told Hannah everything that had happened.

  “What should I do?” Nancy asked. “George and Bess are supposed to go to the movies with Daddy and me tonight. But they’re so mad at each other, I know they won’t go.”

  “Just let them cool down awhile,” Hannah said. “They’ll get over it. Maybe your father can take you to the movies on Sunday instead.”

  Maybe Hannah was right, Nancy thought. Bess and George might make up—sometime. But when?

  Probably not by Sunday. Not in time for the movies, for sure!

  3

  Telephone Tricks

  The next morning Nancy called Bess first thing. But Bess wouldn’t even come to the phone—not until she found out who it was. She didn’t want to talk to George.

  “I’m coming over,” Nancy said.

  “Alone?” Bess asked.

  “Yes, alone,” Nancy said. She shook her head. “Can’t you make up with George?”

  “No,” Bess said. “She lost my locket, and she doesn’t even care.”

  “Well, I need both of you to help me solve this mystery,” Nancy said.

  “No, you don’t. We can do it without George,” Bess said. “We’ll solve it ourselves.”

  Nancy sighed as she hung up. Then she put on one of her favorite Saturday morning outfits—blue jeans, a pink sweater, and pink sneakers. She grabbed her special blue notebook and told Hannah where she was going. Then she walked to Bess’s house. She was allowed to go by herself because it was only a few blocks away.

  When Nancy got there, Bess was still in her nightgown. She had big fuzzy animal slippers on her feet.

  “Let’s sit on my bed and talk,” Bess said.

  Nancy liked Bess’s room. Because it was upstairs, it had a slanted ceiling. When they sat on Bess’s bed, the ceiling was low near their heads. It made Nancy feel cozy.

  Nancy took out her notebook and showed the list of suspects to Bess.

  “All these people were in the park,” Nancy said. “So that means that they’re all suspects.”

  “No, they’re not,” Bess said. “They weren’t all near the backpacks while I was jumping rope. Some of them were jumping rope with me.”

  She pointed to a bunch of names, and Nancy crossed them off.

  “And some of them were playing on the swings when the locket was stolen,” Bess said.

  “Really?” Nancy said. “That’s great.” Bess pointed to more names, and Nancy crossed those off, too.

  “Do you remember who was near the big tree?” Nancy asked.

  “Of course,” Bess said. “Karen Koombs was there. She was wearing a blue flowered skirt and a corduroy jacket. I saw her hanging around the backpacks by herself.”

  Nancy frowned. “She’s one of my biggest suspects.” Nancy told Bess what had happened when Karen was looking for the gum.

  “She’s my biggest suspect, too,” Bess said, “because she steals things. Last year she stole some money from the office at school.”

  “Really?” Nancy’s eyes grew big.

  “Well, that’s what everyone said, anyway,” Bess said.

  “Did they prove it?” Nancy asked.

  “No.”

  “Well, then, maybe she’s guilty and maybe she’s not,” Nancy said.

  “Okay, but I still think she did it. Let’s make a new list of the real suspects. The ones who were near the tree. Put Karen Koombs at the top,” Bess said.

  “Okay.” Nancy wrote “New Suspects” in her notebook. Then she wrote “Karen Koombs.” “Who else?” she asked.

  “Jenny March was there,” Bess said. “She was getting a gray sweater out of her backpack. I no
ticed because it didn’t go with her outfit. She was wearing green tights with a blue-and-green jumper over them.”

  Nancy threw a pillow at Bess. “Forget what everyone was wearing!” Nancy said, laughing. “Just tell me who else was near the tree!”

  “Mike Minelli was there. He was throwing something at a squirrel up in the tree. And a boy from fourth grade. I think his name is Ned Nickerson.”

  Nancy grabbed her pencil. Under Karen’s name she wrote:

  Jenny March

  Mike Minelli

  Ned Nickerson

  Then she thought for a minute.

  “Here’s what I’m wondering,” Nancy said. “Remember the yucky sandwich that the thief put in George’s backpack? Where did it come from?”

  “Maybe the thief had it left over in her lunch,” Bess said.

  “Or his lunch,” Nancy said.

  “Right.”

  “So I know what we have to do,” Nancy said, jumping up. “We have to find out who eats peanut butter with mustard, ketchup, and relish for lunch.”

  “How are we going to do that?” Bess asked.

  Nancy thought for a minute. “We’re going to call up all the suspects and ask them.”

  The two girls raced downstairs. They huddled around the telephone in the family room. Bess’s parents were outside working in the yard. The girls had the house to themselves.

  Nancy looked up Karen Koombs’s phone number in the school telephone book. Then she cleared her throat and dialed. Busy signal.

  “Who’s next?” Nancy asked. Jenny March’s name was next. Nancy dialed the phone number. Mr. March answered the phone.

  “Hello,” Nancy said, trying to sound very serious and grown-up. “This is Nancy Drew. I go to Carl Sandburg Elementary School, and I’m doing a report. It’s for a science project.”

  “No, no, no!” Bess whispered in the background. “Jenny’s in our class. She knows there’s no science project!”

  “Uh, it’s for extra credit,” Nancy said, changing her story quickly.

  Mr. March said, “Uh-huh,” at the other end of the line. He sounded as if he wanted Nancy to get to the point.

  “So anyway, can you tell me what Jenny usually eats for lunch?” Nancy asked.