Nancy Clancy, Super Sleuth Page 2

  The paragraph talked about teaching. Was that a clue? Hmmm. Nancy tapped her pencil eraser against her lip. Maybe the marble belonged to Mr. Dudeny.

  At the end of the day, the kids revealed which mementos were theirs.

  “Mine is the potato that looks like a witch’s head,” Lionel said.

  “I knew it!” lots of kids said at once. Nancy had guessed right too. Lionel was such a goofball.

  Besides Bree, only Robert and Tamar figured out Nancy’s memento. The other kids probably figured she’d bring in something fancier.

  Mr. Dudeny went last. “I brought in the marble.”

  “Superb!” Nancy punched her fist in the air. “I guessed it was yours, Mr. D.”

  Grace said, “I got thirteen right. That’s really good, isn’t it, Mr. Dude?”

  “This isn’t a test,” Mr. Dudeny said. “Guessing was just for fun. Your paragraphs are enthralling. That means I found them very, very interesting. So, Dudes? Want to learn how to play marbles?”

  Everybody crowded around Mr. Dudeny while he drew a chalk circle on the floor. In the middle he made a plus sign with thirteen smaller marbles.

  He held up the big blue marble. “This is the shooter. It shoots the little marbles.”

  “Hey, I’m a marble. Ooh! Ooh! I got shot!” Lionel clutched his chest and staggered around.

  “If you shoot a marble outside the circle, you get a point,” Mr. D explained. “The player with the most points wins. I used to be pretty good.”

  He bent down on one knee. He put his blue shooter outside the circle. A flick of his thumb sent it whizzing toward the little marbles. Three got hit. When they stopped rolling, two were outside the circle.

  “Ooh. Can we try?” Robert asked.

  Mr. Dudeny said, “It just so happens I brought a bunch of shooters.” He started handing them out. Robert got one with orange stripes. Lionel got one that looked like a bloodshot eyeball. Nancy got a green shooter with sparkles inside.

  “No fair! Yours is prettier than mine,” Grace said to Nancy, and pushed in front of her. “Can I go first, Mr. D? Can I?”

  “Whoa, no pushing. Everybody will get a turn.”

  Shooting marbles was harder than it looked. Nancy didn’t get any points.

  “Don’t feel bad,” Bree said. “I stink too.”

  When it was almost time to go home, Mr. D scooped up the little marbles. Then he passed a bag around to collect the shooters.

  “Hey! Watch this.” Lionel held the eyeball marble between his thumb and his pointer finger. He made a fist and rubbed both his hands together. When he opened them, the eyeball marble was gone.

  “Pretty good trick!” their teacher said.

  “It’s not a trick,” Lionel insisted. “It’s magic.”

  “Then do some more magic and make it reappear.” Mr. Dudeny waited until Lionel dug inside his sleeve for the marble.

  “Aw, rats,” said Lionel. “I wanted to keep it.”

  Mr. Dudeny was retaping the beautiful blue shooter to the table when the bell rang.

  “Adios, Dudes. See you tomorrow on Family Day.”

  CHAPTER

  5

  Before dinner, Nancy was at Headquarters. She was reading about how to make disappearing ink. Suddenly the curtain parted. She expected to see Bree. Instead, there was Rhonda.

  “Uh, hi, Nancy. Your mom said you were out here. Um, look, I”—Rhonda shifted from leg to leg—“I came over to tell you something.”

  Well, this was an interesting development! Had Rhonda come to confess?

  Nancy smiled an encouraging smile. She waited for Rhonda to drop to her knees and start sobbing about the horrible thing she’d done. And because Nancy was so kindhearted, she’d say, “Of course I forgive you, Rhonda.”

  “Uh, look, Nancy…” Rhonda seemed about to blurt something out but then stopped. When she spoke, all she said was, “Want to come over and play soccer? My dad just set up a goal in our yard.”

  What? So Rhonda wasn’t here to confess? Then she must have come over to lure Nancy into the trap!

  “It’ll be fun,” Rhonda said.

  Oh, right! It’ll be a ton of fun to fall into some hole you dug. So a hundred years from now, a kid will be playing in your yard and discover a bunch of bones—my bones!

  “No,” Nancy said. “Maybe some other time.” As in, never!

  “Well, then—uh, bye, I guess,” Rhonda said.

  “No, wait!” Nancy pulled Rhonda inside and sat her in one of the beanbag chairs. Now was her chance to make Rhonda talk.

  “Stay. Have a snack.” She handed Rhonda a bag of cookies. On TV shows detectives sometimes got suspects to blab by acting really friendly. Nancy figured she’d give it a try.

  “It sure is great to see you, Rhonda,” Nancy said.

  “Huh? You see me all the time.” Rhonda nibbled on a cookie.

  “I know. But it’s always great.” Nancy paused. “That’s because we’re friends, right?”

  “Yeah, sure.” She took another cookie and stood up. “I better get home.”

  Nancy had to think fast.

  “Look, Rhonda. I don’t think you came here because you wanted to play soccer. Tell me why you really came over.”

  Rhonda avoided Nancy’s eyes. “I—I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Oh, I think you do,” Nancy said.

  Suddenly Rhonda slumped back down in the beanbag chair. Nancy poured a glass of water and handed it to her.

  “Make it easy on yourself, Rhonda, and tell me the real reason you came over. I can tell you want to confess.”

  Rhonda took a sip. “Well—” She started to speak when Nancy’s mother barged into Headquarters.

  “Your mom called,” she told Rhonda. “She wants you home.”

  Rhonda sprang from the chair. “See you!” she cried, and was gone.

  “I was working on a case, Mom. I was about to crack it wide open when you came in.”

  “My bad, Sherlock.... Listen. I bought strawberries for dessert. Want to help make whipped cream?”

  “I guess.” Nancy followed her mother to the kitchen. How come Nancy Drew never ran into the problems that Nancy Clancy did, trying to solve a mystery?

  Of course, Nancy Drew didn’t have a mother. There was just her father, Carson Drew, and a kindly housekeeper named Hannah. Nancy felt sorry for Nancy Drew not having a mother. But maybe Mrs. Drew would have messed up her cases too.

  CHAPTER

  6

  “Hurry, honey!” Nancy’s mom called. “Mom, I can’t find one of my bracelets.” Nancy needed it to complete her outfit for Family Day.

  “Really. It’s time to go,” her mom said. “We don’t want to be late.”

  Nancy came downstairs, and right away she saw the bracelet she’d been looking for.

  It was on JoJo’s wrist.

  Nancy pointed. “That’s my bracelet!”

  “Sorry!” JoJo said. Right away, she took off the bracelet and went to get her jacket.

  “She always takes stuff without asking,” Nancy said to her parents.

  “Don’t be mad, Nancy.” JoJo clasped her hands together. “Please don’t be mad.”

  “Okay, okay,” Nancy said.

  On the walk to school, JoJo slipped her hand into Nancy’s and skipped the whole way.

  The Clancys were among the first to arrive in room 3D. After saying hi to Mr. D, Nancy steered her parents to the mementos table.

  “Voilà!” She pointed to her chunk of pyrite. “I hope you’ll find my paragraph enthralling.”

  Before long, the classroom filled up with families. Bree had brought a disposable camera. So Nancy posed like a model by her chunk of fool’s gold. Then Nancy took a photo of Bree with her glass mouse. Then Bree took a photo of JoJo and Freddy together.

  Lionel was dragging his parents over to see the witch potato.

  “Smile, Lionel,” Bree said.

  “Wait!” Lionel said, holding up the potato. “Okay, now!”
Lionel’s tongue was hanging down on his chin. His eyes were rolled so far back, all you could see were the whites.

  “Stop that, Lionel!” his mother scolded. “Nobody else is acting silly.”

  Nancy’s mom and dad looked at each other and smiled.

  “What?” Nancy asked.

  Her father nodded at Lionel. “That was me, twenty-five years ago. The class clown.”

  Bree snapped more pictures of kids and their mementos. Then they joined a bunch of kids at the snack table while Mr. Dudeny talked to the parents.

  “I am so glad we could share our mementos with you,” he said. “This is part of our unit on families. Earlier in the year, we made family trees. Soon each child will begin writing an autobiography. In art they will make family collages, and in…”

  Nancy tuned out the rest of what Mr. Dudeny was saying. She watched JoJo and smiled. JoJo was taking Yoko’s little sister around the memento table. Hariko was only three. JoJo was holding her hand and pointing out different stuff to her. It was like JoJo was pretending to be a big sister.

  Deep down, Nancy was glad JoJo had come to Family Day. She hugged her sister when it was time for all the families to leave.

  “Au revoir!” Nancy said, waving.

  Bree kept snapping photos all day—at lunch, in the school yard, during art, and lots more in their classroom.

  “One left,” she said. Her desk was next to Nancy’s.

  “Take another of me.” Nancy had her creative-writing journal out. She put a dreamy look on her face and held a pencil with her pinky finger up. “Do I look creative?”

  “Bree!” Mr. Dudeny said. “Please put the camera away and get to work.”

  Nancy loved creative writing. She was writing a mystery called “The Vanishing Jewel.” It starred a young detective named Lucette Fromage. Lucette had long, curly tresses. “Tresses” was such a beautiful word for hair. Lucette was also the same age as Nancy.

  Lucette Fromage sprinted after the robbers, Nancy wrote. Mr. Dudeny liked vivid—that meant colorful—words. “Sprinted” was way more vivid than “ran.”

  “Be careful, Lucette Fromage!” the countess shouted from the steps of her mansion. “My sapphire blue ring is priceless. But I don’t want you to get maimed.”

  The robbers laughed like maniacs. “You’ll never catch us!” Then they drove off in an ugly used car.

  It was hard trying to write the chase scene. Lucette was too young to drive. Ah! Nancy decided to give Lucette really fast, strong legs. Lucette hopped on her bike and began pedaling at seventy miles an hour, Nancy wrote. Soon she was right behind the robbers.

  At one point, Nancy turned around and looked up. Mr. Dudeny was standing behind her desk. He was reading over her shoulder. “Superb!” he said.

  “Dudes, listen to all the vivid words Nancy has used,” Mr Dudeny said.

  Nancy read out loud to the class. She explained that “priceless” meant really expensive and “maimed” meant hurt. Then she said, “At first I was going to make the stolen ring be a diamond ring. But I changed it to a sapphire after seeing Mr. Dudeny’s beautiful blue marble.”

  “Hey! Look!” Grace said in surprise. She was pointing to the mementos table.

  The crisscrossed pieces of tape were still stuck on the table. But the marble was gone.

  “No worries. It must have gotten unstuck and rolled off,” Mr. Dudeny said. “Let’s search.”

  Grace checked the wastebaskets. Yoko, Lionel, and Tamar went through the book bins in case the marble had dropped into one. Nancy and Bree searched under the radiators. Nancy saw a dead bug, but no marble.

  “It’s not in Eric Clapton’s cage, either,” Clara said. “I checked.”

  Grace rolled her eyes. “Cla-ra! How could that huge marble get inside the hamster’s cage?”

  “I don’t know. But I checked anyway.” Clara looked upset. “How could it have disappeared?”

  “I’m sure it’ll turn up,” Mr. Dudeny kept saying.

  “I think somebody stole it!” Grace said, in a low voice so Mr. D couldn’t hear.

  “You think she’s right?” Nancy asked Bree.

  “It does seem suspicious.”

  “Then our classroom might be a crime scene!” This struck Nancy as both thrilling and upsetting.

  Right before going home, Bree aimed her camera at the mementos table. “Maybe we can get the pictures back today.” She paused and snapped her last picture. “Who knows? There could be a clue!”

  Ooh la la! Now Nancy and Bree had two mysteries to solve—the Secret of the Twins … and the Case of the Missing Marble!

  CHAPTER

  7

  Bree’s mom came back with the photos late that afternoon. The girls looked through them at Sleuth Headquarters.

  Bree giggled. “Look at Lionel.”

  Nancy was busy studying some other photos. “I am trying to establish the time of the crime.” In sleuth talk, establish meant figuring out something.

  “These two photos are clues.” Nancy handed Bree one of Bree’s parents at the display table. “See the clock on the wall?”

  “Yeah. It says eleven,” Bree said.

  “The blue marble is still there.” Nancy held up a different photo. “Now look.” Everybody except Bree was standing behind the display table. Mr. Dudeny was in the photo too. But the marble was gone.

  “Ooh, I have goosebumps!” Bree said.

  “Me too! Too bad the clock got cut off in this one.”

  “Doesn’t matter,” Bree said. “I remember I took it right after lunch.”

  “Hmmm. Lunch is over at one fifteen. So that means the marble disappeared sometime between eleven and one fifteen.” Nancy heard herself and stopped. “Oh, Bree! We are really sleuthing! Nancy Drew would be so proud.”

  Bree flung her arms around Nancy. “Partner, we are going to crack this case wide open!”

  At dinner that evening, Nancy’s dad said, “My, my. Just the other day you were complaining about the lack of crime around here.” He paused to spoon some carrots onto his plate. “And now look! Grand theft at school!”

  “Doug, stop teasing,” her mom said.

  “Looks like an inside job to me,” her dad went on, ignoring a loud sigh from her mom.

  “I don’t feel good. My tummy hurts.” JoJo climbed into Mom’s lap.

  Nancy’s dad turned to her and said, “So? Was anybody ever alone in the classroom?”

  Nancy had already thought about that. “No. Only Mr. Dudeny. He stays in while we’re at recess.”

  “Hmmm. Doubtful he stole his own marble … unless, of course, your teacher is losing his marbles.” Her dad laughed at his own joke. Her mother shook her head and carried JoJo upstairs to lie down until she felt better.

  CHAPTER

  8

  Later that evening, Nancy lay on her bed, pondering. Pondering was like thinking, only fancier. Next to her on her night table was The Witch Tree Symbol. How would Nancy Drew go about solving the Case of the Missing Marble? she wondered.

  Nancy picked up the book and opened it. She didn’t expect to find any answers in it. She just liked looking at the first page. In the top corner it said Marjorie Sneff in curly script. That had been Mrs. DeVine’s name when she was a child in days of yore.

  “Sacre bleu!” Nancy said out loud. In French that meant “Oh my gosh!”

  There was a dark brown fingerprint by Mrs. DeVine’s name. It had never been there before. And the page was torn.

  “JoJo!” Nancy hollered. She charged into her sister’s room. JoJo was on the floor, playing with all the things in her plastic treasure chest. Evidently her tummy felt all better. She was eating an Oreo. Dark brown crumbs were all over her mouth and fingers.

  She looked up, saw Nancy, and snapped her treasure chest shut. She had a guilty look on her face.

  “You’re not allowed to touch my stuff!” Nancy shoved the open book at her sister. “Look what you did!”

  “I didn’t do that!”

  �
��You did too! Look at your hands. This fingerprint was made by someone eating an Oreo cookie!”

  Quickly JoJo hid her hands behind her back. “It wasn’t me! I don’t like those books. They’re scary.”

  Nancy ran to find their mother. She was halfway down the hall when she stopped. Maybe JoJo was telling the truth. The covers of the Nancy Drew books did scare her.

  Nancy examined the fingerprint in the book more closely. It was big. It was probably a thumbprint.

  “Come with me,” she told JoJo. They went into Nancy’s room. Nancy took her sister’s hand and pressed her thumb onto a page in her detective notepad. A brown thumbprint appeared. It was the same color as the thumbprint in the Nancy Drew book. But it was much smaller.

  JoJo was innocent after all.

  “I’m sorry I blamed you,” Nancy told her.

  “That’s okay,” JoJo said. “Will you read to me?”

  “Yeah, I guess.”

  They went back to JoJo’s room. JoJo pushed her treasure chest under her bed and found her favorite book. She handed it to Nancy. It was about a pirate ship and buried treasure.

  The whole time Nancy was reading, she kept thinking about the brown thumbprint in her book. Who besides Bree and JoJo had been in her room lately?

  Ooh la la! It hit her. The twins! They had come over a few days ago after soccer. Had Rhonda been eating anything chocolatey? No, Nancy didn’t think so. But maybe the thumbprint wasn’t chocolate. Maybe it was dirt! That made sense. Everybody came back from soccer all muddy. Nancy never would have let Rhonda touch the Nancy Drew book with dirty hands. So when did Rhonda commit the crime?

  Suddenly Nancy remembered. Mrs. DeVine had called about coming for tea. While Nancy was on the phone, the twins were alone in her room. Double ooh la la! All the pieces of the puzzle were falling into place. Rhonda had probably picked up the Nancy Drew book just to look at it, and messed it up by mistake. Rhonda was scared to confess. And so Rhonda made Wanda promise not to tell Nancy.