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  JoJo sighed a big, heavy sigh. “I was being nice,” she began. “Yoko’s little sister wanted to see the marble. I tried lifting her. But she was heavy. So I picked up the marble and showed it to her.” JoJo shrugged. She acted like that settled everything.

  But Nancy’s dad said, “And then?”

  JoJo frowned. Reluctantly, she went on. “It was so pretty, like treasure.... I put the marble in my pocket and took it home. I wanted to keep it in my treasure chest.” All of a sudden her face scrunched up again. “I’m a bad girl! I’m a very bad girl!” she cried, and covered her face with her hands.

  Nancy couldn’t help feeling sorry for her little sister. Maybe JoJo had been born with no integrity and couldn’t help herself.

  “No, you’re not a bad girl,” Nancy’s mom said, stroking JoJo’s hair. “You’re a good girl, a good girl who did something wrong. But we’ll fix it. Tomorrow we’ll go to Nancy’s school. And you’ll give the marble back to her teacher.”

  JoJo was not happy hearing this. “I’ll let Nancy give it back.”

  “Me! No way!”

  “JoJo, you took the marble,” her dad said. “So you need to give it back and tell Mr. Dudeny how sorry you are.”

  Well, finally a little justice, thought Nancy, though JoJo was getting off way too easily.

  So, after dinner, once her sister was in bed, Nancy marched into her parents’ room. “Aren’t you going to punish JoJo? I think you should.”

  Her dad closed the book he was reading. “Exactly what did you have in mind? A year of hard labor?”

  “Ha-ha, Daddy.... What if saying sorry doesn’t stop JoJo from stealing more stuff?”

  Her mother was doing a crossword puzzle. She looked up. “It stopped you.”

  “Me?” Nancy pointed at herself. “What are you talking about?”

  Her mom put down the newspaper. “You don’t remember? You once took a rhinestone hair clip that belonged to Mrs. DeVine.”

  “I beg your pardon. I did no such—!” Nancy stopped cold and blinked a couple of times. Ooh, actually, maybe she did remember. “Was it shaped like a bow? And did it have pink rhinestones?”

  Her mother nodded. “Yep!”

  The hair clip had been on Mrs. DeVine’s night table. It was magnificent! Nancy remembered trying to clip it in her hair. Then, before she knew what she was doing, Nancy had slipped it into her pocket and taken it home. Just like JoJo. Suddenly Nancy had a terrible thought: Maybe crime ran in the family!

  “I found the hair clip under your pillow. Mrs. DeVine didn’t even realize it was missing until I took you to return it.”

  It all came back to Nancy. “I was so scared. I thought Mrs. DeVine would never want to see me again! But she gave me a hug and we had a tea party.”

  “And see? Did you wind up on America’s Most Wanted list? No!”

  “Oh, Daddy!” Nancy said. Her father could be so exasperating. But then he came over and hugged her. “In my humble opinion, you have turned into quite a splendid girl. So maybe there’s hope for your sister.”

  Maybe her dad was right. This was what Mr. Dudeny called “food for thought.” And Nancy definitely needed to ponder it more. But first she needed to do something else.

  She went to her room. After a little while, she sent the Top-Secret Special Delivery mail basket over to Bree’s window. In it was a message. In secret code, Nancy had written:

  Oggv og cv

  jgcfswctvgtu

  CUCR!

  Ygct dqwt

  vtgpej eqcv.

  To decipher the code, see The Secret Code Exposed

  CHAPTER

  13

  “You weren’t supposed to crack the case by yourself!” Bree had on her mad face. Her lips were puckered so her mouth looked like a purse with the strings pulled tight. “We’re Partners in Crime Fighting. Partners—that means we do stuff together.”

  Nancy was startled. This was not the reaction she expected. “Bree. I didn’t mean to. Looking at your photos again made everything click.”

  Bree still looked mad.

  “I’m sorry I solved the case alone,” Nancy went on. “It was scary opening JoJo’s treasure chest. Seeing that marble freaked me out! I wish you’d been there.”

  Bree’s lips unpuckered a little. “The photos really were a clue?”

  “A superb clue.” Then Nancy said, “I bet you’ll crack our next case. Then we’ll be even.”

  Bree nodded. She was quiet for a moment. It was clear that she was pondering something. Then she said, “I’m happy JoJo turned out to be the culprit.”

  Now Nancy got angry. “Well, merci a bunch!”

  “Wait. I’m not being mean,” Bree answered. “But it was creepy thinking somebody in our class was a thief.” She shuddered a little.

  Okay, now Nancy understood. “Yes. I didn’t even want it to be Grace.”

  Grace! Nancy would die—she would absolutely expire—if Grace found about JoJo. Nancy’s mother planned to call Mr. Dudeny tonight. She promised Nancy that JoJo would confess tomorrow after everybody in the class had gone home.

  “Bree, you are the only person I’m telling. My parents said I could because you are like family. But you have to swear up and down not to tell anyone.”

  “It’s in the vault.” Bree locked her lips with a pretend key.

  Then they hugged and said, “Bonsoir, chérie,” which was French for “Good night, darling.”

  As they left Headquarters, Bree said, “In Nancy Drew, some evil-looking stranger always turns out to be the criminal. It’s easy to tell who’s bad because they’ve got ugly scars or sneer a lot. It’s never a cute little kid like JoJo. And it would never, never be anyone in Nancy Drew’s family.”

  Nancy Clancy giggled. “Of course not. Nancy Drew is an only child!”

  CREDITS

  Cover design by Jeanne L. Hogle

  COPYRIGHT

  Nancy Clancy, Super Sleuth

  Text copyright © 2012 by Jane O’Connor

  Illustrations copyright © 2012 by Robin Preiss Glasser

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  www.harpercollinschildrens.com

  * * *

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  O’Connor, Jane.

  Nancy Clancy, super sleuth / by Jane O’Connor ; illustrations by Robin Preiss Glasser.—1st ed.

  p. cm.—(Fancy Nancy)

  Summary: In her chapter book debut, Nancy Clancy must find the culprit when a prized possession goes missing at school.

  ISBN 978-0-06-208293-0

  EPub Edition © MARCH 2012 ISBN 9780062082947

  [1. Mystery and detective stories. 2. Lost and found possessions—Fiction. 3. Schools—Fiction. 4. Vocabulary—Fiction.] I. Preiss Glasser, Robin, ill. II. Title.

  PZ7.O222Nan 2012

  [Fic]—dc23

  2011044625

  CIP

  AC

  * * *

  12 13 14 15 16 CG/RRDH 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  First Edition

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