The Make-Believe Mystery (4 page)

“Beware, for the evil warrior comes to attack the tower!” Kyle replied. He tossed peas at the stack of chicken nuggets. Then he caught sight of Bess, Nancy, and George and began throwing peas at them, instead. “Intruder alert! Intruder alert!”

“Stop that!” Bess exclaimed.

Kyle laughed, but he stopped the pea attack.

“What do you want?” Peter asked them, munching on a chicken nugget.

Nancy started to open her mouth, then clamped it shut. She remembered what Bess had said about wanting to do all the talking.

Bess smoothed her hair behind her ears and smiled her best fake-friendly smile. “We just wanted to tell you that your team's story idea sounds really, really cool. I bet you'll definitely win first place.”

Peter and Kyle stared at each other. “Huh?” Peter said after a moment. “How did you hear about our story?”

“Yeah, how?” Kyle echoed. He looked pretty suspicious.

“Oh, you know,” Bess said vaguely. “Stuff gets around. Anyway, I really wish
we'd
thought about doing a story about, um, killer bees attacking our school.”

Kyle made a face. “Killer bees? No way! Our story's about a mad scientist and a—”

Peter hurled a chicken nugget at Kyle. It bounced off Kyle's nose and landed on the table. “Shut up, Leddington! We're not supposed to talk about it!”

“Oh, yeah,” Kyle said sheepishly. “Sorry.”

Bess shot a triumphant look at Nancy and George. Then she turned to the boys and said, “Our chicken nuggets are getting cold. Bye!”

The three girls found an empty table nearby and sat down. Seconds later Phoebe joined them. She set her tray down and said, a little breathlessly, “So? What did I miss?”

Nancy filled her in on their conversation with Peter and Kyle. She also remembered to update George on her earlier conversation with Emily, at Emily's cubby.

“So now we have
two
suspects: Brenda's team and Jason's team,” Bess said, popping a chicken nugget into her mouth. “By the way, wasn't it totally, totally brilliant how I got Kyle and Peter to confess everything?”

“Uh, Bess? All Kyle said was that their
story had a mad scientist in it,” Nancy pointed out. “And
our
story doesn't.”

“That's true,” Bess said, frowning.

George took a sip of her milk. “Maybe the boys just added that, to make their story a little different from ours.”

“That's true, too,” Bess said.

Pushing her tray aside, Nancy pulled her blue detective notebook out of her backpack and opened it up to the page with the words
Emily Reeves
on it. Uncapping a blue marking pen, she crossed out Emily's name and wrote:

SUSPECTS
Brenda's team

* Brenda really, really wants to win the contest!

* Emily called Phoebe over to talk to her on Tuesday, right before lunch. That's the only time Phoebe left her backpack alone. And the purple notebook was gone right after that. So maybe someone else on Brenda's team stole it while Emily and Phoebe were talking?

* Emily had two purple notebooks
today. Plus, she was acting kind of nervous and weird.

Jason Hutchings's team

* Jason and the boys just came up with their story idea on Tuesday—the same day our notebook disappeared.

* George heard Jason and Mike talking about how their story has cats and rats in it, just like ours.

Nancy chewed on the end of her pen. After a moment she said, “Hey, you know what? What if we don't find our story thief by Friday? We should really start trying to rewrite our story, from memory.”

“You mean start from scratch?” Phoebe said in surprise. “But won't Mrs. Reynolds understand if we don't turn in a story for the contest? I mean, someone stole our notebook!”

“We should try, anyway,” George said. “We did have a really awesome story.” She added, “I think I remember
my
part.”

“I think I remember most of
my
part, too,” Bess chimed in. “It was about that
really cute girl, Tess, and her really cute clothes.”

The girls spent the rest of the lunch period trying to re-create “The Ghost of Carl Sandburg Elementary School.” They didn't try to re-create it word for word. Instead, Nancy, then Bess, then George, then Phoebe tried to remember the key points in each of their parts. Bess took notes, scribbling furiously in a small notepad with smiley faces all over it.

When it was her turn, Phoebe hesitated. “Okay, so then, the girl named Gerry has this, um, note . . .” she said slowly.

“The note about the fog and the little cat feet,” George prompted her.

Phoebe nodded. “Right! And then Gerry takes the note, and, um—” Phoebe was interrupted by the recess bell. She scooped her tray up and rose quickly to her feet. “Come on, let's go on the swings for a while,” she said brightly. “Maybe that'll help me remember.”

The four girls emptied their trays in the trash and stacked them on the shelf. They headed into the hallway, chatting about their story.

Lots of other kids were in the hallway, walking toward the schoolyard. Everyone was talking and laughing and making a lot of noise.

Just then Nancy and her friends heard a piercing scream.

7

A Creepy Note

W
hat was
that?”
Bess cried out.

Nancy started running in the direction of the scream. It sounded as if it had come from somewhere near their classroom.

When she and the other girls reached that part of the building, they found a small crowd of kids and hall monitors gathered around the third graders' cubbies. Katie Zaleski was standing at her cubby, looking as pale as a ghost.

Nancy squeezed through the crowd and rushed up to Katie. “What's going on?” she asked her breathlessly.

“Look!” Katie pointed to something
that was taped to her cubby. It was a note written in drippy red ink that looked like blood. The note said:

A TIN BRASS GOOSE

TWO BLUE RATS

THREE WHISPERING CATS

Nancy gasped. That was from their story! The red ink was from their story, too!

Mrs. Reynolds broke through the crowd. “Exactly what is going on here?” she demanded. “Who screamed?”

“S-someone t-taped that to my c-cubby,” Katie stammered, pointing to the note.

Mrs. Reynolds pulled the note off the cubby and studied it. She glanced at the dozen or so faces that were gathered around. “Does anyone know anything about this?”

Nancy gulped. Bess, George, and Phoebe were all staring at her with wide eyes. Nancy wondered: Should they tell Mrs. Reynolds about their story and about the missing purple notebook?

Before Nancy had a chance to say anything,
Mrs. Reynolds said, “I'm sure this is someone's idea of a practical joke. I don't want to see it happening again.” She crumpled up the note.

Nancy glanced over at Brenda and Emily, who were standing in the back of the crowd. Brenda was scribbling like mad in a little notepad. What was
that
about? Was she planning to write an article about the note for the
Carlton News?

Emily glanced at Nancy, and then glanced away. Nancy wondered if she knew something. Jason, Mike, Kyle, and Peter were nowhere to be seen.

Nancy was now one hundred percent sure that her team's purple notebook wasn't just missing or lost. Someone had definitely stolen it.

And now someone—or a bunch of someones—were turning “The Ghost of Carl Sandburg Elementary School” into reality!

• • •

“I knew this Triple Toffee Taste Explosion Sundae would be totally awesome!” Bess exclaimed. She took an extra-big spoonful of whipped cream and
stuffed it into her mouth. “Yum! You guys want to try some?”

Bess, George, and Nancy were hanging out at the Double Dip, their favorite ice-cream parlor. They had gotten permission from their parents to go there after school. Phoebe wasn't with them, because she had gone shopping with her mom.

“No, thanks, Bess,” George said. “I'm happy with my High-Protein Blueberry-Granola-Nut Milkshake.”

“And I'm getting really stuffed on my Killer Chocolate Parfait,” Nancy said.

She pulled her blue detective notebook out of her backpack and opened it up to the page about their missing-story mystery. “So. Who do you think put that note on Katie's cubby?” she said, uncapping her purple pen.

“Brenda and her creepy teammates,” Bess said immediately.

“Jason and
his
creepy teammates,” George said, almost at the same time.

“But what if maybe it was someone else? Someone we haven't even thought of?” Nancy tapped her pen on the table, trying to sort it all out.

After a moment she said, “Maybe someone decided to steal our story and act out parts of it, make them become real. You know, as a prank or something.”

“Yeah, but who?” Bess mumbled, popping a cherry into her mouth.

Nancy sighed. “I'm not sure.”

Just then Jenny and Emily walked into the Double Dip.

“Hey,” Jenny called out as she and Emily passed the girls' table. Emily said nothing.

“Hey,” Nancy, George, and Bess replied, in unison.

Emily went ahead to find an empty table. Jenny paused and stared at Bess's sundae. “What's that? It looks really gross,” she said, making a face.

“It's a Triple Toffee Taste Explosion Sundae, and it's totally
not
gross. It just looks that way because I kind of mixed the caramel syrup up with the ice cream and the crunchy toffee bits and the— Anyway, you want to try some?” Bess offered.

“Uh, no, thanks,” Jenny said, shaking her head.

“How's your story coming?” George
asked Jenny with an innocent expression.

Jenny shrugged. “Well, uh . . . okay, I guess. We kind of fell behind, but I guess we're kind of catching up now, and—”

Overhearing, Emily rushed up to Jenny and glared at her icily. “We're not supposed to talk about our story with these—with
anybody.
Remember?”

“Oh, yeah,” Jenny murmured.

Nancy glanced at Emily and smiled. “I keep meaning to ask you. Yesterday before lunch you were hanging out at your cubby, right? And you wanted to talk to Phoebe about something.”

Emily looked confused. “Huh? I didn't talk to Phoebe yesterday before lunch.”

“Are you sure?” Nancy asked her.

“Positive,” Emily said. “I walked to the lunchroom with Jennie and Alison, straight from class. I didn't even stop at my cubby.” She turned to Jenny. “Okay, I'm totally starving. Can we go order now?”

When Emily and Jenny had gone, Nancy turned to her friends. “George! Bess! I think I know who stole our purple notebook!” she announced.

8

And the Winner Is…

B
ess's mouth dropped open. “You mean Emily's the one?” she said.

Nancy shook her head. “Nope.”

“Jenny?” George guessed.

Nancy shook her head again. “Nope. Listen, I'm not going to tell you guys right now, okay? I have a plan. Besides, I want to make sure I'm right.”

Usually when Nancy was close to solving a case, she got really excited. This time, though, was different because the new person she suspected of taking the notebook was the last person she would have suspected.

Bess's voice broke into her thoughts. “You have a plan, Nancy? What is it? Tell us while I finish my sundae—it's melting.”

• • •

“George, you're stepping on my foot!
Ow!”
Bess whispered.

“Sorry!” George whispered back.

“Shh, someone's going to hear us,” Nancy whispered to both of them.

The three girls were scrunched together in the shadowy doorway of Mrs. Reynolds's classroom. They were in a good position to see the third graders' cubbies.

It was Thursday, and all the other kids were in the lunchroom. Nancy and her friends had gotten hall passes to go to the bathroom, so they didn't have much time.