“What’s going on, Nancy?” Hannah whispered to her.
Nancy shrugged. “I’m not sure,” she whispered back.
“Yesterday? When we got back from the Civic Center?” Julia went on, sounding really upset. “I put the pot of daisies onour back porch. You know, so they could get some sun and stuff?”
“Then what happened?” Nancy prompted her.
“I didn’t bring them inside last night, because it was so warm,” Julia replied. “My mom always said that was good for potted plants to spend nights outside as long as it wasn’t cold or anything. Anyway.” She took a deep breath.“I went outside this morning to check on them. And they were totally gone!”
“Maybe your mom or your dad moved them,” Nancy suggested.
“No, I asked them. They didn’t have a clue,” Julia replied. She sniffled, as if she was about to start crying. “I’m really, really sorry, Nancy! I lost our daisies!”
Nancy thought for a moment. “We’ll find them,” she said finally.“I’m not sure how, but we’ll find them. I’m going to call Bess and George right now. It’s time for an emergency meeting!”
“I can’t believe you lost our Pink Princess daisies!” Bess moaned to Julia.
Bess, Julia, Nancy, and George were sitting on the Santoses’ deck. The deck overlooked the backyard, which was big and L-shaped. The yard had a lawn lined with bushes and flower beds.
The girls were gathered around a picnic table on the deck. The sun was warm on their faces, and they had a pitcher of lemonade and a plate of banana muffins to share. Still, they were all grumpy because of the missing daisies.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Julia said, for what seemed like the hundredth time.
“Nancy’s the best detective at Carl Sandburg Elementary,”George said calmly. “She’ll find the daisies.”
“Only if you guys help,” Nancy said.
She reached into her pocket and got out her special blue notebook. Her father had given it to her for writing down clues when she was on a case.
Nancy really liked solving mysteries. And this was a really, really important mystery. Their Pink Princess daisies were missing, and the flower show was onlytwo days away! Theyhadto find the daisies, since there was no time to grow more of them from seeds.
Nancy got out her favorite purple pen, turned to a fresh page in the blue notebook, and wrote: The Case of the Missing Daisies.
She glanced up at her friends.“Do we have any suspects?” she said.
“Suspects!” Bess exclaimed. “So you think someone stole the daisies?”
Nancy nodded.“Definitely. I mean, they didn’t just walk off by themselves.”
Bess crossed her arms over her chest. “Maybe Julia forgot them somewhere,” she said huffily.
“No! I swear! I left them right here on the deck—over there, by the railing.” Julia pointed to a spot on the deck floor, near a pot of yellow pansies. “The daisies were there yesterday afternoon,” Julia went on. “And they were totally gone when I got up this morning.”
“I just thought of someone who might be a suspect,”George spoke up.“Orson Wong! He was acting really weird yesterday.”
“Orson isalwaysacting weird,” Bess pointed out.
George shrugged. “Whatever. But he tried to take one of the daisies from you, remember? And he was talking about specimens.”
Nancy nodded. “Specimens. Like he wanted the daisies for a scientific experiment or something.” She added,“Orson’s always doing scientific experiments.”
Bess gasped.“My beautiful daisies! You mean, he could be blowing them up or pouring chemicals on them or something?”
“I don’t know,” Nancy replied. After all, they couldn’t be sure that Orson was the thief—not until they had some proof.
Nancy picked up her purple pen and wrote down Orson’s name under Suspects.
Then something occurred to Nancy. “What about that girl Viola?” she said. “She was so sure her flowers were going to win the Most Beautiful Flower prize.”
Julia took a sip of lemonade. “Yeah. Maybe she was going to make extra-sure about that—by stealing our daisies!”
Nancy wrote Viola’s name down under Orson’s.“We’re going over to Viola’s house later for tea, right? We can look for the daisies while we’re there,” she suggested.
“Good idea,” George said.
“Helllooo! Yoo-hoo!”
Nancy glanced up. A woman with long, curly blond hair and tiny gold wirerimmed glasses was walking across the Santoses’ yard toward them.
The woman was dressed in a loose cotton dress that had a really crazy flower and butterfly pattern on it. Nancy got dizzy just staring at it.
“Hi, Mrs. Bridges,” Julia called out. “She’s our next-door neighbor,” she whispered to Nancy and her friends.
“Greetings, ladies! What a lovely day!” Mrs. Bridges walked up to the picnic table. Nancy saw that she was wearing green cotton gloves with lots of dirt on them.
Mrs. Bridges smiled at Nancy, Bess, and George.“I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure. I’m Belle Bridges.”
“Hi, Mrs. Bridges,” Nancy said. Sheintroduced herself, and George and Bess did the same.
“Julia, dear. I left my little antique watering can here when I came by to say hello yesterday,” Mrs. Bridges said, glancing around.“Oh, there it is.” She reached under the picnic table and picked up a silver watering can.
“Are you a gardener, too?” Nancy asked Mrs. Bridges.
Mrs. Bridges sighed dramatically.“Oh, yes. Apassionategardener. Also a writer and gourmet chef. I always say, one should never limit oneself to just one occupation.”
“Gourmet chef,” Bess repeated. “You mean, as in, you cook really yummy food?”
Mrs. Bridges laughed.“Exactly.”
The four girls chatted with Mrs. Bridges for a few more minutes. Then Mrs. Bridges said goodbye and headed back to her house, watering can in hand.
Nancy noticed that Julia was staring after her with a funny expression.“What is it, Julia?” Nancy asked her curiously.
Julia frowned.“I’m not sure. But I just remembered something. When Mrs. Bridges came by yesterday, she saw the Pink Princess daisies on the deck. She asked me lots of questions about them.”
“Questions? Like what?” George asked her.
“She told me that she was writing an article about edible flowers for some food magazine,” Julia explained.“Edible, as in, you can eat them. I guess you can eat some flowers, in salads and stuff.”
“Flowers in salad? Yuck!” Bess said, making a face.
“Anyway, Mrs. Bridges was asking me if the Pink Princess daisies were edible, and how could she get some,” Julia went on. “She said . . . she said they would look really beautiful in a salad.”
“A salad!” Nancy repeated. She had a sudden, bad feeling.“Oh, no! What if Mrs. Bridges stole our Pink Princess daisies and has eaten them already?”
4
Tea with Viola
Bess gasped. “You mean, Mrs. Bridges stole our Pink Princess daisies and cut them all up into tiny eensy-weensy little pieces and made a salad out of them?” she cried out.
“That is so awful!” George agreed.
“I think I’m going to cry,” Julia said. Her lip was quivering.
Nancy waved her pen in the air.“Wait, guys. We can’t be sure if Mrs. Bridges stole the daisies for a salad. We have to get some proof first.”
Julia sniffed.“H-how do we do that?”
Nancy chewed the end of her penthoughtfully. “Hmm. I know! Julia, can you get us invited to Mrs. Bridges’s house?”
“I guess so,” Julia said. She sounded a little doubtful, though. “What will I tell her?”
“I have an idea!” George said eagerly. “Tell her that we want to do a group report on edible flowers for school.”
“Yeah!” Bess piped up. “Tell her we want to interview her or something.”
“Okay,” Julia said, nodding. “I can d
o that.”
“That’s a great idea, George,” Nancy said excitedly. “And while we’re in her house, we can look around for our daisies and ask her questions.”
“Sounds good.” Bess reached for the plate of banana muffins. “All this talk about edible stuff is making me hungry.”
“. . . And these over here are called astilbe,” Mrs.Van Hall explained.“Notice their fine, feathery blossoms. And as you can see, we have three varieties: white, pink, and red . . .”
It was Wednesday afternoon. Mrs. Van Hall was leading Mrs. Fayne, George, Nancy, Bess, and Julia through the Van Halls’ garden.
Viola was there, too. But she was hanging back, looking kind of grumpy.
Everyone was dressed up for tea. Mrs. Van Hall and Mrs. Fayne were wearing nice skirts and blouses. All the girls were wearing dresses.
The Van Halls lived in an enormous gray stone mansion. It had so many windows that Nancy couldn’t even count them. She thought that the house looked kind of like a castle.
The garden was enormous, too, with flowers everywhere. Plus, there were statues, fountains, and long, winding paths. There was even an antique sundial.
As they walked, George leaned over to Nancy and whispered, “This is, like, a hundred times bigger than your garden and my garden and Bess’s garden and Julia’s garden put together.”
“Definitely,” Nancy said.
After the garden tour, Mrs.Van Hall ledeveryone back to the terrace. There were seven places set for tea, with pretty china plates and cups.
In the middle of the table was a big silver teapot, pitchers of jam and cream, and trays of delicious things to eat: scones, cakes, tarts, and tiny ham and cucumber sandwiches. There was also a big vase of white and yellow daisies.
But not pink, Nancy noticed.
“Well, isn’t this lovely?” Mrs. Fayne said, clapping her hands together.
“Oh, it’s nothing,” Mrs. Van Hall said modestly. “Viola and George, why don’t you sit together right over here?” She pointed to two chairs at the end of the table.
George threw a quick glance at Nancy, as if to say,“Help!” Nancy shrugged and smiled sympathetically.
Nancy sat down between Julia and Bess. While everyone was getting comfortable, Julia whispered to Nancy, “It’s all set. I talked to Mrs. Bridges about our, um, report on edible flowers. She invited us all to lunch tomorrow.”
“That’s great,” Nancy whispered back.
Mrs.Van Hall poured tea out of the silver teapot for everyone. Nancy took a sip. It tasted like peppermint, and it was delicious.
When the grown-ups started talking about gardening, Nancy switched her attention to Viola.
Viola was putting some cream and jam on a scone. Nancy watched her, then did the same. It was really yummy. She also tried a thin little ham and cucumber sandwich. It was really yummy, too.
Nancy was so busy eating that she almost forgot about the plan.
She jumped up from her chair. “Um, may I be excused? I need to find the, um, rest room.”
Mrs.Van Hall smiled at her.“Of course, Nancy. Go in through the double doors. The guest bathroom is down the hall and to the left.”
“Thank you, Mrs.Van Hall,” Nancy said. She started toward the double doors, then paused and turned around for a second. The grown-ups had gone back to theirconversation.Viola was busily attacking a raspberry tart with her silver fork.
Bess, George, and Julia were all watching Nancy. Bess gave Nancy a thumbs-up sign. George and Julia did, too.
Nancy turned and went inside the house. It was as fancy on the inside as it was on the outside. The floors were made of dark, polished wood, and there was antique furniture everywhere. On the walls were lots of paintings, like in a museum.
Nancy made her way down the hall. She passed the guest bathroom on the left. She continued down the hall until she found the stairs going to the second floor.
She glanced around. As far as she could tell, she was all alone. She went up the stairs very quietly. That was hard to do because they were made of marble. The soles of her black patent-leather shoes slapped noisily against the steps.
Once she got to the second floor, Nancy glanced around again. How was she ever going to find Viola’s room? she wondered.There were many doors on each side of the long hallway.
“I guess I should just start peeking in all the doors,” Nancy said to herself.
Fortunately, most of the doors were open. Nancy peeked in on one fancy room after another.
Finally, she reached a bedroom that looked like it could be Viola’s. It had a white wicker bed with lots of dolls neatly propped up against the pillows. There were framed posters of unicorns on the walls, which were covered with a violetpattern wallpaper.
Nancy glanced around quickly, then went into the bedroom and half-closed the door behind her. She started searching for the Pink Princess daisies.
There were some potted flowers on the windowsill, but they weren’t daisies. Nancy looked in the closet and under the bed and under the desk. But still, she didn’t see the Pink Princess daisies.
Then she noticed something on top of the desk. It was a seed catalog. It was the same one Mrs. Fayne had had—the onefrom which Nancy and her friends had ordered their Pink Princess daisy seeds.
Nancy opened the catalog. The page about the Pink Princess daisies had a purple bookmark in it!
Just then a voice called out from behind her,“What are you doing in my room?”
5
A Pink Princess Salad?
Nancy whirled around at the sound of the familiar voice. Viola was standing in the doorway. Her hands were on her hips, and she looked really, really mad.
“I said, what are you doing in my room, Nancy Drew?” Viola repeated.
Uh-oh, Nancy thought. Busted!
She wondered what had happened to the plan. Bess, George, and Julia were supposed to keep Viola busy on the terrace. That way Nancy could search for the daisies in peace.
There was a noise in the hallway behindViola. Bess’s, George’s, and Julia’s heads suddenly appeared.
“Oh,thereyou are, Nancy!” Bess said in a too-bright voice.
“Viola was worried that you’d gotten lost or something, so we came looking for you,” George added.
“You didn’t get lost, Nancy, you came up here to snoop around my bedroom!” Viola accused.
“Th-that’s not true,” Nancy said, thinking quickly.“I couldn’t find the bathroom your mom was talking about, so I came upstairs.”
Just then Nancy noticed a fuzzy cat toy on the floor. It gave her an idea.
“So, um, I came upstairs,” Nancy repeated.“Then, um, as I was passing this door, I thought I heard a cat meowing inside. I wanted to let it out.”
Nancy waited, holding her breath, hoping that Viola would believe her crazy made-up story.
“Maximilian was stuck in here?” Viola said, glancing around. “Again? Where is he?”
Good, she really does have a cat, Nancy thought, relieved. Out loud, she said, “I think he went down the hall.”
Viola peered out into the hallway. “Maximilian!” she called out.“Come here, kitty kitty!”
“Your room is really pretty,” Nancy said, trying to change the subject.
Viola turned around and stared at her. “What? Oh, thanks.”
“You have a lot of cool stuff,” Nancy went on.“Oh, and I noticed you have a seed catalog on your desk. George’s mom has the same one. We ordered the seeds for our Pink Princess daisies from it.”
Nancy watched Viola, to see how she would act at the mention of the daisies. Nancy also wondered if Viola would explain why she had a bookmark at the Pink Princess daisy page.
But Viola didn’t explain anything. Instead, she marched across the room, picked up the catalog, and stuffed it into a desk drawer.“I don’t appreciate people going through my stuff,” she said, hergreen eyes blazing.“Okay, everybody out of my room!”
On their way downstairs, Nancy leaned over to Bess
and whispered,“What happened? You guys were supposed to keep Viola busy.”
“She had to go to the bathroom,” Bess whispered back.“We didn’t know what to do, so we all said we had to go to the bathroom, too. Then, when she didn’t see you in the guest bathroom downstairs, she got suspicious and went to look for you.”
“I’m just glad she believed my cat story,” Nancy whispered.
“Do you think she has our daisies?” Bess whispered.
“I’m not sure,” Nancy whispered back. “Shedidhave the seed catalog—and she had a bookmark at the Pink Princess daisy page. I think that makes her our number one suspect!”
“You must be very, very careful when you’re dealing with edible flowers,” Belle Bridges told Nancy and her friends.
It was Thursday afternoon. Nancy, George, Julia, and Bess were sitting at Mrs. Bridges’s dining room table, getting ready to have a lunch of edible flowers.
Today Mrs. Bridges was dressed in jeans and a big, baggy white T-shirt that said Flower Power on it.
Nancy could see that Mrs. Bridges was a serious plant lover. All the windows in her house had huge, droopy plants hanging in them. There were three huge bookshelves full of gardening books. On the walls were paintings of flowers—painted by Mrs. Bridges herself—and pots of flowers filled every windowsill and shelf and tabletop.
Nancy glanced around. There was no sign of the Pink Princess daisies anywhere.
“Why do you have to be careful with edible flowers?” Bess asked Mrs. Bridges. She had a notebook and pen in hand, and was taking notes for the pretend report.
“Because in addition to the edible flowers, there are a number ofinedibleflowers,”Mrs. Bridges explained. “Some of them are poisonous, even deadly!”
Julia’s eyes grew wide.“You mean they can kill you?” she asked.
“Yes, indeed,” Mrs. Bridges told the girls.“Take lily of the valley, for example. Those pretty little white bell-like blossoms that smell so lovely. If you happened to eat them by accident, you would have terrible stomach pains and hot flashes and maybe even die.”