Now we’ll find out what really happened last night, Nancy thought.
“Why did you pretend to be Brett?” Nancy asked him.
“I didn’t,” Carl said, still grinning. “You called me Brett. I never said I was Brett.”
“Nancy,” George whispered. “Ask him about the key.”
Nancy nodded and cleared her throat. “When you came in the house last night, there was a special key on the table. Did you take it?” Nancy asked.
“No way,” Carl answered. “I saw it, but I didn’t take it.”
Nancy squinted at him. He had a funny look on his face. She thought he was hiding something.
“Then why did you ask to come in the house?” Nancy asked.
Carl’s grin grew even bigger. “It’s a trick I have,” he admitted. He looked really pleased with himself. “I do it every year on Halloween.”
“What trick?” Bess demanded.
“I go to lots of houses and ask for a drink of water,” Carl explained. “People are friendly on Halloween. They always say yes. They leave me standing by the front door alone. And guess what? They leave the candy bowl, too! So while they’re gone, I help myself to big handfuls of candy. It works every time.”
“That’s not nice,” George said.
Carl laughed. “You should see how much candy I got,” he bragged. “I could hardly carry it home.”
“But what about the key?” Nancy asked. “Are you sure you didn’t take it?”
“Why would I want an old key?” Carl replied.
Nancy didn’t have an answer for that. And besides, she was sure he was telling the truth. Why would he lie about the key? He had already admitted being a major candy thief!
“Okay,” Nancy said.
“Just watch out, Bess,” Carl said. He laughed again. “You never know who’s going to get you!”
Bess turned away from Carl. Nancy could tell that she really didn’t like him.
When Carl was gone, Nancy started down the driveway again. “Come on,” she said to Bess and George. “I guess we only have one suspect left—Rebecca. Let’s go to her house and see what we can find out.”
“Okay,” Bess said.
After the girls had walked two blocks, Nancy felt a drop of rain on her cheek. She looked up at the gray sky.
“Do you feel rain?” Nancy asked.
“Yes,” George said. “It looks like it’s going to pour.”
“I don’t want to get rained on,” Bess said. “Let’s go back to my house.”
Nancy shrugged. “Okay. Maybe we can call Rebecca instead.”
When the girls arrived back at Bess’s house, Nancy went straight to the phone and dialed Rebecca’s number. Rebecca’s mother answered.
“Hello,” Nancy said. “This is Nancy. May I please speak to Rebecca?”
“Oh, hi, Nancy,” Mrs. Ramirez said. “Rebecca is sick with the flu. She’s resting in bed.”
“She’s sick?” Nancy said, surprised. Rebecca had seemed fine the night before.
“Hold on a second,” Mrs. Ramirez said. “I think she’s awake. I’ll take the phone to her room so she can talk to you.”
A moment later Rebecca said hello. She quickly explained to Nancy what had happened.
“I was just starting to go trick-or-treating when I saw you last night,” Rebecca said in a scratchy voice. “A minute later I felt really sick. My mom took me straight home. I didn’t even get any candy.”
“That’s awful,” Nancy said. She felt bad for Rebecca. “I guess you didn’t get to do your flour prank, either?”
“No,” Rebecca said, sounding unhappy.
“Well, maybe you can do it next year,” Nancy said. “Get better soon.”
She hung up and explained everything to Bess and George.
“Now what?” George asked.
Nancy shook her head. She didn’t have any ideas left.
Grandma Marvin appeared in the doorway with a tray in her hands. “Such serious faces,” she said. “How about some fresh cookies to cheer you up?”
Grandma Marvin put the tray of cookies on a table in the living room. There were three small glasses of milk, too. Then she left the room.
“Yum,” Bess said. Her face lit up. “Cut-out cookies!”
“I love these,” George said, reaching for a heart-shaped cookie.
Nancy picked up a cookie, too. Hers was shaped like a horse. It had sprinkles on the mane and tail.
After Nancy took a bite she noticed her fingertips were white. She turned the cookie over. There was flour on the bottom.
“Hey!” she cried out. “I think I know who took the key!”
8
The Cookie Clue
You know who took the key?” Bess asked Nancy. Her cookie was halfway to her mouth.
Nancy nodded. A small smile crept across her face.
“I think it was your grandmother.” She leaned in closer to Bess and George. She didn’t want Grandma Marvin to hear.
“But why?” Bess asked.
“I don’t know why,” Nancy said softly. “But this—” Nancy held up her cookie. “This is the proof.”
Bess and George looked puzzled.
“See the flour?” Nancy whispered. She turned her cookie over and showed them the flour on the bottom. “Your grandma was making cookies this morning when we found the trunk in the attic.”
“So?” Bess said.
“Don’t you remember?” Nancy went on. “She didn’t answer us when we asked her to bring up the key. So we came down to get it ourselves. By then it was gone. I think your grandma took the key. When she picked it up she dropped flour on the table.”
Nancy could see Bess thinking about what had happened. “But I still don’t know why she would take the key. She knew we wanted it.”
“Me, either,” Nancy said.
“Let’s ask her,” George said.
“Good idea,” Bess said, standing up. “But we can’t ask her if she stole it.”
“I’ll just ask her if she took it,” Nancy said.
Nancy stood up straight and marched into the kitchen. The other girls followed her. Grandma Marvin was washing the mixing bowls.
“Um, Mrs. Marvin,” Nancy said politely, “I know we asked you once before, but did you take that old key from the table by the front door?”
Grandma Marvin wrinkled her nose. “What would make you think that?” she asked slowly.
“Well, we’ve been following the clues,” Nancy said. “For one thing, I don’t think the key was missing last night. Carl, the paper boy, saw it on the table when he came in the house for a drink of water. And he was one of the last trick-or-treaters.”
“Yes,” Grandma Marvin said. “Go on.”
“Also, I found flour on the table it was on,” Nancy said. “I remembered that you were baking cookies this morning. You must have had flour on your hands when you took the key.”
Grandma Marvin was quiet for a long time. She stared at Nancy with her head tilted to the side. Finally she nodded and gave Nancy a tiny smile.
“You’re right, Nancy,” Grandma Marvin said. “I did take the key. It’s in my purse. That’s why I didn’t want you to pay the paper boy, Bess. I didn’t want you to see the key.”
“Why, Grammy?” Bess cried.
Grandma Marvin wiped her hands on a dish towel and sighed. “Well, you see, girls, that trunk in the attic belongs to me. When you found the key, I didn’t want you to open it,” she said, “because there’s something very special in there for you, Bess. I’ve been saving it for years to give to you. It was going to be a surprise.”
“Ohhh,” Nancy and Bess both said at the same time. George just stared at her feet.
“Gee, I’m sorry we ruined your surprise,” Nancy said to Grandma Marvin.
“Well, I guess this is as good a time as any,” Grandma Marvin said.
She walked over to her purse and opened it. She took out the crazy-looking old key.
“Come on. Let’s go up to the attic.
”
“Really?” Bess cried, clapping her hands.
Quickly, the girls followed Mrs. Marvin to the attic stairs. Then one by one they climbed up.
At the top, Bess’s grandmother kneeled down beside the trunk. She turned to Nancy.
“There are so many treasures in here,” she said. “And we haven’t been able to get it open for a long time. Thank you for finding the key.”
“Oh, I didn’t find it,” Nancy said. “My dog, Chip, did.”
Grandma Marvin’s eyes opened wide. “The one with the mouse? Well, I guess I’ll have to forgive her, then.”
Nancy laughed and stepped back to watch. So did George. Bess leaned in closer to see her surprise.
A moment later Grandma Marvin opened the trunk. There was a beautiful china doll right on top. She lifted it out and handed it to Bess.
“Here you go,” she said warmly, giving the doll to Bess. “I think you’re old enough to take care of her now. She was mine when I was a girl.”
“I love it!” Bess said. She held the doll carefully.
Nancy looked at the doll. Her hair was blond like Bess’s. She wore a pink organza dress with white ribbons. She had white satin slippers on her feet.
“Oh, thank you, Grammy. Thank you!” Bess cried, giving her grandmother a big hug.
The girls explored in the trunk a bit longer. They found another dress for the doll and a tea set. The cups and plates were decorated with tiny pink roses. Soon it was time for Nancy and George to go.
When Nancy got home, she found Chocolate Chip eagerly waiting for her. The puppy jumped up on Nancy and wagged her tail.
“Hi, Chip,” Nancy said. She bent down and let the puppy lick her face. “I missed you, too. It feels as though I’ve been gone a long time, even though it was only overnight.”
Nancy gave Chocolate Chip a treat. “Good puppy,” she said. “That’s your reward for finding the missing key.”
Then Nancy went upstairs to her room. She took out her blue notebook and opened it to the Case of the Missing Key. At the bottom she wrote:
• • •
Today I solved the Case of the Missing Key. We found out what was inside the trunk. We also spoiled a surprise. It was fun to solve the mystery. But I found out that some mysteries are not supposed to be solved. Not right away, anyway. From now on I’ll be a little more careful when I go snooping around!
Case closed.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
A MINSTREL PAPERBACK Original
A Minstrel Book published by
POCKET BOOKS, a division of Simon & Schuster Inc.
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com
Copyright © 1996 by Simon & Schuster Inc.
Produced by Mega-Books of New York, Inc.
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Pocket Books, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020
ISBN 978-0-6715-6859-7
ISBN 978-1-4424-6788-0(eBook)
First Minstrel Books printing November 1996
NANCY DREW, THE NANCY DREW NOTEBOOKS,
A MINSTREL BOOK and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster Inc.
Cover art by Aleta Jenks
Carolyn Keene, The Crazy Key Clue
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