Chapter Eight
Vanishing Veggies
“Don’t look so worried, Nancy,” Mr. Drew said with a smile. “Chip probably got a little hungry, that’s all.”
“It wasn’t Chip,” Hannah said. “I took Chip to the groomer today. The garden was like this when we got back.”
“It must have been a hungry deer, then,” Mr. Drew said. “We’re not too far away from the woods.”
“At least someone likes veggies,” Hannah said, tossing Nancy a wink.
“I like veggies, Hannah!” Nancy said, trying to smile. What she didn’t like was her new wand. It may not have made Sparkle disappear, but when it came to Hannah’s veggie garden, it seemed to be guilty.
That does it, Nancy decided, eyeing the wand on the table. That thing goes back tomorrow!
“You’re bringing your wand to the festival today?” Hannah asked Nancy the next morning.
Nancy slipped the purple and silver wand into her backpack, careful not to point it at herself.
“I’m returning it, Hannah,” Nancy said. “I don’t like the color.”
“But purple is your favorite,” Hannah said.
“Um … I’ve got to go now, Hannah,” Nancy said. She opened the door. “Bess and George are waiting outside.”
Nancy blew Hannah a kiss, then ran out the door. She didn’t mention the wand to Bess and George as she joined them on the sidewalk.
All three girls were wearing their medieval costumes again that morning.
“I hope we don’t have to do any running today,” Bess said, nodding down at her long skirt.
“How did girls do anything in those days?”
“They probably never did cartwheels,” George said, sighing. “Boy, am I glad it’s the twenty-first century!”
“Me too,” Nancy agreed. She looked from George to Bess. “Did anyone find Toby Leo’s address last night?”
“Got it!” George said. “Toby lives on Minnow Street, four blocks away. That means we can walk there before my mom picks us up.”
“Sweet!” Bess said.
Nancy, Bess, and George all had the same rules. They could walk up to five blocks from their houses as long as they were together.
Nancy and Bess lifted the hems of their skirts as they headed to Minnow Street. They found the Leo house in the middle of the block. They also found a mob of kids yelling: “We want our money back! We want our money back!”
The girls walked over to Shelby Metcalf from their class. Shelby was the loudest yeller in the crowd.
“What’s up, Shelby?” George asked.
“Toby promised his unicorn hair was good luck,” Shelby yelled into George’s face. “And all we had was bad luck!”
“Yeah!” Quincy Taylor said. “I found out my grandma is moving into my room—and she snores!”
“And I tripped in ballet last night!” Nadine Nardo cried. “During my recital. If that isn’t bad luck, what is?”
The girls stepped back as the kids kept shouting.
“If they all had bad luck,” Bess shouted above the noise, “does that mean Sparkle isn’t a real unicorn?”
“No one ever said unicorn hair was lucky,” George said with a shrug. “Just the whole unicorn.”
A window suddenly flew up. Toby stuck his head out and yelled, “Get lost or I’ll call my dog. And you don’t want to mess with him!”
Nancy wanted to giggle. Duncan the sheep dog with his long shaggy hair was a big friendly mush. But the kids walked away, grumbling.
“What do you want?” Toby called down to the girls.
“We want to know where you got all that unicorn hair!” Nancy shouted up. “The ones you sold to those kids.”
“None of your beeswax!” Toby shouted back.
“Yes, it is!” Nancy insisted. “Sparkle the unicorn went missing from the Dragon’s Breath Fair on Friday. Did you steal him for his lucky hair?”
“Or unlucky!” George added.
“I didn’t steal any unicorn,” Toby said.
Bess pulled the tiny bell from her pocket. She jingled it in the air and said, “How do you explain this bell I found in Sparkle’s pen?” she asked. “Wasn’t it part of your jester’s cap?”
Instead of answering, Toby whistled loudly. Then he shut his window with a bang.
“Let’s check the backyard,” Nancy said. “If Toby has Sparkle, he’s probably there.”
The girls began rounding the house. But as they were about to enter the backyard—
“WOOOOF!”
Nancy froze as a huge white creature bounded out from behind the house. But it wasn’t Sparkle the unicorn. It was Duncan the sheepdog!
Bess shrieked as Duncan knocked her to the ground with his huge paws. She shrieked even louder as Duncan began licking her face.
“Ewww! Dog spit!” Bess cried. “Get him off!”
Nancy grabbed for Duncan’s collar. But he was wearing a bandana around his neck instead.
“Come on, boy,” Nancy said, gently tugging his bandana. “Bess doesn’t like dog spit.”
“And you do?” Bess cried, standing up.
George tilted her head as she studied Duncan. “What happened to all his white shaggy hair?” she asked.
“He must have gotten a haircut,” Nancy said. But as she pet Duncan, she noticed something about his bandana. It was polka-dotted—the exact same bandanna Chip was wearing from her groomer!
“Wait a minute,” Nancy said. “I think I know where Toby got those hairs. And they weren’t from a unicorn.”
“You mean that hairy stuff in the jar belonged to Duncan?” Bess asked.
“If Duncan was at the Jet Set Pet,” Nancy explained, “Toby probably asked the groomer for some of his hair.”
“Okay, Clue Crew, so you figured it out!” Toby yelled from his window, open again. “Now can you please keep your big mouths shut?”
“We won’t tell the kids that you sold them dog hair,” Nancy shouted up. “That’s your job.”
“So is giving them their money back,” George said.
“Can’t!” Toby said. “I already spent it at the Dragon’s Breath Fair. Mostly on caramel apples with nuts.”
“My favorite,” Bess said, licking her lips.
“Mine too, until I ate seven of them!” Toby groaned. He then gagged, clapped his hand over his mouth, and shot away from the window.
“I don’t think he’s got Sparkle,” Nancy decided.
“And I don’t think caramel candy apples are my favorite anymore,” Bess said, and sighed.
“But how does that explain the bell Bess found in Sparkle’s pen?” George asked. “Toby was wearing bells!”
As the girls left the yard, they passed the Leos’ family car. Nancy glanced into the backseat. She spotted Toby’s jester costume and cap draped over the front seat. It was covered with plastic from the cleaners. Nancy pressed her nose against the window to study the costume.
“Aha,” Nancy said.
“Aha what?” George asked.
“The bell Bess found in Sparkle’s pen was golden,” Nancy said. She pointed at the cap inside the car. “The bells on Toby’s cap are silver.”
“Then who did that bell belong to?” George wondered.
Nancy, Bess, and George waited on the sidewalk until Mrs. Fayne picked them up and drove them to the fair.
“We have one more day to look for clues,” Nancy said as they climbed out of the van. “But before we do that, I have to do something very important.”
Bess and George followed Nancy to Enchanted Elly’s tent. There she pulled the pretty purple magic wand out of her backpack.
“I want to return this, please,” Nancy told Elly. “You don’t have to give me my money back.”
Bess and George looked surprised. Elly just chuckled and said, “What’s the matter? Didn’t get your gown for the prince’s ball?”
Nancy looked away from Elly. How could she tell her that the wand might have made a vegetable garden disappear? And maybe even a
unicorn?
“Elly, do you know how to catch a unicorn?” Bess asked, interrupting Nancy’s thoughts.
“A unicorn!” Elly declared. “Unicorns love the woods. You might catch one there.”
“Or poison ivy,” George mumbled as the girls left.
“Why did you return the wand, Nancy?” Bess asked. “Are you beginning to think you made Sparkle disappear?”
Nancy looked at Bess. So far they hadn’t found Sparkle—anywhere. But she refused to give up.
“Let’s go back to Sparkle’s pen,” Nancy said. “Maybe we can find more clues.”
On the way the girls passed a man juggling fire, an archery contest, and a cart where someone was selling peanuts. But when they passed a horse stable, they had to stop.
“I’ll bet these horses are for the jousts!” George said as they entered the stable.
“There’s Speckle!” Bess said, pointing to a white horse with black speckles.
Nancy studied the horses, their big handsome heads hanging over the stall doors.
“You know,” Nancy said, half to herself, “those horses look like unicorns without the horns.”
“Are you saying Sparkle was a horse?” Bess asked.
Nancy noticed a list hanging on the stable wall. It was a list of the horses and what to feed them. She read the names out loud: “Speckle, Midnight, Darby, Thunderfoot, Lindy—Ohmigosh!”
“Ohmigosh?” Bess giggled. “That’s a weird name for a horse.”
“No!” Nancy said. “Look at the last name on the list.”
Bess and George looked up too. Then their mouths dropped wide open. Speckle was the first name on the list. But the last name was Sparkle!
Chapter Nine
Swingy Thingy
“Not only is Sparkle on the list,” George pointed out, “he ate the same stuff the other horses ate. Vegetables.”
Vegetables? The word hit Nancy like a ton of cauliflower.
“Someone ate vegetables from Hannah’s garden yesterday,” Nancy said.
“Carrots from my neighbors’ garden were nibbled on too,” Bess said. “It happened Friday during the night.”
Nancy stared at Bess. Hannah’s garden wasn’t the only garden that had been nibbled on. So that meant one thing….
“That’s great!” Nancy exclaimed.
“What’s so great about trashed gardens?” George asked.
“Not about the gardens—about my wand,” Nancy explained. “It wasn’t anywhere near Bess’s neighbors’ garden, so it couldn’t have made the veggies disappear.”
“Huh?” Bess asked.
“My dad thought deer had eaten the veggies,” Nancy explained. “Now I think it was Sparkle—the horse!”
“But Sparkle has a horn!” Bess said.
“We never saw Sparkle up close,” Nancy said. “His horn could have been fake.”
“Oh, phooey!” Bess complained. “We finally see a real unicorn and he’s not even for real.”
“Well, now that we think Sparkle is a horse,” Nancy asked, “how do we catch him?”
Bess tapped her chin as she seemed to think about it. Her eyes finally lit up, and she said, “Follow me!”
Nancy and George followed Bess as she collected carrots from Seth, string from Mrs. Fayne’s cake boxes, and a coat hanger from Lady Sue and Lady Inez’s costume tent. In less than an hour Bess had built a new gadget.
“Ta-daa!” Bess sang. She held up her carrot mobile.
“How does it work?” Nancy asked.
“If Sparkle likes carrots,” Bess explained, “we hang it in the woods and wait until he gets a snack attack.”
The girls weren’t allowed into the real woods, so they hung the carrot mobile in the Wizardly Woods instead.
George gave Bess a boost so she could hook the mobile onto the branch of a tree.
There was nothing to do now but wait.
“NEEEEEEEEEYYYYYY!”
Nancy, Bess, and George froze.
“Did you just hear what I just heard?” Nancy asked.
The girls turned and walked a few feet into the woods.
There, munching on the carrots, was a horse. A big beautiful white horse!
“It’s Sparkle!” Nancy whispered.
Chapter Ten
Horse? Of Course!
“He still has a silver horn in the middle of his forehead,” Bess whispered.
Sparkle kept munching as the girls stepped closer. Nancy gently touched the horn. It felt like cardboard. And silver glitter came off on her hand.
“It’s not real,” Nancy confirmed.
George tugged at an elastic band under Sparkle’s mane that connected the horn to his forehead. “Tacky, tacky, tacky,” she said. “I wear better costumes on Halloween!”
“But look at this,” Bess said. She pointed to a delicate collar around Sparkle’s neck. It was decorated with tiny golden bells. “No wonder I found a bell inside his pen.”
“The main thing is that we found Sparkle,” Nancy exclaimed, petting the horse’s fluffy white mane.
“Now that we’ve found Sparkle the horse,” George said, “how do we get him back to the fair?”
“Like this,” Bess answered. She pulled a carrot off the mobile and held it up. “Sparkle, forward march!”
Sparkle followed the girls out of the woods while Bess waved the carrot high in the air. As they made their way through the fairgrounds, people stopped to point.
Rex ran toward Sparkle, a huge smile on his face.
“Huzzah, good people!” Rex shouted. “Our unicorn has returned to the Dragon’s Breath Fair!”
Nancy and her friends stopped walking. Sparkle was happy to nibble on the carrot, still in Bess’s hand.
“You mean horse, Mr. Martindale,” Nancy corrected.
“H-h-horse?” Rex stammered.
“A poor hungry horse who had to eat veggies from people’s gardens because he couldn’t find his way home,” Bess added.
Rex whisked the girls away from the crowd. “Ixnay on the orse-hay, will you, kids?” he hissed.
Nancy frowned. Rex still wanted to keep the secret of the unicorn. But this was one secret Nancy refused to keep.
“Sorry, Mr. Martindale,” Nancy said. “But why didn’t you tell Police Chief McGinnis that Sparkle was missing?”
Rex’s eyes darted from side to side. Then he took a deep breath and said, “Look, I didn’t tell the police because they would have called the River Heights Riding Academy!”
“The River Heights Riding Academy?” Nancy repeated. “What do they have to do with Sparkle?”
“That’s where I borrowed Sparkle from,” Rex explained. “I needed a white horse to disguise as a unicorn.”
“And they gave him to you?” George asked. She snapped her fingers. “Just like that?”
“My friend Matt works at the riding academy,” Rex explained. “He said I could borrow the horse for the fair as long as I promised to take good care of him.”
“So if Matt had found out you’d lost Sparkle, he’d know you goofed, right?” Bess asked.
“Right,” Rex sighed.
Nancy watched Rex nod his head. He looked so sad that it seemed the feather in his cap practically drooped. But there was something about his story that sounded familiar. Matt … River Heights Riding Academy … Where had she heard all that before?
“NEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYY!” Sparkle suddenly whinnied.
Everyone gasped as the white horse shot off and galloped across the fairgrounds.
“Get him!” Rex cried. “We can’t lose him again!”
Bess lifted the hem of her skirt and groaned, “Here we go again!”
Rex and the girls chased Sparkle past the food and game stalls. Sparkle’s belled collar jangled as he headed straight toward his pen.
Standing near the pen was Seth. The moment he saw the charging horse, his jaw dropped.
“Open the gate, Seth! Open the gate!” Rex shouted.
But before Seth reached the gate, Sparkle took
a flying leap over the fence.
“Wow!” George gasped. “Did you see that?”
Everyone watched as Sparkle trotted over to a pile of hay and began to eat.
“I never saw a horse jump that high!” Seth exclaimed.
“So that’s how Sparkle got out of his pen,” Nancy said excitedly. “He jumped over the fence!”
While Rex and Seth entered the pen through the gate, the girls traded big high fives.
“Good work, Clue Crew!” Nancy said. “We solved the case of the missing unicorn that turned out to be a missing horse!”
“Thanks to Bess’s carrot mobile,” George declared.
“A piece of cake!” Bess said, flapping her hand.
Carrot … Cake? Nancy grinned as everything else fell into place. The River Heights Riding Academy … Matt the instructor … Sophie Wang.
“You guys,” Nancy said, “I think I know the horse’s real name. And it isn’t Sparkle!”
“Go, Carrot Cake!” Nancy cheered.
It was a week after the Dragon’s Breath Fair. Nancy, Bess, and George were having a great time watching the River Heights Riding Academy horse show.
Nancy waved her wand as she cheered. It was the same beautiful wand she had gotten back from Enchanted Elly before the fair had ended. It had never been magical, but it was still pretty.
The girls cheered for Sophie as she jumped Carrot Cake over a row of fences. Nancy remembered Sophie’s shock when they’d told her about Carrot Cake.
“Are you sure it’s Carrot Cake?” Sophie had asked.
“Totally,” Nancy had assured her.
“He really was lost, but we found him!” Bess had said.
“But why didn’t Matt just tell me he’d lent Carrot Cake to the Dragon’s Breath Fair?” Sophie had asked.
“Rex wanted the unicorn to be a secret,” Nancy had explained. “He probably told Matt to keep the secret too.”
“The most important thing is that Carrot Cake is safe and back in time for the show,” Sophie had said. “I knew you guys were good.”
Sophie had said thanks by giving Nancy, Bess, and George tickets to the horse show that coming Saturday.
“I think I’m going to eat more carrots from now on,” George said as Sophie rode around the ring. “If they can make Carrot Cake jump like that, think of what it can do for me when I play basketball.”