Time Thief

by Carolyn Keene

  “I can’t picture your dad as a kid at all!” George added. “Was he good or a pest like—”

  “Like Antonio?” Nancy cut in. “No way!”

  “Speaking of Antonio,” Bess said. “We’d better ask him some questions before the school bell rings.”

  The three friends walked through the school yard looking for Antonio. The Margie Girls stood huddled together, sad faced and murmuring about the missing Margie doll. Instead of lavender, they wore black.

  “Poor Margie Girls,” Bess sighed. “Should we tell them we’re looking for the missing doll?”

  “Let’s surprise them when we find Margie,” Nancy decided. She saw their classmate Peter Patino and called, “Hey, Peter? Have you seen Antonio?”

  “Are you kidding?” Peter scoffed. “Didn’t you see his new ride?”

  Peter pointed past the swings. There was Antonio surrounded by other kids as he chained his shiny-new red bike to the rack.

  “Ohmigosh!” Bess gasped. “Antonio said he would sell Margie for a brand-new bike!”

  “And it looks like he just did!” Nancy said.

  Chapter Three

  Cheese-Whiz!

  “How did you get that bike, Antonio?” Nancy asked as the Clue Crew walked over to him.

  Antonio stood up, looked Nancy in the eyes, and said, “Let’s just say . . . I got lucky.”

  “Lucky enough to get your hands on the Margie doll?” Nancy asked.

  “Doll?” Antonio cried. “Why would I want a stupid—”

  Rrrrrrriiiinnnnnng!“

  “Saved by the school bell!” Antonio snickered.

  Nancy narrowed her eyes as she watched Antonio race toward the school entrance.

  “He can run, but he can’t hide,” Nancy said. “There’s still recess and lunch.”

  Once in the classroom Nancy tried paying attention to Mrs. Ramirez’s math, spelling, and history lessons. But her eyes kept drifting from her teacher to Antonio.

  Antonio’s eyes kept drifting to the window, gazing outside at his new bike.

  When the noon bell rang, the class headed straight to the lunchroom. The Clue Crew had planned to stand behind Antonio on the lunch line, but Deirdre Shannon and Madison Foley got there first.

  “Can we get in front of you, please?” Nancy asked.

  “No line jumping!” Deirdre shouted back.

  “Especially when there’s pizza,” Madison snapped.

  Nancy groaned under her breath. Deirdre and Madison were the Clue Crew’s friends—but mostly frenemies!

  “Now what?” George whispered.

  “We’ll sit at Antonio’s table,” Nancy whispered back.

  “With the boys?” Bess cried. “They stick straws up their noses and snort like seals. I’ll lose my appetite!”

  “I already did,” George groaned. “Check out Mrs. McGillicuddy’s pizza.”

  Nancy gulped when she saw the lunch lady plopping plates of pizza slices on the counter. Instead of the usual melted cheese it had no cheese at all. Instead of tomato sauce Nancy smelled ketchup!

  “That’s gross!” Deirdre said as she noticed too. “Come on, Madison. I have enough money for the snack machine.”

  Nancy smiled as Deirdre and Madison walked away. Now they were right behind Antonio.

  “Hi, Antonio,” Nancy said over his shoulder. “About that missing Margie doll—”

  But Antonio was too busy arguing with Mrs. McGillicuddy about the pizza.

  “Whoever heard of pizza without cheese?” Antonio asked. “It’s the best part!”

  “Cheese, cheese, cheese!” Mrs. McGillicuddy sighed. “Who am I serving here—mice?”

  Mrs. McGillicuddy plopped a can of yellow squirt cheese on the counter and said, “Here. Knock yourself out.”

  As Antonio leaned forward to squirt cheese on his pizza Nancy spotted something sticking out of his backpack. It looked like a page from a magazine. A page with a comic strip called “Lester and Pester”!

  “George, Bess,” Nancy hissed, pointing to the page. “I think that’s from Boys Will Be Boys magazine.”

  “The magazine in the time capsule?” Bess squeaked. “Are you sure?”

  Nancy wasn’t, but she was going to find out. She carefully pulled the page from Antonio’s backpack.

  “Hey, Antonio!” Peter shouted from behind them. “Nancy is stealing something from your backpack.”

  “Huh?” Antonio asked. He whirled around, his finger still on the squirt can.

  Nancy shrieked as a stream of cheese sprayed into her face. She tried to yell stop, but her mouth was filling with cheese too!

  “Stop!” Mrs. McGillicuddy shouted for Nancy.

  “I forgot to take my finger off the can, Mrs. McGillicuddy!” Antonio insisted. “It was an accident!”

  Nancy blinked sticky cheese from her eyes. She was still holding the magazine page, which she secretly stuck inside her own backpack.

  “You always say it’s an accident, Antonio,” Mrs. McGillicuddy growled. “Now say it to the principal.”

  “The principal’s office again?” Antonio groaned.

  “And Nancy Drew, to the washroom,” Mrs. McGillicuddy ordered. “Don’t come back until your face is cheese free.”

  Bess and George left the lunchroom with Nancy, cheese still dripping from her face.

  “Sorry about that,” Antonio said as he caught up with the girls. “But look what I snuck out.”

  Antonio squirted cheese into his mouth and grinned.

  “Now I can have as much cheese as I want all day,” Antonio said through a full mouth. “Am I lucky or what?”

  “Lucky and sneaky!” Nancy said, holding up the magazine page. “Did you rip this out of Boys Will Be Boys magazine—when you dug up the time capsule by yourself?”

  Antonio grabbed for the page in Nancy’s hand. “Give it back!” he demanded.

  “Give me this!” George said. She grabbed the can from Antonio’s other hand. She then burst out the exit door, her friends and Antonio right behind her.

  “That’s private property!” Antonio shouted as they stampeded through the school yard.

  George stopped at the bicycle rack. She raised the can of cheese over Antonio’s new bike. “Tell us how you got that magazine page or your shiny-new bike will be looking awfully cheesy!”

  “Not my new bike!” Antonio begged.

  George squirted a tiny dollop of cheese. It landed on the bicycle seat with a plop.

  “Noooo!” Antonio cried. “Okay. I did dig up the time capsule by myself. I did!”

  Chapter Four

  Toy Vey!

  “Sounds like a confession to me!” Bess whispered.

  George tossed the can of cheese to Antonio. She stepped away from the bicycle rack and said, “So you did sell Margie for the bike?”

  “As if!” Antonio said angrily. “I’d rather be caught wearing footsy pajamas than holding some dumb doll.”

  “If you didn’t want her,” Nancy demanded, “why did you dig up the time capsule before anyone else did?”

  Antonio took a deep breath as he began to explain. . . .

  “It’s like this,” Antonio said. “Two days ago I was in the principal’s office for tying Quincy’s sneaker laces together under his desk.”

  The girls rolled their eyes.

  “Principal Newman’s secretary was putting the maps to the time capsule in his desk drawer,” Antonio went on. “When she left I was alone in the principal’s office.”

  “Where was Principal Newman?” Nancy asked.

  “There was some kind of emergency,” Antonio said. “Something about a class hamster getting stuck inside a kid’s clarinet.”

  “So you stole the map and key from the principal’s desk?” Bess asked.

  “I was just going to look at the map,” Antonio admitted. “But then I figured it would be cool to dig up the time capsule after school all by myself!”

  Antonio described how he found a plastic shovel in a kindergartner’s cubb
y. He borrowed it and, after everyone went home, dug up the time capsule.

  “What did you take from it, Antonio?” Nancy asked.

  “I didn’t take any doll,” Antonio sneered. “I didn’t even see a doll.”

  “Liar!” George accused. “You would have to have sold Margie for that bike.”

  “That’s what you think,” Antonio said. “Look what I found when I was flipping through that old boys’ magazine.” Antonio pointed to the magazine page in Nancy’s hand. On the bottom of the page was a neatly cut square hole. “I cut out a coupon for Tootsie’s Toys on River Street,” Antonio said. “Any toy for three dollars flat!”

  Nancy found that hard to believe. How could a coupon from such an old magazine still be good?

  “What about the quarter in the time capsule?” George asked Antonio. “Was that yours?”

  Antonio nodded.

  “It was a scratch-off coupon so I used a quarter to scratch,” Antonio explained. “I must have dropped it in the time capsule by mistake.”

  Antonio was about to wipe his bike seat with his sleeve when a gruff voice shouted, “What are you guys doing out here?”

  All four kids spun around. Standing in the yard was tough-as-nails fifth-grade hall monitor Digger Mondesky.

  Nancy gulped. Digger had a walkie-talkie and wasn’t afraid to use it!

  “Principal’s office, come in. Principal’s office.” Digger barked into his walkie-talkie. “I’ve got four escapees here—”

  Digger’s eyes lit up when he saw Antonio’s bike. He clicked off his walkie-talkie and said, “Wow! That is the most excellent bike!”

  “And Antonio will let you ride it,” George piped in. “Right, Antonio?”

  “I guess,” Antonio muttered.

  While Antonio unlocked his bike, the girls slipped quietly into the building.

  “That was close,” George said as they headed straight to the washroom. While Nancy scrubbed her face, Bess and George studied the page from the magazine.

  “Look what I found!” Bess said, pointing to the page. “An icky-sticky chocolate stain!”

  “My dad made that stain!” Nancy said, drying her face with a paper towel.

  George laughed as she pointed to a cheese stain on Nancy’s shirt. “Like father like daughter!” she teased.

  The girls managed to eat a quick lunch. They tried hard not to think about the case all afternoon. But after school they stopped at Tootsie’s Toys on the way home to see if Antonio was telling the truth.

  “Is your last name really Tootsie?” Nancy asked the owners of the store, Tony and Tammy.

  “Correct!” Tammy declared. “We come from a long line of talented Tootsie toy makers.”

  “This store has been owned by Tootsies for fifty years,” Tony said proudly. “Right, sis?”

  “Right, bro!” Tammy replied.

  Nancy held up the magazine page with the hole. “Did you also have a coupon in Boys Will Be Boys magazine thirty years ago?” she asked.

  “The coupon!” Tammy laughed. “That kid Antonio found it and we did honor it.”

  “The kid got lucky,” Tony said. “A bike for three bucks? Can’t beat that!”

  “So Antonio was telling the truth,” Bess whispered.

  Nancy nodded. But as she gazed past the Tootsies she saw a shelf of dolls behind the counter. It was filled with Margie dolls wearing different outfits and hairstyles.

  “Did you ever sell the first Margie doll?” Nancy asked. “The one in the blue sparkly ball gown?”

  “Oh sure,” Tammy said dreamily. “I remember that Beauty in the Ballroom dress. Instead of hooks it was fastened with magnetic clasps.”

  “Margie was neat,” Tammy went on. “But I liked Pretty Peggy.”

  Tammy lifted a doll from behind the counter. She looked exactly like Ballroom Margie!

  “Pretty Peggy was a Margie look-alike,” Tammy explained. “A bit cheaper but just as pretty.”

  Nancy stepped forward for a better look. Pretty Peggy did look just like Margie . . . but not exactly.

  “This doll has curly bangs,” Nancy pointed out. “Margie always has straight bangs.”

  Bess pointed to the doll’s face. “Margie doesn’t have freckles on her nose,” she said. “Peggy here does.”

  “Whoa—I’m impressed!” Tony said. “You girls should be detectives!”

  Nancy, Bess, and George traded smiles.

  “And here’s something else you should see,” Tammy said. She pulled off Pretty Peggy’s plastic shoe to reveal a pink letter P on her foot. “All the Pretty Peggy’s have these on their feet.”

  “Margie doesn’t have an initial on her foot,” Bess said. “I can see why you like Pretty Peggy, Ms. Tootsie.”

  “We still like Margie, too,” Tammy said. “That’s why we’re having a Margie party here in the store tomorrow to show the new outfits we just got for her.”

  “Just bring your Margie doll and you’re in!” Tony said. “There’ll be lavender cupcakes and purple passion punch,” he added with a wink.

  The girls thanked the Tootsies, then left the store. Once outside Nancy said, “We can’t go to that Margie party tomorrow. We have to work on our case!”

  “But it’s for new Margie doll clothes!” Bess whined.

  “Did someone say Margie doll?” a voice asked.

  The girls turned to see Mira walking toward the store.

  “Hi, Mira,” Nancy said. “I bet you’re going to the Margie doll party tomorrow.”

  “Does a squirrel eat nuts in the woods?” Mira cried. “Of course I’m going.”

  “Whoa, big surprise,” George joked.

  “All of us Margie Girls will be there,” Mira went on. “We have something huge to celebrate, you know.”

  “You do? What?” Nancy asked.

  Mira’s eyes lit up as she said, “Tori told us last night that she got one of the first Margie dolls. A thirty-year-old Margie wearing Beauty in the Ballroom!”

  “You mean Ballroom Margie?” Nancy asked slowly. “Like the one that was in the time capsule?”

  Chapter Five

  Ball Gown Bait

  “How did she get a Ballroom Margie?” Nancy asked.

  “It belonged to Tori’s mom when she was a kid,” Mira explained. “Her mom just gave it to her last night.”

  Nancy gave her friends a sideways glance. Something about that didn’t click. Tori was a Margie Girl. She’d know if there was a Ballroom Margie in her own house.

  “I’m going to Tootsie’s Toys for a new Margie outfit,” Mira said with a little wave. “If my doll is going to the party tomorrow, I want her to look fierce!”

  The second Mira was inside Nancy turned to Bess and George. “Do you think Tori stole the Margie doll from the time capsule?” Nancy asked.

  “How would Tori get her hands on the key or the map?” Bess asked. “It’s not like she spends time in the principal’s office like Antonio does.”

  “Yes, she does!” George blurted. “Tori told me she waters the plants in the principal’s office twice a week for extra credit.”

  Nancy was grateful for the tip, but the Clue Crew’s work wasn’t done. “The best place to question Tori is the party tomorrow,” she decided.

  Bess jumped up and down with delight. But George stared at Nancy, horrified.

  “You mean that doll party?” George exclaimed.

  “The Margie Girls will be there with their dolls,” Nancy explained. “That means Tori will be there too.”

  “With classic Ballroom Margie!” Bess declared. She and Nancy high-fived, but George shook her head back and forth.

  “I don’t have a Margie doll,” George said. “Can’t go. So sorry.”

  “Nice try, George,” Bess said. “But you can borrow one of mine.”

  George groaned under her breath. “What could be worse than a doll party?” she asked.

  “Not solving this case,” Nancy answered with a grin. “Clue Crew, get ready to par-tay!”

&n
bsp; “Have fun, girls,” Hannah called from her car. “And save me a lavender cupcake!”

  “Thanks for driving us, Hannah!” Nancy said, waving with her Margie doll.

  The Clue Crew walked toward Tootsie’s Toys as Hannah drove off. All three girls had a Margie doll—even George!

  “I dressed her in a baseball uniform, George,” Bess complained. “What more do you want?”

  “I don’t want to go to this party!” George snapped. She shoved the doll in her jeans pocket and opened the door to the store. “But if I have to—let’s get it over with!”

  The Tootsies welcomed the girls as they walked through the door. They both wore Margie Girl T-shirts.

  “Happy Margie Day, girls!” Tony declared.

  “Cool!” Nancy said, looking around the store. Lavender balloons and crepe paper dangled from the ceiling. The Margie Girls were taking pictures with a huge cardboard cutout of Margie. Everybody was there, except Tori!

  “What if Tori doesn’t show up?” Nancy whispered.

  “She’d better show up,” George whispered back. “Or this shindig will be a total waste.”

  “Not with those yummy-looking cupcakes.” Bess said. She used her blond Margie doll to point to the snack table.

  Bess headed for the cupcakes. But George headed straight for a wading pool filled with plastic fish. Leaning against the wall were two fishing poles.

  “I always wanted one of these!” George told Nancy. “The fishing poles have magnets on the ends. They pick up the fish, which are magnetic too—”

  “Yoo-hoooo!” a voice interrupted. “Make room for the guest of honor!”

  Nancy and George quickly spun around to see Tori prancing through the door, holding her Margie doll high. When Bess saw Tori, she hurried back to the rest of the Clue Crew.

  “Did you see Tori’s doll?” Bess whispered. “It has a sparkly blue ball gown!”

  “Ballroom Margie,” George whispered. “What are we waiting for? Let’s grab it from her hands!”

  “Not until I get a better look,” Nancy said. “Tori could have styled a new Margie doll to look like the old one.”

  Tori was surrounded by swooning Margie Girls when the Clue Crew approached.