Nancy Clancy, Super Sleuth

by Jane O'Connor

  It all made sense. Still, Nancy had no proof. On TV, detectives always talked about fingerprint files. If a fingerprint was found at the scene of a crime, they could match it up with one in the files.

  The trouble was, Nancy didn’t have any other fingerprints of Rhonda’s....

  Or did she? Rhonda had been at Headquarters just yesterday. The glass of water!

  Nancy flew downstairs.

  “Wait! You didn’t finish!” JoJo called.

  Nancy grabbed her trench coat and a flashlight from the pantry. Her father was loading stuff into the dishwasher.

  “Where are you going?”

  “To Headquarters. I’ll be right back.”

  Outside, Nancy clicked on the flashlight. She made her way under cover of darkness. Inside Headquarters, the glow from the flashlight cast spooky shadows.

  There it was. The plastic glass with Tinker Bell on it. Nancy held it at the bottom so she wouldn’t get her own prints on it.

  Once she was back in the kitchen, she put the Tinker Bell glass on a counter. Then she turned to her father. “Dad, whatever you do, don’t touch that glass! It’s evidence!”

  “Whew! Lucky you warned me!” he said.

  There was no time for the Special Delivery mail basket. Nancy called Bree. She filled her in, then asked, “See if your mom will let you come over. And bring the kit!”

  Bree’s aunt had sent her a Junior Detective kit for her birthday. It had all sorts of superb stuff, including a bottle of fingerprint powder.

  “This is so thrilling!” Bree said as she burst into the Clancys’ kitchen. “I can’t believe we’re going to dust for prints.”

  Nancy’s father stood by, watching. “Whatever it is, I swear I’m innocent! I’m a law-abiding man with a wife and children.”

  “Very funny, Dad,” Nancy said as he left the room. She put on a pair of yellow rubber kitchen gloves. “This way no more prints will get on the glass.” Very carefully she picked up the Tinker Bell glass. Bree sprinkled on some fingerprint powder.

  Sure enough, five white, powdery fingerprints appeared. Bree was peering at the biggest one with the little magnifying glass from her kit. “Here’s the thumbprint.”

  They took the glass upstairs. Nancy showed Bree the brown fingerprint in her Nancy Drew book.

  “Now comes the test,” Nancy said. Using her jeweled magnifying glass, she studied both thumbprints. So did Bree.

  “Definitely a match!” Nancy said. “The thumbprints are identical! We have solved the Secret of the Twins. Just like real detectives.”

  Bree said, “So what happens next?”

  The answer was obvious. “We solve the Case of the Missing Marble!” Nancy said.

  “No, that’s not what I meant. Will you confront Rhonda with the evidence?”

  “Oh!” Nancy sank down onto her bed. “I have to think about it.... Rhonda should have just told me. I would have been mad. But not that mad.”

  CHAPTER

  9

  Nancy’s mom was wrong about the janitor finding Mr. Dudeny’s blue marble.

  “Still missing,” Mr. D said when Nancy asked the next morning.

  The missing marble was all anybody could talk about before the bell rang.

  “Dudes, come on! It is only a marble,” Mr. D told the class.

  “But it was your mystery memento!” Yoko said.

  “It was very beautiful!” Clara said.

  “Your grandpa gave it to you!” Robert said. “That’s important.”

  “The memories I have of my grandfather are what’s most important. I’ll have those forever. Listen. I hope the marble turns up. But let’s not overreact.... Now please get out your spelling books.”

  Nancy opened her desk to get her book. Instead she got a nasty surprise.

  There was a piece of lined paper with a message.

  I THINK YOU STOLE THE MARBLE!

  Nancy was so shocked, she jumped back in her seat.

  “What? Is there a mouse?” Clara asked.

  Nancy didn’t answer. She was still staring at the note. How dare someone accuse her of stealing!

  Mr. Dudeny came over to her. “Is something wrong?”

  Nancy nodded.

  Mr. Dudeny took her outside into the hall.

  Nancy showed him the message. It was written in green marker in big capital letters. The marker was going dry, so the letters looked like they were disappearing. It made the message look even meaner, and scarier, too.

  Mr. Dude’s lips were pressed together tightly.

  “I swear I didn’t take it, Mr. D!” Nancy felt tears start to prick her eyes.

  “Nancy, of course you didn’t. I don’t think anybody took it. But I’d never, ever think that of you. You are a girl with a lot of integrity.”

  “Merci, Mr. D.” She wasn’t sure what integrity meant. But she could tell it was good.

  After she returned to her seat, Mr. Dudeny held up the message. “This was in Nancy’s desk.”

  Several kids gasped.

  “Oh! That’s so mean!” Clara said.

  “Nancy is innocent!” Bree cried. She reached over and squeezed Nancy’s hand.

  “Clara is right. This is very hurtful. From the first day of school, we have talked about respecting one another’s feelings. I expect the person who wrote this to come see me before the end of the day.” Then Mr. Dudeny put the note in his desk.

  He told the class to put away their spelling books. Instead, he got one of the books from the reading nook. “It’s called Thick and Thin. And it’s about friends trusting one another.”

  The story was about a boy who got into trouble after finding a twenty-dollar bill in a parking lot. Nancy couldn’t pay attention. She kept saying to herself, Somebody thinks I’m a thief.

  At one point Mr. Dudeny looked up from the book and said, “Grace, please stop doodling and listen.”

  “I am. I can do both at once,” Grace answered.

  Mr. Dudeny went over to Grace’s desk. He crumpled up the piece of paper and tossed it into the wastebasket. Then he picked up the book again.

  Throughout the morning, Nancy kept thinking about the message. By the time it was recess, she was way more than mad. She was furious. She felt outraged!

  “Come on,” Bree said. “If we run we can claim the top of the jungle gym before the fourth graders get it.”

  “Go ahead. I’ll come in a second.”

  The classroom cleared out fast. Mr. Dudeny was at Clara’s desk, going over her math problems. Clara often needed extra help.

  On the way out, something made Nancy fish the crumpled piece of paper from the wastebasket. It was just a hunch.

  Grace’s doodles were in green marker. The marker was almost all dried out.

  Nancy stormed outside to the yard. She spotted Grace over near the slides. She was jumping rope. A bunch of first graders were watching her and counting off the jumps.

  “Sixteen … seventeen … eighteen …”

  Nancy waited until Grace lost her turn. Then Nancy cornered her. “It was you! You stuck that mean note in my desk!”

  Grace blinked. “Says who?”

  “Me. This”—Nancy shoved the doodle at Grace—“and the note are both in green marker, a green marker that is almost dry.”

  Grace looked caught for a second. Then she said, “Well—well, I wasn’t trying to cover it up, so there. I don’t care if you know it’s me. I still think you’re the thief.”

  “Why didn’t you just say it to my face?” Then Nancy paused. “What makes you think I took it?”

  “You kept saying how beautiful the marble was.... And that story you wrote, about the sapphire ring that got stolen.”

  Even to Nancy, it kind of made sense that Grace figured she was the thief.

  “You wanted Mr. D’s marble. So you took it!”

  “I did not, Grace. Who knows? Maybe you did. And—and you’re just trying to throw the blame on me.”

  Grace’s mouth dropped open.

 
Ha! Got you, Nancy said to herself. Yet she didn’t like how hard and mean she sounded.

  “That’s crazy!” Grace said. Her hands were on her hips. “Some dumb baby marble. Why would I want it?” Then all of a sudden Grace got a funny look on her face. “Are you going to blab to Mr. Dudeny about me putting the note in your desk?”

  “I’m not a tattletale. But you better tell him.”

  Grace shrugged. “Okay.” Then she went back to wait for another turn at jump rope. Grace was an expert at jumping rope. She could do a perfect split. She was a great speller. And she never lost blinking contests. Still, Nancy wouldn’t ever want to trade places with Grace.

  “Nancy! Over here!” Bree, Tamar, and Clara called from the top of the jungle gym.

  Nancy ran off to join her friends.

  CHAPTER

  10

  “Okay. Let’s get down to business,” Bree said that afternoon. “We need to draw up a list of suspects.”

  They were in Bree’s room. Nancy was staying at Bree’s until her mom and JoJo came home.

  WHO STOLE THE BLUE MARBLE? Bree wrote at the top of a page in her notepad. Bree had gorgeous handwriting—her capital Bs were especially lovely.

  Lionel, Bree wrote. She looked up at Nancy. “I put him down because he likes to play tricks. Maybe he took the marble as a prank.”

  Nancy shook her head. “Lionel wouldn’t go that far. Lionel’s a goofball, but I don’t think he took the marble.”

  “Yes, you’re right.” Bree crossed out Lionel’s name.

  Nancy bit her lip and thought. On TV the crook often turned out to be the person nobody suspected. “You think maybe Clara took it?”

  “Clara? That’s just crazy.”

  “She said it was beautiful and her favorite color.... Who knows? Maybe some evil force came over Clara and she was powerless to stop herself.” Nancy made her hands into claws. “Before she realized what she was doing, Clara snatched the marble!”

  “That’s just crazy,” Bree repeated. “Clara never even takes a Kleenex from the box on Mr. D’s desk without asking.”

  “What about Grace?” Nancy and Bree said at the same time. Then they both shouted, “Jinx!” The rule with a jinx was you couldn’t talk until somebody said your name. And Bree was usually very strict about jinxes. But she agreed to forget about it, just this once. Solving the case was more important.

  “Bree, if I tell you something, will you keep it in the vault?” A vault was like a bank safe.

  Bree shut her lips. Then she pretended to turn a key and lock her mouth.

  “Grace wrote that mean message about me being the thief.”

  Bree gasped. “Grace is horrible. She’s the worst person in our class! I bet she is the thief. Criminals always try to throw the blame on somebody else. That’s why she wrote that message.”

  Nancy nodded. “I said that to her. And Grace was the one who first noticed the marble was missing.”

  “Well!” Bree threw out her arms as if that settled everything. “On TV shows, the person who reports a crime is always a prime suspect.... Plus, Grace cheats. Once she copied off my spelling test. Cheaters often grow up to be thieves. Grace just jumped from cheater to thief early.”

  Nancy had to admit, Bree was building a pretty solid case against Grace. Of course, they didn’t have one major thing—evidence.

  A few minutes later, Nancy heard her mom’s car in the driveway.

  “Gotta go,” Nancy told Bree. “I really feel like we’re closing in on this case.”

  CHAPTER

  11

  Nancy burst into her house.

  She found her mother upstairs. She was holding a thermometer.

  “Mom, you won’t believe what Grace did!” Then Nancy told her the story.

  “You’re right. I can’t believe it!” She cupped Nancy’s face in her hand and kissed her forehead. Then Nancy’s mom asked, “Does your teacher know about this? Maybe I should speak to Grace’s parents?”

  “No, don’t! Grace confessed to Mr. Dudeny. He’s taking care of it. He told me before I left school. You don’t need to call anybody! Promise!”

  “Okay, okay. I promise.”

  “At first I felt awful. But all day long, kids in my class kept coming up to me. They all said how they knew I’d never steal anything.” Nancy paused. “I never realized I had so much integrity.”

  Her mom wrapped Nancy in a hug and planted another kiss on her forehead. “You sure do, kiddo!”

  Nancy followed her down the hall to JoJo’s room. JoJo was in bed. “Your teacher said you were fine all day.” Mom bent down and stroked JoJo’s cheek. Then she turned to Nancy. “As soon as we got home, JoJo started complaining again about her tummy hurting.” She popped the thermometer under JoJo’s tongue. “Maybe I should call Dr. Cornelia.”

  JoJo yanked out the thermometer. “No!”

  A moment later, Nancy’s mom read the thermometer. “No fever.... Maybe a little ginger ale will make you feel better?”

  “Maybe.” JoJo pulled the covers up to her chin.

  Nancy’s mom went downstairs.

  Because Nancy felt sorry for her sister, she said, “Want to look through your treasures together?” It was one of JoJo’s favorite things to do. Nancy started to pull out the plastic chest from under JoJo’s bed.

  “No! Go away!”

  “Fine.” Nancy headed back to her own room. “I was trying to be nice.”

  The phone started ringing.

  “Nan, would you get it?”

  It was Rhonda. She didn’t bother saying hello. She started talking real fast. “Nancy, I got your special Nancy Drew book dirty, the one Mrs. DeVine gave you. And the page got torn. I didn’t mean to. My hands were dirty. Please don’t be mad. That’s why I came over the other day. I was going to tell you, but I chickened out.”

  “It’s okay, Rhonda,” Nancy broke in. “I forgive you.”

  “You do? Oh, wow! Oh, phew! I was so worried you’d be mad. I felt horrible about it. My mom thought I was getting sick because I was acting so weird.”

  Nancy understood. Guilt could do horrible things to a person.

  “All I can say is I’m really, really, really sorry, Nancy.”

  “Apology accepted!”

  Nancy hung up the phone and went back to her room. She could hear her mom in JoJo’s room.

  “Is something bothering you?” Mom was saying. “Is there anything you want to tell me? I won’t be mad.”

  Suddenly Nancy had a funny feeling in her tummy. She was thinking about what Rhonda had just said on the phone. How Rhonda’s mom thought she was sick, when really Rhonda was just feeling guilty about Nancy’s book.

  Nancy bolted outside to Headquarters. She sat down and leafed through Bree’s photos from Family Day again. She stopped at one of JoJo holding hands with Yoko’s baby sister. JoJo was pointing at the marble. The next photo was of Freddy. He was by the display table too. JoJo and Hariko were off to one side. Nancy looked closer. JoJo was reaching for something on the table.

  Nancy felt prickles on the back of her neck. Of course, the photo didn’t prove anything. It wasn’t evidence. Nancy put the pictures down and pondered. She thought about what Grace had said the other day: “Why would I steal some dumb baby marble?”

  Most of all, Nancy thought about the way JoJo acted a minute ago when Nancy suggested looking through her treasure chest. Was there something inside it that JoJo didn’t want Nancy to see?

  It was like a bunch of arrows with blinking lights were all pointing straight at her sister. Taking Nancy’s stuff was one thing. But taking someone else’s stuff? That wasn’t borrowing. That was stealing!

  Nancy marched back into her sister’s room. Their mother was gone. Nancy expected to find JoJo in bed. Instead she was on the floor, tying up one of her dolls.

  “She was being bad. So I’m punishing her,” JoJo said.

  Nancy knelt down and fished around under JoJo’s bed. She felt the treasure chest.

  “Hey
! What are you doing?”

  Nancy didn’t reply. She sat back on her heels. Her heart started thumping as she raised the lid.

  There it was: the blue marble.

  Nancy grabbed it and charged downstairs with JoJo running after her, howling at the top of her lungs, “Stop!”

  Her father had just come through the front door. Her mom was waiting to kiss him hello.

  “What’s wrong?” they both said.

  JoJo kept screaming and trying to grab the marble from Nancy.

  Nancy cleared her throat. “I’m very sorry to inform you that JoJo stole Mr. Dudeny’s blue marble.”

  Then Nancy opened her hand and revealed the evidence.

  CHAPTER

  12

  Nancy spread out the photos from Family Day on the kitchen table. “Voilà! See for yourself!” she said, pointing. “There’s JoJo reaching for the marble. And here it is!”

  “Nancy, JoJo’s not on trial,” her dad said. “So you can put away Exhibit A.” JoJo was sitting on his lap, crying and hiccuping.

  “Daddy, do you think this is funny?” Nancy plopped down in a chair. She was trying to be helpful. If her parents didn’t watch out, JoJo could end up behind bars. She’d get nothing to eat but stale bread and stale water. Plus there was absolutely no way to look fancy in jail clothes.

  “No, it’s not funny,” her dad said. “But it’s not the crime of the century, either.”

  Nancy’s mom handed JoJo a glass of water. Then her mom said, “Sweetie, why did you take the marble? You know that isn’t right.”

  JoJo nodded miserably. Twin worms of snot were dripping down her nose.

  “How about you tell us what happened,” her mom said.

  “Nancy will yell!”

  “No, she won’t,” said Nancy’s dad, while her mom leaned over and wiped JoJo’s nose with a paper napkin.