The five fans glared at each other. Even the potted plant looked spikier.
Quickly, Milo changed the subject. “Can we see the letters?”
Chris and Kyle shook their heads.
“It’s not a secret anymore!” Jazz said.
“It isn’t that,” Chris said. “I haven’t got it.”
“Me neither,” Kyle said. “It said to wrap my Power Pick up in the letter and leave it under the steps.”
“Under the steps?” Milo repeated.
“Of Starr’s trailer,” Chris explained. “After all the TV people left for the day. Mine said that, too.”
Milo and Jazz glanced at each other.
“It sounds fishy to me,” Milo said.
“Me too.” Jazz looked across the lot at Starr, who had finished her coffee break and stood talking to the director. “I’d like to ask her a few questions.”
Quickly, Jazz ducked under the barricade and marched toward Starr. The others followed.
A young man with a tiny beard ambled over. “Can I help you?”
“We want to talk to Starr,” Jazz said.
“You and everybody else. Sorry.”
“You don’t understand!” Chris said. “We HAVE to talk to her! She has to tell everyone I’m her biggest fan!”
“No, I am!” Kyle protested.
The young man rolled his eyes. “Fans. Honestly, I hate this job.”
Ignoring their protests, he herded the group of kids back to the barricade. Danny snapped a photo as they went.
“Now what?” Kyle said when the young man had walked away.
Jazz frowned. “We have to figure out a way to get past that guy.”
Thinking of Ursula, Milo suggested, “I could bump into him and make him spill his coffee. While he’s distracted, you can make a dash for Starr.”
“We want to talk to her,” Jazz said. “Not get tackled by security.”
“How about a sign?” Chris asked. “You know, like: STARR! WE NEED TO TALK TO YOU!”
Jazz gave her brother a startled look. “Actually, that’s not a bad idea.”
“You don’t have to act so surprised,” Chris grumbled.
Ana lived the closest, so they headed to her house. Ana and Paige hauled the potted plant between them.
While they were filling in the letters of their sign with black marker, Ana’s mother poked her head in. “Something came for you!”
She tossed an envelope to Ana, who caught it and opened it.
“Wow,” Ana said. “Wowee!”
“What is it?” Jazz asked.
Ana sat back on her heels.
“It’s a letter from Starr,” she said. “And it says I get to be on the show.”
Everyone clustered around Ana.
“It looks just like my letter,” Kyle said.
Chris said, “Mine too.”
Jazz took the envelope from Ana. “That’s funny. There’s no stamp.”
Milo looked. “It must have been dropped off by hand.”
Ana let out a shriek. “Starr was here? At my house?”
“I don’t think these letters came from Starr,” Jazz said.
Kyle, Chris, and Ana stared at her.
“What do you mean?” Chris said.
“It just doesn’t make sense,” Jazz said. “Why would she send secret letters to three fans, telling them something that can only be true for one? I think these letters are fakes.”
Kyle looked bewildered. “But who would send fake letters to the Woofs? And why?”
“I don’t know who,” Jazz replied. “But I’m pretty sure I know why.”
Milo followed her gaze to Kyle’s empty wristband. Of course!
“The Power Picks!” he exclaimed. “The letters said to leave them under the steps of Starr’s trailer. Whoever wrote the letters could have planned to pick them up when Starr wasn’t around.”
“You mean … it’s all a scam to get our Power Picks?” Chris asked.
Ana waved her letter. “But it’s signed with a little star, just like that poster on my wall. It has to be real. Right, Paige?”
Paige nodded. “Totally.”
Milo looked at the poster. “Someone could have copied her signature,” he said.
Ana clutched the letter to her chest. “It’s not a scam. It really is from Starr. She must have changed her mind when she found out that I’m her biggest fan.”
Chris scowled. “I hope you’re right.”
“You want Ana to get on the show?” Kyle asked.
“I want the letters to be real,” Chris said. “Because if this is a scam, then OUR POWER PICKS ARE GONE FOREVER!”
Kyle’s face fell. “Oh. Oh … no.”
Jazz patted Kyle on the shoulder. “Don’t worry,” she told him. “Milo and I are on the case.”
Milo took the letter from Ana’s hand. “And now we have a clue!”
When they got back to the set, they saw Starr heading for the costume trailer.
“STARR!” the Woofs yelled. “STARR!” Danny and Chris held up the WE NEED TO TALK TO YOU sign while the others frantically pointed and waved their arms.
Starr turned her head. She gave them her dazzling smile, waved back—and walked on.
They all stared after her.
“So much for that,” Jazz said.
“I can’t understand it!” Ana said. “Teen Fad named Starr America’s Sweetest Celebrity. They said she was ‘approachable and down-to-earth.’ Right, Paige?”
“Totally,” Paige agreed.
“Approachable?” Milo repeated. “What do we have to do to get near her? Dig a tunnel? Land in a balloon?”
“Bingo!” Jazz said.
Milo looked at her in surprise, but she wasn’t talking about balloons. Following her gaze, he saw Ursula perched on her father’s shoulders.
“Ursula is wearing a gold Power Pick, just like you said,” Jazz told him. “Let’s go talk to her.”
Jazz plowed off through the crowd with Milo close on her heels.
Ursula was sucking on a lollipop, her eyes glued to The Sneer, who paced the lot rehearsing lines for his next scene.
Jazz smiled up at Ursula. “That’s a nice Power Pick.”
The little girl glanced down at her, then away.
“Where did you get it?” Milo asked.
With a loud slurp, Ursula pulled the lollipop out of her mouth. “It’s mine.”
“But where did you get it?”
“It. Is. MINE!” Ursula slapped the lollipop down on her father’s bald head.
Ursula’s father gave Milo and Jazz an annoyed look. “Is there a problem?”
Milo tried not to stare at the lollipop stuck to the top of his head.
Jazz said, “We were just asking where she got her Power Pick. My brother used to have one with a gold star, too.”
“Some teenage kid was selling this online,” Ursula’s father said.
“But Ursula didn’t have one yesterday,” Milo objected. “How did it get to you so fast?”
“I paid extra for overnight delivery.” The man’s eyes narrowed, and he crossed his arms. “What is this, anyway?”
Milo gulped. “Um …”
“Nothing!” Jazz grabbed Milo’s arm. “We just wondered, that’s all.”
As she towed him away, Milo glanced back and saw Ursula pop the lollipop back in her mouth.
Once they were out of earshot, Milo asked Jazz, “Do you think he was telling the truth?”
“He could have bought it online,” Jazz said.
“Yeah … or he could have taken Chris’s Power Pick from underneath the trailer steps.”
They looked at each other.
“Well …” Jazz said doubtfully. “I guess we could go question him again. But I didn’t like the look on his face.”
“Or the lollipop on his head,” Milo agreed.
Jazz laughed.
“What about fingerprints?” Milo said. “There must be fingerprints all over Ana’s letter.”
“Yeah, but they’
re mostly ours—” Jazz stopped. “Ana’s letter! Of course! Milo, you’re a genius.”
“You think the fingerprints will help?”
“No, but the letter will,” Jazz said. “It will help us catch the scammer in the act.”
“A stakeout?” Kyle asked.
The Woofs stood listening as Jazz outlined her plan.
“The three of us—” She pointed to Ana, Milo, and herself. “—come back to the set tonight after the cast and crew go home. Milo and I will hide and watch while Ana follows the instructions in the letter—”
“But the letter says to leave her Power Pick under the trailer steps!” Chris said. “What if the scammer grabs it and runs off before you guys can do anything?”
“Ana will only pretend to leave the letter and her Power Pick,” Jazz explained. “Really it’ll just be a folded-up piece of paper with a quarter taped in it.”
“Then what?” Kyle asked.
“Then Milo and I wait and see who shows up after Ana leaves.”
Ana frowned. “But I still think it will be Starr. If I don’t leave my Power Pick, I’ll lose my chance to play her sidekick on the show. I’d be a great sidekick. Right, Paige?”
Before Paige could reply, Kyle jumped in. “I got my letter first. So I’m the one who would be on the show.”
“Who says?” Chris demanded.
Quickly, Milo said, “Let’s think about possible suspects.” He looked at Chris, Kyle, and Ana. “Who would know all three of you had Power Picks?”
Chris shrugged. “Everyone?”
“Anyone who knows us,” Kyle said. “I mean, we wear them all the time.”
“And Starr!” Ana said. “She knows, too.”
Everybody looked at her.
“Well, she’s the one who sent us the Picks when we won the contest, right?”
Jazz said, “Probably not Starr herself. But somebody at the TV show, sure.”
“It could have been that guy with the strange little beard thing on his chin,” Ana said. “He didn’t seem too nice.”
“Or The Sneer!” Kyle put in. “He’s evil, right?”
Now everybody looked at him.
“The Sneer is just a TV character,” Jazz said. “An actor in a mask.”
“Yeah?” Kyle said. “So how come all the other actors’ names are listed in the credits, but for The Sneer it only says THE SNEER?”
Ana chimed in, “And no one’s ever caught a glimpse of him without his mask. Not even Teen Fad.”
“What are you saying?” Milo asked. “You think The Sneer is really evil and not just a bad guy on TV?”
“Well … ” Ana said uncertainly.
Jazz cut in, “Whoever is sending the letters, we’ll find out tonight.”
“What if nobody comes?” Paige said.
Milo stared at her in surprise. Four words, and none of them was totally!
“They’ll come,” Jazz said. “The letter says to make the drop-off as soon as everyone’s gone home. The scammer won’t want to leave the Power Pick very long, or someone else might find it.”
Ana promised to show up right after dark. Then Chris said he wanted to be in on the stakeout. Right away, the others insisted on coming too.
“It’s a stakeout, not a birthday party!” Jazz said. “How are six of us supposed to hide?”
“We can be stealthy,” Kyle said. “You know that episode where Starr eludes the crazy paparazzi while she sneaks up on The Sneer? I’ve watched that, like, a zillion times.”
Everyone started talking at once about their favorite episodes of Super Starr.
Jazz threw up her hands.
“Okay! You can all come. Just wear dark clothes and sneakers. And practice being quiet,” she added. “Starting now!”
After agreeing to meet again as soon as it got dark, the group split up. By now Milo’s belly was growling like an angry Doberman, so he went home for lunch.
An envelope addressed to him sat on the kitchen counter. A lesson from Dash! He tore it open and read it while wolfing down a heaping plate of leftovers.
Venn Diagrams
For a detective, gathering clues can be the easy part. Sometimes the tough part is sorting them out. Try using a Venn diagram. (Some people call it a “double bubble” chart!) Putting your clues in the chart helps you organize what you know to see how information matches up—or doesn’t. For example: Milo is a boy and a detective; Jazz is a girl and a detective. A Venn diagram shows the things you have in common:
A double bubble helped me solve a big-league baseball case. An umpire was getting nasty anonymous letters. They were obviously from an angry baseball player—but which one?
All the clues pointed to the player known as Slammin’ Sam. In a recent game, the umpire had called Sam out just as he slid into home plate. Sam had called the umpire something, too: Noodle Head. The letter writer used the same words.
There was just one problem.
A handwriting expert said that the letter writer was definitely left-handed. Sam wrote with his right.
One clue matched up. The other didn’t. I was stumped.
Sam’s team had a game that afternoon. So I snapped my sleuth notebook shut and headed to the park.
As I slipped onto the bench, Sam stepped up to the plate. He tapped it with his bat and eyed the pitcher. Then he moved around to the other side of the plate.
Instantly, I was on my feet. “He did it!” I shouted, rushing from the dugout. “Sam is a switch hitter! He can use his left hand just as well as his right. That’s how he wrote those letters in a different handwriting.”
As the police hauled Sam away, the umpire yelled after him. He didn’t call Sam names. He simply said—
“YOU’RE OUT!”
Milo set the lesson down. Maybe a handwriting expert could figure out if the letters signed Starr were real or fake?
But they didn’t need a handwriting expert. If Starr showed up tonight to get the Power Pick, they’d know the letters came from her. And if somebody else showed up instead—
Then they would catch a scammer!
Milo crouched behind a trailer, thinking that six was a good number for a volleyball team, not a stakeout. So far, having the Woofs along had been nothing but trouble.
Kyle had arrived wearing silver shades just like the ones Starr wore to sneak up on The Sneer. He stumbled around in the dark and fell off the curb twice before Jazz finally made him take them off.
Then Chris and Danny, who had ducked behind the same trailer together, started squabbling.
“Darth Vader has way better powers than The Sneer!”
“Does not!”
“Does too!”
Their voices rose until Jazz had to dash across the dimly lit parking lot to remind them they were supposed to be hiding.
Paige crouched quietly in her spot behind the costume and makeup trailer. At least one of the Woofs wasn’t causing trouble.
Milo checked his watch. Ana should be coming along any second now to drop off her phony Power Pick and letter.
Footsteps scuffed across the parking lot. Ana was right on time.
As she came closer, they could hear her singing in a quavery voice. “She’s a superstar, oh yeah, she’s Super Starr. She’s got no time, no time for crime …”
Milo thought she sounded nervous.
“What’s she carrying?” Jazz hissed.
Milo peeked out. It was hard to make out in the dark, but it looked like …
“A pizza box?” he whispered.
Ana stopped in front of the trailer with the big silver stars painted on it. She leaned over and slipped something under the steps. Then she set the box on the top step.
“Look, Starr!” she announced. “Pizza! With green peas! Your favorite! Just like they make it in Brazil, where you were born. We read it in Teen Fad!”
Ana looked around.
“Anyway … I just wanted you to know that I’M YOUR BIGGEST FAN. And I BELIEVE IN YOU.”
Milo shot Jazz an ala
rmed glance. What was Ana doing? Was she about to give away their stakeout?
“Just go now, Ana,” Jazz breathed. “Go!”
As if she had heard Jazz, Ana left, singing a little louder now. “She’s got—STARR POWER! Yeah!!!”
The minutes crawled by. Ten minutes. Twenty. Thirty-five.
Just as Milo had decided nobody was coming, he caught a movement from the corner of his eye. He grabbed Jazz by the sleeve and pointed.
A stealthy figure prowled across the parking lot.
The scammer!
All Milo could make out in the dark was that it was a man. The man paused by Starr’s trailer. Milo held his breath.
But the scammer—if it was the scammer—didn’t reach under the steps. Instead, after a glance at the pizza box, he turned away.
A flash exploded. Jumping out with his camera, Danny yelled, “NO TIME FOR CRIME!”
The man fled.
Milo and Jazz burst from their hiding place and sprinted after him. Milo could hear the others thundering behind.
With his long legs, Kyle soon pulled ahead. Suddenly, he went sprawling. Milo, running too hard to stop, fell over him. Then a heavy weight landed on top of Milo, pinning him down.
“Help,” he gasped.
Chris’s voice said, “Sorry.”
The weight lifted. Milo scrambled to his feet, then helped Kyle up from the ground. Chris stood brushing himself off.
Jazz crossed her arms. “Honestly!”
“I guess I tripped on my shoelace,” Kyle apologized.
The mysterious figure had vanished.
“We lost him,” Milo said.
“But I got a photo!” Danny said.
They clustered around the tiny screen. The picture was blurry, and the man had his face turned away from the camera.
But Milo could tell one thing for sure. He had a full head of thick blond hair.
Jazz and Milo waited a while longer, but no one else showed up.
The next morning, Milo found Jazz finishing breakfast. Snitching a waffle, he took a big bite and said, “I still think it could have been Mister Lollipop Head. In a blond wig.”
The Case of the Superstar Scam Page 2
