The Crazy Key Clue

  Contents

  Chapter 1: Finders Keepers

  Chapter 2: Ghost on the Loose

  Chapter 3: The Key to the Mystery

  Chapter 4: Pumpkin Bombs

  Chapter 5: The Candy Clue

  Chapter 6: Grumpy Grandma

  Chapter 7: The Ghost Returns

  Chapter 8: The Cookie Clue

  1

  Finders Keepers

  Hey, stop! You’re getting leaves in my hair!” Bess Marvin shouted.

  Nancy Drew laughed at her best friend. Then she picked up another handful of dried leaves. She tossed them up in the air. They fluttered onto her own head as they fell to the ground.

  “I just raked those,” Bess said. She put her hands on her hips.

  “No, you didn’t,” George Fayne said to her cousin. “I raked them.”

  Nancy giggled and pulled her jacket tightly around her. The cold fall air made her shiver even though the sun was shining. Nancy loved being outside with George and Bess. They were her two best friends. Nancy’s puppy, Chocolate Chip, was playing nearby.

  Chip ran over to Bess and dropped a stick at her feet. Bess patted the puppy and threw the stick for her to fetch. Then she picked at the leaves that were stuck in her long, blond hair.

  “Come on,” George said. “We promised Bess’s grandmother that we’d rake these before tonight. And we still have to get into our Halloween costumes.”

  Bess’s parents were away for the weekend so Bess’s grandmother was staying with Bess. Nancy and George were going to sleep over at Bess’s house that night.

  “Bess!” Nancy called when she saw that Bess wasn’t doing her share. Bess was still playing with Chocolate Chip.

  “Can I help?” a voice suddenly asked.

  Nancy whirled around in surprise. Molly Angelo was standing on the sidewalk behind her. Molly was eight years old, just like Nancy and her friends. She lived down the street from Bess.

  “Hi,” Bess said. “You want to help? Great! Here, take my rake.”

  Nancy shook her head as Bess shoved the rake into Molly’s hands. Then Bess walked over to sit down on the front steps.

  “Thanks,” Molly said. She brushed her curly hair out of her eyes.

  “Let’s rake the leaves into one big pile,” Nancy said.

  George and Nancy got busy. They raked a lot of the leaves into the center of the yard.

  Molly bent down to pat Chocolate Chip. Before she had a chance, Chip ran straight through the pile of leaves. Leaves flew everywhere.

  “Chip, stay out of our pile,” Nancy scolded.

  Then Chip bounded over to the bushes by the porch. She came back and dropped something at Molly’s feet.

  “Hey, look what I found!” Molly cried.

  “What?” Nancy asked, looking up.

  Molly held up a strangely shaped key.

  Nancy and her friends rushed over to Molly. Nancy had never seen a key like this before. It was at least four inches long, and it looked heavy. The top of the key was shaped like a heart. The rest of the key was twisted into a zig-zag shape. A dirty green ribbon was looped through it. The ribbon was tied in a bow.

  “Wow,” George said. “That’s the craziest-looking key I’ve ever seen.” She reached out to touch it.

  “Finders keepers,” Molly said. She clutched the key tightly to her chest.

  “No way,” Bess said. “That belongs to my mom or dad. It was in our yard. And anyway it looks old. It’s probably been out here a long time. Give it back.”

  Molly clutched the key even tighter. “Nancy’s dog gave it to me,” she said. “So it’s mine.”

  Nancy and George shook their heads.

  “No, it’s Bess’s,” Nancy said. “Give it back to her.”

  Molly pouted, but she handed the key over to Bess. “No fair,” she said. Then she turned and stomped away.

  “She has a lot of nerve,” George said when Molly was gone.

  “Well, at least she gave it back. I wonder what this key opens,” Bess said. She looked at it closely. “Let’s see if my grandmother knows.”

  Bess hurried toward the house. Nancy and George quickly followed.

  “Grammy?” Bess called as she ran into the living room.

  “In here,” Bess’s grandmother answered from the kitchen.

  Bess raced to the kitchen with the big key in her hand.

  Grandma Marvin was in the kitchen, making lollipops. She was going to give them out that night for Halloween.

  “Look what we found in the yard,” Bess said.

  Grandma Marvin’s face lit up. “Oh!” she cried. “Look at that!” But then she frowned.

  “What’s wrong?” Bess asked.

  “Oh, nothing,” Grandma Marvin said. But she was still frowning.

  “Have you ever seen this key before?” Bess asked. “What do you think it opens?”

  “Oh, don’t ask me,” Grandma Marvin said. “I have no idea.”

  She took the key from Bess and turned it over in her hands. She smoothed out the green ribbon. “It is very unusual,” she said. “Let’s put it in the foyer on the table across from the front door. That way your parents will see it first thing when they come home.”

  “But it’s like a mystery, Grammy,” Bess moaned. “We want to know what it opens. And we want to know now.”

  “Don’t be so impatient,” Grandma Marvin said. “Isn’t it time for Nancy and George to go home? They have to change into their Halloween costumes. It will be time to go out trick-or-treating soon.”

  Bess nodded. “And you have to get your things for our sleepover tonight,” she said to Nancy and George.

  “Yay!” Nancy said with excitement.

  This was going to be a fun night. First, trick-or-treating. Then a sleepover with Bess and George!

  Bess walked Nancy and George to the front door. She put the strange key on a small table in the foyer.

  “Hurry back,” Bess called as Nancy and George walked down the front steps.

  • • •

  Two hours later the girls were all dressed up in their Halloween costumes. Nancy was a witch—but a pretty witch. She let her long reddish blond hair flow out from under her pointy witch’s hat, and she didn’t wear the ugly green nose that came with her costume.

  Bess was dressed up as a movie star. She wore a pink satin gown. She had a long pink feather boa around her neck.

  George was a fortune teller. She had wrapped a turban around her dark curly hair, and she carried a crystal ball.

  Nancy’s father, Carson Drew, walked with the girls as they went trick-or-treating. They started at Bess’s next-door neighbor’s house.

  Nancy, Bess, and George took turns ringing the doorbell. They giggled as they shouted, “Trick or treat!” Then they watched as their bags were filled with candy.

  When the girls reached Nancy’s street, they ran into Rebecca Ramirez, another third-grader who lived near Nancy. Rebecca wanted to be an actress when she grew up. She was dressed like a movie star, too.

  “Watch out,” Nancy warned her friends. “Rebecca told me she’s going to play a trick on someone tonight.”

  “A trick?” George asked. “I hope it isn’t throwing eggs or squirting shaving cream.”

  “Nope. She has a bag of flour—don’t you?” Nancy said to Rebecca.

  “Yes,” Rebecca admitted, holding up a small brown bag. “I’m going to toss it at old Mr. Randolph.”

  “Why would you do that?” Bess asked.

  “It’s an old-fashioned Halloween prank,” Rebecca said. “I saw it in a movie. You throw the flour in a mean person’s face.”

  “Mr. Randolph’s not mean,” Nancy said.

  “Well, last week my ball got lost in his bushes, and he yelled when he saw me lo
oking for it in his yard,” Rebecca said. “Now I’m going to get back at him. See you guys later.”

  “Gee,” George whispered to Nancy as Rebecca walked down the street. “I wouldn’t want to make Rebecca mad.”

  Nancy giggled when Rebecca was out of sight. “I would never throw flour in someone’s face,” she said. “But don’t you wish you could be there to see her do it?”

  “No,” Bess said. “She might get flour on me.”

  A while later Carson Drew walked the girls back to Bess’s house. He waved goodbye as Nancy and her friends started up the driveway.

  “This was the best Halloween ever,” Bess said. “My candy bag is so full, I can hardly lift it.”

  “Mine, too,” George said.

  “Come on,” Bess said. “Let’s go inside and see how much stuff we got.”

  Bess, George, and Nancy started to walk faster.

  Just as they were about to enter the house, Nancy heard a rustling noise in the bushes. An instant later something leaped out at her with a terrible cry!

  2

  Ghost on the Loose

  Nancy screamed. She dropped her bag of candy. A ghost was standing right in front of her.

  The ghost lifted his arms high in the air. He leaped at Bess.

  “Bugga-bugga-booo!” he yelled.

  Bess screamed. George screamed, too. But then all three girls saw that the ghost was just a boy in a Halloween costume. They started to laugh.

  “Brett, you creep,” Bess said. “You scared us!”

  “Helloooo,” the ghost said.

  Nancy stared at the ghost carefully. A white sheet covered his whole body. There were two holes cut in it for eyes. How did Bess know that it was Brett?

  “Who’s under there?” Nancy asked, reaching for the sheet.

  “It’s Brett Sanderson,” Bess said. “He told me at school today that he was going to be a ghost.”

  “Can I come in and have a drink of water?” the ghost asked. “I’m dying of thirst.”

  “You’re already dead,” George joked.

  “Huh?” the boy said.

  “Because you’re a ghost,” George said with a laugh.

  “You can come inside, Brett,” Bess said. “My grandmother will get you a glass of water.”

  The ghost followed the three girls into the house. Bess asked her grandmother if Brett could have a drink.

  “Of course,” Grandma Marvin told the ghost. “Wait right here.”

  She hurried to the kitchen to get some water.

  Nancy and her friends were shivering.

  “Let’s go into the den,” Bess said. “Grammy built a fire in the fireplace.”

  The three friends said good-bye to Brett and hurried into the den. They spilled their bags of candy out on the floor.

  “I’m not going to count mine,” George said. “I’m just going to count what I eat.” She opened a small candy bar and popped the whole thing into her mouth. “One.”

  Nancy giggled. “I’m going to sort mine into four piles,” she said. “All the candy bars in one pile. All the gummy candy in another pile. And all the hard candies in the third pile.”

  “What’s the fourth pile for?” Bess asked.

  “It’s for weird things,” Nancy said. “Like that old bruised apple and this small squashed loaf of pumpkin bread. I’m not going to eat that stuff until my dad looks at it.”

  George looked over at the fourth pile and made a face. “I wouldn’t eat it even then!”

  • • •

  The next morning Nancy woke up early. Something was tickling her face.

  With her eyes still closed, she reached up and rubbed her cheek. Something fuzzy was crawling on her!

  “Help!” Nancy cried. She let out a little scream.

  “What?” Bess asked, sitting up in bed.

  “What’s wrong?” George asked. She was lying on the floor in a sleeping bag beside Nancy.

  Nancy sat up fast. Then she saw what was tickling her.

  It was the long pink feather boa—the one Bess had worn with her Halloween costume the night before. It had fallen off Bess’s dresser.

  “Your costume is attacking me,” Nancy said with a laugh. She pushed the feathery thing away.

  “Sorry,” Bess said. She hopped out of bed and picked up the feather boa. “I’d better put it away before anything happens to it. Let’s go up to the attic and put it back.”

  “Now? Before breakfast?” George asked, rubbing her eyes.

  “Come on, George,” Nancy said. She jumped up to follow Bess. “We can eat in a little while. I love attics.”

  Nancy grabbed her bathrobe and put it on. George climbed out of her sleeping bag and slipped on a pair of warm, woolly slippers. Then they all hurried down the hall to the attic stairs.

  Nancy shivered on the way up. The attic was cold. But she didn’t care. She liked to explore.

  Bess hung the feather boa on a rack of old clothes.

  Nancy started to look around.

  “Oh, look at this old baby carriage,” Nancy said. “It’s so cute.”

  “It was my mom’s when she was a baby,” Bess said.

  George picked up an old wooden tennis racquet. “Tennis, anyone?” she said, swinging it through the air.

  “No, thanks,” Bess answered. “Let’s go back down. I smell pancakes.”

  Nancy turned toward the stairs. Then she stopped in her tracks. “Hey,” she said, pointing, “look at that!”

  “What?” Bess asked, following Nancy’s gaze.

  “That old trunk,” Nancy said. “See the shape of the lock? It’s a heart, just like the heart shape on the key Chip found.”

  Bess gasped with excitement. She and George ran over to the trunk.

  “You’re right!” George said. “And the keyhole is the same size as that crazy old key.”

  “Wow,” Bess said. “My mom is going to be so happy.”

  “How come?” Nancy asked.

  “This trunk has been up here forever,” Bess said. “But we never knew where the key was. I bet there’s lots of cool stuff in there.”

  Bess ran down the attic stairs and out into the hallway.

  “Grammy? Grammy, guess what,” she called from the second floor. “We know what that key is for. Can you bring it up here? I think it will open that trunk in the attic.”

  There was no answer.

  “I guess she can’t hear me,” Bess said, climbing the stairs again. “Let’s just go get it ourselves.”

  The girls left the attic and hurried down to the foyer.

  When they reached the table by the front door, they froze.

  “I don’t believe it,” Bess cried out. “The key is gone!”

  3

  The Key to the Mystery

  It was there yesterday,” George said. “It was on the table when we left to go trick-or-treating. I saw it.”

  “Me, too,” Bess said.

  “Maybe your grandmother moved it,” Nancy said. “Let’s go ask her.”

  “Good idea,” Bess said as she headed toward the kitchen.

  Grandma Marvin was at the kitchen counter, pouring sugar into a mixing bowl. She was making cookies.

  “Sit down, girls,” she said as they came in. “Your breakfast is getting cold.”

  Bess didn’t sit down. “Grammy,” she said. “Did you take that key? The one we found yesterday? I think it will open the trunk in the attic.”

  “Hmm?” Grandma Marvin said, still stirring her batter. “Heavens, no. I didn’t take the key.”

  “Then I’m going to look for it again,” Bess said, marching out of the kitchen.

  George pulled on Nancy’s sleeve. “Maybe someone stole it,” she said. “Maybe it’s a mystery! What do you think?”

  “I don’t know,” Nancy said. She thought for a moment. Who would have wanted the key? Who could have taken it?

  “Brett,” Nancy mumbled out loud.

  “Huh?” George asked.

  “I was just thinking,” Na
ncy answered. “We left Brett standing in the foyer last night. Maybe he took the key. I’m going to get my detective’s notebook.”

  Nancy ran up to Bess’s bedroom. Her backpack was on the floor near her sleeping bag. She bent down and pulled out her small blue notebook.

  Then she hurried back to the kitchen. George and Bess were already at the table, eating pancakes with maple syrup.

  “Did you find the key?” Nancy asked Bess as she sat down next to her. She took a bite of her breakfast.

  Bess shook her head. “I looked all over the foyer. It’s gone.”

  “That stinks,” George said. “How are we going to get into that trunk?”

  Nancy ate a few more bites of her pancakes. “We have to find that key.”

  She opened her notebook to a clean page. At the top she wrote: “The Case of the Missing Key.” Then she wrote: “Suspects.” Under that, she wrote Brett Sanderson’s name.

  “Brett is our first suspect,” Nancy said.

  “You’re right,” Bess said. “We left him alone by the front door. And so did you, Grammy—when you went to get him a glass of water.”

  “Why would that boy steal an old, dirty key?” Grandma Marvin asked.

  “I know why,” George said quickly. “He collects keys.”

  “He does?” Bess asked. Her eyes opened wide. “How do you know?”

  “I’ve seen them,” George announced. “He wears a key ring on his belt almost every day. Whenever he finds an old key, he puts it on his key ring.”

  Nancy nodded. “Maybe Brett wanted the key because it’s so different.”

  “But who else?” Bess asked. “Do we have any other suspects?”

  “Finders keepers,” George said.

  “What are you talking about?” Bess asked through a mouthful of pancake.

  Nancy gave George a smile. “George means Molly Angelo. Remember? She said ‘finders keepers’ yesterday when she found the key. She was really angry that we made her give it back.”

  “Oh. Right,” Bess agreed.

  Nancy wrote Molly’s name underneath Brett’s in her notebook.

  “I don’t know, though,” Nancy said. “How could Molly have taken the key? She didn’t even come into the house.”