Mall Madness Read online

  Back-to-school

  shopping spree!

  The Clue Crew is headed to the mall! They are ready to shop till they drop for new school supplies. First stop: the Pencil Box for glittery notebooks. But right away it looks like the girls have a back-to-school mystery on their hands. Money is missing from the Pencil Box’s cash register, and all fingers point to the clerk, Rodger. Rodger is Nancy’s neighbor, and she doesn’t believe he’s a thief. But she’ll need to examine the facts first. Good thing she bought a new notebook!

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  ALADDIN PAPERBACKS

  Simon & Schuster, New York

  A Ready-for-Chapters Book

  Cover designed by Lisa Vega

  Cover illustration copyright © 2008

  by Macky Pamintuan

  Ages 6–9

  kids.SimonandSchuster.com

  0708

  Mystery at the Mall?

  Nancy pulled her purple notebook and matching purple pencil from her back pocket. She was glad she’d brought them along.

  Opening the notebook to a blank page, Nancy wrote down Missing Money Mystery. Under that, she wrote two columns. One said Clues and a second said Suspects.

  The girls then rushed over to Rodger.

  “We want to help,” said Nancy, holding her notebook firmly in her hand.

  Join the Clue Crew

  & solve these other cases!

  #1 Sleepover Sleuths

  #2 Scream for Ice Cream

  #3 Pony Problems

  #4 The Cinderella Ballet Mystery

  #5 Case of the Sneaky Snowman

  #6 The Fashion Disaster

  #7 The Circus Scare

  #8 Lights, Camera . . . Cats!

  #9 The Halloween Hoax

  #10 Ticket Trouble

  #11 Ski School Sneak

  #12 Valentine’s Day Secret

  #13 Chick-napped!

  #14 The Zoo Crew

  #15 Mall Madness

  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  ALADDIN PAPERBACKS

  An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division

  1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

  www.SimonandSchuster.com

  Text copyright © 2008 by Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  Illustrations copyright © 2008 by Macky Pamintuan

  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

  NANCY DREW AND THE CLUE CREW is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  NANCY DREW, ALADDIN PAPERBACKS, and related logo are registered trademarks of

  Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  Designed by Lisa Vega

  The text of this book was set in ITC Stone Informal.

  First Aladdin Paperbacks edition July 2008

  eISBN: 978-1-4424-5919-9

  Library of Congress Control Number 2007934383

  ISBN-13: 978-1-4169-5900-7

  ISBN-10: 1-4169-5900-9

  Contents

  CHAPTER ONE: BACK-TO-SCHOOL SHOPPING

  CHAPTER TWO: GREAT GUMBALLS

  CHAPTER THREE: A MIGHTY MYSTERY

  CHAPTER FOUR: FLAVOR SAVER

  CHAPTER FIVE: CLUE NUMBER ONE

  CHAPTER SIX: GOOEY, GOOEY CLUE

  CHAPTER SEVEN: QUARTERS, QUARTERS, AND MORE QUARTERS

  CHAPTER EIGHT: THE ONE AND ONLY

  CHAPTER NINE: BUBBLE TROUBLE

  CHAPTER TEN: STUCK LIKE GLUE

  Chapter One

  Back-to-School Shopping

  “I just remembered that today’s the day!” eight-year-old George Fayne burst out. “There isn’t a second to lose.” George was suddenly talking a mile a minute and pulling on her best friend Nancy Drew’s sleeve. “We gotta go now!”

  “But George,” Nancy said in a normal voice that sounded almost snail-like compared to how fast George was talking, “I really want your opinion on these new sparkly red sneakers.” Nancy had been in the middle of trying on a pair of shoes when George declared they needed to go. “Check these out,” Nancy said.

  “Love ’em,” George replied, without even looking down. She let go her grip on Nancy’s sleeve. Nancy stumbled slightly backward, catching herself on a rack of rain boots while George rushed out of the shop. “Catch ya later,” she called.

  “Wait!” Bess Marvin jumped up from where she’d been trying on a pair of yellow and green strappy sandals. “You can’t go off on your own!” she shouted after her cousin, waving her arms. “We promised Hannah we’d all stick together.”

  Hannah Gruen, Nancy Drew’s housekeeper, had brought the girls to the mall for their back-to-school shopping. They each had a list and some money. The girls were supposed to buy the necessary items on their list and then meet Hannah at the food court for ice cream before going home. Even though the River Heights Mall was really safe for the girls to wander around by themselves, the rule was that they had to “stick together like glue.”

  They’d only begun to look around and already the glue wasn’t sticking.

  “I can’t believe George just took off like that. You’d better forget about the shoes,” Bess told Nancy. “We have to go find her.”

  “We’ll catch up with her in a minute,” Nancy said calmly as she slipped off the new shoes and handed them to the salesclerk.

  While Nancy was waiting her turn at the counter, Bess hurried to the front of the store. She could barely make out George’s short brown hair bobbing up and down as George worked her way through the crowd, heading farther into the mall.

  “Don’t worry, Bess,” Nancy told her friend. Nancy finished paying for her new sneakers and carefully put the change back into her small purple wallet.

  The second Nancy was done, Bess said, “Come on. We need to make tracks!” Bess pushed her blond hair out of her blue eyes. “There are so many people at the mall today, we might never find George again. We’re gonna be in so much trouble.”

  “I know exactly where she went,” said Nancy. She guided Bess down a corridor to the Pencil Box, a huge store that had all the latest back-to-school supplies on display.

  There, standing in front of the window of the Pencil Box with her nose pressed against the glass, was George.

  “I told you not to worry,” Nancy said with a huge grin. She swung her new shoe bag around in front of her.

  Bess breathed a big sigh of relief. “How did you . . .? Oh, right! You’re such a good detective. I should have known you would find her.”

  “I know your cousin pretty well,” Nancy explained. “I figured that with all the back-to-school stuff in the mall right now, the Pencil Box would be showing all the brand-new computer models in their window.” She smiled. “You know how gaga George is about computers.”

  “The mystery of where George hurried off to is solved!” Bess laughed.

  “This wasn’t a real mystery. When there is a real mystery to solve, it takes all three of us to figure it out,” Nancy replied. She tucked her hand into the back pocket of her jeans to make certain she’d remembered to bring along her purple clue-collecting notebook. It was stuffed in there, just like always.

  “The Clue Crew rocks,” Bess agreed. “So far, we’ve solved all our cases.”

  “I wonder if there will be a mystery for us today,” said Nancy thoughtfully.

  “I doubt it,” George remarked, finally turning away from the computers to look at Bess and Nancy. “Sorry I
ran off like that. I remembered that the Pencil Box was going to display the latest GT XP105 computer in its window. The new 105 has a Running Man processor and a half-hose driver!”

  “A half hose?” Bess said with a giggle. “That doesn’t sound good at all.”

  “Oh, but it’s the best!” George gushed. “The half hose connects the—”

  “Whoa!” Nancy interrupted with a grin. “It’s okay, George. You don’t have to tell us all the details. We’re just happy that you’re jazzed about the half-hose thingy.”

  “But from now on,” Bess declared, putting her arm around George, “we gotta stick together like glue. Okay?”

  “Sure,” George agreed. She slung one arm over Bess’s shoulder and another around Nancy. “Just like superglue.”

  Chapter Two

  Great Gumballs

  “As long as we’re already at the Pencil Box, why don’t we pick up our notebooks, paper, and pencils?” Nancy suggested.

  “Nah,” Bess told her. “Let’s go over to Schneider’s department store first to get our backpacks. Then, when we come back here, we can put our supplies straight into our new packs and it’ll be easier to carry all of it. I saw an orange wheelie backpack that looked amazing in the store’s catalog.” Bess smiled as she thought about the backpack. “I’m planning to take off the smaller wheels that come with it and attach big, snazzy, in-line wheels instead.”

  “Always the inventor,” said Nancy, winking at Bess.

  “I can switch out your wheels too, if you want,” Bess offered.

  “That would be great,” Nancy answered.

  “Before we go to Schneider’s,” George said, pulling Bess and Nancy along as if they really were stuck together, “let’s go to the back of the Pencil Box and buy some gum from the Drop Zone.”

  The Pencil Box’s six-foot-high Drop Zone was an incredible gumball machine. Each piece cost just a quarter, but before the gum came shooting out the bottom, it had to drop through three different levels of spinning, twisting, and flying tricks. Everyone loved buying gum from the Drop Zone machine.

  The girls agreed that they desperately needed some chewing gum and, still linked together, began to work their way toward the back of the Pencil Box.

  “Hey, Rodger.” Nancy broke out from under George’s arm to greet the teenage boy who lived next door to her. He was standing at a checkout counter, wearing a blue “Pencil Box” T-shirt.

  “Hey, Nancy,” Rodger Hunter echoed in a cheery voice. Nancy had always liked him.

  “Whatcha doing?” Nancy asked.

  Rodger explained that his dad was best friends with Mr. Gustavson, the owner of the Pencil Box. “I need to make some money, and Mr. Gustavson needed some help with the back-to-school sale. So he gave me a job here.” Rodger sounded glad to be working at the Pencil Box.

  Bess pressed toward the counter where Rodger was working. “Rodger, are you using a new cash register?”

  Rodger looked down at the machine on the counter in front of him. “I guess it’s new,” he said with a shrug. “It’s my first day here, so I don’t know for sure.”

  Leaning in for a closer look at the register, Bess said, “No. It’s not new. It’s the same old machine as last year, but it’s been fixed up, and some extra buttons were added.” Her eyes lit up like lightbulbs. Just like George loved computers, Bess loved inventing and reinventing things. She liked taking apart old things and making them better, or faster. And most of all, Bess loved fixing up old machines.

  “How does it work?” Bess asked Rodger excitedly. “Can you show us what it does?”

  Bess stretched over the counter as far as she could to get a better view while Rodger explained. “As you put money in the drawer, the cash register figures out exactly how many dollars, quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies go in. It calculates the change you need and spits the coins into this little cup.” He pointed to a plastic dish on the side of the machine. “You never have to count money or add or subtract or anything like that. The cash register does it all for you.”

  George leaned in next to Bess. “It sounds like there must be a computer chip in that cash register!” she exclaimed.

  “There is,” Rodger agreed with a confident tone. “Even though it’s my first day, Mr. Gustavson put me in charge of this register. He said that all the money in it is my responsibility.”

  “Wow,” said Bess, her eyes sparkling. It was clear to everyone that she’d like to be responsible for such an amazing machine.

  “Cool,” George exclaimed.

  She also wanted to be in charge of the newly computerized cash register.

  Bess and George would have stayed there all day watching Rodger ring up sales if Nancy hadn’t said, “We only have half an hour left before we need to meet Hannah. Come on, girls, let’s get the gumballs and run down to Schneider’s to pick up our backpacks.” She pulled George and Bess away from Rodger and the cash register while waving good-bye to him.

  They headed down Aisle Twelve, past the notebooks, folders, and pencils, toward the towering gumball machine.

  The girls were not surprised to find a line in front of the Drop Zone. Ned Nickerson, a fourth-grade boy from their school, was up. He was watching his gumball pass the second level, across a spinning platform that flung the gum into a small hole, heading toward level three.

  Another girl from school, Deirdre Shannon, was waiting for her turn to buy gum. She was holding a small, heart-shaped tin box. The lid was open, and everyone could see that the box was full of quarters.

  “I hope she’s only buying one,” Bess whispered to Nancy. “We don’t have all day to wait for Deirdre to buy so many gumballs.”

  The girls got lucky, and Deirdre bought only one gumball with a quarter she pulled out of her pocket, not from the tin.

  “How’s your summer vacation going?” Nancy asked Deirdre as she passed by.

  “Great! I’m so lucky. My mom has brought me here practically every day to get gum,” Deirdre reported. She popped a light blue gum-ball into her mouth, adding, “I’m off to buy some sweaters for school. See ya.”

  After Deirdre left, it was Bess’s turn. She dug around in her purse for some change. She was just about to drop in a quarter and start the gumball fun when Mr. Gustavson, the store owner, came out of the back office carrying a roll of receipt paper.

  Mr. Gustavson was a nice man—a little round like a marshmallow, but always dressed neat and clean. No matter how busy the store was, Mr. Gustavson took time to visit with his customers and was always very, very friendly.

  But today something weird was going on. Mr. Gustavson’s face was red. His breath was huffy. And he was stomping, not walking.

  The girls watched him as he clomped across the store. He didn’t even turn to say hello. And Mr. Gustavson always said hello.

  When he disappeared down Aisle Twelve, Nancy turned to Bess and George, who were still staring after him. “You know,” she said with a curious look, “I have a hunch that there really might be a mystery to solve today.”

  Chapter Three

  A Mighty Mystery

  “We have a big problem,” Mr. Gustavson said to Rodger. He was speaking so loudly, the girls couldn’t help but overhear.

  They were chewing on their Drop Zone gum and heading toward the front of the store when they first heard Mr. Gustavson’s voice. Now, as they came out of Aisle Twelve, Nancy, George, and Bess could see the store owner standing in front of Rodger and the amazing cash register. His hands were on his hips. “We have a big, big problem,” Mr. Gustavson repeated.

  “What’s the problem?” asked Rodger.

  Mr. Gustavson waved the roll of paper he was carrying. “This is the problem,” he said slowly. “The new cash register added up everything you sold so far today and told me exactly how much money should be in the drawer. Then the machine sorted the money and reported how much money actually is in the drawer.” Mr. Gustavson huffed. “This”—he showed Rodger the numbers on the paper he was carrying— “shows
that eight dollars and seventy-five cents is missing.”

  “I don’t understand,” Rodger said, looking at the numbers with his eyebrows pulled tightly together.

  “Neither do I,” said Mr. Gustavson. “You’ve been here all day working the new cash register.” He pointed at the machine. “Do you have any idea what could have happened to the money, Rodger?”

  “I don’t know,” Rodger said, sounding worried. Then, as if a lightbulb had gone off in his head, he suggested, “We should ask Robin if she has an idea. She worked this register while I ate lunch.”

  “Robin has been working here for three years,” said Mr. Gustavson. The girls knew that they were talking about Robin Miller, the stock girl. She was really friendly and always helped customers who couldn’t find something.

  “Robin is a great employee. Money has never disappeared while Robin was at the register,” Mr. Gustavson told Rodger. “Maybe, when you weren’t looking, someone took the money. Or maybe by accident you rang up a sale wrong,” he suggested.

  “I was really careful. I don’t understand what happened.” Rodger groaned.

  “I don’t think you took the money, Rodger, but when you came to work today, I told you that all the money that went in and out of this cash register was your responsibility,” Mr. Gustavson said. “That means you will have to give me back eight dollars and seventy-five cents from the money you earn today.”

  Rodger looked upset.

  “Unfortunately, I have to take the money out of your paycheck tonight,” Mr. Gustavson told Rodger. Then, with one last huff, he turned and walked right past the girls, back down Aisle Twelve, and into his office near the Drop Zone gumball machine.

  Nancy looked at Bess and George. They all were clearly thinking the same thing.

  “Maybe the Clue Crew can help Rodger,” Bess whispered to her friends.

  “He looks so sad,” George commented.

  Nancy pulled her purple notebook and matching purple pencil from her back pocket. She was glad she’d brought them along.