The Sand Castle Mystery Read online

  Contents

  Chapter 1: The Greatest Sand Castle Contest Ever

  Chapter 2: Get out of My Way!

  Chapter 3: A Message in the Sand

  Chapter 4: James’s Secret

  Chapter 5: Caught Left-handed!

  Chapter 6: Un-buried Treasure

  Chapter 7: A Clue in the Picture

  Chapter 8: It Wasn’t on Purpose!

  1

  The Greatest Sand Castle Contest Ever

  What this sand castle needs is a seashell!” eight-year-old Nancy Drew exclaimed to her best friends, Bess Marvin and George Fayne.

  Nancy gently pressed a pale pink shell along the bottom of their castle. So far, their castle was still pretty small, and it had only one tower, but Nancy still liked it. “Do you think we have a chance at winning the sand castle contest?” Nancy asked.

  “I know we do!” Bess said, giving George a high five.

  George and Bess were cousins. George’s real name was Georgia but she liked to be called George. All three girls went to the same school and now that it was summer they were on a special four-day vacation together. Carson Drew, Nancy’s father, was a lawyer, and he had taken the girls with him on a business trip. He had rented a cottage at the edge of Echo Lake in Michigan. Nancy thought it was the most beautiful lake in the whole world.

  Hannah Gruen, Nancy’s housekeeper, had come along, too. Hannah had taken care of Nancy for the past five years, ever since her mom passed away. She always made sure Nancy had clean clothes and ate balanced meals. Now at Echo Lake she could watch the girls at the beach from the kitchen window of the cottage.

  Ever since the girls had arrived at the beach on Friday, all they could think or talk about was Echo Lake’s Tenth Annual Sand Castle Building Contest.

  Bright yellow fliers about it were posted all over town. Anyone between the ages of six and twelve could enter, and Nancy, George, and Bess had signed up right away. It was Saturday now, and the girls had until Monday afternoon to make the best, most beautiful sand castle they could imagine.

  “I can taste the first prize,” Bess said. She licked her lips. “All the ice cream you can eat after the contest at Peppermint Park!”

  “Did you see those flavors on the flier?” Nancy said. “Mmmm, Beachy Peachy Fudge.”

  “S’mores Scores,” George said.

  “You would pick the flavor that had to do with sports.” Nancy laughed.

  “The winners get their pictures in the newspaper, too. Plus your picture will hang in Peppermint Park for a year!” said Bess. She picked up her baseball cap and yanked it onto her head. “Maybe I’ll wear my new hat for the photo!” Bess laughed. She tugged the brim down over her blue eyes and made a silly face.

  “I’m going to bring the picture home and show Brenda,” said George. Brenda Carlton went to their school and always bragged about the newspaper she ran. “I bet the Echo Lake News is better than her old paper, any day,” George said.

  “We haven’t won yet,” Nancy said. She looked around the special roped-off area of the beach. In every corner were groups of people working on castles. Nancy did a quick count. “We have ten other teams we have to beat,” she said. They were team number nine, and there was a red flag with the number on it right by their castle.

  Bess opened her beach bag and took out two drawings of sand castles.

  “It’s a good thing the contest didn’t start until today,” Bess said. “I’m glad we had time to go to the library and study up on castles.”

  George wriggled her fingers. “Yeah, but my fingers are so tired from taking all those notes! I never thought I’d be studying anything on vacation—even something as cool as sand castles.”

  “Drawing pictures of a castle is one thing,” Bess said doubtfully. “Building it is another.”

  “Some of these castles are amazing,” Nancy said as she looked around. There was a castle next to them that had three tall, pointed towers. There was another castle decorated with real starfish.

  George looked down at one of the drawings. “Our castle doesn’t look like the drawings we did,” she said. “I wanted it to have two, maybe even three big towers, and lots and lots of windows.”

  “Our castle still looks like a big lump,” Bess said.

  “It does not. We have to think positively,” Nancy said. “And I positively think we are going to win.”

  Nancy dug in her beach bag and pulled out a straw. “I read about this in one of the books. This is for blowing away extra sand,” she said. She leaned over the castle and gently blew into the straw.

  Bess took water from a pail and poured a little on some sand. “This will help the sand pack down tightly,” she said. Then she put the wet sand in one of Hannah’s cooking molds. It was the shape of a small fish.

  “Here goes nothing!” Bess said, and carefully turned the mold over on top of one of the towers. When she lifted it up, there was the shape of a fish.

  “That looks great,” George said. “But I think we need something more to give it oomph.”

  Bess frowned. “But what?”

  “Let’s take a picture of it,” Nancy said. “Maybe we can figure something out tonight.”

  Nancy pulled out three bright yellow disposable cameras and held them up. The best thing about them was that they were waterproof and Nancy could take pictures under the water if she wanted. Nancy’s father had bought them the cameras because he hadn’t wanted to miss any of the fun while he was working. “Pictures will be the next best thing to being there,” he said.

  The girls loved the cameras. Already they had taken pictures of the cottage, inside and out. They had even taken pictures of their own feet walking on the sandy bottom of the lake.

  Nancy snapped a picture of the castle. “Come on, let’s take pictures of all the other castles, too,” she said.

  Bess grabbed her camera and snapped a picture of the team next to them. Then Nancy took a picture of the lifeguard and the team nearest to him. He was sitting high up on a white chair. He had a stripe of white sunblock on his nose, which made her laugh.

  “Say ice cream!” Nancy said, taking a picture of Bess.

  “Hot fudge!” Bess laughed.

  The girls took the cameras down to the water and dove under the surface with them. Nancy opened her eyes wide and took a picture of Bess. Then Bess took a picture of George. All three girls sputtered and came up for air.

  “Hey, cool camera! Is it waterproof?” asked a voice. Nancy turned. The two girls from the sand castle next to them were in the water, too. They both had on the same blue bathing suit. “Can I see the camera?” one girl asked, and Nancy handed it to her.

  “Major cool,” the girl said. She handed the camera back to Nancy, smiling.

  “I’ll take your picture, too,” Nancy said, “but first tell me your names so I’ll know whose pictures I’m taking.”

  “I’m Lara,” said the girl with the long brown braids. “I’m Jane,” said her friend, who had short, curly brown hair.

  Nancy took their picture. “Got you!” she said. “Your castle is really awesome. How did you get the tops to point up like that?”

  “That might just be the winning secret,” said Lara, smiling.

  “We won second prize last year, but this year we’re going to win first!” said Jane.

  “No, we are,” giggled Bess.

  Jane smiled back at Bess. “We’ve been building sand castles here every summer since the contest started. This is our year to win.”

  “Did you just move here?” Lara asked Nancy. “Where do you live?”

  George shook her head. “I wish we lived here! We’re on vacation.”

  Lara’s face grew dark. “That’s not fair! This contest should be for the pe
ople who live here, not people like you who are just on vacation.”

  2

  Get Out of My Way!

  Nancy was shocked—these girls didn’t want Nancy and her friends to enter the contest!

  “Now, just wait a minute,” a kindly voice said.

  Nancy glanced up. An older woman in a pretty blue-flowered summer dress came over. Her hair was soft gray and rippling with curls. Her eyes were as blue as the flowers on her dress.

  Next to her, scribbling something in a notebook, was a man wearing a T-shirt and jeans, with a baseball cap low on his head. Around his neck was a badge that said PRESS on it in big blue letters.

  He introduced himself. “Kurt Jeffers, Echo Lake News. Is there trouble here? Trouble sells newspapers.”

  Jane pointed angrily at Nancy and her friends. “There’s the trouble! They don’t even live here, so why should they get to be in the contest? It isn’t fair!”

  The woman shook her head. “Now calm down, girls,” she said. She turned to Nancy and her friends. “I’m Mrs. Thorton,” she said. “I’ve run the contest for ten years and I say that everyone is welcome to enter it.”

  Lara and Jane frowned. “Fine, but we’re still going to win,” Lara said. Lara and Jane headed back to their castle.

  “We’re happy to have you in our contest,” Mrs. Thorton said, turning back toward Nancy, George, and Bess. “If you need anything, you come to me.”

  “Thank you very much,” Nancy said.

  “Yes, thank you,” echoed Bess and George.

  Mrs. Thorton touched Kurt Jeffers’s arm. “We’d better be going,” she said.

  “That’s right,” Kurt Jeffers said. “The news waits for no man!”

  “Or woman.” Mrs. Thorton laughed. “See you later, girls.”

  The girls went back to work. Bess took out her plastic library card.

  “Bess, this is no time to go to the library! We have enough books about sand castles,” George said, but Bess shook her head.

  “Watch,” Bess said. “I learned this from one of the books we got out.” She used the edge of the card to make a swirl design.

  “Awesome! If we can find a tiny gardening hoe, we can rake a path around the castle,” George said.

  “Look,” said Nancy, “that team over there is using Popsicle sticks to make a fence. That’s a good idea.”

  “It’s not just good, it’s great!” said a girl, coming toward them.

  “Hi,” said Nancy.

  “Hi!” said the girl. She had a merry smile and black hair in a pixie cut. “I’m Lisa. Are you new here?” she asked.

  “Why? Are you going to tell us to leave?” Bess asked suspiciously. Lisa laughed.

  “Leave? Why would I tell you to do that?” She looked at their castle. “What this needs is colored sand,” she said.

  “Colored sand?” asked Bess. “You mean we should paint it?”

  Lisa giggled. “You should buy it! The Beach Barn has lots of great sand. I can take you over there later, if you want. It’s really close. You can see it from the beach.”

  “Are you in the contest, too?” George asked.

  “I wish,” Lisa said sadly. “I won the contest last year, but the rules say you can’t win more than once.”

  She brightened. “But I can help you guys! It will be almost like I am entering again.”

  Bess brushed sand off her legs. “We could use all the help we can get,” she said. “That would be great. Thank you.”

  Lisa taught the girls lots of cool castle-building tricks. She showed them how an ice cream scoop could build great windows. She showed them how mixing a little glue in the water made the sand stick better.

  The girls worked all afternoon and then decided to take a break. “Let me take your picture,” Nancy said, and Lisa stood up and posed, putting one hand on her hip.

  Nancy took two pictures. Suddenly she felt a squirt of water on her leg. She turned just in time to see the water hit the sand castle, too! “Hey!” Nancy cried, and looked up to see a boy with a water pistol running in the other direction. He had red hair and a lot of freckles.

  “That’s James,” Lisa said. “He lives here all year round, too.” She pointed to a house right next door to the cottage where Nancy and the girls were staying. “Don’t pay any attention to him,” Lisa said. “He was in my second-grade class last year, and he’s a Grade A pest!”

  George bent and studied the castle. “It’s just a little wet,” she said, giving it an extra pat.

  “We’ve worked hard enough today,” Nancy said. “Let’s go ask Hannah if we can walk to the Beach Barn.”

  The other girls jumped up. “And to Peppermint Park!” George said.

  • • •

  Hannah gave the girls permission because the shops were so close and she could watch them walk there. But better than that, she also gave them some extra money for ice cream and colored sand.

  The walk was bright and sunny. “I can’t stop taking pictures,” George said, taking a photo of a dog wearing a straw hat.

  “Me, neither!” said Bess, as she snapped a picture of a shop window filled with kites.

  “Wait until my dad sees this!” Nancy exclaimed, snapping a picture of a girl who had a live parrot on her shoulder.

  “And wait until you see Peppermint Park. Here we are,” Lisa said.

  Peppermint Park had pink and white stripes painted on the outside. “Just like a delicious candy cane,” Nancy said, touching the outside stripes. Inside, the booths and tables were all pink and white, too. Nancy tilted her nose in the air. “Mmm, chocolate!” She sighed.

  The girls sat at a table and a friendly looking woman in a striped apron came over. Beside her was a girl with brown braids, who looked the same age as Nancy and her friends.

  “That’s the owner, Mrs. Rhodes, and her daughter, Katharine,” said Lisa. “She’s really nice.”

  “Hi Lisa,” said Mrs. Rhodes. Lisa introduced Nancy, Bess, and George to Mrs. Rhodes and Katharine.

  “Welcome to Peppermint Park!” Mrs. Rhodes said. “Katharine, would you set the table and hand out some menus?”

  Katharine put down some napkins and four big candy-striped menus.

  “I’m just going to get some water from the fountain over there,” Lisa said. “I’ll be right back.”

  “I want to get some pictures of this place,” said Nancy. She took a shot of the counter with all the gleaming silver faucets. Then she took a picture of Mrs. Rhodes, and then one of Katharine.

  “Hey!” Katharine said, blinking. “You should have let me do my hair.” She pulled her braids up so they were standing straight up from her head.

  The girls laughed. “You sure have a terrific beach here,” Nancy told Katharine. “We’re having the best visit ever.”

  “Thanks,” said Katharine, setting down some long silver spoons.

  “And a terrific sand castle contest!” Bess exclaimed. “We’re so excited we got here in time to enter.”

  Katharine’s face darkened and she got very quiet.

  “Maybe later we’ll see you at the beach,” George said.

  Katharine shrugged and then suddenly she turned and walked away from them.

  “What was that about?” Bess said. “She looked like someone told her she could never have ice cream again!”

  “Gee, she really isn’t very friendly,” Nancy said. “I thought Lisa said she was nice.”

  “Maybe she’s just having a bad day,” George suggested.

  Just then, Lisa came back. Mrs. Rhodes returned, too, to take their order. The girls scanned the menus. Never had they seen so many flavors or so many funny names—Butter Me Up Butter Pecan, Choco-lightning, Martian Marshmallow.

  “I want all of them!” Bess moaned, and Nancy laughed.

  “I want A Fan of Banana,” George decided.

  “Perfectly Peanuty,” Bess said.

  “Gorilla Vanilla,” Nancy said.

  “Coconutty,” said Lisa.

  “Coming right
up,” Mrs. Rhodes said.

  It didn’t take long. Mrs. Rhodes arrived with the ice cream in silver bowls. Nancy had never seen anything that looked more delicious.

  The ice cream tasted as good as it looked, maybe even better. Nancy was trapped between wanting to take her time so the ice cream would last, and wanting to gulp it down because she couldn’t help herself.

  “I’m done,” said Bess. “If I eat another bite, I’ll turn into ice cream.”

  “I think you’ve already started.” Nancy laughed. “You have ice cream on your nose!” Bess laughed and wiped her nose with her napkin.

  “You guys ready?” Lisa said. “Because the Beach Barn is going to be the most awesome place you’ve ever seen!”

  The girls paid for their ice cream and walked outside. “The Beach Barn is right over there.” Lisa pointed to the store.

  The Beach Barn had one huge front window, filled with brightly colored sand-pails and shovels. “Inside is even better,” Lisa promised.

  Lisa opened the door. Suddenly, James rushed out, carrying a package of green sand. “Gangway!” he cried. Then he bumped into Nancy so hard, she tumbled to the sidewalk!

  3

  A Message in the Sand

  Hey!” Nancy called, dusting herself off, but James had kept running and was too far away to hear her. “Boy, that wasn’t nice!”

  “Where is he going in such a hurry?” Bess asked.

  “Probably off to cause more trouble,” Lisa said. “Come on, don’t pay him any more attention. Let me show you around.”

  The Beach Barn had everything you could ever want for the beach—and more, Nancy thought. There were beach towels, sand toys, and a row of colored starfish strung across the ceiling with red yarn. There were big bins of beach balls and pinwheels, and all along the walls were tubs of the most beautiful colored sand Nancy had ever seen. “They’ve got every color in the rainbow!” she exclaimed.

  Bess ran her hands through the blue sand. “Look at this pink sand,” George said.

  Lisa pointed to a jar of sparkly sand. “The judges would love this,” she said.

  The girls bought the sparkly sand and then walked back to the beach. It was starting to get cloudy and cooler now. There weren’t so many people on the beach.