Ticket Trouble

  What fun is a fair with no tickets?

  River Heights Elementary is throwing a fall festival! It promises to be full of fun games, great food, and amazing amusement park rides—even a roller coaster! All of the kids in River Heights, including Nancy, George, and Bess, are very excited and have been working hard to earn extra money for festival tickets. So when Nancy’s friend Ned claims someone stole his hard-earned tickets, the Clue Crew jumps into action.

  The girls are in a race against time to find Ned’s tickets. And it turns out the culprit might have a very different reason for needing them. . . .

  TEST YOUR DETECTIVE SKILLS WITH THESE OTHER CLUE CREW CASES!

  ALADDIN PAPERBACKS

  Simon & Schuster, New York

  A Ready-for-Chapters Book

  Cover designed by Lisa Vega

  Cover illustration copyright © 2007 by Macky Pamintuan

  Ages 6–9

  kids.simonandschuster.com

  0907

  No tickets . . . no rides!

  Nancy was about to say that Bess should start working on a faster roller coaster design when she noticed Ned Nickerson, a boy in the fourth grade at the girls’ school. He was running at full speed right toward them.

  “Nancy! George! Bess!” Ned called out, breathless from running across the fairgrounds.

  “Hi, Ned,” Nancy greeted him. She liked Ned. He was a good friend. “What’s up?”

  “I’m so glad I found you,” Ned said, trying to catch his breath. “My festival tickets . . . they’re gone!”

  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

  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 © 2007 by Simon & Schuster, Inc

  Illustrations copyright © 2007 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 September 2007

  Library of Congress Control Number 2007927235

  ISBN-13: 978-1-4169-4733-2

  ISBN-10: 1-4169-4733-7

  eISBN-13: 978-1-4391-1230-4

  Contents

  CHAPTER ONE: FALL FESTIVAL

  CHAPTER TWO: TICKET TROUBLE

  CHAPTER THREE: SUSPICIOUS SUSPECTS

  CHAPTER FOUR: APPLE ATTACK

  CHAPTER FIVE: CHILI CHALLENGE

  CHAPTER SIX: DART DARE

  CHAPTER SEVEN: TALL TEACHER

  CHAPTER EIGHT: TORN TEDDY

  CHAPTER NINE: MYSTERY MADNESS

  CHAPTER TEN: BEST BUDDIES

  “Wow,” eight-year-old Nancy Drew exclaimed. “This might be the best Fall Festival River Heights Elementary School has ever had!” Nancy walked under the multicolored balloon arch that divided the school parking lot from the athletic fields. Her best friends, George Fayne and Bess Marvin, followed her under the arch and over to the ticket booth.

  “You’d never guess I played soccer on this field just yesterday,” George commented, looking around her. “The decorating committee did a great job.” She pointed past Nancy to some small stands covered with blinking bright lights. “Those arcade game booths are sitting where a soccer goal was in yesterday’s game.” George winked one brown eye, adding, “I know, because I scored three goals myself!”

  Bess reached up and gave George a high five. She had to stand on her tiptoes, because George was a few inches taller than both her and Nancy. Even though Bess and George were first cousins, they didn’t look very much alike. George had short brown hair and dark-chocolate-colored eyes. Bess had shoulder-length blond hair and blue eyes. Tonight Bess’s hair was pulled back in a ponytail. George’s was messy and sticking up a bit, like usual.

  “It was your last goal that counted the most,” Bess told her cousin. “When you stole the ball from Katherine Madison to score the winning point”—she cleared her throat—“I was screaming so loud, I nearly lost my voice. I thought Nancy was going to have a heart attack. She was jumping up and down and acting all crazy.”

  “Hey, look.” Nancy interrupted their recap of George’s big game. “There’s an amusement ride area near the baseball diamond.” From where they stood the girls could see a Tilt-A-Whirl, a bouncy house, and a roller coaster. “Let’s go on the roller coaster first,” Nancy suggested. “I bet we’ll have a great view of the whole festival from the top of the first hill.”

  At the ticket booth the girls each bought a pack of twenty tickets. “My mom gave me enough money for a few rides, some arcade games, a hot dog, and a sweet treat,” George told the others as she rolled her tickets up tightly and stuffed them into her front pocket.

  “It’s so great that the money goes back to the school, since this is a fund-raiser,” Bess said, shoving her tickets into the small purse she was carrying.

  Bess and George started walking toward the roller coaster when they noticed Nancy wasn’t with them.

  Nancy was still standing by the ticket booth, holding her tickets in her hand. Her blue eyes stared off into the distance. Her head was tilted, her left ear tipped way up. She was clearly listening to something.

  “Nancy?” Bess waved her hands in front of her friend’s face. “Anyone home?”

  “Oh, sorry,” Nancy said, coming back to earth. She pushed a loose strand of reddish-brown hair behind her ear. “I zoned out for a second.”

  Bess and George laughed. “We’re used to that,” George noted with a giggle. “You’re super smart, fun to hang out with, and an amazing detective, but also easily—” George stopped, searching for the right word.

  “Distracted,” Bess supplied.

  “Exactly,” said George with a nod. “You’re definitely easily distracted.” She looked at Nancy, who was smiling, her head still tipped sideways. “What are you listening to?”

  “A distraction,” Nancy said, grinning. “Shh.” She put her finger to her lips. “Do you hear it?”

  “I hear carnival sounds,” Bess put in. “I hear the whir of the rides, the plop of balls being thrown against metal milk jugs, and Principal Newman announcing that she’ll be revealing the winner of the chili cook-off in half an hour.” She looked at George. “What do you hear?”

  “I hear the new Best Buddies CD playing over the loudspeaker.” George cupped her ear to listen better. “Ooh. I love this song.” George shook her hips in time to the music and mouthed the words. “I asked my mom to get me this CD for Christmas.”

  “Listen closer,” Nancy told her friends.

  Silently the girls stood together, listening hard to hear whatever it was that Nancy heard.

  “Augh,” Bess suddenly cried. “It sounds like someone is singing along with th
e Best Buddies CD.” She plugged her ears. “And whoever it is, they stink!” She turned to look at George.

  “It’s not me!” George insisted. “I was dancing, not singing!” She put her hands on her hips. “Besides, I’m not that bad a singer.”

  “Come on.” Nancy stuck her own tickets in her pocket and grabbed her friends’ hands. “There!” She pointed up to a carnival banner. A large black bird was sitting on top of the banner, squawking along with the music. “Wow, that bird is really black. It must be a crow,” Nancy remarked. “Crows are known to have loud, harsh chirps. This one is the worst.”

  The bird flew away and the girls, giggling, set off toward the first ride they wanted to go on. The bird followed them and landed in a tree near the Rockin’ Racin’ Roller Coaster. It settled on a high branch and once again started singing. Badly.

  George patted Nancy on the back. “You always notice things the rest of us miss.”

  “That’s why Nancy has the detective notebook.” Bess pointed to the small purple notebook poking out of Nancy’s back pocket.

  “It takes teamwork to figure out most mysteries.” Nancy put her arms around her friends. “No matter where we are, if there is a mystery to be solved, the Clue Crew is on the case!”

  “I bet there won’t be any big mystery tonight.” Bess took one last look at the bird with the screeching chirp and added, “Let’s leave that crow to its singing. It’s time to ride the roller coaster.”

  On their way to the ride, the girls saw Deirdre Shannon, Suzie Park, and Natalie Coleman standing near an ice-cream vendor, counting their tickets.

  “Wow,” Bess commented. “Those girls have a ton of tickets.”

  “Yeah,” George said quietly. “I wonder why they need so many.”

  Nancy just shrugged. “Come on. Let’s get on the roller coaster now. There’s no line.”

  The girls ran to the gate and were able to hop right into a car on the ride. Mrs. Matterhorn, their third-grade math teacher, was taking tickets. “One ticket each, please,” she told them. She tore their tickets in half, saying, “Nice to see you girls.” Then to George, she added, “I ordered a new computer program for the math lab. If you have time after school Monday, I’d love to show it to you.” Mrs. Matterhorn closed the car door and checked their seat belts.

  George beamed. She was good at math, but there was nothing she liked more than computers. “I’ll be there,” she called out as the roller coaster carried them high into the air.

  “Check this out,” said Nancy as they reached the top of the coaster. “You really can see everything from here.” Nancy pointed out Deirdre, Suzie, and Natalie playing over in the arcade gaming area.

  Bess saw Hannah Gruen, Nancy’s housekeeper, leaning over a pot on the chili cook-off stage.

  “I can’t wait to taste her chili,” said George. “Hannah’s a great cook.”

  “Hannah has been trying new chili recipes at dinner every night for the past two weeks,” Nancy said, rubbing her belly. “Last night I was begging for a pizza.” The girls all laughed. They came down the first hill with a zoom and screamed until the end of the ride.

  “That was great,” Bess declared when they exited the ride. “But if I could invent my own type of roller coaster, it would be bigger, go higher, and flip around more. Maybe the cars could even go sideways. . . . ” Bess’s voice tapered off as she began imagining the possibilities. She loved inventing things.

  Nancy was about to say something about how Bess should start working on a faster roller coaster design when she noticed Ned Nickerson, a boy in the fourth grade at the girls’ school. He was running at full speed right toward them.

  “Nancy! George! Bess!” Ned called out, breathless from running across the fairgrounds.

  “Hi, Ned,” Nancy greeted him. She liked Ned. He was a good friend. “What’s up?”

  “I’m so glad I found you,” Ned said, trying to catch his breath. “My festival tickets . . . they’re gone!”

  “I need your help! You have to solve a mystery,” Ned said. He grabbed Nancy by the hand and started pulling her toward the Perfect Pitch baseball-throwing booth. Bess and George fell in beside them. They had to jog to keep up.

  “I was standing right here when my tickets disappeared.” Ned showed the girls where he’d set his tickets down on the wooden countertop while he took his turn. He had three tries to knock over a pyramid made out of metal milk jugs.

  “I only knocked down one of the three jugs,” Ned explained. “Then I reached over to get one more ticket to try again. That’s when I noticed my tickets were missing.” He put his head in his hands. “Aww, man,” he said sadly. “I raked leaves all week to get extra money for the festival. My mom got me a few tickets. Then I bought twenty more with my own hard-earned cash.” He shook his mop of brown hair. “My mom will be so disappointed if I tell her I lost the tickets. She told me to keep them safely in my pocket. I didn’t listen. There’s no way she’s going to buy me more.”

  Ned told Nancy that he wrote his initials, NN, on the back of each ticket. “I’ve only used one ticket so far. Just here at this booth. I wanted to win one of those stuffed teddy bears.” He pointed at the big prizes behind the counter.

  “Did you check your pockets?” asked George. “Maybe you put the tickets away and forgot about them.”

  “I’ve checked everywhere,” Ned replied, turning his jeans pockets inside out. “Empty.” He looked at the ground. “I also searched under the baseball booth counter and at the dart game next door.” He let out a big sigh. “They’re simply gone.”

  “Amazing as it seems, it looks like I was wrong,” Bess declared. “There is a mystery to be solved tonight.”

  Nancy pinched her lips together thoughtfully. Then she pulled out her purple notebook. At the top of a clean white page, she wrote down Ned’s Missing Festival Tickets. Then she, Bess, and George began to look around for clues.

  Even though Ned said he checked under the countertop, Nancy decided to look there again. She didn’t think she’d find his tickets, but maybe there was a clue hidden on the ground. She got down on her hands and knees and searched around in the dirt.

  Bess and George asked Ned to tell his story again from the beginning and, this time, to act out his every move.

  Ned stood behind the yellow line on the ground and leaned over the counter, pretending he was throwing a baseball.

  Bess asked him to show her where he put his feet. She wanted to know precisely what angle he threw at.

  “You see,” Bess told Ned, “arcade games are fun, but they’re rigged so that it’s really hard to win.” Because Bess understood how the games worked, she explained, “There is usually lead or something heavy in the bottom of the milk jugs, making them hard to tip over. They might tip back a bit when you get them with a fast ball, but more often than not, they’ll just pop right back up again.”

  “That’s what happened to me!” Ned exclaimed. “I thought I hit them really hard, but only the top one fell over.”

  “You’re such a good ballplayer, I’m sure you threw a hard one. It’s just that the game is designed so that people will have to spend a lot of tickets to score a prize.” Bess squinted at the jugs.

  She opened her purse, took out one of her tickets, and put it on the counter. One of the third-grade parents, Mr. Evans, was taking tickets. He tore Bess’s ticket in half and set out three balls.

  “The trick is to slam the ball directly between two of the jugs on the bottom row,” Bess explained as she picked up one ball. “The whole pyramid will come down if you can knock those two over.” Then, just to prove her point, Bess tossed the ball, not hard but with perfect aim. She hit the bottom jugs just as she’d said, and all three milk jugs toppled.

  Bess grinned and shrugged while she gathered the large stuffed bear prize in her arms.

  “Good job.” Ned beamed. But his smile turned into a frown when he added, “I’d love to use your technique. If only I had my tickets, I’m sure I could win a bear i
f I tried now.”

  “Don’t worry, Ned,” said Bess, trying to cheer him up. “We’ll find them.”

  “Can you show us exactly where you put your tickets while you were playing?” George asked.

  “I set them right next to me like this.” Reaching out, Ned acted like he was putting tickets on the counter. “Then I played the game.” He rounded up his pitching arm as if he was about to make a throw but stopped suddenly as a black crow swooped past.

  “Hey!” Ned called after the bird, which had nearly bumped into his arm.

  “That bird is a bad singer and a reckless flyer,” Nancy remarked with a laugh.

  George inspected the countertop. It was made out of wood and painted bright red. “Hey, Nancy, check this out,” she called after a few seconds of investigating. “I think I found our first clue.”

  Nancy peered at the countertop. She saw a long, deep scratch where the red paint had been peeled off. The scratch was in exactly the same place where Ned said he’d set down his tickets. Nancy thought for a moment. Then she turned to Mr. Evans.

  “When was this counter painted?” she asked him.

  “Yesterday,” reported Mr. Evans. “We wanted everything to look fresh and new for the festival tonight.”

  “Very interesting,” Nancy said, bending down close to get a better look at the scratch. “George,” she said at last, “you’re right. This is a clue. This scratch must be new. It looks like it was made by something pointy. Something that dug into the countertop.” Nancy pulled out her notebook and wrote down: Red paint scratch mark. Then she closed the notebook’s purple cover and put it back in her pocket.

  “Maybe if someone stole the tickets, they scratched the counter with their fingernail as they grabbed them,” George suggested.