Boo Crew Read online

  “What happened to Nadine and Kevin was a bummer,” George insisted. “But our audition is going to rock!”

  “All we have to do is pour strawberry bubble bath over our brew stuff,” Nancy said, “and we’re all set.”

  But as Nancy poured the liquid into the cauldron, Bess said, “I don’t smell strawberry. It’s not pink either, it’s green!”

  “Girls, you’re on!” Sherry called.

  The girls hurried onstage with their cauldron and mixing stick.

  “What’s brewing?” Mayor Strong asked the audience. “Meet the three witch sisters and see for yourself!”

  The girls stood around the cauldron. After a group cackle, Bess stirred the brew while all three recited their lines: “Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble. Fire burn and cauldron—”

  Nancy glanced down and her jaw dropped. Their witchy brew was bubbling all right—all the way up to the rim!

  “Eeek!” Bess shrieked as something green, thick, and soupy oozed over the rim. Nancy watched with horror as it crept across the stage toward the judge’s table. Lucy, Cookie, and Nathan jumped up, backing away from the stage.

  “If I knew I’d be taking a bubble bath,” Lucy shouted, “I would have packed my rubber ducky!”

  The bubbling brew simmered down as Shelby and Kendra ran out from backstage.

  “Somebody poured glue on my monster eyeballs!” Shelby cried. She raised both hands to show eyeballs stuck to her palms. “How can I juggle like this?”

  “And somebody cut the strings on my skeleton marionette!” Kendra cried. “How did this happen?”

  A boy in the audience stood up. He was wrapped in white bandages like a mummy. Nancy knew it was Quincy.

  “I know why everything is going wrong!” Quincy declared. “It’s the witch’s curse on the Heights Theater!”

  Nathan turned and shook his head. “I told you, kids,” he said. “There are no curses or monsters in the Heights Theater!”

  “Absolutely, Nathan. There has to be logical explanation for all this!” Mayor Strong agreed.

  “When you find out, let me know,” Sherry said firmly. “Until then, the auditions in River Heights are canceled.”

  Nancy stared at her two best friends. Canceled? Oh no!

  BOO CREW

  Nancy, Bess, and George couldn’t believe what they heard. Neither could the others, as everyone spoke at once: “No auditions?” “No trip to Hollywood?” “No starring on Twinkling Little Stars?”

  “I guess that’s a wrap,” Quincy sighed.

  Mayor Strong’s arms waved in the air as he spoke to Sherry. “Please, Ms. Hemming,” he said, “surely we can work something out.”

  “We’re leaving River Heights on Sunday night,” Sherry said, walking toward the door with Lucy and Cookie. “I hope you can get to the bottom of this before then.”

  When Sherry and the judges were gone, Nathan made an announcement. The kids could keep their things in the prop room in case the auditions were held later in the weekend.

  “Let’s keep the cauldron here,” Nancy said.

  “Yeah,” George said. “All that oozing made it look like a pot of boiled-over pea soup!”

  The girls dragged the icky witches’ cauldron back to the prop room. Most of the kids had already left, so the room was almost empty.

  “Maybe Quincy is right,” Bess said. “Maybe what happened was because of the witch’s curse. I heard that evil laugh, remember?”

  “Witches don’t laugh, they cackle,” George said.

  “I have a feeling the spiders, sneezing, and oozing brew were done on purpose,” Nancy said. “And not by a witch, a monster, or a ghost!”

  The girls tried to shove the cauldron under a table against the wall. But it would only go so far. . . .

  “There’s something else under there,” George said. She crawled underneath and dragged out a shopping bag. The bag was from the Rags ’n’ Gags costume and novelty shop on Main Street.

  “Rags ’n’ Gags is where we got our witch costumes,” Nancy said with a smile.

  “They sell the coolest joke stuff too,” George said as she stuck her hand deep inside the bag. “I wonder what’s in here.”

  “Don’t snoop, George,” Bess said. “The bag doesn’t belong to us, so it’s none of our business.”

  “Oh yeah?” George said. “Check this out.”

  George pulled out a can and held it up. It was a can of Skeevy’s sneezing powder!

  “Sneezing powder!” Nancy gasped. “Maybe that was sprinkled inside Kevin’s mask to make him sneeze!”

  “What else is in there, George?” Bess asked.

  George announced each item as she held it up: “One almost-empty bag of rubber spiders! A bottle of green Bubble Blast!”

  “No wonder our bubbles were out of control!” Nancy said. “Someone replaced the bubble bath with that stuff.”

  “So that’s why I didn’t smell strawberries!” Bess said.

  The last thing that George pulled out was the sales receipt. Not only did it show the price, but it also showed the date and the time of the purchase.

  “This stuff was bought on Friday at five o’clock,” George said, reading the receipt. “That’s after we dropped off our costumes and props here.”

  “Whoever did this was at Rags ’n’ Gags at that time,” Nancy decided. She turned to Bess and smiled. “See? Monsters, witches, and ghosts don’t shop at stores.”

  “Unless they’re boo-tiques!” George joked.

  “But if it wasn’t a monster or a ghost, who was it?” Bess asked.

  “I don’t have a clue yet, but I do have this,” Nancy said. She reached into her backpack and pulled out a small book. “My clue book!”

  Tucked inside Nancy’s clue book was a pen with purple ink. Nancy used it to start a list of everything from the Rags ’n’ Gags bag—the sneezing powder, rubber spiders, and bottle of Bubble Blast.

  “Are you still here?” a voice asked.

  Nancy, Bess, and George looked up to see Nathan Alonso.

  Nathan looked at the book in Nancy’s hands. “Are you girls doing homework?” he asked.

  “No, but it is an assignment,” George said as they walked over to Nathan. “Sort of.”

  “Maybe you can help us, Mr. Alonso,” Nancy said, “by telling us how late the theater was open on Friday.”

  “There’s no show at this theater yet,” Nathan said, “so I locked the theater at five o’clock. After everyone dropped off their costumes and props.”

  “What time did you open this morning?” Nancy asked.

  “I opened the theater at seven-thirty,” Nathan replied. “I wanted to get here early, before the auditions, so I could do some work in my office.”

  “Was the prop room open early too?” Bess asked.

  “It was,” Nathan answered. He raised an eyebrow and said, “Since when do witches ask so many questions?”

  “Oh, we’re not just the brew crew,” Nancy said with a smile. “We’re the Clue Crew!”

  “We’ll be leaving now, Mr. Alonso,” George said. “No more questions.”

  As Nathan walked back to his office, Bess said, “What do you mean, no more questions, George? We should have asked him about Nora’s curse!”

  “Nathan said there was no curse,” George said.

  “That was before all those weird things happened,” Bess said. “Remember?”

  Nancy was too busy writing the time line to talk about monsters or ghosts.

  “Nathan locked the theater after everyone dropped off their stuff yesterday,” Nancy said. “And he opened it early this morning.”

  “So the person who messed up our props,” George figured, “must have been in the prop room early this morning too.”

  “If Nathan was here,” Bess said, “wouldn’t he have seen somebody in the prop room?”

  “He might have been too busy in his office,” Nancy said. “We should go to Rags ’n’ Gags and find out who was there yesterday at five o’clock.�
��

  Bess spotted something on the floor and picked it up. It was a judge’s badge.

  “Nathan must have dropped his badge when he was here,” Bess said, slipping it into her pocket. “I’ll give it to him on our way out.”

  The girls left the prop room. As they made their way down the hall Nancy said, “Let’s start a suspect list. Who do you think ruined the auditions?”

  “Antonio was mad that he was caught cheating,” George pointed out, “and wasn’t allowed to audition the way he wanted to.”

  “He also said he had some messy job to do,” Nancy said. “And what happened at the auditions was super messy!”

  Nancy was about to write Antonio’s name in her clue book when—

  “Do you hear that?” Bess said, looking up at the ceiling.

  “Not that monster laugh again, Bess!” George groaned.

  “No,” Bess whispered. “It sounds like someone is playing the piano.”

  “This is a theater, Bess,” Nancy said, “Some shows have music. They’re called musicals.”

  Bess shook her head. “Nathan said there is no show going on here now,” she said. “I want to go upstairs and see what’s up.”

  “Okay,” George sighed. “But if this has anything to do with monsters or ghosts, we’re wasting our time.”

  The three friends climbed a red-carpeted staircase to the second floor. Quietly they followed the music to a door. It was open just a crack.

  Nancy, Bess, and George peeked inside. An old-timey piano playing a lively tune stood in the middle of the room.

  As Nancy looked closer, she gasped. The piano keys were moving up and down without a player!

  “Do you see what I see?” Nancy hissed.

  “Totally!” George said. “That piano is playing by itself!”

  SNARE AT THE FAIR

  Nancy, Bess, and George raced down the stairs, out of the theater, and into the backseat of Mr. Drew’s parked car.

  “Write Nora Westcott’s name on your suspect list, Nancy!” Bess insisted as they buckled their seatbelts. “Her curse is making those weird things happen at the theater!”

  “That piano was weird,” Nancy admitted. “But we don’t know if a ghost was playing it or not.”

  “Remember when we thought that dog Murray the Monster Mutt was a ghost?” George reminded them, “and he never was?”

  “But I’ll bet one clue led to another,” Mr. Drew piped up as he drove away. “Right?”

  Nancy and George both gave it a thought. Then they chorused, “Right.”

  “See?” Bess said. She pointed to Nancy’s clue book open on her lap. “Add Nora Westcott’s name to our list, Nancy, and write the word ‘witch’ next to it in big letters!”

  Nancy did write Nora’s name in her clue book. While Mr. Drew stopped for a red light he said, “It’s a beautiful fall day today. Way too nice to be all work and no play.”

  “We like working on mysteries, Daddy,” Nancy said.

  “I know you also like the River Heights Fall Fair,” Mr. Drew said.

  Nancy, Bess, and George traded excited looks. Every year the Fall Fair had fun games, food—even a corn maze!

  But when Nancy remembered their new case she said, “We can’t, Daddy. We have to solve this case before the Twinkling Little Stars people leave tomorrow night.”

  “But this is the Fall Fair, Nancy,” Bess said.

  “Even detectives need a candy apple break,” George said. “With gooey caramel, crushed peanuts—”

  “Okay, okay,” Nancy said, her mouth watering. “Next stop—the Fall Fair!”

  Mr. Drew drove to the fairgrounds. It was filled with colorful tents selling foods and crafts like scarecrows and carved jack-o’-lanterns.

  “Caramel apples all around!” Mr. Drew said, buying apples for Nancy, Bess, and George. While he shopped at the market stalls, the girls played a pumpkin ring toss game. George won a sheet of stick-on Halloween tattoos.

  A half hour went by before Nancy said, “Let’s find my dad and ask if we can ride the carousel.”

  The girls strolled through the stalls looking for Mr. Drew. Instead they saw someone they didn’t expect to see.

  “Look!” George whispered. “It’s Antonio!”

  “He’s one of our suspects,” Nancy whispered back.

  Antonio was standing at a vegetable stall. He was so busy examining carrots and celery, he didn’t see the girls.

  “That’s weird,” Bess whispered. “Antonio hates vegetables. He’s always trading them for other stuff in the lunchroom.”

  Nancy suddenly noticed more. Something inside the pocket of Antonio’s hoodie was moving. She pointed it out to Bess and George, and they frowned.

  “What do you think is in his pocket?” Bess hissed.

  George shook her head. “We may be the Clue Crew,” she said, “but I don’t have a clue.”

  Nancy narrowed her eyes as they watched Antonio’s wiggling pocket. “Looks like we have another mystery,” she whispered. “What is Antonio hiding?”

  The girls approached Antonio. Nancy decided to get right to the point. She tapped him on his shoulder and he whirled around.

  “What do you have in your pocket, Antonio?” Nancy asked.

  Antonio stared at the girls. “Candy corn,” he blurted. “It’s almost Halloween. Duh.”

  “Since when does candy corn move?” George asked, pointing to his pocket.

  “Quit asking me about my pocket, okay?” Antonio exclaimed.

  “Okay,” George said. “There’s something else we want to know anyway.”

  “What?” Antonio asked.

  “Where were you at yesterday at five o’clock?” George demanded.

  “None of your beeswax!” Antonio snapped. He dropped the celery he was holding, turned, and raced off.

  “He’s hiding something,” Bess insisted, “and not just in his pocket!”

  Nancy, Bess, and George chased Antonio through the pumpkin patch, zigzagging around bright orange pumpkins. Antonio was already out of the patch as he headed for the cornfield. After a quick glance back, Antonio darted through a narrow opening between the stalks.

  “Don’t let him get away!” Nancy said as she, Bess, and George raced between the stalks too.

  Antonio was out of sight as the girls walked up a narrow path between two high walls of green cornstalks.

  “Great,” George groaned. “Antonio led us right into the corn maze.”

  The girls stopped and looked around. With so many twists and turns, the corn maze was like a giant puzzle!

  “How are we going to find Antonio?” Nancy asked.

  “Forget that, Nancy,” Bess said. “How will we find our way out?”

  STALK THIS WAY

  “We aren’t lost,” Nancy said. “Follow me!”

  With stalks brushing their shoulders, Nancy led Bess and George to the end of the path. There they saw two more paths going in different directions.

  “Now which way do we go?” Bess said.

  “I know the way!” George said. “And it will lead us straight to Antonio.”

  She pointed to the ground and said, “Just follow the candy corn trail!”

  Nancy smiled when she saw the candy. “Antonio must have dropped it on his way through,” she said.

  “Sweet!” Bess exclaimed.

  Nancy, Bess, and George followed the candy corn trail until it led them out of the maze. Standing in a clearing a few feet away was Antonio!

  “How did you escape?” Antonio demanded. “Only I know the way out of that maze.”

  “Only the Clue Crew knows how to follow a trail,” George said, “of candy corn!”

  Antonio dug his hand into his pocket. “Great,” he muttered. “There’s a hole in it.”

  Nancy didn’t care how Antonio lost his candy corn. She wanted answers!

  “Antonio, did you ruin our props so we couldn’t audition yesterday?” Nancy demanded.

  “Because you couldn’t audition yourself?” B
ess added.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Antonio insisted.

  “We heard you tell Peter you had a messy job to do,” Nancy added.

  “It was messy, all right,” Antonio muttered. “It looked like a hamster food fight inside that cage.”

  Nancy, Bess, and George stared at Antonio.

  “Hamster food fight?” Bess asked.

  “Are you talking about Squeaky the hamster?” George asked. “Our class pet?”

  “It was my turn to clean Squeaky’s cage,” Antonio replied. “I promised Ms. Ramirez I’d come back to school right after my audition.”

  Antonio then sighed and said, “You should have seen all the soggy veggies in Squeaky’s cage. Gross.”

  Veggies? Nancy’s eyes lit up as something clicked.

  “Hamsters love eating veggies,” Nancy told Antonio, “and you don’t.”

  “What are you talking about?” Antonio asked.

  “You were looking at vegetables before,” Nancy said. “Were those vegetables for Squeaky?”

  Antonio clapped his hand over his pocket. “Are you saying I took Squeaky?” he demanded. “He’s not in my house, if that’s what you’re thinking!”

  “I’m thinking he’s in your pocket,” George said, folding her arms across her chest. “Chewing candy corn and a big hole!”

  Antonio rolled his eyes. He reached into his pocket and pulled out—

  “Squeaky!” the girls cried in unison.

  “I borrowed Squeaky for the weekend,” Antonio said, holding the little brown-and-white hamster. “I didn’t want my mom to find him in my room, so I brought him here.”

  “Does Ms. Ramirez know you borrowed Squeaky?” George asked.

  “No,” Antonio admitted. “I took Squeaky out after she inspected the cage.”

  With a shrug, Antonio said, “I always wanted a hamster—even if it was for only two days.”

  Nancy glanced over at Bess and George. She had a feeling they were thinking the same thing she was. Antonio did clean Squeaky’s cage on Friday afternoon. So he couldn’t have been at Rags ’n’ Gags.

  “Why don’t you let us take Squeaky back to school, Antonio?” Nancy said. “Mr. Finney, the custodian, is there on Saturdays.”