The Tortoise and the Scare Read online

  “She must be around here somewhere,” Belinda said. “I’ll go into the enclosure to look behind some of the rocks and things. After all, she couldn’t have gotten far. . . .”

  “Maybe she escaped.” Mark, one of Nancy’s classmates, smirked. He seemed to like the idea of an escape artist turtle.

  “Could she have climbed over the fence though?” Mrs. Pak was studying the two-foot-high wooden beams that surrounded the habitat. “It seems unlikely.”

  “No, I don’t think she would.” Belinda walked into the habitat and checked under a short shrub in the front corner. “This was one of her favorite hiding spots.”

  “I’m so sorry, Belinda. . . .” Bob shook his head. “I really am. I was in charge of the Reptile Hall today, and I can’t believe this happened on my watch.”

  “It’s okay, Bob. She could still be in here somewhere,” Bess assured him. “We just have to keep looking.”

  Nancy could tell he was taking this pretty personally. His eyes looked watery, like he was fighting back tears.

  Then Nancy heard the sounds of sneakers squeaking on tiles coming from down the hallway and looked up to see a woman running toward them.

  The woman had a baby strapped to her chest and she kept stopping to look under benches and in different enclosures. “Abby! Abby, where are you? This isn’t funny anymore,” she called out. “If you come out I’ll give you a candy bar!”

  She stopped outside of Rainbow’s enclosure. “I’ve been looking all over for you,” she said. She was waving to a little girl who was coming out from behind a huge rock in the back corner. “You’re not supposed to be wandering around by yourself! And what are you doing in there, of all places?”

  The young mother stomped into the habitat and grabbed Abby by the hand. She didn’t seem to notice Belinda until she was on her way out. “I’m so sorry,” the mom said. “She has a habit of getting into trouble.”

  “I just wanted to see the turtle!” Abby whined.

  Nancy glanced sideways at Bess and George. She just wanted to see the turtle? Abby was talking about Rainbow. She had run away from her mother right around the time the tortoise went missing. Was this little girl their first real suspect?

  “Did you end up seeing the turtle?” Nancy asked. “The one that was right here, where you were hiding?”

  Abby suddenly seemed nervous. She grabbed her mother’s hand and slipped behind her legs.

  “We’re only asking because our tortoise, Rainbow, just went missing,” Belinda explained to the young mother. The woman was tall with dark bangs that kept falling in her eyes. “If your daughter saw anything . . . or maybe she let her out of the enclosure or hid her somewhere—”

  “Are you saying that my daughter, my Abby, stole your turtle?” The woman looked at Mrs. Pak’s class like she wanted them to take her side. “You have got to be kidding me! She’s six years old!”

  “But she was here when Rainbow disappeared, wasn’t she? Rainbow’s not very big. Anyone could pick her up,” Bob chimed in. He narrowed his eyes at the little girl. “If you took the tortoise, you have to tell us right now. This is very serious. We’ll have to call security.”

  The little girl stared up at them, her brown eyes wide. Then her chin started to tremble. She let out the loudest, most sorrowful cry, and buried her sobbing face in her mother’s side.

  DOUBLE TAKES

  Belinda tried to comfort the crying child, but it wasn’t much use. Her sobs echoed through the corridor. Nancy and her friends made their way to Mrs. Pak, who was standing awkwardly with the rest of the class, unsure what to do.

  “Mrs. Pak . . . I know we could help if they let us,” Nancy said as she stepped aside with her teacher. “Abby’s just scared because of the way Bob spoke to her. But she was there at the same time Rainbow went missing. She could’ve seen something.”

  Mrs. Pak seemed to like the idea. “You three are pretty great at solving mysteries. I still can’t believe you found my missing ruby ring in September. That was incredible.”

  Nancy just shrugged, like it was no big deal. The ring had fallen into the heating grate underneath Mrs. Pak’s desk. They investigated the possibility someone had taken it, but it wasn’t long before they realized that wasn’t the case.

  “Excuse me, Belinda . . . ,” Mrs. Pak said, taking Nancy, Bess, and George to the front of the group. “I want you to meet Nancy Drew, Bess Marvin, and George Fayne. These three girls have solved half the mysteries in River Heights. They’ve got quite a talent for it.”

  Abby stopped crying when Nancy and her friends came over. She seemed just as interested in what Mrs. Pak was saying as Belinda was. Belinda furrowed her brows, a little confused.

  “I know we’re young, but we’ve got a lot of experience with this kind of thing. Stolen purses, unexplained pranks, missing dogs—you name it,” Nancy jumped in. She was used to people underestimating them at first, but she never let that stop her.

  “Well . . . ,” Belinda tilted her head to the side, considering it. “If you think—”

  “But they’re just kids!” Bob said. “No offense girls, but this is really serious. Rainbow could be in real danger.”

  “We know,” George said. Nancy could tell she was annoyed. “We’d love to talk to Abby and her mom for a minute, just to see if they noticed anything strange.”

  “It’s worth a shot,” Belinda shrugged. “Why don’t you do a little investigating while I finish the tour with your class. If you find out anything, I promise you can come back to River Heights Wildlife Center anytime you like, and I’ll show you anything you might have missed. And even if you don’t find out anything, the offer still stands.”

  “I’m going to do some of my own investigating too,” Bob jumped in. He crossed his arms over his chest and frowned. Nancy had changed her mind about him. He didn’t look like someone’s grandpa—he looked like someone’s mean grandpa.

  Belinda glanced at her watch. “You can have until the end of the day, and then I think I need to call the police and report her stolen. I hope you can find our girl,” she said. “And for the rest of Mrs. Pak’s class—let’s head back toward the sloth exhibit.”

  Belinda gave Nancy a half smile on her way out, and Mrs. Pak mouthed the words “good luck!” Soon Nancy and the Clue Crew were standing alone with Abby and her mom.

  “I’m Nancy,” Nancy said, sticking out her hand. “And this is Bess and George.”

  “I’m Candace,” Abby’s mom said. She seemed to calm down now that Abby had stopped crying. “Do you mind if we sit down at one of those picnic tables in the courtyard? I can only do this for so long. . . .”

  She pointed to the baby who was strapped to her chest. The baby had somehow slept through the entire scene, a big cotton hat covering its eyes.

  “No problem,” Nancy said, leading them outside to a table far away from the rest of the class. As soon as they sat down, another woman with a stroller came over.

  “Candace—what’s going on? What happened?” the woman asked. Her long blond hair was tied up in a bun, and she kept looking from Nancy to Candace, then from Candace to Nancy.

  “Oh, come sit down Beth, please. These girls just want to ask Abby some questions about a turtle that went missing . . . long story.” Candace kept shaking her head as Beth sat down beside her.

  “Did you see the tortoise when you were wandering around looking at animals?” Nancy asked, looking at Abby. The girl just shook her head. “Are you sure?”

  “This is a little ridiculous,” Candace snapped. “Abby didn’t have anything to do with this. She may wander off sometimes, but she doesn’t steal things!”

  Candace’s friend Beth nodded in agreement. “Or animals,” she added.

  “I didn’t see the turtle!” Abby finally said, but her cheeks were pink. Nancy could tell she was hiding something . . . but what? She thought it would be better now that Bob wasn’t there to scare her, but Abby still seemed nervous.

  “We just had to ask to be sure,”
Bess chimed in.

  “What’s that in your pocket?” George said, pointing to a weird outline on the front of Abby’s shorts. Nancy had noticed it, but she hadn’t thought to ask.

  Abby’s chin started to tremble again. “What is it?” Candace asked, reaching for it, and pulled it out. It took Nancy a moment to realize it was a piece of chocolate wrapped in colorful paper. “Is this from the gift shop? Did you take this from the gift shop?” Candace asked.

  Abby started crying all over again. She stuck her face in her mom’s side. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have, Mommy.”

  Candace sighed. “So she took a candy from the gift shop. We’ll give it back. Now, does that clear things up?” She was looking at Nancy, George, and Bess like this was all somehow their fault. “I just don’t get why you’re talking to us when that weird boy was walking around alone. He was definitely up to something—why don’t you go find him?”

  Nancy glanced sideways at her friends. A boy? What boy?

  “Oh, I saw that kid too,” Beth added. “He passed our group at least two times. He was just walking around by himself. Kind of suspicious. Had on a striped shirt.”

  “Wait . . .” Candace shook her head. “I thought he was wearing a white T-shirt, or maybe it was gray. Didn’t he have on white high-top sneakers?”

  “You’re talking about the kid, he had a button nose and freckles?” Beth asked.

  “Yeah, that’s him,” Candace agreed. “He was definitely wearing a white T-shirt. He had big blue eyes.”

  “Yes. Big blue eyes . . . and a striped shirt.” Beth shot her friend a look as if to say you’ve got this all wrong.

  Nancy pulled her clue book from her knapsack and started writing down everything the women had said. It wasn’t unusual for witnesses to disagree on what a suspect looked like. She wrote that the boy had blue eyes and a button nose. “Freckles,” she added, remembering what else they’d agreed on.

  “What color hair did he have?” Bess asked.

  “I think light,” Beth said.

  “Yeah, light,” Candace agreed.

  “Can you remember anything else about him?” George asked. “How old was he? A teenager?”

  Just then the baby who was strapped to Candace’s chest woke up. It squirmed a little in its carrier, then let out a loud wail. Candace stood and started bouncing it up and down, but it just cried louder. Everyone in the courtyard turned to look.

  “We have to go,” she said, grabbing Abby’s hand. Beth followed her out, saying something about having diapers in her car. “Good luck!” she called over her shoulder, then they were gone.

  Nancy and her friends took off across the courtyard and found a quiet bench where they could talk. “They’re definitely describing the same boy,” Nancy said, looking at her notes in the clue book. “I wish we could’ve found out a bit more, though. I mean . . . a boy could be five or fifteen to them. And they couldn’t even agree on what he was wearing. I must’ve seen half a dozen boys wearing stripes today, and even more wearing white T-shirts.”

  “Is it possible he changed clothes at some point?” Bess asked.

  “If he’s the one who took Rainbow, it’s possible,” George said.

  Nancy sighed, feeling more stumped than she had in a while. She could definitely see a teenage boy wanting a tortoise as a pet. But even when descriptions of suspects were different, they usually weren’t this different. Something strange was going on. . . .

  “If he did change his clothes to hide his identity,” she finally said, “we’re dealing with one of our sneakiest suspects yet.”

  ONE LAST LOOK

  “Over here!” Bess called out. “Look at this.” She was leaning over a footprint in the sand. From what Nancy could tell, it seemed like it was from a sneaker.

  They’d returned to Rainbow’s habitat to see if they’d missed any clues when they were first there. Nancy had looked under every shrub and branch but hadn’t found a thing.

  “It’s a print . . . and it’s not ours,” Bess said. “And it’s not Belinda’s or Bob’s, either. Did you notice? They both wear boots. With thick soles so they can walk right through mud and sand and twigs.”

  “And Abby and her mom were only on that side,” George added, pointing to the other end of the enclosure. Candace had only taken a few steps in the sand. “It isn’t theirs, either.”

  “So why would a person wearing sneakers be in here, if the workers all wear boots?” Nancy asked, though she knew the answer. Whoever came in may have been the one to steal Rainbow.

  George came up behind them and stared at the footprint too. One of the other school groups walked past, and Nancy couldn’t help but scan the group, looking for boys in striped shirts. “It’s definitely an adult’s footprint though. So what about the kid Candace and Beth described?”

  “There might be a connection between them,” Bess tried. “Or maybe the kid is the real witness, the way we thought Abby might be.”

  Nancy took another lap around the habitat, checking the perimeter. Belinda was right, there weren’t any holes in it. It would’ve been almost impossible for Rainbow to have gotten out on her own.

  Nancy wandered into the back room, where Belinda stored a lot of the supplies for the different animals. There was a small fridge and some cabinets and food bins. Inside the fridge was a basket of strawberries, a few heads of lettuce, and two small bottles with Rainbow’s name on them. Nancy picked up the bottles and studied them.

  “All of her food is still here, and so is Rainbow’s medicine,” she said, reading the label on one of the bottles. “It says she needs to take it twice a day. But whoever has her didn’t bring it with them.”

  “That rules out a lot of people who work here,” Bess said. “They would’ve known she needed the medicine, and they would’ve thought to take it with them.”

  Nancy flipped the clue book back open. “Why would someone want Rainbow?” She wrote “POSSIBLE MOTIVES,” and underlined it.

  “To keep her as a pet,” Bess said. “Or worst case . . . to sell her.”

  Nancy wrote both down. The thought of someone selling Rainbow made her really sad. Belinda loved Rainbow so much. She would be devastated if someone sold her off to anyone with the money to buy her.

  “Hey . . . where’d George go?” Bess asked, looking around. Nancy tucked away the clue book.

  They finally spotted George on the other side of the Reptile Hall. They went over to her, but she hardly seemed to notice them. She was staring at the chameleon exhibit. Behind the glass were two chameleons sitting by some leaves. They walked onto a branch and they both turned a light shade of brown.

  “Chameleons?” Nancy asked. “Why are you looking at these guys?”

  Nancy thought chameleons had cute faces, but she didn’t see how they had anything to do with the mystery they were trying to solve.

  “They look exactly the same . . . like twins.” George turned to them, her brown eyes bright. “I got it! I know the boy Candace was talking about!”

  A MAZE OF CLUES

  “It’s Harry and Liam!” George said. “Don’t you see? Who else would look exactly the same, but be wearing different clothes?”

  Nancy flipped through the clue book and nodded. “Twins . . . you’re right. They both have blue eyes, freckles, and button noses. Light hair, too!”

  “And doesn’t Liam have white high-top sneakers?” Bess added.

  “I think so . . . ,” Nancy said. “We should go find them. I bet the class is still in the courtyard!”

  The girls ran down the corridor and turned in to the courtyard garden. About half the class was still sitting at the picnic tables with Mrs. Pak, eating their bag lunches. Mrs. Pak looked excited to see them.

  “Did you find anything?” she asked.

  “Kind of . . . Do you know where Harry and Liam are?” Bess replied. “We need to talk to them.”

  “I think they’re playing tag over there,” Lily pointed to the playground by the hedge maze, then took another bit
e of her sandwich. There was a sign by the slide that said ENCHANTED PLAYGROUND in giant letters. The whole place was designed to look like it was inside an overgrown garden. Huge plastic tulips and roses towered over the swings.

  Nancy and her friends thanked them and took off toward the playground. The twins were on the monkey bars. They both swung across, rung by rung, until Nancy called out to them. “Liam, Harry—can we talk to you?”

  Harry jumped off the monkey bars and Liam followed, landing in the gravel below. Harry was in a green-and-white striped shirt and Liam was wearing a white T-shirt and white high-top sneakers. They both seemed a little shocked to see Nancy, Bess, and George.

  “Hey, guys!” Bess waved as the girls got closer. “We just have a couple of questions to ask you.” But they hadn’t taken more than a few steps when Harry and Liam sprinted away. They turned into the hedge maze, disappearing inside.

  “Well, that’s suspicious,” Bess said.

  “They’re up to something!” George said, chasing after them.

  Nancy and Bess followed, but ran into a fork in the path.

  “Which way did they go?” Bess asked.

  “No idea,” Nancy admitted. “Let’s split up. Then one of us is sure to find them.”

  Bess gave Nancy a determined nod and rushed off to the left. Nancy headed for the right fork.

  Nancy went deeper into the maze, where the tall green bushes were on all sides of her so she couldn’t see anything beyond them. Nancy turned right, then right again, then left, but everything looked the same. She was totally lost!

  Luckily, she could rely on her other senses. And soon enough she could hear laughter in the distance. Could it be the twins? Did Bess find George?

  “Bess!! George??” Nancy called out. Somewhere in the distance she thought she heard George say something, but she couldn’t figure out what. She was too far away.