The Walkie-Talkie Mystery Read online

  “I'll have one plain slice, please,” Nancy said. “And a medium—”

  Crackle, crackle, crackle!

  A voice piped up from Nancy's walkie-talkie: “Pizza rocks! Yum, yum, yum!”

  Nancy froze. How did Mystery Mouth know she was in the pizza parlor? Unless he was in the pizza parlor, too, and spying on her.

  Nancy spun around. She stared at the other customers. “Bess,” she said. “Were any of these people in the ice-cream line the other day?”

  “I don't know!” Bess wailed. “Maybe if they were eating ice cream instead of pizza, I'd be able to tell.”

  “Will someone please tell me what's going on here?” Rebecca demanded.

  “And will someone please tellmewhat you girls are ordering?” Mr. Falco said. “I don't have all day.”

  The four friends ordered their slices. They carried their trays to a table under a leafy hanging plant.

  While they ate, Nancy told Rebecca all about her new case and her clues.

  “Mystery Mouth has a dog named Jake,” Nancy said. “He likes ice cream. And he pronounces hisswords like ath.Like ithe cream and Frithbee.”

  “I did that once,” Rebecca said. “When I lost my two front teeth.”

  “Nancy!” George gasped. “Do you think Mystery Mouth has no front teeth?”

  “It's possible,” Nancy said.

  “Yay!” Bess cheered. “Now all we have to do is find a boy with two missing front teeth. That should be easy.”

  “Yeah.” Nancy sighed. “If you're the tooth fairy.”

  Rebecca dropped her pizza on her paper plate. “I'll be your tooth fairy, Nancy!” she exclaimed.

  “Rebecca, I was only kidding,” Nancy said with a smile.

  “I'm not!” Rebecca said. “I'll dress up in my fairy godmother costume and give cookies to all the kids with no front teeth. It'll be great practice for my starring role!”

  “And we can hide nearby and listen for Mystery Mouth's voice,” George added.

  “And Rebecca can make everyone say ‘She sells seashells by the seashore,’” Bess said. “It's hard to say that without front teeth.”

  Nancy thought about it. The idea was so weird that it might work.

  “Well, Nancy?” Rebecca asked. “What do you say?”

  “I say, watch out, Mystery Mouth,” Nancy said. “Because the truth might be in thetooth!”

  6

  Tooth or Dare

  Bess!” George scolded. “Those cookies are for the tooth fairy!”

  “Mmmph,” Bess mumbled. Her cheeks were puffed out, and her mouth was covered with crumbs.

  Nancy stepped back. She looked at the table that she, Bess, and George had set up in front of Rebecca's house.

  On it was a big plate of oatmeal cookies, a bowl of blue and green glitter, and a sign that read Meet the Tooth Fairy, 2:30.

  “Here I am!” Rebecca sang as she ran out of her house to the table. She was wearing a party dress, and a sparkly tiara was in her hair. “I had to look all over my room for my magic wand.”

  “Why do you need a magic wand?” Nancy asked.

  Rebecca waved her wand. “Because when I find the boy who took your walkie-talkie, I'm going to turn him into a toad.”

  “Rebecca, you're the tooth fairy,” George said. “Just give him a cavity.”

  Nancy looked at her watch. It was twenty minutes after two.

  “Places, everybody,” Nancy said. She turned to Rebecca. “Now, remember. Don't give cookies to everyone. Just those with missing front teeth.”

  “I know, I know.” Rebecca sighed. “It was my idea.”

  Nancy turned off her walkie-talkie. She didn't want anyone to hear Mystery Mouth if he suddenly called. Then she, Bess, and George hid behind a tree.

  Peeking out, Nancy could see Rebecca sit down behind the table. She waved her magic wand and began to shout:

  “Show me your missing teeth! And you'll get a big treat!”

  Nancy saw a boy ride over on his bicycle. He smiled to show his missing front teeth. Then he reached for a cookie.

  “Wait!” Rebecca said. “First you have to say ‘She sells seashells by the seashore’ three times fast.”

  “Okay,” the boy said. “Thee thells theethells by the—”

  Rebecca shrieked. The boy was spitting all over her.

  “Hey!” Rebecca shouted. “Say it, don't spray it!”

  The boy grabbed a cookie and rode away.

  “Was he the one?” George whispered.

  “No,” Nancy whispered back. “That boy sounded too young.”

  Nancy watched as a six-year-old girl walked to the table.

  “Show me your teeth and you'll get a big treat!” Rebecca sang out.

  “Here!” the girl said. She dropped a tooth on the table. “It just fell out.”

  “Ewww!” Rebecca cried.

  “You're the tooth fairy, aren't you?” the girl asked. She picked up a cookie. “Deal with it.”

  “Wow,” Bess whispered to Nancy. “I didn't realize the tooth fairy had such a gross job!”

  The girls waited. Soon more kids were lining up at the table.

  “Mystery Mouth has got to be in that line,” Nancy said hopefully.

  “Look who else is there,” George groaned. “Lonny and Lenny Wong.”

  Nancy gulped. Lonny and Lenny were six-year-old twins. They were also pests.

  “Show me your teeth and you'll get a big treat,” Rebecca said.

  “Forget the cookies,” Lonny said, waving his hand. “We want quarters.”

  “Yeah!” Lenny said. “We always get a quarter from the tooth fairy. So pay up!”

  Rebecca planted her hands on her hips. “Today I'm giving out cookies,” she said. “Take them or leave them.”

  “Okay,” Lonny said. He took a cookie. “But only because I like chocolate chips.”

  “Those aren't chocolate chip,” Rebecca said as Lonny bit into the cookie. “They're oatmeal.”

  Lonny's eyes opened wide. He clapped his hand over his mouth.

  “Now you did it,” Lenny told Rebecca. “Lonnyhatesoatmeal cookies.”

  “Phooey!” Lonny spat. “Phooey! Phooey! Phooey! Phooooo—”

  “Stop!” Rebecca yelled. “You're spitting cookie crumbs all over me!”

  “And all over the cookies,” a boy said. “I'm not eating those cookies now.”

  “Yuck! Me neither,” a girl said.

  Nancy watched as all the kids walked away. “Great,” she said. “Now we'll never get to check out those kids.”

  Nancy, Bess, and George walked out from behind the tree. Rebecca was covered with glitter, spit, and crumbs.

  “Whose dumb idea was this anyway?” Rebecca demanded.

  “Yours!” Nancy, Bess, and George answered at the same time.

  Nancy, Bess, and George helped Rebecca carry the table and chair into her house. After saying goodbye to Rebecca, the girls left the Ramirez house.

  “What do we do now?” Nancy asked as they climbed on their bikes.

  “I say we go to Andrew Leoni's house,” George said, “and question him.”

  “I still don't think it was Andrew,” Nancy said.

  “Then who was it?” Bess asked. “And who has a dog named Jake?”

  Nancy didn't know any dogs named Jake. But she did know someone who might.

  “Bess, George!” Nancy said. “Chip's veterinarian knows lots of dogs in River Heights. He might be able to tell us who owns a dog named Jake.”

  The girls gave each other high fives. Then they rode their bikes around the corner to Dr. Rios's office.

  “May I help you?” the desk nurse asked as the girls walked in.

  “Yes,” Nancy said. “Are any of your patients named Jake?”

  The nurse entered something on her computer. “Thereisa pet named Jake,” she said. “And he just had a checkup on Wednesday afternoon at four-thirty.”

  “Yes!” Nancy cheered.

  “But I don't think he's the pet you'
re looking for,” the nurse added.

  “Why not?” Nancy asked.

  The door slammed open. Nancy saw their friend Katie Zaleski run into the office with her parrot, Lester, in her arms.

  “Help!” Katie cried. “Lester just swallowed a hot chili pepper! Now his feathers are all ruffled!”

  “Hot stuff, hot stuff,” Lester squawked. “Arr—rrrk!”

  The nurse jumped up. She led Katie into the doctor's office.

  “Poor Katie,” Bess said.

  “I hope Lester is okay,” Nancy said.

  “Hey, you guys!” George called. “Check it out!”

  Nancy spun around. George was standing behind the nurse's computer.

  “Guess who has a pet named Jake?” George asked.

  “Who?” Nancy and Bess asked at the same time.

  George pointed to the computer. “Andrew Leoni!”

  7

  Jake Takes the Cake

  Are you sure it's Andrew?” Nancy asked.

  “See for yourself,” George said. “It's Andrew's last name. And his address on Tide Street.”

  Nancy was about to look at the computer screen. Then the nurse stepped out of Dr. Rios's office.

  “I'm sorry, girls,” the nurse said. “The information on our computer is personal.”

  “We just want to know more about Jake, please,” Nancy said.

  The phone on the nurse's desk rang.

  “Hello?” the nurse answered. She looked surprised. “Your cat did what?”

  The nurse looked busy, so the girls left the office.

  “Now will you write Andrew's name in your book?” George asked Nancy.

  “I guess.” Nancy sighed. She opened her detective notebook and wrote Andrew's name. Underneath she wrote: “Probably in ice-cream line. Has a pet named Jake. Saw doctor on Wednesday, 4:30.”

  But Nancy still wasn't sure.

  “How do we know if Andrew has adognamed Jake?” Nancy asked. “The pet on the computer might have been a cat.”

  “Cats have names like Fluffy or Snowball,” Bess said. “Not Jake.”

  Nancy shut her notebook.

  “Then let's go to Andrew's house right now,” she said. “We'll check out Jake. Then we'll ask Andrew to say ‘She sells seashells at the seashore.’”

  The girls jumped on their bikes and pedaled to Tide Street. Nancy knew the Leoni house. She had seen Andrew playing in his yard many times.

  Why didn't I ever see a dog, too? Nancy wondered.

  The girls walked up to the front door. Nancy rang the doorbell. Andrew looked surprised when he opened the door.

  “Hey,” Andrew said. “What's up?”

  Nancy didn't want to ask about Jake right away. She knew that a good detective always led up to the big question.

  “Do you know what some people call the hottest days of August?” Nancy asked.

  “Is this a quiz?” Andrew asked. “Because school doesn't start for another three weeks, four days, and fifteen hours.”

  George looked at her watch. “Sixteen,” she corrected.

  “It's not a quiz, Andrew,” Nancy said with a smile. “More like a riddle.”

  “I like riddles,” Andrew said. He scratched his chin as he thought. “Let's see . . . the hottest days of August . . .”

  Nancy stared at Andrew's pockets. She saw the outline of something in one. It was the same size and shape as her walkie-talkie.

  “I know!”Andrew cried. “They call them scorchers. That's what the weatherman called one day last week. A scorcher!”

  “Wrong,” Nancy said. “They're called the dog days of August.Dogdays!”

  Andrew shrugged. “So?”

  “So—do you have a dog named Jake?” Nancy blurted.

  “And did you take Nancy's walkie-talkie?” Bess demanded.

  “Come clean, Andrew,” George snapped. “We know all about the stamps.”

  Andrew looked really confused now.

  “I don't have any walkie-talkies,” he said. “And I don't have a dog named Jake.”

  “Then why did you go to Dr. Rios's office on Tuesday?” Nancy asked. “Four-thirty, to be exact?”

  Andrew rolled his eyes.

  “Du-uh!” he said. “Because I have a rat named Jake.”

  Nancy gulped. “A . . . rat?”

  Bess shrieked as a gray rat scurried around Andrew's feet onto the doorstep.

  “Rats make awesome pets,” Andrew said. “This one even loves Coco-Cakes.”

  Andrew reached into his pocket. He pulled out a package of cream-filled cupcakes and ripped it open.

  So that's what was in his pocket, Nancy thought.

  Andrew took a bite. Then he bent over and offered some to Jake. The rat stood on its hind legs and nibbled the cupcake.

  “Gross!” the girls cried at the same time. They spun around on their heels and ran to their bikes.

  “We forgot to ask Andrew to say ‘She sells seashells,’” Bess said as they ran.

  “It's okay,” Nancy said. “Andrew is no longer a suspect.”

  “Because he has a rat?” George asked.

  “No,” Nancy said. She stopped running and opened her notebook. “Because he wasn't in the pizza parlor when I got that message. And he used his front teeth to bite that cupcake.”

  Then Nancy noticed something else.

  “Hey!” Nancy said. “The nurse said that Jake's checkup was Wednesday at fourthirty. That's when my walkie-talkie was taken.”

  Nancy pointed to where she had written the time and day in her notebook.

  “I guess Andrew is innocent,” George said.

  Nancy crossed Andrew's name out in her notebook. She was glad he didn't take her walkie-talkie. She liked Andrew, even if he did feed cupcakes to his rat.

  “Now I have zero suspects,” Nancy said as she shut her book. “And Mystery Mouth hasn't called all day.”

  The girls climbed up on their bikes. Bess giggled when her stomach growled. It was getting close to dinnertime.

  “I guess we'll have to look for more clues tomorrow,” George said.

  Nancy's heart sank. Tomorrow was Saturday. She had promised to find her walkie-talkie by then.

  The three friends said goodbye. Then Nancy rode her bike home.

  During dinner Nancy could hardly eat her fried chicken. She was too worried about her walkie-talkie. After excusing herself from the table, Nancy went outside. She began brushing Chip in her front yard.

  “I may never hear from Mystery Mouth again, Chip,” Nancy said as she brushed. “What if—”

  CRACKLE, CRACKLE, CRACKLE!

  Nancy almost dropped the brush. She was getting a signal on her walkie-talkie!

  Chip whined while Nancy pulled the walkie-talkie from her pocket.

  She was about to say something, but Mystery Mouth beat her to it.

  “Your dog is way cool!” he piped up. “But my dog is way bigger.”

  Mystery Mouth is watching me! Nancy thought. Her eyes darted around the yard.

  She gasped when she saw a bright blue shape bobbing over the row of hedges.

  “Who's there?” Nancy called as she ran to the hedge. The shape disappeared.

  Nancy wanted to peek over the hedge, but it was too tall. And she wasn't allowed to leave the yard after dinner.

  “What was that, Chip?” Nancy asked slowly. “And where have I seen it before?”

  8

  Pop Goes the Quiz

  What good is one walkie-talkie?” Nancy asked herself the next morning. She stared down at the walkie-talkie in her hand. “It's like having one roller skate.”

  It was Saturday morning. Nancy was sitting on her front doorstep. In just one hour she and her dad would go to the mall—without her set of walkie-talkies.

  Nancy heard footsteps. Was it the mysterious blue thing again?

  She glanced up and saw Bess and George walking into her yard.

  “Hi, Nancy,” George said. “We wanted to see how you were doing.”

  “And if
you had any new clues,” Bess added.

  Nancy told her friends all about the mysterious message the night before. And the blue thing behind the hedge.

  “It was sort of like a blob,” Nancy explained. “A bright blue blob.”

  “A blob!” George gasped. “Maybe it was a creature from outer space.”

  “George!” Bess complained. “You're beginning to sound like the boys.”

  CRACKLE! CRACKLE! CRACKLE!

  Nancy glared at her walkie-talkie. Mystery Mouth was back. And this time she wanted answers.

  “Who are you?” Nancy demanded. “Tell me right now!”

  “Nah,” Mystery Mouth answered. “That would spoil all the fun.”

  “Fun?” Nancy cried. But then she heard music in the background.

  She waved Bess and George over to listen. Then she placed her hand over the walkie-talkie.

  “What tune is that?” Nancy whispered.

  “I'm not sure,” Bess whispered back. “But it's making my mouth water.”

  Nancy stared at Bess. Her mouth always watered when she heard the Mr. Swirly Head jingle.

  “It's the Mr. Swirly Head truck!” Nancy said.

  “Nancy!” George said. “Could Mystery Mouth be standing by the ice-cream truck?”

  Nancy put the pieces together. Mr. Swirly Head . . . blue blob . . . .

  “That's it!” she cried. “I just remembered where I saw that blue thing before. On Ethan Taylor's head!”

  “Ethan?” Bess asked.

  Nancy shut off her walkie-talkie so Mystery Mouth wouldn't hear. “He was wearing a blue plastic swirly hat in the icecream truck!” she said.

  “What makes you think he took your walkie-talkie?” George asked.

  “The Mr. Swirly Head truck was parked outside the pizza parlor when I got that weird message,” Nancy remembered. “He must have seen us go inside.”

  “But I don't remember Ethan having a missing tooth,” George said.

  “Me neither,” Nancy said. “But we have to find the Mr. Swirly Head truck!”

  “Where is it?” Bess asked.

  Nancy saw a boy with red hair walk past her house. He was holding a chocolate Skyscraper.

  George blew her soccer whistle. “Hey, you!” she called. “Stop! Wait up!”