Babysitting Bandit Read online

  “Hi, Anna Lin! Hi, Lily Mei! I’m Togo!” Bess said in a deep voice.

  “Go-go!” the twins squealed happily.

  The CD came on. The twins began twirling, and Bess twirled along with them, holding Togo in the air. Bess saves the day! Nancy thought, relieved.

  While Bess and Togo danced with the twins, Nancy and George searched the living room for Squeak Squeak. They searched every inch of the bookshelf. They searched under all the furniture. They searched under toys and books and pillows and blankies. But there was no sign of him.

  They finally gave up. “What is going on?” George said to Nancy in a whisper so the twins wouldn’t overhear. “First, someone steals the rattle. Then Squeak Squeak.”

  “It’s definitely a mystery,” Nancy agreed.

  “Any luck?” Bess called over to them. The twins were hanging on to the hem of her untucked T-shirt and bouncing up and down to a song called “Let’s Tickle Pickles!”

  “No. We’ll find him, though,” Nancy replied.

  “So what happened upstairs?” George whispered.

  Nancy told George about the conversation she’d overheard through Margaret’s bedroom door. “It was kind of hard to figure out what they were talking about,” she finished. “But Matt was definitely saying something about ‘toys.’”

  “Toys as in the silver rattle?” George mused.

  “And maybe as in Squeak Squeak, too,” Nancy added.

  “Do you think the same person took both of them?” George said.

  Nancy considered this. “Maybe. Probably. We won’t know until we find more clues.” She added, “So far, the only clue we have is the green fingerprint.”

  Just then, Nancy was distracted by a strange noise. She glanced around the room, wondering what it might be.

  It only took a moment for her to find the source of the noise. A big—no, huge—orange cat was crouched next to a small blue rug and batting her paws at something.

  Nancy pointed to the cat. “That must be Pumpkin Pie.”

  The twins noticed Pumpkin Pie too. “Meow!” Lily Mae said excitedly.

  “Meow, meow!” Anna Lin joined in.

  Nancy wondered what Pumpkin Pie was playing with. She seemed to be pawing at a lumpy, bumpy object hidden under the rug.

  Curious, Nancy went over and lifted the rug. George followed along. Underneath was a small cat toy, shaped like a bird.

  “Is this what you’re looking for?” Nancy teased the cat. Pumpkin Pie meowed loudly at Nancy and pawed at the toy.

  “Pumpkin Pie reminds me of my next-door neighbor’s cat, Furball,” Nancy told George.

  “Furball likes to hide toys under rugs and then find them again.”

  “Nancy, you’re a genius!” George said suddenly.

  Nancy smiled. “I am?”

  “What if Pumpkin Pie took Squeak Squeak and hid him under a rug somewhere?” George suggested. “And what if she did the same thing with the rattle? Maybe she’s our thief!”

  CHAPTER SIX

  Hide and Go Seek

  “You think Pumpkin Pie might be our thief?” Nancy said to George.

  “Maybe. What if she found the rattle and hid it under a rug somewhere? And what if she did the same thing with Squeak Squeak?” George said eagerly.

  Bess and the twins were on the other side of the living room, holding hands and dancing in slow circles to a song called “Wave Bye-Bye.” “What are you guys talking about?” she called out. “Did you solve the mystery, or what?”

  “No, but we have a new suspect,” Nancy replied.

  “Who?” Bess asked her.

  George pointed to the cat. “Pumpkin Pie!”

  “Meow!” Anna Lin and Lily Mei said in unison.

  “Our thief is a kitty?” Bess said, giggling.

  “Might be,” Nancy corrected her. “I think we should follow her around the house and see if she’ll show us more of her hiding places. Maybe we’ll find the, um, two missing items.”

  “That’s an awesome plan,” George agreed. “Bess, do you want to go with Nancy? I can dance with the twins for a while.”

  “Sure!” Bess said.

  When the next song came on, George took Togo from Bess and started dancing with the twins while Nancy and Bess trailed after Pumpkin Pie. First, the big orange cat led them to the kitchen, where she scarfed down a bowl of tuna-flavored kibbles. Then she led them to the dining room, on the other side of the kitchen. There, she began batting her paw at a lumpy, bumpy object under a small gold rug.

  “Hey, maybe that’s the rattle!” Nancy said excitedly.

  “Or maybe that’s Squeak Squeak!” Bess added.

  Nancy and Bess got down on their hands and knees and lifted up the small gold rug. They both sneezed as cat fur and dust tickled their noses.

  “Can you—achoo!—reach it?” Bess said.

  “I think so.” Nancy extended her hand and touched the object. It felt cold and hard, like metal. “Yay, it’s the rattle!” she announced, pulling it out. “No, it’s not the rattle. Sorry! It’s just a soup spoon.”

  Pumpkin Pie pawed at the spoon. “Okay, Pumpkin Pie. Take us to your other super-secret hiding places,” Nancy told her.

  It took a while, but eventually Pumpkin Pie trotted through a doorway and down a set of stairs. “She’s going down to the basement,” Bess said as she and Nancy followed behind. “Basements are dark and scary. They’re really good hiding places!”

  “Well, this basement’s not so dark and scary,” Nancy noted when they reached the bottom of the stairs. Before them was a large family room with bright yellow walls, dark brown furniture, a pool table, and a large plasma-screen TV. There were toys scattered across the thick beige carpeting. “But maybe Pumpkin Pie hid the rattle and Squeak Squeak down here, anyway.”

  “Maybe!” Bess agreed.

  But after a few minutes of following Pumpkin Pie and checking out all the lumpy, bumpy objects she pawed at, Nancy and Bess turned up empty-handed. The only items they found were a couple of catnip balls, a hair scrunchie, a pack of gum, and an empty sippy cup.

  “Now what?” Bess asked Nancy. “We followed Pumpkin Pie all over the first floor and the basement. Should we follow her all over the second floor, too?”

  Nancy glanced at her watch. “We can’t. It’s almost time to go. We’ll have to wait until Friday.” She smiled and added: “Besides, Hannah is taking us all out for pizza tonight!”

  “Let’s get a pizza with extra pepperoni!” Nancy suggested.

  “Let’s get a pizza with extra everything!” Bess piped up.

  “Extra everything sounds good to me!” George agreed.

  “You girls must be pretty hungry,” Hannah Gruen remarked, shutting her menu.

  “We are! We’ve been working on a really, really hard case,” Bess told her.

  Hannah grinned. “A really, really hard case? I want to hear all about it.”

  The four of them were sitting in a booth at Pizza Paradise, in downtown River Heights. Nancy loved it when Hannah brought them there. In Nancy’s humble opinion, Pizza Paradise had the yummiest pizza in the whole world.

  Hannah was the Drews’ housekeeper. But she did a lot more than take care of the Drews’ house. She had been taking care of Nancy since her mother died five years ago. She gave great hugs, she brushed Nancy’s hair every day, and she was the queen of homemade lasagna. Nancy thought of her as one of the family.

  The waitress brought a pitcher of ginger ale and four glasses, then took their pizza order. As soon as she was gone, Nancy and the girls filled Hannah in on the case.

  “So someone stole a silver baby rattle and a toy mouse, huh?” Hannah said when they had finished. “That’s pretty mean!”

  “Someone or something,” George corrected her. “One of our suspects is Pumpkin Pie.”

  Hannah frowned, confused. “One of your suspects is a pie?”

  Nancy giggled. “No, Hannah! Pumpkin Pie is a cat! She likes to hide stuff under rugs.”

  “Th
at’s a funny name for a cat,” Hannah said, chuckling. “So who are your other suspects, besides this Pumpkin Pie?”

  “Well, there’s Margaret’s friend Matt,” Bess said, taking a sip of her soda. “He likes to play practical jokes.”

  “And he was at the Jacobses’ house on Monday when the rattle disappeared, and on Wednesday when Squeak Squeak disappeared,” George added.

  Nancy listened as Bess and George told Hannah about Matt. As she listened, something occurred to her. There was another suspect they should have added to the list. Why hadn’t they considered him before? “What about Cal?” Nancy said out loud.

  Bess and George both turned to her. “What about Cal?” Bess asked.

  “He was there on Monday when the rattle disappeared. He took it from the twins, remember?” Nancy pointed out. “The only problem is … he wasn’t there on Wednesday when Squeak Squeak disappeared.”

  “Maybe there are two thieves,” George pointed out.

  “Or maybe Cal flew in and out of the Jacobses’ house on Wednesday using his Super Sonic Man powers and nobody saw him,” Bess joked. Everyone laughed.

  “So do you have any clues yet?” Hannah asked.

  “We found a green fingerprint where the rattle was supposed to be,” Nancy replied. “It’s our only clue we have so far. But we’ll find more!”

  “I know you will,” Hannah said, smiling. “After all, you’re the Clue Crew!”

  “Are we late?” Bess asked Nancy and George as they half walked, half ran down the sidewalk toward the Jacobses’ house.

  “No, but we’re almost late. We’d better hurry,” Nancy replied.

  The three girls increased their speed as the Jacobses’ red-shuttered house came into view. It was Friday, and they were running behind because there had been a fire drill at school, which had delayed the afternoon dismissal.

  “Yay, we’re not late. We’re one minute early!” Nancy announced when they got to the Jacobses’ door and rang the bell.

  A moment later, Mrs. Jacobs opened the door. Behind her, Nancy could hear the twins crying. Mrs. Jacobs looked exhausted—and worried.

  “Are Anna Lin and Lily Mei okay?” Nancy asked immediately.

  “Oh, they’re upset because Squeak Squeak is still missing,” Mrs. Jacobs replied, watching the twins over her shoulder. Nancy had told her about the disappearance of the toy mouse before she, George, and Bess went home on Wednesday. “I thought I would cheer them up by playing their Happy Baby Songs CD. But—” She hesitated.

  “But what?” George prompted her.

  “But now, the CD is missing too!” Mrs. Jacobs told them.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Another Clue

  Nancy gasped. “The CD is missing too?”

  “Since when?” Bess piped up.

  “I’m not sure,” Mrs. Jacobs said.

  “When was the last time you saw it?” Nancy asked her.

  Mrs. Jacobs thought for a moment. “Yesterday, I think, around five,” she said finally.

  She waved the girls inside and closed the door. The four of them joined the twins in the living room.

  Bess reached into her backpack and whipped out Togo the tiger. “Hi, Anna Lin! Hi, Lily Mei! Do you want to play with blocks?” she asked in her deep Togo voice.

  The twins snuffled and regarded Togo. After a moment, Anna Lin reached for Togo and gave him a big, sloppy kiss. Lily Mei gave him a kiss too, then plopped down on the floor and began stacking blocks.

  Mrs. Jacobs smiled affectionately at her daughters. “So as I was saying,” she said in a low voice to Nancy, George, and Bess, “the last time I saw the CD was around five yesterday. I’d been playing it for the twins. I was just about to put it back in its case when the doorbell rang. It was Sarah— Mrs. Gregory—and her son, Cal. I remember putting the CD on top of the CD player so I could get the door. I kind of forgot about it after that.”

  Nancy frowned. Now there were three things missing: the silver rattle, Squeak Squeak, and the Happy Baby Songs CD. What was going on? Was this the work of one thief? Or two? Or maybe even three?

  Nancy walked over to the CD player, which was on the bookshelf one shelf down from the encyclopedias. She recognized the case lying on top of the CD player, with its picture of several smiling babies against a tropical rain forest background, and the title Happy Baby Songs in bright orange and purple letters.

  Nancy picked up the case and opened it. It was empty—just like Mrs. Jacobs said. She remembered then that her father sometimes put CDs back in the wrong cases. Just to be 100 percent sure, she did a quick sweep of all the CD cases on the bookshelf. There were thirty of them, total. But none of them contained the Happy Baby Songs CD. She also hit the Eject button on the CD player, in case the CD was still in there. It wasn’t.

  And then Nancy saw something she hadn’t noticed before. On top of the CD player, where she had found the Happy Baby Songs case, was a smudgy fingerprint.

  But this time, it wasn’t green. It was yellow.

  Nancy turned around. George and Bess were still playing blocks with the twins. Mrs. Jacobs was straightening a pile of magazines on the coffee table.

  “Mrs. Jacobs? Did you have something yellow on your fingers yesterday? Or anytime this week?” Nancy asked her.

  Mrs. Jacobs frowned. “Something yellow on my fingers? No, not that I can think of. Let’s see … yesterday, I made some cupcakes for a bake sale at Margaret’s school. But I used white frosting, not yellow.”

  Nancy thought about this. “Were, um, Matt and Lacie here yesterday after school?” she asked after a moment.

  Mrs. Jacobs nodded. “Yes, to work on their science project. They’ve been here every day this week.”

  Just then, the phone rang. “Excuse me,” Mrs. Jacobs said, heading toward the kitchen.

  Nancy studied the yellow fingerprint for a few more minutes. She touched it lightly. It felt similar to the smudgy green fingerprint, dry and slightly bumpy.

  She stood on her tippy-toes and peered at the shelf with the row of encyclopedias, at the spot in front of the L, M, and N volumes. The smudgy green fingerprint was still there.

  I guess the thief didn’t come back to get rid of the evidence, Nancy thought. Or maybe he—or she— didn’t know it was there.

  Nancy heard Sir Barkalot barking. She turned around just in time to see him leaping over the baby gate and into the living room. He stopped in his tracks as his eyes zeroed in on Togo, who was perched in the floor between the twins. He looked as though he was hungry for a snack.

  A stuffed toy tiger snack! Nancy thought, alarmed.

  “Bess! George! Hide Togo before the dog eats him!” Nancy shouted.

  Bess grabbed Togo quickly and stuffed under her T-shirt. “You stay away from Togo, you bad dog!” she chided Sir Barkalot, who ran up to her and started sniffing at her T-shirt. “You’re supposed to be eating doggie food, not … ”

  Bess didn’t finish her sentence. She turned to George and Nancy with a triumphant grin. “I think I just solved our mystery!” she announced.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  A Clue Crew Sleepover

  “What do you mean you solved the mystery?” Nancy asked Bess.

  “You figured out who the thief is?” George piped up. “Tell us!”

  Bess grinned. She reached out and patted Sir Barkalot, who was still sniffing at her T-shirt in search of Togo. “It’s Sir Barkalot!” she exclaimed. “He’s our thief!”

  “Sir Barkalot?” Nancy and George said in unison.

  Bess nodded. “Uh-huh. Remember what Mrs. Jacobs told us on Monday? That Sir Barkalot eats everything, including CDs?”

  “Oh, yeah … ,” George said slowly. “So you think—”

  “Sir Barkalot ate the Happy Baby Songs CD,” Bess finished. “He may have eaten the you-know-what and the other you-know-what, too,” she added, lowering her voice and casting a worried glance at the twins. But the babies were too busy petting Sir Barkalot to pay attention to what Bess and her friend
s were talking about.

  Nancy considered Bess’s idea. “Mrs. Jacobs said Sir Barkalot tries to eat everything. She didn’t say he actually ate CDs,” she reminded Bess.

  “Hmm, good point,” Bess admitted. “There’s one way to find out for sure, though.” She leaned forward and blew a puff of air at Sir Barkalot’s snout.

  George frowned, looking totally confused. “Why are you blowing on Sir Barkalot?” she asked Bess. Nancy was confused too.

  Sir Barkalot let out a great big yawn. Bess leaned forward and peeked quickly into his open mouth. “I’m making him yawn! I wanted to see if there are tiny little CD pieces stuck in his teeth!”

  “Oh!” Nancy said. She had never heard of trying to make a dog yawn this way. “Um … so are there?”

  Bess squinted, trying to see. She shook her head just as Sir Barkalot clamped his mouth shut. “No,” she said, sounding disappointed. “But there’s another way to find out if he ate the CD.”

  “What?” George asked her.

  Bess inched closer to Sir Barkalot and started massaging his stomach. “I’m going to see if I can feel the CD in there,” she said, kneading her hands into his tummy.

  “Ew,” Nancy groaned.

  “Double ew,” George agreed.

  But Sir Barkalot didn’t want to cooperate with the doggie massage. He yipped loudly at Bess, then took off running toward the kitchen.

  “Hey, our thief is getting away!” George joked. “Catch him!”

  Bess made a face at her. “Ha-ha. I still think we should add him to the suspect list. After all, you added Pumpkin Pie, right?”

  “Yeah, that’s true,” George conceded. “Okay, so we’ll add Sir Barkalot. I guess there’s no reason we can’t have two pets as suspects!”

  “Pass the popcorn!” Bess said. She plopped down cross-legged on top of Nancy’s bed. Her lavender pajamas were the same color as the bedspread.

  “Hannah put nacho cheese flavoring on it,” Nancy said, passing the bowl to Bess. “It’s super yummy!” Her pajamas were white with turquoise and yellow polka dots.