The Pumpkin Patch Puzzle Read online

Nancy grinned. “We were going to help anyway, but we’ll always take fritters!”

  Aunt Claire smiled. “I’ll be back. Let one of the Festival Fairies know if you need anything, and they can come find me.”

  Nancy, Bess, George, and Emma started to throw pieces of crushed pumpkin into the big trash cans that had been set up around the tent. A few of their other classmates and fellow festival volunteers were trying to clean up the paint.

  “Is it true that you guys really are detectives?” Emma asked.

  Nancy nodded. “But I don’t think your aunt wants our help,” she said. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Audrey listening in as she picked up an empty bottle nearby.

  Emma sighed. “I feel bad that this happened. I know Aunt Claire has worked really hard on the festival.”

  Just as Nancy was about to respond, she frowned as she spotted a small, shiny object. It was partially covered in red paint that had spilled during the chaos.

  She carefully lifted it up, wiping it off a bit in the grass. It was a small bracelet with a little gold star charm hanging off it.

  I wonder if this belongs to the person who did this, Nancy thought. She slipped it into her sweater pocket for safekeeping.

  Just then Carson Drew and Hannah came into the tent.

  “You okay, Nancy?” Mr. Drew asked. “This is an awful way to kick off the festival!”

  “Well, hopefully they can find who did this, and soon,” said Hannah.

  Suddenly, Aunt Claire, Rick Rickston, and Mayor Strong burst back into the tent.

  “Nancy! Emma!” Aunt Claire walked over. “I understand that a few people saw you both in here before the start of the opening ceremonies. Did you girls have something to do with this?”

  Carson Drew put a hand on his daughter’s shoulder. “Now, I know everyone is upset, but I can assure you that Nancy would never do such a thing,” Mr. Drew said. “She knows better than that.”

  Aunt Claire frowned. “Well, Emma does too, but I also know how unhappy she’s been,” she said. “Emma? If you have something to say to me, you better say it now.”

  Emma stared at her aunt with an angry expression. “I can’t believe that you think I would wreck your stupid festival!” she yelled. “All I’ve done is try to help you out all week, and then you think I would ruin it? I could have been listening to Bryce Brown’s new album, but instead I was stuck here.”

  Aunt Claire’s face softened. “I’m sorry, girls,” she said. “But we have to explore every possibility here.” She turned toward Mr. Drew and Nancy. “I hope you understand.”

  Carson and Nancy both nodded. “Why don’t we walk around a little before we go home?” he suggested. “Let’s try to enjoy a bit more of the festival, even though it got off to a rough start.”

  “Sure, one second, Dad.”

  As Aunt Claire and Mr. Drew walked out, Nancy stayed behind to talk to Emma.

  “Emma, listen. I know you were helping out a lot with the festival and pumpkin contest, but are you sure you don’t know what happened?” Nancy asked.

  “Ugh, no! You’re as bad as my aunt right now,” she huffed. “Why don’t you get together with your little detective agency and try to figure it out!” With that, she stormed off.

  Nancy sighed. It looked like the Clue Crew definitely had themselves another case to solve!

  “Okay, so let’s figure out our list of suspects,” Nancy said.

  After Nancy managed to find Bess and George, the three girls went over to Nancy’s house with a bag full of apple-cider doughnuts and warm apple cider—perfect fuel for solving mysteries!

  The Clue Crew gathered around Nancy’s computer, where they opened up a new file to start listing the five W’s: who, what, when, where, why—and how.

  “Ack, George, you’re in my way,” Bess complained. “I can’t see anything!”

  “Then move over,” George replied. “I’m staying right where I am!”

  Nancy held back a smile as she listened to the two cousins bicker.

  “Okay, focus! Now, we’re still not sure of our who,” Nancy said.

  “I still say it’s Emma,” Bess declared. “That girl totally had it out for this festival. I don’t even think she likes pumpkins! Who doesn’t like pumpkins?”

  “Clearly, our suspect doesn’t,” Nancy said. “I don’t really think Emma did it. She got very angry and upset when Aunt Claire and I both asked her—and she didn’t look like she was lying.”

  “I still say we need to keep her on our list,” George said.

  “Well, what about Deirdre?” Bess pointed out as Nancy typed. “She seemed pretty sure that she would win.”

  “But why would she try to ruin it?” asked Nancy.

  Bess thought for a moment. “Maybe she thought that by wrecking all the supplies or stealing the forms she could sneak in a different entry,” she said. “Her design was probably dumb anyway, and she thought she could do a last-second change!”

  Even though Nancy thought that possibility was a long shot, she dutifully typed in Deirdre’s name on the suspect list.

  “Ohhhh, and Madison Foley,” George added. “Didn’t she want to go to an arts camp this summer?”

  “Good call, George,” Nancy said. “Maybe she thought her design wouldn’t be good enough after all.”

  As Nancy finished typing up some more notes, Hannah came into the room.

  “Bess, George, your moms are both here to pick you up,” she said. “It was nice seeing you girls today! I hope you had a good time, even with the competition being canceled.

  George shrugged. “At least we got good treats out of the deal!”

  Laughing, Hannah led George and Bess downstairs.

  Nancy suddenly realized she had forgotten to mention the bracelet she had found earlier. As she added that to her notes, she wondered if there was any way they would be able to find the suspect in time to save the festival.

  • • •

  “I just don’t get it, Daddy,” Nancy said later as they enjoyed a pizza dinner from Nancy’s favorite pizza place, Pizza Paradise. She sipped her water as she gathered the courage to ask her next question. “You don’t really think I had anything to do with it, right?”

  Mr. Drew put his napkin down. “Of course not, Nancy. Besides, if you had, I know you wouldn’t be able to lie to me.” He chuckled as he took another bite of his pepperoni pizza. “Even when you were little, your right eye would always twitch if you told a white lie.”

  Nancy laughed. “Thanks, Daddy. I knew you believed me, but I wanted to make sure. I think Bess, George, and I are going to try and help Miss Costello. She seemed really upset.”

  “Well, it’s a big event for the town, and it was awful what happened,” Mr. Drew said. “And you know you can always ask me for help if you need it.”

  After dinner, Nancy and her dad watched a TV show about baby animals in the wild. But Nancy was having a hard time paying attention, even though she loved animals—especially her dog, Chip, who was snuggled up to her on the couch.

  I wonder if we’ll be able to solve this case before next weekend, Nancy thought worriedly. Our time is running out!

  • • •

  “Are you sure this is going to work?” Bess asked after Mrs. Fayne dropped them off at the entrance to the fair.

  The next day, the girls were on their way back to see if there were any other clues they could find. It was another beautiful fall day—perfect for doing some more investigating.

  As the girls walked the short distance to the center of the festival, Nancy explained the bracelet she found.

  “It had a star charm on it? That doesn’t give us much of a clue,” Bess said.

  Nancy shrugged. “I know, but maybe someone will mention that it’s missing. Let’s go back to the pumpkin tent to see if anyone comes back for it.”

  The girls made their way to the tent, after a quick pit stop at the Patsy’s Pastries cart for extra energy. The tent had already been blocked off with yellow tape so that the
volunteers could clean up everything. They could hear music coming from inside as they got closer.

  As Nancy, Bess, and George started through the entrance to the tent, a teenage boy wearing a T-shirt with “San Francisco” on it blocked their entrance.

  “Sorry, this isn’t open to the public and you can’t come in here,” San Francisco said. “We’re still trying to clean up.”

  Nancy smiled at him. “We just wanted to pop in for a second to see if anyone left a bracelet I found.” She held out the small bracelet, which still had traces of red paint on it.

  The boy shook his head. “Sorry, bosses’ orders. Why don’t you come back later?”

  Dejected, the girls started to walk away.

  As Nancy turned back, she noticed that San Francisco had started chatting with a friend. He wasn’t paying attention at all.

  “Hey! C’mon, there’s another little opening on the other side of this tent,” Nancy whispered.

  The girls crept along the other side of the tent. Bess eased back the flap, and they all slipped in.

  The place looked much better than yesterday. The tables were clean, and all the destroyed supplies had been thrown out. The long tables were empty, with only a few traces of various colors of paint splattered on them. The music the girls had heard earlier was coming from a MusicMate, which someone had plugged into a set of speakers—probably to help pass the time as everyone cleaned up.

  Surprisingly, there weren’t too many people in the tent. A young couple finished throwing a few things away and headed out the front of the tent, not even noticing that the girls had come in.

  “Nancy, what are we looking for here?” asked George. “Everything has been thrown away!”

  Nancy motioned for the girls to follow her over to one of five big garbage cans that were scattered around the tent. It didn’t look like anyone had bothered to empty any of them since the day before.

  Bess wrinkled her nose. “Ew, Nancy. I’m not going in the garbage for clues!” she declared.

  “Yeah, that’s gross,” George added.

  Nancy sighed. “Guys, come on. Let’s just take a peek in each one. You never know if you can find something.”

  The girls started peering into the cans, looking for something that might be helpful.

  “Are you guys finding anything yet?” Bess called out.

  “Nope—lots of wrappers, paper towels, and empty fritter bags!” Nancy replied.

  After a few more minutes, George called out, “Hey! I think I have something.” She plucked a piece of paper out of the garbage with the tips of her fingers. It was the application for KraftyKidz, a summer arts school. Though it was partially ripped, they could see that some of the information had already been filled out.

  “Looks like there is an S in there somewhere, and an F, George said, squinting at the page.

  “Hey! Didn’t Madison Foley say she wanted to win so she could get into some sort of special art thing?” Bess asked. “I bet this is the program.”

  Could Madison be the person we’re looking for? Nancy wondered. She really wanted to go to that school—maybe she decided to steal the designs so she would have more time to see what her competition would be like.

  Suddenly the girls heard loud voices right outside the tent.

  “Quick, we need to hide somewhere!” Nancy hissed. “We aren’t supposed to be in here!”

  “Where are we supposed to go?” asked Bess as they all hurried to the part of the tent farthest away from the front entrance.

  The girls dove behind one of the big garbage cans and crouched down just as a pair of sparkly sneakers appeared in the tent.

  The sneakers stopped for a moment, then started straight toward the Clue Crew’s hiding spot! As Nancy peeked out from behind the can, she saw that it was Shelby Metcalf.

  “Shelby!” Nancy stood up from their hiding spot.

  With a startled scream, Shelby jumped back.

  “Nancy! What are you guys doing here?” she asked.

  George and Bess stepped out too, their eyes narrowed. “We want to ask you the same thing, Shelby,” George said. “Why are you sneaking back into the tent?”

  “Did you have something to do with the stolen designs and the mess that happened here?” Bess added.

  Shelby shook her head no. Her hair swayed back and forth.

  “No, guys! I swear! I, um, came to get something that—that someone lost,” she stammered.

  Nancy’s eyes widened. “You mean this?” she asked as she held out the charm bracelet.

  Shelby looked confused. “Oh no, that’s not mine,” she said, curious. “It’s pretty, though.”

  The Clue Crew exchanged glances. Shelby seemed like she was telling the truth. But why was she there?

  “Listen, I’m actually here to help out Madison,” Shelby said. “She’s one of my best friends, you know.”

  Bess, George, and Nancy nodded as Shelby continued. “Well, I guess a person from the camp was going to be at the festival, and she was going to give them her application form in person. But when she heard that all the designs got stolen, Madison got so upset and tore up her application and threw it out while we were in this tent.”

  Shelby tapped her sparkly foot. “She is really talented, and I think she can get in even without this design competition. I was going to try to find the form and have her sign up anyway.”

  George held up the ripped form. “Ugh, I think she will want a new one,” she said with a giggle. “It has dried pieces of cotton candy on it!”

  The girls all laughed as they started to make their way out of the tent.

  “Now, what in the world is going on here?”

  Aunt Claire was standing in the main opening to the tent, arms crossed, with a stern look on her face. Rick Rickston, the cochair, was also there, not looking too pleased either.

  “We were just . . . leaving,” Nancy said meekly.

  “Actually, we were looking for clues that might help us find out who tried to ruin the pumpkin competition,” George said. “We really want to finish the competition next weekend!”

  Aunt Claire sighed. “Girls, I already told you that we are handling this on our own,” she said. “I appreciate your help, but you need to leave this to the adults.”

  Shelby smiled. “I was just here trying to help my friend out,” she said. “But it would be really cool if the Clue Crew could help!”

  Nancy took a step toward Aunt Claire. “I think I might have found a clue, too,” she said, showing her the gold star bracelet.

  Aunt Claire looked at the bracelet with a curious expression. “Where did you find that, Nancy?” she asked.

  Nancy pointed to the ground. “I found this while I was helping Emma clean up the mess,” she said. “It was lying near one of the tables.”

  “Well, I’m sure it’s nothing,” Aunt Claire said dismissively. “Someone probably just lost it while we were all in here yesterday.”

  “Well, we’re still happy to help you out if you want,” Bess said.

  Aunt Claire gave them all a tight smile. “I think you have done more than enough already, girls. Why don’t you go enjoy the rest of the festival?”

  With that, she motioned for Mr. Rickston to follow her out.

  “I guess that’s our cue, guys,” Bess said. “We still have a little bit of time before my mom comes to pick us up. Let’s go on some of the rides! Shelby, wanna come with us on a few?”

  Shelby shook her head. “Sorry, I gotta go meet up with the rest of my family. They’re over by the arts and crafts, and I snuck away while they were looking at new dog collars for our puppy. Some collars glow in the dark!”

  The Clue Crew waved good-bye to Shelby as they started toward the back parking lot, where some of the rides and games were set up.

  “I want to try that Stomp-A-Squirrel game,” George said enthusiastically. “I really want to win a new stuffed animal. Furrrocious needs a new friend!” Furrrocious is her (stuffed) pet bear that she had made with the gi
rls at the Make-a-Pet store a little while ago.

  “Do you mean Whac-A-Mole, George?” Nancy asked with a laugh.

  “Whatever, you know what I mean! As long as there are animals I can win!” George shot back.

  As the girls walked toward the main arcade, a strong gust of wind blew scraps of paper that had fallen on the ground nearby. Nancy picked one up. As she studied it, a look of recognition came over her face.

  “Nancy, what is it?” Bess asked. “Where did that paper come from?”

  “I think this is part of one of the entry forms for the decorating contest,” Nancy said slowly. “Look!” She could make out the outline of a pumpkin, with one headphone over the side of the pumpkin.

  “That looks like my MusicMate design!” George exclaimed.

  The girls looked at the scraps of paper that were littering the ground. They began to follow the trail, picking up pieces as they went. Some had parts of designs, others were ripped right where the names were written.

  As they walked along the paper path, the pieces were a bit larger. Finally, right near River Heights First Bank was a large cardboard box.

  “Oh my gosh, you guys! It’s the missing design forms!” Nancy said.

  The girls hurried over to the box. Inside were dozens of forms, some of them ripped, but most intact. As the girls started looking through the box, Nancy noticed a gold, shiny headband nearby that was a little dirty, probably from sitting out for hours.

  Nancy picked up the headband. On the inside was a label that said “Dazzle Designs.” It was a new boutique that had opened up on Main Street just a few months ago and was one of the coolest new stores in town. The headband was small and looked made for a girl Nancy’s age—definitely not for a grown-up! The initials “D.S.” were in black marker on the inside of the band.

  “I think we have another clue,” Nancy said as she held out the pretty hair accessory. “Maybe the same person who lost their bracelet lost this headband, too.”

  “Well, they sure like shiny things,” George said.

  Nancy held on to the band. “I guess I’ll just keep this for now,” she said. “I don’t think I want to wear it. It’s been on the ground for who knows how long!”