Turkey Trot Plot Read online

  Nancy saw what was inside—and it wasn’t what she thought. Instead of sweet snacks like strawberries, pineapple, and marshmallows, there were pieces of cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, and cubes of toast!

  Shelby took off her Swiss hat and placed it on the table. She then slipped underneath to pick up some dropped carrots.

  “You guys,” Nancy whispered, “I don’t think Shelby melted the chocolate turkey for the fondue.”

  “Why not?” George asked.

  “Because,” Nancy whispered, pointing to the covered pot, “I don’t think it’s chocolate!”

  CHEESE WHIZ!

  “What do you mean, it’s not chocolate?” George whispered. “Shelby told us she’d be making a chocolate fondue.”

  “We heard it with our own ears!” Bess whispered.

  Nancy pointed to the veggies from the container. “People don’t dip vegetables into chocolate fondue,” she said. “And Shelby has a lot of veggies.”

  “I just noticed something else,” Bess said, nodding at Shelby’s hat on the table. “The feathers in her hat are red and yellow, not blue and green.”

  “Then what’s in the pot?” George asked.

  “What are you whispering about?” Shelby asked as she pulled herself out from under the table.

  “Sorry, Shelby,” Nancy said. “We thought you were making a chocolate fondue.”

  “I wish it was chocolate!” Shelby groaned.

  “It’s not?” Bess asked.

  Shelby shook her head. “My brother and his friends ate all of my Choco-Wacko bars on Wednesday night,” she explained. “I didn’t want to take a chance buying more chocolate, so I bought cheese. My brother hates cheese.”

  “I just hate the stinky kind,” Bess said.

  “I didn’t tell you because I felt like a loser.” Shelby sighed. “Even if it wasn’t my fault.”

  Shelby gazed at her covered pot and said, “I wanted my chocolate fondue to be perfect. Instead . . . it’s cheesy.”

  “Most people love melted cheese, Shelby,” Nancy said. “It’s the best part of a grilled cheese sandwich.”

  “What kind of cheese is it?” George asked. “The kind they put on cheeseburgers or pizza?”

  “There was only one cheese in the supermarket on Thanksgiving morning,” Shelby said, pulling the lid off the pot. “Limburger!”

  Whoa! The strong smell made Nancy’s and George’s heads whip back. But it made Bess clap her hand over her nose and gag. “Ewwwwww! Stinky cheese! Stinky cheese!”

  People in the room turned to stare at Bess.

  “Bess, stop!” Shelby hissed. “Everyone will think my fondue is yucky, not just stinky!”

  “I can’t help it,” Bess cried, squeezing her nose. “Eww, eww, eww!”

  Nancy knew she had to think fast. She turned to Shelby and said, “Quick! Start yodeling—loud!”

  “Okay!” Shelby said. She threw back her shoulders and cried, “Yodel-ay-ee-oooo! Yodel-ay-ee-ooo!”

  Shelby’s yodels drowned out Bess’s eww’s. While guests smiled and applauded, Nancy and George hustled Bess out of the lunchroom and the school!

  “Give me a break, Bess,” George said when they were outside. “That cheese was strong, but it didn’t smell bad.”

  “If you like stinky feet.” Bess groaned.

  “It’s okay, you guys,” Nancy said. “At least we found out that Shelby didn’t take the chocolate turkey from Classy Coco!”

  Nancy opened her clue book and crossed off Shelby’s name. Now they had two suspects left on their list: Henderson Murphy and the Choco Chewers Club.

  “Let’s drop by Henderson’s house first,” Bess suggested. “His house is just two blocks from here.”

  “While I ask Henderson questions,” Nancy said, shutting her clue book, “you can look around his room for clues.”

  “Can we drop these hats off first?” George asked. “Halloween was over a few weeks ago.”

  The Clue Crew brought their hats back to George’s house. While they grabbed a snack in the kitchen, Nancy spotted a leftover fruit platter from the Faynes’ Thanksgiving dinner.

  “Can we bring this fruit platter to Henderson?” Nancy asked George. “To make it look like a get-well visit?”

  “Instead of a snoop visit?” George joked. “I’ll ask my mom.”

  The fruit platter was a go. George carried it the few blocks to the Murphy house, where Nancy rang the doorbell. Mrs. Murphy opened the door.

  “Hello, Mrs. Murphy,” Nancy said. “We heard Henderson is sick, so we want to give him this fruit.”

  George held out the platter and Mrs. Murphy smiled.

  “Of course you can give it to him, girls,” Mrs. Murphy said. “Come inside and go right up to his room.”

  As the girls climbed the stairs, Mrs. Henderson called, “Henderson’s still sick, so don’t get too close to him!”

  “Yeah, in case he hurls,” George whispered.

  “Shhh!” Nancy whispered.

  Once upstairs the girls found a door with the letter H nailed to it.

  “Is that Henderson’s room?” Bess asked.

  “Unless he has a brother named Harvey,” George said.

  The door was half open, so Nancy, Bess, and George peeked inside. Henderson’s bed was empty.

  “Henderson’s not in there,” Bess said softly. “What do we do?”

  “We go inside and look for clues,” Nancy said.

  Trying not to make noise, the Clue Crew entered Henderson’s room. As George placed the fruit platter on Henderson’s desk, she spotted something else. . . .

  “You guys, check it out!” George said.

  Nancy looked to see where George was pointing. Near the edge of Henderson’s desk was a bright blue feather.

  “Look what I found!” Bess said, pointing to the floor. “A green feather!”

  “Those are the same colors as the feathers in Classy Coco,” Nancy said excitedly. “But where did they come from?”

  “Maybe we’ll find out,” George said. “Let’s look for more clues before Henderson gets back.”

  The girls spread out to search the room. Next to Henderson’s bed Nancy found a wastebasket filled with crumpled tissues. Also next to his bed was a machine spewing a soft warm mist. To Nancy they were two great clues. . . .

  “Bess? George?” Nancy called. “I just found a bunch of tissues and a vaporizer.”

  “So?” George asked.

  Nancy looked at her friends and smiled. “So Henderson doesn’t have a stomachache,” she declared. “He has a cold!”

  COLD CASE

  “So are you saying Henderson didn’t eat the chocolate turkey, Nancy?” Bess asked.

  Nancy was about to answer when—

  “Turkey, turkey, gobble-gobble, eat ’em up!” a voice squawked. “Raaaak!”

  Nancy, Bess, and George shrieked as a parrot soared into the room over their heads. The big parrot, whose feathers were blue and green, squawked before swooping down over the fruit platter!

  Nancy watched as the parrot pecked at the fruit. “So that’s where the blue and green feathers in Henderson’s room came from,” she said with a smile. “He has a parrot!”

  “A green-winged macaw to be exact,” Henderson’s voice said.

  The girls turned toward the door. A red-nosed Henderson walked into his room wearing sweats and dinosaur-head slippers.

  “My mom said you brought me fruit,” Henderson said with a sniff. “Thanks. I could use the vitamin C.”

  “You’re welcome,” George said, nodding at the pecking parrot. “I hope you don’t mind sharing with beaky breath over there.”

  “His name is Rocky,” Henderson said, “after my dad’s most popular ice cream flavor—Chocolate Rocky Road.”

  Nancy decided to tell Henderson the reason they had come. “Speaking of chocolate,” she said, “we were looking around your room for a chocolate turkey.”

  “Chocolate turkey?” Henderson asked. “What chocolate turkey?”
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br />   “The chocolate turkey that went missing from Classy Coco,” Bess replied, “before the Turkey Trot yesterday.”

  Henderson scrunched his brow trying to understand. “So you thought I took it?” he asked. “Why would you think that?”

  “You were mad at Anna Epicure, Henderson,” Nancy explained, “for saying not-so-nice things about your dad’s hot chocolate.”

  “I was mad,” Henderson admitted, “but I would never take something that wasn’t mine.”

  Nancy, Bess, and George traded looks. They pretty much believed Henderson. There was just one question left to be asked. . . .

  “Where were you yesterday morning before the Turkey Trot?” Nancy asked.

  “Where do you think I was?” Henderson asked with a sniff. “In bed sneezing and honking my nose off, that’s where!”

  Nancy heard the hiss of the vaporizer. “I believe him,” she told her friends.

  “Me too,” Bess whispered.

  But George shook her head. “Not so fast,” she said. “Henderson could have caught the cold yesterday afternoon. He could have felt fine in the morning when the turkey went missing.”

  “Come to think of it,” Bess said, “maybe Henderson took Rocky with him to Classy Coco. Why else would those blue and green feathers be on the floor?”

  “What would Rocky be doing there?” Nancy asked.

  “Maybe the parrot was Henderson’s lookout!” George said.

  “Stop that!” Henderson said. “I repeat—I am not your chocolate turkey thief!”

  Henderson blew his nose, then added, “All I did yesterday morning was watch the Thanksgiving Parade on TV.”

  The Thanksgiving Parade!

  Nancy’s eyes lit up. The parade could be Henderson’s excuse for being home!

  “If you watched the parade, then you saw the Ginger Girls,” Nancy said. “What kind of float did they sing on?”

  “A pirate ship,” Henderson replied. “I’m not a Ginger Girls fan, but that was pretty cool.”

  “What song did they sing?” Bess quizzed.

  “I don’t remember,” Henderson said. “I watched the parade to see the Danger Dog balloon, not the Ginger Girls!”

  Rocky picked his feathery head up from the fruit platter. He circled his neck and began to sing: “All abooooooard the ship of loooooove! Arrrrk! All abooooooard!”

  “Rocky’s singing ‘Ship of Love!’ ” Bess said excitedly. “That’s the song the Ginger Girls sang in the parade!”

  “Rocky was watching the parade too,” Nancy said. “He couldn’t have been at Classy Coco yesterday morning either.”

  “Any other questions, Clue Crew?” Henderson asked.

  “Just one,” Nancy said. “What did you mean when you said you’d show Anna?”

  Henderson smiled. “Follow me,” he said.

  Nancy, Bess, and George followed Henderson to the window in his room. Outside was his dad’s truck and a line of kids waiting to buy hot chocolate and cookies.

  “I just wanted to show Anna that my dad’s Minty Martian hot chocolate would be a hit,” Henderson explained. “And as you can see, it is!”

  Rocky ruffled his feathers. “Minty Martian, Minty Martian!” he squawked. “Out of this world! Arrrrrk!”

  Nancy giggled as the parrot rolled his feathery head in a circle. “Thanks for being a good sport, Henderson,” she said.

  “No problem,” Henderson said. He threw back his head and, “Ah . . . ah . . . ah . . . ahhhh—”

  The girls watched Henderson sneeze into his hand. Then he lifted it to high-five. Gross!

  “Um . . . we’d better go,” George blurted.

  “Feel better!” Bess called as they headed for the door.

  The Clue Crew said goodbye to Mrs. Murphy before leaving the house. Nancy was happy to cross Henderson’s name off of her suspect list.

  “Who’s left?” Bess asked.

  Nancy pointed to the last name on their suspect list.

  “The Choco Chewers Club,” she replied. “They would do anything for chocolate.”

  “Plus they wore blue and green feathers around their necks to the Turkey Trot!” George pointed out.

  “Tomorrow is Saturday, when the Choco Chewers have their club meeting,” Nancy said as she closed her clue book. “Let’s go to their clubhouse and see what we can find out.”

  “How do we find their clubhouse?” Bess said.

  “I heard Hazel bragging at school that she has her own Choco Chewers Club blog,” George said. “Maybe she wrote about their clubhouse.”

  “I can look up Hazel’s blog tonight,” Nancy said. “If the clubhouse is nearby, we’ll walk there together tomorrow.”

  “Should we bring them fruit too?” George joked.

  “Only if it’s dipped in chocolate.” Bess giggled.

  • • •

  “Nancy, we’re leaving in ten minutes!” Mr. Drew called from downstairs. “We don’t want to be late for the movie.”

  “Okay, Daddy!” Nancy called back. “I just need to look something up real fast.”

  Nancy was up in her room at her computer. Chocolate Chip sat at her side, wagging her tail.

  “Here’s Hazel’s blog, Chip,” Nancy said, pointing to the screen. “She wrote that her clubhouse is in her own backyard!”

  Nancy was about to close the site when she noticed something on Hazel’s blog. It was a group picture of the Choco Chewers Club—next to a giant chocolate turkey. Scrolling down, Nancy read what was written underneath:

  “We didn’t have to WIN the chocolate turkey at Classy Coco because look what we have. BOOM!”

  Nancy leaned forward to stare at the chocolate turkey in the picture. “Chip, it’s true, it’s true!” she told her dog. “The Choco Chewers aren’t just chocoholics—they could be choco bandits!”

  SWEET TOOTH SLEUTHS

  “Great find, Nancy,” Bess said. “But how do we know the chocolate turkey in this picture is the chocolate turkey from Classy Coco?”

  It was Saturday morning. The Clue Crew sat at Nancy’s computer checking out Hazel’s Choco Chewers blog and picture.

  “We don’t know,” Nancy said. “That’s why we have to see it with our own eyes.”

  “Then I hope we have X-ray vision,” George joked, “because the chocolate turkey is probably in the club’s stomachs by now.”

  “Maybe not,” Nancy said, scrolling down to something else Hazel wrote. “It says here that the club is cutting the chocolate turkey today at one o’clock.”

  “It’s twelve thirty now,” Bess said, glancing at her watch. “If the club didn’t cut the chocolate turkey yet, they didn’t eat it yet!”

  “We have a half hour to get to the clubhouse,” George said. “But what if Hazel and the others don’t let us inside?”

  “It’s not like we belong to the Choco Chewers Club,” Bess said.

  Nancy smiled at her puppy, Chip, playing with one of her slippers. “I think I just thought of a way,” she said slowly.

  The girls rushed to Hazel’s house. On the way they walked up Main Street, busy with Saturday shoppers. They saw Anna Epicure standing in front of Classy Coco. She held a tray filled with paper cups, smiling as kids lined up to take one.

  “What’s in the cups?” George asked a boy as he walked by.

  “Yummy hot cocoa,” the boy said, lifting his cup. “The lady who owns the store is giving out free samples.”

  “Free samples?” Nancy said after the boy walked away. “Anna said she never gives out free samples.”

  “She said she never makes hot chocolate, either,” George pointed out.

  “She does now!” Bess said with a smile. “What are we waiting for? Let’s get some.”

  “No,” Nancy said, shaking her head. “We have to get to the Choco Chewers clubhouse before they eat the chocolate turkey.”

  Nancy, Bess, and George walked the short distance to the Hookstratten house. Hazel’s dad directed them to the backyard.

  When the girls saw
the Choco Chewer’s clubhouse their jaws dropped. It was the size of a large tool shed but looked nothing like one. It was decorated to look like it was built out of chocolate bars!

  “Sweet!” George exclaimed.

  “Not really,” Bess said with a frown. “A candy house didn’t work out so great for Hansel and Gretel.”

  Nancy led the way to the clubhouse. Using the chocolate-pretzel-shaped door knocker, she rapped on the door. After a few seconds, Hazel opened the door. Other club members stood behind her, looking over her shoulders.

  “Hi, guys,” Nancy said with a smile. “We read about the chocolate turkey you’re about to eat.”

  “Mind if we take a look?” George asked.

  Lester squeezed next to Hazel at the door. “A look?” he said. “One look at our chocolate turkey and you’re going to want to eat it!”

  “Only club members can taste our chocolate turkey,” Hazel said.

  “Then may we join your club?” Nancy asked.

  “It depends,” Hazel said. “How much do you like chocolate?”

  Nancy was expecting that question. “I like chocolate so much,” she said, “that I named my puppy Chocolate Chip!”

  “So what?” Lester said. “My dog’s name is Prince. That doesn’t make me a king.”

  Hazel and the others murmured in agreement.

  “Give me a break!” George cried. “We don’t have to taste your chocolate turkey.”

  “But, George,” Bess whispered. “We have to—”

  “Anna Epicure is giving out free samples of hot chocolate at Classy Coco,” George told the club. “It’s probably way better than your chocolate turkey.”

  Nancy suddenly knew what George had in mind. “The hot chocolate is free today,” she told the club. “I’ll bet it’s sweet, thick, and real chocolaty!”

  “Thick . . . sweet . . . chocolaty?” Hazel repeated. She turned to the other club members who were also swooning. “The chocolate turkey will have to wait. Next stop: Classy Coco!”

  Nancy, Bess, and George stepped away from the door to let the Choco Chewers dash out. After the club members rounded the house, the girls slipped inside the clubhouse.