The Secret of the Old Clock Read online

  “Keep him busy,” Nancy whispered to Bess and George. “Ask him to show you something up there.” She pointed to some bookshelves near the counter.

  Bess and George followed Nancy’s instructions. While Mr. Ortiz’s back was turned to her, Nancy quickly crossed the room. She wanted to check out the glass case with the antique keys again, and she didn’t want Mr. Ortiz to see her snooping around.

  The display looked different from yesterday. There were some keys missing, and some new keys had been added.

  But there was still no sign of Bess’s key.

  Nancy sighed in disappointment. It was beginning to look like Mr. Ortiz was not the thief. Maybe he just liked to keep a close watch over his antiques. Even worse, maybe the key was lost forever.

  “It’s time to head over to the tree!” Mr. Marvin announced, tapping his watch.

  The group said good-bye to Mr. Ortiz and left the store. A few minutes later, they reached the tree. A huge crowd had gathered around it.

  “Ten minutes till the tree-lighting ceremony,” Mrs. Marvin said. “Bess, honey, I’m afraid you’re going to have to tell Mr. Farnsworth the bad news and bow out of the ceremony.”

  “Oh, Mommy,” Bess said, biting her lip.

  Just then, Nancy spotted Melissa Adams and her family at the edge of the crowd.

  Nancy noticed that Melissa’s baby sister, Mandy, was pulling things out of her parents’ shopping bags and tossing them down on the sidewalk.

  Then Nancy noticed something else. Melissa was wearing fuzzy pink mittens. They looked like the ones Mr. Marvin bought for Bess at Muller’s.

  Nancy turned to Bess. “I know what happened to the key!” she said excitedly.

  8

  A Bright, Shiny Object

  Bess squeezed Nancy’s arm. “What do you mean you know what happened to the key?” she said breathlessly. “Did you find it?”

  “What’s going on?” George demanded.

  Nancy dragged her friends over to where Melissa Adams was standing. “Melissa!” Nancy called out.

  “Hey, guys,” Melissa said, smiling.

  “I know this is a strange question,” Nancy said. “But where did you get those pink mittens!”

  Bess stared at Melissa’s mittens. “Oh, my gosh!” she exclaimed.

  Melissa shrugged. “It’s weird. My mom bought me a pair of red mittens at Muller’s on Friday. But when we got home, the bag had pink mittens in it. I don’t know what happened. Maybe the salesclerk at Muller’s mixed up my bag with someone else’s.”

  “I think I know what happened,” Nancy said with a grin.

  “What?” Melissa asked her curiously.

  “What?” Bess and George said in unison.

  “On Friday, we ran into you at the Ye Olde Antique Shoppe—remember?” Nancy reminded Melissa. “Bess had a Muller’s shopping bag with pink mittens in it. Melissa, you had a Muller’s shopping bag with red mittens in it. I think the two bags got mixed up!”

  “Oh, my gosh!” Melissa exclaimed again.

  “I think this is what happened,” Nancy went on. “On Friday, Bess put all her bags down for a second to check out some stuff at the store. Melissa put her Muller’s bag down too. Then Melissa picked up Bess’s Muller’s bag by accident when she left the store. The other Muller’s bag—the one with the red mittens—got left behind. And Mr. Ortiz found it. It’s at his store right now!”

  “Nancy, you’re brilliant!” George cried out.

  “Totally,” Bess agreed. “Melissa, that means you have the key! It was in my Muller’s bag, in a black velvet bag!”

  “What key?” Melissa said, confused.

  Nancy told Melissa all about the missing key. When she was finished, Melissa shook her head. “I don’t have the key. When I got home that night, the only things I found in the shopping bag were the pink mittens!”

  Nancy glanced over at Mandy, who was still digging through her parents’ shopping bags. Something occurred to her.

  “Melissa? Do you think maybe Mandy might have pulled the key out of the shopping bag?” Nancy said.

  Melissa gasped. “Yes! On Friday night, after we left Mr. Ortiz’s shop, I saw her chewing on something big and gold. I thought it was one of her toys. She has zillions of them. But maybe it was the key!”

  “Where exactly did you see Mandy chewing on the gold thing?” Nancy asked her.

  Melissa pointed to Star’s Jewelers. “Right in front of Star’s,” she replied.

  The four girls rushed over to the jewelry store, which was right next to the Christmas tree. “I think we know where the key is!”

  Nancy called out to her father.

  Nancy and her friends searched all along the front of the jewelry store. After a few minutes, Nancy spotted something in a small mound of snow. It was the black velvet bag!

  Nancy picked it up and shook the snow off it. She opened it and looked inside.

  There was no key.

  “It’s not here,” she said, disappointed.

  The girls kept searching through the snow. The key was nowhere to be found. But the black bag meant that the key could be around somewhere. Nancy put the bag in her pocket.

  A car horn honked. Nancy glanced up. A long, black limousine was pulling up in front of the Christmas tree.

  The car door opened, and the mayor of River Heights stepped out. With him was Deputy Mayor Franklin Farnsworth.

  “Oh, no, the ceremony is starting!” Bess cried out. “I’ll have to tell the mayor now!”

  Casey Cameron from WRIV-TV broke through the crowd. “We’re coming to you live from the tree-lighting ceremony in River Heights!” he said into his microphone. The cameraman hoisted his TV camera onto his shoulder. He turned on a bright light that lit up the tree while he got some footage of it.

  Nancy glanced at the tree. The camera light shone off the many gold and silver ornaments that hung from the branches.

  Then Nancy did a double take. Was she imagining things, or . . .

  She ran to the tree and stood on her tiptoes. She plucked off one of the gold ornaments.

  But it wasn’t an ornament. It was the key to the city!

  Bess rushed up to her. “Nancy, you found it!” she practically screamed. “Yay!”

  George gave Nancy a high-five. “You are the most awesome detective in the world! How did you find it?”

  “I saw it on the tree,” Nancy said with a smile. She handed the key to Bess. “Quick! The ceremony is going to start! You have to give the key to the mayor!”

  Bess nodded. “Okey-dokey!”

  Melissa returned to her family. Nancy and George joined Mr. Drew and the others. “We found the key!” Nancy announced happily.

  The ceremony started. The mayor read a speech about what a wonderful city River Heights was. At the end of the speech, he flicked on a switch. The entire Christmas tree lit up with tiny sparkling white lights!

  Then the mayor handed the velvet bag to Bess. “Bess Marvin, you are charged with a very important job. The job of presenting the key to the city to Santa Claus!” he declared.

  “Yes, sir, Mr. Mayor!” Bess said excitedly.

  The sound of sleigh bells filled the air. Nancy turned around. Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus were driving up in a sleigh!

  The crowd clapped and cheered. Nancy noticed that even Brenda, who was with her parents, was clapping.

  The Clauses stopped and got out of their sleigh. “Santa Claus looks like he eats a lot of Christmas cookies,” George remarked to Nancy. Nancy laughed.

  The Clauses walked up to the tree, where Bess was standing. Bess did a little curtsy. “Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus, I hereby present you with a key to the city!” she said in a loud, clear voice.

  Bess handed them the key. Santa Claus took it from her and kissed her cheek. Mrs. Claus did the same.

  “Yay, Bess!” Nancy shouted.

  “Way to go!” George cheered.

  Nancy saw that Casey Cameron of WRIV-TV was getting it all on tape. And Alice Stone of
Today’s Times was scribbling like mad. But now, they only had happy news to report!

  • • •

  After the ceremony was over, the girls went to the Double Dip for hot chocolate. At the Double Dip, Nancy spotted Howard Nakamoto, who lived up the street, and a few other students from the junior high. They were sitting in a booth having hot-fudge sundaes.

  Nancy tugged on Bess and George’s hands. “Come on!” she said.

  “What?” Bess said, looking confused.

  “Let’s go talk to Howard. He helped decorate the tree. Maybe he can tell us how the key got up there,” Nancy explained.

  “Where are you going?” Mr. Marvin asked.

  “Be back in a sec, Daddy. Just order us hot chocolate with lots and lots of whipped cream!” Bess said with a grin.

  When Nancy, George, and Bess got to Howard’s booth, they introduced themselves. “You live on my street,” Nancy reminded him.

  Howard nodded. “Oh, yeah. And you are the girl who gave the key to Santa tonight,” he said pointing at Bess. Bess grinned. “These are my friends Lacey and Alex,” Howard said, waving a hand at his friends. “They helped decorate the tree.”

  “We kind of wanted to ask you about that,” Nancy said. “Do any of you remember putting a big gold key up on the tree?”

  “That would be me,” Howard replied.

  “Where did you get it?” Bess asked him.

  Howard shrugged. “It was kind of weird. I saw it on the ground in front of Star’s Jewelers, just lying in the snow. I thought that maybe it fell out of the box of decorations or something. So I picked it up and put it on the tree.”

  “That key’s been everywhere,” Nancy said, grinning.

  “What do you mean?” George asked her.

  “Well, first, Bess had the key in her bag. Then Melissa picked up Bess’s bag by accident. Then Melissa’s sister, Mandy, took the key out of Melissa’s bag. Then Mandy dropped it in front of Star’s Jewelers. Then Howard found it and put it on the Christmas tree!” Nancy explained.

  “That key sure went on a long trip!” Bess exclaimed.

  Everyone laughed.

  • • •

  That night, Nancy opened up her blue detective notebook. She went to the page that said THE CASE OF THE MISSING KEY. She wrote:

  I’m so glad we found the key in time. We didn’t have a key thief at all. Our “thief” was a baby—Baby Mandy!

  I guess if you have something super-important to take care of, you should never let it out of your sight. Especially if it’s the key to the city, and the mayor—and Santa Claus—are counting on you!

  Case closed!

  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  First Aladdin Paperbacks edition December 2002

  Copyright © 2002 by Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  ALADDIN PAPERBACKS

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  Children’s Publishing Division

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  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

  The text of this book was set in Excelsior.

  NANCY DREW, THE NANCY DREW NOTEBOOKS, and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  Library of Congress Control Number 2001098774

  ISBN 0-7434-3766-7