Duck Derby Debacle Read online

  “Excuse me, Henderson,” Nancy interrupted. “What did your dad mean when he said Kinsley cleaned you out?”

  “Does it mean she bought the last of the coconut chocolate chip?” Bess asked.

  “Correct!” Henderson said. “Kinsley wanted a cone with three scoops.”

  “That’s not an ice cream cone,” George said. “It’s an ice cream skyscraper!”

  Henderson shrugged. “Kinsley was in a great mood. She wanted to celebrate with a big cone of her favorite flavor.”

  “What was she celebrating?” Nancy asked.

  “Something to do with ducks,” Henderson replied. “Some record she broke.”

  Nancy, Bess, and George gaped at Henderson, then looked at one another.

  Did he just say… ducks? And record?

  Chapter 8

  QUACK-IN-THE-BOX

  “What duck record, Henderson?” Nancy asked eagerly.

  “You have to tell us!” George urged.

  “Please?” Bess begged.

  “I don’t know,” Henderson insisted. “She didn’t say!”

  “Girls?” Mr. Henderson called from inside the truck. “Do you want ice cream or not?”

  “Yes, Mr. Drippy—I mean Mr. Murphy!” Nancy replied. “But first we have work to do.”

  Bess sighed as the girls stepped away from the truck. “We’ll never get ice cream!” she grumbled.

  “This is bigger than ice cream, Bess!” George said. “Somehow, Kinsley found a couple of hundred rubber ducks to break the record!”

  “Maybe the ducks are the missing ones,” Nancy said. “We have to go to Kinsley’s house and see them for ourselves.”

  “Does anyone know where Kinsley lives?” Bess asked.

  “I do!” Henderson called. “We were parked outside her house on Berry Lane.”

  “Thanks, Henderson!” Nancy said.

  “No problem. You know, we have berry flavors too. Strawberry, blueberry, loganberry—”

  Henderson’s voice trailed off as the girls hurried away. Nancy opened her clue book to add a new suspect: Kinsley Armbruster! “The ducky derby is tomorrow,” she said. “If we’re going to question Kinsley, we have to do it right now!”

  “Berry Lane is two blocks away,” Bess said.

  “Then let’s hurry to the Berry!” George declared.

  When the girls reached Berry Lane, they found several colorful houses.

  “Which one is Kinsley’s?” Nancy asked.

  “Wild guess: the bright yellow one with the duck on the mailbox?” George said.

  Nancy narrowed her eyes at the duck. “It’s a good guess. The name on the mailbox is Armbruster.”

  “That’s us!” a friendly voice called.

  The girls turned to see a woman walking from the house down the path toward them.

  “I’m Kinsley’s mom,” Mrs. Armbruster said. “You girls must be here to see her.”

  “Yes, please,” Bess replied.

  “Why don’t you go upstairs to Kinsley’s room while I get the mail? I’m sure she can’t wait to tell you the great news.”

  George smiled. “We can’t wait to hear it.”

  “Thanks, Mrs. Armbruster!” Nancy said quickly.

  The Clue Crew went through the front door and up the stairs. On the second landing, they saw a door decorated with duck stickers.

  “This must be the place,” George said.

  Nancy knocked three times, but there was no answer. She called Kinsley’s name through the door. Still no answer.

  “She could be listening to music,” George suggested. “Let me try.”

  George gave the door two hard knocks. On the third knock, it popped open.

  “Kinsley?” Bess called as they peeked around the door.

  Kinsley wasn’t in her room, but as Nancy, Bess, and George stepped inside, they saw it was far from empty. Floor-to-ceiling everything was ducky!

  “Duck curtains!” Nancy said.

  “A duck-shaped lamp,” Bess exclaimed. “And look, duck wallpaper!”

  “She even has duck slippers,” George said, nodding at a pair of plush yellow duckies sitting next to Kinsley’s bed. “You don’t see those every day.”

  Nancy walked over to a bookcase against one wall. While the bottom shelf was filled with books, the other shelves were filled with—“Rubber duckies!” Nancy gasped. She waved Bess and George over.

  Some of the ducks looked like rock stars or superheroes, but most were yellow with smiling orange beaks—just like the missing ones!

  “Guys, Kinsley needed a couple hundred more ducks to break the record,” Nancy said.

  “Are you saying we have to count all those ducks?” Bess asked, her eyes going wide. “Do we have to squeeze them too?”

  “What do you think, George?” Nancy asked. “How many rubber ducks would you say are on these shelves?”

  George didn’t answer. When Nancy turned around, George was standing over Kinsley’s desk.

  “Check out her laptop,” George said. “Sweet!”

  “Don’t touch it, George,” Nancy called.

  “I just touched the mouse, and look,” George said, pointing at the screen. “Kinsley had left open the website for the Kids’ Book of World Records. There’s an article here about a girl who broke the rubber ducky record.”

  “Was it Kinsley?” Nancy asked.

  George shook her head. “No, according to this, the girl’s named Ruby Rodriquez.”

  Nancy, Bess, and George all leaned in to see a picture of Ruby surrounded by hundreds of rubber duckies. Seven hundred!

  “I don’t get it,” Bess said. “Kinsley told Henderson she broke the rubber ducky record.”

  “Maybe Kinsley came in second,” Nancy said. “Scroll down. See if they mention her.”

  George was about to when Bess called, “Omigosh! You guys, look there!”

  Nancy and George followed Bess’s gaze to the corner of the room. Sitting on the floor was a big cardboard box!

  “That looks like the box we left on your doorstep, Nancy,” Bess said excitedly. “The one that’s missing!”

  “Maybe it’s not missing anymore!” Nancy said, excited.

  She and George rushed to join Bess. Like the missing box, the top was taped closed, but sticking out through the flaps was a brown string.

  “What do you think this is for?” George asked after she’d loosened the tape. She took hold of the string and gave it a tug.

  POOOOOOOOOOOOFFFFFFF!!!!

  The top of the box burst open. Nancy, Bess, and George shrieked as a yellow duck began oozing out, then kept growing and growing.

  “That’s not a rubber ducky!” Nancy cried.

  “It’s Duck-zilla!” George shouted. “Run!”

  Chapter 9

  MIX-UP FIX-UP

  Nancy, Bess, and George raced to the door just as Kinsley was returning. She looked past the girls and called out, “Holy ravioli!” She pushed her way inside. “I go to the bathroom for a few minutes and come back to find you Clue Snoops going through my things?”

  The duck made a loud hiss before it finally stopped growing.

  “Your things? As in your giant attack duck?” George asked, trying to calm her breathing.

  “It’s a giant self-inflatable duck raft!” Kinsley insisted.

  “Raft?” Nancy repeated.

  Kinsley nodded. “I tried to break the record for having the biggest duck raft,” she explained, “but a kid named Percy had one twice as big.”

  “Wow,” Bess said.

  “We thought you wanted to break the record for having the most rubber ducks,” George said, pointing to the computer. “The site says a girl named Ruby beat you to it.”

  “That’s okay,” Kinsley said as she walked to her desk. “I broke another record and it’s just as awesome.”

  The ginormous duck raft practically filled the room, pressing up against the girls. Kinsley squeezed her way around it and walked to her desk. She grabbed her laptop and brought it over
to show the Clue Crew, pointing to a new page on the Kids’ Book of World Records site. “I broke the record for the most tries to break a record!”

  “They have a record for that too?” Nancy asked.

  “Congrats, Kinsley,” George said. “But that doesn’t mean you weren’t still trying to break the rubber ducky record.”

  “With, say, a couple of hundred ducks you suddenly acquired out of nowhere,” Bess added.

  Kinsley scrunched her nose. “What are you talking about?” she asked.

  Nancy was still reluctant to let anyone know the duckies had gone missing until they found them. “Kinsley, I have question for you. Where were you yesterday at three o’clock?”

  “Three o’clock in the afternoon?” Kinsley asked. “I must have still been at the celebration at the mayor’s house.”

  “Are you sure?” Bess asked.

  “I stayed until the very end, and that was three o’clock.”

  While Kinsley focused on releasing the air from the raft, George whispered, “How do we know Kinsley’s telling the truth?”

  “Yeah,” Bess said. “How can we be sure she was at the mayor’s house yesterday until the festival ended?”

  Nancy didn’t have an answer—until she spotted something bright yellow spread on Kinsley’s bed. It was a T-shirt from the mayor’s ducky derby celebration.

  Pointing to the T-shirt, Nancy said, “Guys, Kinsley did stay at the mayor’s house until three o’clock. That’s when they were going to give out those T-shirts.”

  “Hel-lo?” Kinsley called above the hissing raft. “I’m right here, and I can hear every word you’re saying, Clue Crew!”

  “We were just working on a case,” Nancy admitted with a sheepish smile. “Thanks for helping us figure it out, Kinsley.”

  “Sure,” Kinsley said. “And now you guys can help me.”

  “How?” Nancy asked.

  “Help me get the air out of this humongous duck raft!” Kinsley groaned. “It’s taking forever.”

  “Don’t worry, Kinsley,” George said, bending her arm to flex her muscle. “Duck-zilla is about to meet his match!”

  Nancy, Bess, and George laughed along with Kinsley as they all worked together to squeeze air out of the raft. When Duck-zilla was as flat as a pancake, the girls rolled it neatly and put it back into the box.

  “Thanks, Clue Crew,” Kinsley said, walking the girls out of the house. “See you at the ducky derby tomorrow.”

  Ducky derby! Nancy gulped. They were having so much fun in Kinsley’s room, she’d forgotten why they’d been there in the first place.

  “We have zero suspects,” Nancy sighed as she, Bess, and George walked up Berry Lane. “With the ducky derby tomorrow morning, what are we going to do?”

  Suddenly… BEEP, BEEP!

  Nancy turned to see Hannah’s car stopping at the curb.

  “I thought that was you, girls,” Hannah called out. “I’m on my way to Main Street, so how about a lift?”

  “Don’t you usually walk to Main Street, Hannah?” Nancy asked. “It’s not far from our house.”

  “I’m delivering that box of used clothes to March of Time,” Hannah explained. “It’s too heavy to carry.”

  “You mean the box that was in the hall?” Nancy asked.

  Hannah nodded. “Someone from the store was supposed to pick it up yesterday,” she said. “They usually ring the doorbell, but for some reason, they seem to have forgotten.”

  “Did you call the store?” Nancy asked.

  “I called this morning,” Hannah replied. “The owner told me they did pick up a box yesterday!”

  “They did?” Nancy asked.

  “That’s what they said.” Hannah chuckled. “I think someone got their boxes a bit confused.”

  Nancy stared at Hannah. The people at the store may have been confused—but to her, things were becoming clearer and clearer!

  Clue Crew—and YOU!

  Can you help Nancy, Bess, and George figure out this feathery fiasco? Or read on to find out who plucked the ducks!

  So far, Nancy, Bess, and George have ruled out Antonio, Dorothy, and Kinsley as suspects. Can you think of someone else who might have taken the box of rubber duckies? Write down your suspects on a piece of paper.

  The March of Time store told Hannah they picked up a box of clothes, but Hannah’s box was never picked up. Why could this be an important clue? Write down your thoughts.

  Antonio, Dorothy, and Kinsley all had reasons for wanting the rubber ducks. Can you think of any reasons someone might want three hundred thirty-five rubber duckies? Let your imagination fly, and write down your answer.

  Chapter 10

  LUCKY DUCKS

  “Nancy, what’s up?” George asked.

  “Your eyes are as big as Frisbees!” Bess exclaimed.

  “Hannah said the store picked up a box, right?” Nancy said excitedly. “Maybe they picked up the wrong box!”

  “The box of rubber duckies!” Bess gasped.

  “Whoa!” George exclaimed.

  “Rubber duckies?” Hannah asked. “Nancy, does this have something to do with the box you asked me about?”

  “I hope I can tell you soon,” Nancy said. “In the meantime, we will come with you, thanks!”

  The ride to Main Street was quick. A bell above the door chimed as Hannah and the girls filed into the March of Time thrift shop. Standing by a hat rack was a woman wearing sparkly cat-eye glasses. She finished hanging up an old-timey sunhat and turned to her new customers with a broad smile.

  “Girls, this is Dulcie Yu, the owner of the store,” Hannah said. “Dulcie, meet Nancy, Bess, and George!”

  “Welcome, ladies,” Dulcie said. “How would you like to see our vintage kids’ section? I’ll bet you never wore a poodle skirt or polka-dot pedal pusher pants!”

  “Yes, please!” Bess said excitedly.

  “Bess, we’re not here for clothes,” George reminded her. “We’re here for ducks!”

  “Ducks?” Dulcie asked.

  “Yes, Ms. Yu,” Nancy explained. “Would it be possible for us to see the box you picked up from our house?”

  “As I told Hannah, a box was picked up yesterday. Stanley, who works here on Fridays, picked it up in his car.”

  “His car!” George repeated. “That must be the car Hannah heard outside.”

  “I did?” Hannah asked, still confused.

  Dulcie pointed to a door next to the counter. “The box is in the back room. While I go through this new box with Hannah, why don’t you go on in and take a look?”

  Nancy, Bess, and George dashed through the door, then looked around the room. There were rows of boxes everywhere!

  “How will we find ours?” Nancy asked.

  “We don’t have time to look through all of them to find the missing ducks!” Bess wailed. “What are we going to do?”

  With a weary sigh, Bess plopped down on a big box.

  SQUEEEEEEEAK!

  “Bess, did you just squeak?” Nancy asked.

  “I heard it too,” George said.

  “I don’t squeak!” Bess insisted. She looked down at the box she was still sitting on and gasped. “Maybe… maybe… omigosh!” Bess jumped up, and Nancy and George ran over to help her. The girls tore off the tape, then lifted the flaps.

  “Ducks!” George shouted, jumping up and down.

  “Hundreds of rubber duckies!” Nancy was so excited, she threw her arms around her friends.

  Bess gave one of the ducks a squeeze.

  SQUEEEEEEEAK!

  “They’re the squeaky kind, too!”

  “We found them, Clue Crew,” Nancy said, grinning. “We finally found the missing rubber duckies.”

  The girls shared a high five just as Dulcie and Hannah entered the back room.

  “Did you find what you were looking for, ladies?” Dulcie asked.

  “Yes!” Nancy said, relieved to share why she’d been so secretive lately. “You see, instead of picking up the box of c
lothes, Stanley took this one from our doorstep.”

  Hannah peered into the box. “Rubber duckies? Why were they so important?”

  “Mayor Strong asked us to number each duck for the derby tomorrow,” Nancy explained. “We left the box on the doorstep while we went to get ice cream, and when we got back, it was gone.”

  Hannah shook her head slowly. “Nancy,” she sighed. “Why didn’t you simply tell me or your dad? We could have helped.”

  “You’re right, Hannah. I should have told you and Daddy right away. It’s just that—”

  “It’s just that you’re the Clue Crew,” Hannah interrupted with a small smile. “I get it.”

  “I do too,” Dulcie said. “You can, of course, have your box back.”

  “Thanks, Ms. Yu,” Nancy said. “Now we have to go, because we have three hundred and thirty-five rubber duckies to number by tomorrow morning.”

  “Three hundred and thirty-five ducks.” Bess looked a little green.

  “We’re going to be up all night,” George moaned.

  “In that case,” Nancy said, “may I suggest a sleepover?”

  * * *

  “I am soooo tired,” George said the next morning.

  “Me too.” Bess yawned. “And soooo happy!”

  Bess gave a quick little twirl before saying, “I’m also loving my new polka-dot pedal pusher pants from March of Time!”

  Nancy tried not to yawn as she smiled at her sleepy friends. She too was tired, happy—and proud. Not only had the Clue Crew found the missing ducks, but they’d also numbered all three hundred and thirty-five of them!

  After they delivered the ducks, joining the crowd to watch the race was super fun. So was cheering for the winner—ducky number three, which had been sold to Mr. Murphy, Henderson’s dad!

  “It was nice of Mr. Drippy—I mean Mr. Murphy—to give Henderson the free movie tickets,” Nancy said as they watched the last of the ducks bob toward the finish line.

  “All that ice cream and free movies, too!” George said.