“So that’s what Henderson stuffed in his pocket.” Nancy sighed. “Not Hannah’s recipe—our picture of Katy!”
“Henderson still could have taken our recipe,” George insisted. “He needs thirty whole flavors of lemonade!”
“Henderson never tasted our lemonade,” Nancy said. “And there were no strawberries in the garage anywhere!”
“Here’s why!” Bess called out.
Nancy and George turned to see Bess holding a red rubber bracelet in her hand.
“It’s an allergy bracelet!” Bess said. “It has a cartoony strawberry face on it and it says ‘Allergic to Strawberries’!”
“Henderson is allergic to strawberries?” George wondered out loud.
“That’s why there were no strawberries in the garage,” Nancy said. “And why Henderson didn’t drink our lemonade!”
“So Henderson is clean,” George decided. “Now can we leave before those lemon-squirting squirts find us here?”
Leaving their Katy Sloan picture on the bulletin board, the Clue Crew climbed down from the tree house.
“Thirty flavors of lemonade,” Bess said as they left the Murphy yard. “Do you think they’ll have chocolate-chip lemonade, too?”
Nancy’s eyes grew wide. The words “chocolate chip” made her remember something important.
“I have to go home right away,” Nancy said. “I promised my dad I’d walk Chocolate Chip.”
“What about our case?” Bess asked.
“There’s no case left,” George said with a frown. “Henderson was our last suspect.”
Nancy frowned too. With no more suspects or clues, how would they find out who took Hannah’s secret recipe? And how long could she keep the truth from Hannah?
• • •
Nancy hoped Hannah wouldn’t ask about the lemonade stand when she got home. But she had no such luck.
“No lemonade again today?” Hannah asked. “How come?”
“Um . . . we couldn’t sell lemonade today, Hannah,” Nancy said, pretending to itch and scratch. “There were too many mosquitoes outside!”
Hannah shrugged, then walked back to the kitchen.
Nancy felt horrible as she hooked Chip’s leash onto her collar. Why couldn’t she just tell Hannah that someone took her top-secret recipe?
“Daddy?” Nancy asked as he walked by. “When is it a good time to give up on a detective case?”
“Give up?” Mr. Drew said. He smiled and shook his head. “Sometimes the real answer to a mystery is the one you least expect. So keep at it.”
Nancy never did like to give up. And neither did the Clue Crew.
“Okay, Daddy,” Nancy said, grabbing the Clue Book and pen. “Then I’d better take these on our walk!”
Once outside Nancy walked Chip up the path to the sidewalk. While her puppy sniffed at the flowers, Nancy opened the Clue Book. But as she flipped through the last few pages she froze.
Something was weird. Terribly weird!
“Omigosh, Chip!” Nancy gasped. “I know I wrote in my Clue Book, but now it’s . . . it’s . . . empty!”
Clue Crew—and
YOU!
Can you solve the mystery of the missing lemonade recipe? Write your answers on a sheet of paper. Or just turn the page to find out!
Nancy, Bess, and George came up with three suspects. Can you think of more? List your suspects.
1.
2.
3.
Write the way you think Hannah’s top-secret recipe disappeared.
What clues helped you solve this mystery? Write them down below.
1.
2.
3.
This page may be reproduced by teachers and school librarians solely for use in school classes and libraries.
SURPRISE CUSTOMER
Nancy stared at each blank page. Everything had vanished like some magic trick!
“Our suspects and clues disappeared, Chip,” Nancy said, tapping an empty page with the pen. “Just like the heart I drew on the kitchen calendar!”
Nancy stopped tapping to stare at the pen. It was the same pen she had used on the kitchen calendar. It was George’s Presto Pen from her spy-girl kit!
That’s when everything began to click. . . .
“I also used this pen to write Hannah’s secret recipe!” Nancy said excitedly. “George may not know what the Presto Pen does, Chip. But I think I do!”
Nancy ran back into the house to phone her best friends. In a flash she and Bess were at George’s door.
“I’ll explain everything after I read the instructions for the Presto Pen,” Nancy said. “Did you find them, George?”
George nodded and said, “The instructions were actually still inside the box.”
But when the girls entered George’s room, they froze. Sitting on the floor and scribbling all over the spy girl kit instructions was George’s three-year-old brother, Scott!
“Scotty, no!” George said. “Give it back!”
Scotty put down his blue crayon. He pointed to the shiny charm bracelet circling Bess’s wrist and said, “Give me that first. The dragon one!”
Bess whipped her hand back. “It’s a unicorn!” she said. “And you can’t have it, Scotty!”
Scott pouted and scrunched the instructions inside his fist. He was about to cry when—
“Give it to him, Bess, please!” Nancy said.
“Yeah, Bess!” George snapped. “You’ve got a million of those girly-girl things!”
Rolling her eyes, Bess snapped off the charm and handed it to Scotty. In turn, Scotty handed George the instructions.
After unscrunching the instructions, George read about the Presto Pen out loud: “ ‘The Presto Pen writes a supersecret message with ink that disappears within twenty-four hours. Now you see it. Now you don’t!’ ”
“It’s disappearing ink?” Bess exclaimed.
“Just as I thought!” Nancy said happily. “I used the Presto Pen to circle my calendar, write in the Clue Book, and write Hannah’s secret recipe for pink-strawberry lemonade!”
“Wow, Nancy!” George said. “Are you saying—”
“Hannah’s top-secret recipe was never stolen!” Nancy said excitedly. “It—poof—disappeared!”
“Poof!” Scotty laughed.
The Clue Crew traded big high fives. Hannah’s top-secret recipe was out of sight but totally safe. They could ask Hannah to write it down again after they explained everything. And best of all . . .
“Our lemonade stand is back in business!” Nancy declared with a smile. “Katy Sloan tickets, here we come!”
• • •
Early the next day the Clue Crew sat behind their lemonade stand, happy to have solved another case. While Nancy stirred a pitcher of lemonade, a truck rolled by. It was the Mr. Drippy ice-cream truck!
“Guess what?” Henderson called from the truck. “My dad decided to keep his ice-cream truck after all. How awesome is that?”
“Awesome!” the girls called back.
They watched as the truck rolled away, playing the Mr. Drippy jingle. They were happy for Henderson, but not for themselves.
“We still haven’t earned enough money for Katy Sloan tickets,” Nancy said sadly. “And the concert is tomorrow.”
“You guys,” George said. “Maybe we should just forget about—”
“Katy Sloan!” Bess gasped.
Nancy and George followed Bess’s gaze and gasped too. Stepping out of a sleek white car was the singer herself. It was Katy Sloan!
Nancy’s heart pounded inside her chest as the star walked toward their lemonade stand. Katy Sloan smiled and said, “Hi.”
“Y-y-you’re Katy Sloan!” Nancy stammered.
“I’m in River Heights for my concert tomorrow,” Katy said nicely. “I’ve been rehearsing all day, so I could use a cold cup of lemonade.”
“We have lemonade!” George blurted.
“Pink-strawberry lemonade!” Nancy said.
“It’s
awesome!” Bess squeaked.
“Great!” Katy said. “One cup, please.”
Nancy’s hands shook as she poured Katy a cup of lemonade. The girls watched wide-eyed as their favorite singer drank. Did she like it?
“Oh, wow!” Katy said after drinking the last drop. “This is the best pink-strawberry lemonade I’ve ever tasted!”
“Would you like another cup?” Nancy asked.
“No, thank you,” Katy said dropping a dollar into the jar. “But here’s a little something extra.”
The girls watched as Katy dropped three small red cards into the jar too. She gave a little wave and walked back to her car.
As the car drove off, Nancy pulled out the red cards. She looked at them and then let out a big shriek.
“Omigosh! Omigosh!” Nancy cried. “Three tickets to Katy’s concert at the amusement park tomorrow!”
Nancy, Bess, and George couldn’t stop jumping and shrieking. They were going to the Katy Sloan concert!
“Nancy, George,” Bess said as she stopped jumping. “We forgot to ask Katy Sloan for her autograph!”
“We can try tomorrow,” George said.
“For sure!” Nancy said with a big smile. “But this time I’m bringing a real pen!”
CAROLYN KEENE is the author of the ever-popular Nancy Drew series of books.
PETER FRANCIS lives and works in the United Kingdom. When he’s not helping the Clue Crew solve mysteries, he can be found sketching frantically in his studio, investigating hidden landscapes, or growing his own vegetables.
Don’t miss the next Clue Book mystery:
Nancy Drew Clue Book #3: A Star Witness
ALADDIN
Simon & Schuster, New York
Visit us at KIDS.SimonandSchuster.com
authors.simonandschuster.com/Carolyn-Keene
authors.simonandschuster.com/Peter-Francis
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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This Aladdin paperback edition July 2015
Text copyright © 2015 by Simon & Schuster, Inc.
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Library of Congress Control Number 2015937522
ISBN 978-1-4814-3897-1 (hc)
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ISBN 978-1-4814-3749-3 (eBook)
Last Lemonade Standing Page 4