“And the winner for best singing group is . . . ,” Miss Butcher began to say.
Nancy, Bess, and George grabbed hands and squeezed. Nancy could see Mrs. Tuttle whisking the triplets over to the stage.
“The Girly Girls!” Miss Butcher shouted.
Nancy was disappointed. But not as disappointed as Mrs. Tuttle.
“I demand a recount!” Mrs. Tuttle said. She yanked the Triple T hats off the judges’ heads. Everyone gasped when she pulled off Mister Lizard’s wig by mistake!
Nancy watched Molly, Amara, and Rebecca run onstage. The Girly Girls were all smiles!
“Lucky ducks,” George said. “They won front-row seats to Eric’s concert.”
“At least they’re our friends,” Nancy said as she saw another friend approach her.
“You guys rocked!” Riley declared. “But now that the contest is over, can I have Eric’s sunglasses back?”
Nancy looked at Eric. He was busy listening to Mindy and her fan club.
“It would be nice if you gave them back to Eric, Riley,” Nancy said softly.
“What for?” Riley asked. “As I said—finders keepers, losers weepers.”
“There they are!” Mindy’s voice shouted. “There are your sunglasses!”
Nancy and her friends spun around. Mindy was pushing Eric Stanley over to them. The rest of the fan club followed.
“You see, Eric?” Mindy said. She pointed to the sunglasses around Nancy’s neck. “They were keeping them from you!”
“And we were just about to give them back,” Nancy said quickly. “Right, Riley?”
“Um-right!” Riley blurted out.
Nancy took the cord off the sunglasses. Then she handed them to Eric.
“Thanks!” Eric said. “These sunglasses were a present from my dad.”
Eric pointed to the lens. “And this scratch here,” he said. “It was made by my favorite cat, Bonkers.”
Wow, Nancy thought. Eric missed those sunglasses more than we thought!
“Do you all have tickets to my River Heights concert next week?” Eric asked.
“Like—duh!” Mindy said, smiling. “Everyone in the fan club has tickets!”
“We don’t,” Bess said. “We wanted to win tickets. But we lost the contest.”
Eric grinned as he reached into his pocket. Then he pulled out four tickets!
“How about first-row seats?” Eric asked. “Right next to the Girly Girls!”
“No fair!” Mindy cried. “They’re not even in the fan club!”
“But we’re big fans,” Nancy said.
Mindy turned away. “Guess we’ll see you at the concert, then. Come on, Ella,” Mindy snapped.
“Okay,” Ella said with a smile. “Let’s go talk to Mister Lizard!”
Nancy, Bess, George, and Riley couldn’t stop smiling. As they walked to the ice-cream truck with their tickets, the triplets skulked by.
“We didn’t win either,” Darcy said. “I guess your sunglasses weren’t so lucky after all.”
Nancy looked at the ticket. She smiled and said, “Oh, yes they were!”
• • •
That night Nancy carefully placed her Eric Stanley concert ticket inside her desk drawer. She sat down at her desk, opened her notebook, and began to write . . .
Like Daddy said, everyone makes mistakes—even important people like Mayor Stone. I figured out something else. You don’t need clothes or sunglasses to be cool. Take Riley, for instance. She said she’d never say “finders keepers, losers weepers” again. Now that is way cool!
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.
ALADDIN PAPERBACKS
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com
Copyright © 2005 by Simon & Schuster, Inc
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
ALADDIN PAPERBACKS, NANCY DREW, THE NANCY DREW NOTEBOOKS, and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Designed by Lisa Vega
The text of this book was set in Excelsior.
First Aladdin Paperbacks edition August 2005
Library of Congress Control Number 2004109871
ISBN 1-4169-0087-X
ISBN-13: 978-1-442-48351-4 (eBook)
The Singing Suspects Page 4