The Pumpkin Patch Puzzle

by Carolyn Keene

  “Should we tell someone that we found the entry forms over here?” George asked as the girls finally made their way to the games.

  Nancy shook her head. “Miss Costello didn’t look too happy when we tried to ask her about it in the tent,” she said. “Maybe we can just keep searching and then show her what we have once we have more information.”

  As they walked toward the big Slammin’ Slide, a huge slide that you race down with one other person, the girls spotted Deirdre Shannon and her little group of friends.

  “Oh, look, it’s the Crazy Crew,” Deirdre said. Suddenly she stopped short as she stared at the headband in Nancy’s hand.

  “Hey! What are you doing with that?” Deirdre demanded. “That’s my headband, Drew!”

  Nancy, Bess, and George all stared at Deirdre in shock.

  “So you’re the one who ruined the whole festival!” George shouted.

  “I knew you would try to do something like this,” Bess added.

  Deirdre looked at them, confused. “Wait, what? I didn’t have anything to do with that mess that happened yesterday. I lost my headband a few days ago and have been going crazy looking for it! It’s my favorite new accessory,” she added.

  The Clue Crew exchanged glances. “But you said yourself that you knew you were going to win,” Nancy said. “Why should we believe you?”

  Deirdre rolled her eyes. “I said I knew I would win because I knew that my design would totally beat whatever dumb ideas you guys came up with,” she said, as if it were obvious.

  “But we found your hair band right near—” George let out an “oof” as Bess elbowed her in the side.

  “Near what?” Deirdre asked suspiciously.

  “Uh . . . near some top-secret stuff,” Bess said.

  Deirdre rolled her eyes again. “Whatever. Can I just have my headband back?” she asked, holding out her hand.

  Nancy handed it over. As Deirdre inspected it, she frowned. “Wait . . . this isn’t mine,” she complained. “Mine had a different shimmer to it.”

  George elbowed Bess back, a little harder than necessary. “She can tell by the shimmer?” she asked in disbelief.

  Deirdre looked it over some more. “Oh well. It’s a pretty headband. I’d keep it anyway, but I don’t know where it’s been!”

  With that, she threw the headband at Nancy and walked away without a backward glance, trailed closely by her friends.

  “Gee, thanks, Deirdre!” Nancy called out after her. Deirdre didn’t seem to hear—or care.

  “Ohhhhh, she gets me so mad,” George said, stomping her foot in the grass. “I kind of wish she was the one who did it. She deserves to get in trouble!”

  “Well, I guess that’s one more person who didn’t steal the designs. But we don’t have much time left to figure it out,” Nancy said worriedly.

  The girls walked a little more in silence as they made their way to the games. They had time to do the Slammin’ Slide only once, but did get to play a few games of Whac-A-Mole—and George won a little stuffed lion so Furrrocious could have a friend!

  Finally it was time to go, and as the girls waited for Mrs. Marvin to pick them up, they discussed the new things they had discovered at the fair.

  “Well, at least we know where the box of designs is,” George said.

  “But I feel like we still aren’t close to figuring out who did it,” Bess said, disappointed. “All we really have is that gold charm bracelet that Nancy found and the gold headband that we aren’t sure who it belongs to.”

  As the girls rode home, they knew that one thing was for sure—time was running out and they needed to figure out who did this, and fast!

  • • •

  On Monday, all anyone could talk about at school was the ruined pumpkin contest on Saturday. Emma looked even more miserable than usual.

  “My aunt has been in such a bad mood ever since Saturday,” Emma told Nancy at lunch later that day. Nancy had asked her to come sit with her, George, and Bess to try and cheer her up—and maybe get some more information.

  Emma pulled an apple from her bag and made a face. “Ugh. I don’t even want to look at an apple right now!”

  “Your aunt didn’t seem too happy to see us,” George said. They had told Emma about the tent mishap on Sunday and how her aunt still didn’t want them to help out.

  “Aunt Claire is just upset,” Emma said. “She doesn’t do anything but sit on her phone all day now and talk to people from the Fall Festival committee. She said it’s making her look bad.”

  Nancy exchanged glances with George and Bess.

  “Emma, there’s something that we think you might want to know,” Nancy said. “We actually found the stolen design forms on Sunday too.”

  Emma looked shocked as she dropped her unwanted (and uneaten) apple on the floor. As she bent down to pick it up, a sweet smell hit Nancy’s nose—the same scent that had been in the air on Saturday.

  “Emma, what’s that smell?” Nancy asked quickly. “It smells yummy!”

  Confused, Emma looked at Nancy strangely. “Um, it’s a new lotion from that bath shop at the mall—it’s called Sugar Spice.” She rummaged in her book bag and showed Nancy the small bottle of lotion.

  Nancy nodded. “Is that why you dropped your apple? Because you’re the one who is making a mess of the pumpkin contest?”

  “Wh-what?” Emma asked.

  “It does make sense,” George said. “You were so upset that you had to move to River Heights.”

  “And you don’t seem to like your aunt very much,” Bess added.

  Emma shook her head. “No, no. I would never do anything like that.” She paused. “I won’t lie, I did think about doing something—not like what happened, but maybe hide her car keys so she couldn’t go to some of those dumb meetings all the time.” Emma closed her eyes as tears started to roll down her cheeks. “I just wished she was able to pay more attention to me and Audrey.”

  Nancy handed Emma a napkin. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you cry,” Nancy said. “We’re just trying to figure out who did all this before Saturday. You know that Mayor Strong will cancel the contest if we can’t find out who stole the designs and ruined the festival!”

  Emma wiped her eyes. “I guess I’m not surprised that you would think I did it,” Emma said. “We should at least try to tell my aunt that you found the box of designs.”

  • • •

  Later that day, Emma, George, Bess, and Nancy headed toward Miss Costello’s house. Nancy was surprised to find out that it was only three blocks away from hers—they were practically neighbors!

  They promised Hannah they would be home before dark. They were only allowed to walk five blocks from Nancy’s house on their own, in daylight.

  Nancy had brought a little bag with her that held both the headband and charm bracelet she had found. She hoped Aunt Claire would be more willing to talk to them this time.

  When they finally arrived at the Costello house, it was a pretty bungalow, with a few flower beds in front. Of course, the flowers weren’t out anymore, but Nancy imagined that they were probably very pretty once spring rolled around.

  Emma unlocked the front door and had them come inside. It was very cozy, with pictures of Emma, Audrey, and people who Nancy assumed were Emma and Audrey’s parents and other relatives all over the walls. Emma set out some milk and what looked like fresh chocolate chip cookies.

  “My aunt is running a little late,” Emma said. “She should be here in, like, ten minutes.”

  Out of the corner of her eye, Nancy noticed Audrey come down the staircase.

  “Oh hey, guys,” Audrey said. “Wanna come see my room?”

  Emma scowled. “Audrey, not right now. We have important business to discuss!”

  “Oh, it’s okay,” Bess said. “We have a little time before your aunt gets home.”

  Audrey gave her sister a smirk and led the four girls upstairs.

  Audrey’s room was definitely fit for a princess. Ther
e was pink wallpaper with sparkly purple butterflies. A bookshelf was in the corner, crammed with dozens of books, and there was a small, white, four-poster bed with an actual canopy over it.

  As Audrey chatted away, showing the girls her space, Nancy noticed a doll on Audrey’s bed. With a start, she realized the doll was wearing the same star charm bracelet as the one Nancy had in her bag.

  Nancy casually walked over to the bed and picked up the doll.

  Audrey was in the middle of showing George and Bess her cool mini-car (pink, of course) when she noticed Nancy looking at the doll.

  “Oh, that’s Anna,” she said. “She’s my Just Like Me doll.”

  “Oh really?” Nancy asked, trying to secretly take the bracelet off the doll. “That’s pretty cool.”

  “Yeah!” Audrey said excitedly. “You can get her to have the same hair and eye color as you, and you can pick out all sorts of fun clothes and stuff for her. You can even get matching outfits!”

  Nancy stared at Audrey as she pulled the star charm bracelet from her bag. “And it looks like you can even get matching jewelry, too,” Nancy said.

  George’s and Bess’s mouths dropped open. Emma looked confused.

  “Wait, Audrey, isn’t that the bracelet you’ve been missing?” Emma asked.

  Audrey’s eyes grew wide. “Wow! Yeah! That’s my charm bracelet.” She took a few tentative steps toward Nancy. “Wh-where did you find it?”

  “I found it in the tent right after everything was destroyed,” Nancy replied. “So you were the one who wrecked everything!”

  Audrey looked down at her feet and didn’t say anything.

  “Audrey? Is that true?”

  All the girls looked up to see Aunt Claire in the doorway to Audrey’s room, looking sad.

  Audrey finally looked up at everyone. “I didn’t mean to ruin everything, I swear! I just got so mad that I couldn’t decorate and have fun like everyone else because of that stupid rule. So I figured I’d make one just for myself.

  “During the opening ceremony, there wasn’t really anyone around in the actual tent, since we’d set up most of the stuff the day before,” Audrey continued. “I snuck back in and tried to get some paint to use and accidentally tipped the box of bottles over. The paint spilled all over one of the tables and knocked down a bunch of pumpkins, making such a mess! I got scared that Aunt Claire would come in and get mad at me for ruining things.”

  She glanced at her aunt. “When I went to run out, some other stuff got messed up too, but I didn’t mean it, I promise!”

  Everyone looked around, puzzled. “But what about the missing design forms?” Aunt Claire asked quizzically. “Did you do all of that too?”

  Nancy looked up at Aunt Claire sheepishly. “Well, we actually came here to tell you that we found the box of forms by the bank on Main Street,” she confessed. “But a few of them got ripped up.”

  Aunt Claire looked surprised. “You found them? How?”

  The Clue Crew exchanged smiles. “We followed the paper trail,” Nancy explained. “Really—the wind blew a piece of one of the forms toward us, and we just kept picking up pieces until we found the box with the rest of the entries.”

  Aunt Claire rubbed her eyes.

  “Well, we can’t use those, but at least we kind of know what happened. And, missy, you are still in big trouble,” Aunt Claire said, looking at Audrey with a stern expression. “You should have been honest with me at the start. But it looks like there is still one more person—or people—that we need to find!”

  “Audrey, did you see anyone else go in after you left?” Emma asked.

  Audrey shook her head. “I didn’t see anyone, but I was trying to get out quickly through the back of the tent,” she explained. She looked at Aunt Claire. “Does this mean I can’t go to the festival again this weekend? Or get another accessory for Anna, like you said I could?”

  “Yes to the festival, no to the doll stuff,” Aunt Claire said with a smile. “I think she’s gotten you into enough trouble so far!”

  Everyone laughed as they headed back downstairs. But Nancy was still worried. With only a few more days left until the last weekend of the festival, there was still a pumpkin problem they needed to solve!

  On Saturday morning, Nancy woke up to whistling.

  “Time to wake up, Nancy!” Mr. Drew said cheerfully. “I’ve got waffles cooking!”

  Nancy groaned and rolled over. “Just a few more minutes, Daddy,” she said sleepily.

  “But I have to get you to the festival! Hopefully they have some more information and you can do the contest anyway,” Mr. Drew said.

  With that, Nancy was wide awake. The last weekend of the festival! She followed her dad downstairs to the kitchen table, where he had put out another impressive breakfast spread, just like the weekend before.

  “How’s the case going, Nancy?” Mr. Drew asked. “Have you found any more clues that might help Miss Costello figure out who stole the designs?” Though Nancy had let him know that they discovered who destroyed all the supplies, they still weren’t sure who stole the entry forms.

  “Well, we really don’t know,” Nancy said. “The only other clue we have is that headband from the new shop. But that really doesn’t help us.”

  “What about that Deirdre girl you were talking about earlier?” Mr. Drew asked. “Didn’t you think she had something to do with it?”

  “I did, especially since her initials were in the band. But it wasn’t her,” Nancy said. “She said it had a different shimmer than the band she had lost.”

  Mr. Drew chuckled. “Oh, you girls are funny with your accessories. When you were little, all you wanted were bows in your hair, all the time. Always two! Your mom would get upset if I didn’t match them up, but you always insisted on having two bows.”

  Nancy smiled. She loved hearing stories about her as a baby—and loved hearing stories with her mom even more.

  After cleaning up breakfast, Mr. Drew went to pick up George and Bess, and all four of them headed downtown. It was another beautiful fall day—sunny and on the warmer side.

  “The committee definitely lucked out with the weather for the past week,” Mr. Drew commented. “It’s been perfect for outside activities!”

  Nancy sighed. “Yeah, and it is perfect for pumpkin decorating too. If we could have a contest!”

  Mr. Drew patted Nancy’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, Nancy. I’m sure they’ll have something figured out before the festival is over. I can’t imagine them canceling the whole thing!”

  The fair was already bustling when they got there. All the vendors were open and the food stalls were doing brisk business, selling all sorts of treats to hungry fairgoers.

  “It looks like there’s going to be a show soon,” George said, pointing at the main stage. “People are starting to line up.”

  Nancy nodded. “There’s supposed to be a show every hour today,” she said. “Lots of dance schools and stuff like that.”

  Mr. Drew pointed toward the fried dough booth that was right near the stage. “Why don’t we get a little treat and go watch the first show?” he suggested.

  As the group made their way to buy their snack, Nancy noticed that the first act looked like a dance studio. Nancy recognized some of the girls from school, who were a year behind her. They were wearing shiny gold costumes, with tap shoes and long, matching gold gloves.

  As Nancy looked a little closer, she also noticed something else. All the girls were wearing shiny, gold headbands—just like the one that Nancy had found on the ground near the missing entry forms!

  All the girls—except for one.

  Nancy nudged her dad.

  “Daddy? I think I know who might have stolen the designs.”

  • • •

  George, Bess, Nancy, and Mr. Drew rushed up to the group of dancers.

  “Can I help you?” A woman about Aunt Claire’s age walked over. “I’m Anne, the dance teacher for this group.”

  Nancy held out the he
adband she had brought with her, just in case. “I think your dancer is missing this headband.”

  Anne looked at the headband in surprise. “Dana! Is this yours?”

  Dana smiled. “Wow, where did you find that? I was wondering what happened to it!”

  At that moment, Aunt Claire and Rick Rickston came over, with Emma and Audrey in tow.

  “Hi. Is everything okay over here?” Aunt Claire asked, concerned.

  Nancy held out the headband. “This was found right next to the box of stolen design forms,” Nancy said.

  Dana looked shocked. “I didn’t take those! I never would have taken them!” she said.

  “That’s because I did,” someone said behind them. Tommy Sassano!

  “Tommy? What on earth is going on here?” asked Mr. Rickston.

  Nancy looked at Mr. Rickston in surprise. “You know Tommy?” Nancy asked.

  Mr. Rickston nodded. “Tommy and Dana are my nephew and niece,” he explained.

  “So that means Tommy and Dana couldn’t enter, just like Emma and Audrey,” Nancy said, thinking aloud.

  Tommy nodded. “When I found out that we couldn’t enter, I got so mad. Everyone else was talking about the designs. So during the opening part of the ceremony, I snuck in with Dana’s dance bag and grabbed the forms. Her headband must have fallen out when I took them out.”

  Nancy shook her head. “But, Tommy, that’s not fair to everyone else,” she said.

  Tommy shrugged. “I know. After I took them, I knew that I shouldn’t have done it. And I know how hard my uncle and your aunt Claire worked on the festival,” he said, looking at Audrey and Emma. “But I was just so jealous that every other kid in River Heights got to do this and I didn’t!”

  “But why didn’t you just put the forms back the next day?” Bess pointed out.

  “I was going to, I swear,” Tommy said. “But then it was hard to get down to the festival during the week, since my mom and dad don’t like me going here by myself, and they couldn’t drop me off. And by the time I went to get the forms, a bunch had blown away or gotten ripped. I was scared about getting in trouble,” he explained. He looked at his uncle. “I’m really sorry, Uncle Rick.”