The Secret of the Old Clock

  Contents

  Chapter 1: The Winner Is Announced

  Chapter 2: Danger on Ice

  Chapter 3: Missing!

  Chapter 4: The Search for the Key

  Chapter 5: The Holiday Party

  Chapter 6: Bad News

  Chapter 7: A Pink Clue

  Chapter 8: A Bright, Shiny Object

  1

  The Winner Is Announced

  You three girls look very, very busy,” Hannah Gruen remarked. She set a tray down on the dining room table with three mugs of hot chocolate on it.

  Eight-year-old Nancy Drew glanced up from her composition notebook and smiled at Hannah. “We’re working on an essay!”

  “An important essay!” Nancy’s best friend, Bess Marvin, chimed in.

  “A superimportant essay!” Bess’s cousin and Nancy’s other best friend, George Fayne, added.

  Nancy, Bess, and George were sitting around the Drews’ dining room table. They were writing in their composition notebooks. Nearby, Nancy’s Lab puppy, Chocolate Chip, lay asleep on the floor. Chip was wearing a special red holiday collar with velvet mistletoe on it.

  Bess stopped writing. “How do you spell ‘Heights’? Like in ‘River Heights’?” she asked.

  “H-E-I-G-H-T-S,” Hannah replied.

  “Oh,” Bess and George said. Both girls began erasing like mad.

  Even though Bess and George were cousins, they didn’t really look alike. Bess had long, curly blond hair and blue eyes. George had dark brown hair and brown eyes. George’s real name was Georgia, but hardly anyone ever called her that.

  Hannah passed out the mugs of hot chocolate to the girls. Hannah had been the Drews’ housekeeper since Nancy’s mother died five years ago. But she was more than a housekeeper. Both Nancy and her father thought of her as a member of the family.

  Nancy took a sip of her hot chocolate, which had a big mound of whipped cream on top. “Mmm, yummy! Thanks, Hannah!”

  “You’re very welcome,” Hannah said. “So what is this superimportant essay anyway?”

  “We have to write an essay called, ‘Why I Love River Heights,’ ” George explained. “It’s a contest for elementary-school kids.”

  “The essays are due tomorrow,” Nancy added.

  “Well, no wonder you’re all working so hard,” Hannah said. “So what does the winner get?”

  “Oh, it’s the best prize!” Bess gushed. She licked whipped cream from her spoon. “You know the Holiday Streetwalk? Well, during it, whoever wins gets to give Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus a key to the city!”

  “Oh, my!” Hannah exclaimed.

  Nancy smiled at the thought of the wonderful prize. A week from Sunday was the annual Holiday Streetwalk in downtown River Heights. Main Street would be filled with carolers, clowns, jugglers, and face painters. Store owners would serve hot cider and cookies. Many grown-ups and kids would dress up in old-fashioned costumes.

  But best of all, at nightfall, the mayor would turn on the lights of the big Christmas tree in front of City Hall. At the same time, Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus would arrive on a horse-drawn sleigh.

  And one lucky boy or girl would get to present Mr. and Mrs. Claus with a key to the city!

  Will it be one of us? Nancy wondered, glancing at her two best friends.

  Nancy knew there would be TV cameras and reporters there too. Whoever presented the key to Mr. and Mrs. Claus would be in the newspaper and on TV—just like a celebrity!

  “Well, I guess that means you’re all too busy to help me make Christmas cookies,” Hannah said.

  “We definitely won’t be too busy to help you eat them!” Bess said eagerly.

  Nancy and George giggled. Then the three girls turned back to their composition notebooks.

  • • •

  On the following Thursday, Nancy, Bess, and George walked into Mrs. Reynolds’s classroom at Carl Sandburg Elementary School.

  “I think today’s going to be the day,” Bess said in a low voice.

  “The day for what?” George asked her.

  “The day Mrs. Reynolds announces the winner of the essay contest, silly!” Bess reminded George.

  Nancy glanced around the room, which was covered with holiday drawings and decorations. Their third-grade teacher, Mrs. Reynolds, was standing by her desk. She had a large white envelope in her hands.

  “Bess! I think you’re right,” Nancy whispered excitedly. “Look at that envelope Mrs. Reynolds is holding!”

  “I bet the winner’s name is inside,” George agreed.

  “I hope it’s one of us!” Bess squealed.

  The three girls exchanged high fives, then sat down at their desks. Most of the other kids were already sitting down. Nancy waved at some of her friends: Julia Santos, Phoebe Archer, and Jenny March.

  Nancy started to wave to Brenda Carlton, who sat several rows over. But Brenda just frowned at her, then turned away with a swish of her hair.

  Brenda’s father owned a big newspaper called Today’s Times. Brenda had her own newspaper, which she created on her computer: the Carlton News. Brenda was usually snooty and mean to everyone, including Nancy. But Nancy refused to be snooty and mean back.

  Nancy remembered just then that Mr. and Mrs. Carlton had invited Nancy and her father to a holiday party at their house on Saturday night. The Faynes and the Marvins had been invited too.

  The first-period bell rang. Everyone stopped talking and faced front.

  “Good morning, class,” Mrs. Reynolds said with a smile. “Guess what I have in my hand?” She held up the white envelope.

  “Free baseball cards for the whole class?” Jason Hutchings piped up. He and Mike Minnelli laughed.

  Mrs. Reynolds shook her head. “Nope. These are the results of the ‘Why I Love River Heights’ essay contest.”

  Bess whirled around in her seat and grinned at Nancy.

  “Remember, the contest was open to all elementary-school children in River Heights,” Mrs. Reynolds reminded the class. “So the winner might be someone we’ve never even heard of. Someone from River Heights Elementary School, for example.”

  “Or, it could be someone from this class!” Brenda said smugly. “Someone who’s a really, really, really great writer!”

  “Gee, like who?” Julia said, rolling her eyes.

  Mrs. Reynolds opened the envelope and pulled out several sheets of paper. She scanned them quickly. Then her face lit up.

  “Oh, my goodness! Brenda’s right. The winner is someone from this class!” she said.

  “I knew it!” Brenda exclaimed. She started to stand up.

  “It’s Bess Marvin!” Mrs. Reynolds announced.

  Bess jumped out of her seat. “I won? Really? I won!” she shrieked.

  Brenda frowned and sat back down.

  “Yay, Bess!” Nancy cried out as the whole class started whistling and clapping.

  “Way to go!” George cheered.

  Mrs. Reynolds motioned for Bess to come to the front of the room. “Why don’t you read your essay to the class, Bess?”

  Beaming, Bess walked up front and took the sheet of paper from Mrs. Reynolds. She stared at the paper and cleared her throat.

  “Go ahead, Bess,” Mrs. Reynolds encouraged her.

  Bess smiled nervously. She twirled and untwirled a strand of her long blond hair. Then she began to read.

  “Ahem! ‘Why I Love River Heights: I love River Heights because it’s the best city in the whole world. It may not be as big as Chicago. But a city doesn’t have to be big to be really great.

  “ ‘For example, River Heights has a cool park where my friends Nancy and George and I like to play. It has a skating rink. It has a candy factory called Zuckerman’s Zonked Candy Factory
.

  “ ‘It has an ice-cream shop, the Double Dip, that’s awesome. It used to be two ice cream shops. But then—’ ”

  But Bess wasn’t able to finish her sentence. Just then, Brenda jumped up from her seat and pointed a finger at Bess.

  “Bess Marvin cheated on her essay!” Brenda cried out. “And I can prove it!”

  2

  Danger on Ice

  Nancy couldn’t believe it. Brenda had just accused Bess of cheating on her “Why I Love River Heights” essay!

  “That is a total lie!” Bess burst out. “I did not cheat on this essay! I wrote every word of it myself!”

  “You’re the liar!” Brenda yelled.

  “You’re the liar!” Bess yelled back.

  Everyone in the class began whispering and buzzing. Mrs. Reynolds waved her arms and stepped between the two girls.

  “All right, enough!” she said firmly. “Brenda, what on earth are you talking about? What do you mean, Bess cheated on her essay?”

  “Well,” Brenda said in a huff, putting her hands on her hips, “remember what she wrote about how River Heights isn’t as big as Chicago? I wrote about that in my essay too. And remember that part about how the Double Dip used to be two ice cream shops? I said the exact same thing!”

  “So we happened to write about some of the same stuff. That’s not cheating!” Bess cried out.

  Mrs. Reynolds frowned at Brenda. “Bess is right. If she had copied your essay word-for-word, that would have been cheating. But that’s not what she did.”

  “But I’m telling you, she cheated!” Brenda protested.

  “That’s enough, Brenda!” Mrs. Reynolds said sharply. “I don’t want to hear any more about cheating. In fact, I want you to apologize to Bess right now.”

  Brenda glared at Bess. “I’m sorry,” she mumbled.

  From where she sat, Nancy could see that Brenda had her fingers crossed behind her back.

  • • •

  “Brenda was just mad because she wanted to win the contest herself,” Bess declared.

  “That Brenda is so mean,” George agreed.

  It was Friday, after school. The three girls were walking out of Muller’s department store. They were carrying lots of shopping bags.

  Mr. Marvin was right behind them. He had run into some people from his office and was talking to them about work.

  The mayor’s office had called Bess’s parents last night. The mayor wanted Bess to be at the big Christmas tree at four o’clock, so they could have a dress rehearsal for Sunday’s Holiday Streetwalk.

  Nancy and George had come along so they could watch and cheer Bess on. Mr. Marvin had picked the three girls up at school. They’d spent the last hour Christmas shopping at different stores. Now it was time to head over to the tree.

  The stores on Main Street were trimmed with pretty holiday decorations. The lampposts twinkled with tiny white lights. There were lots of people out and about, doing their holiday shopping.

  The air was cold and crisp. The streets were covered with snow. Nancy rubbed her mittened hands together and said, “I hope we can take a hot-cider break soon!”

  “Dad said he’ll take us to the Cranberry Café as soon as we finish with the dress rehearsal,” Bess said, her blue eyes sparkling.

  Mr. Marvin said good-bye to the people from his office and joined the girls. “Sorry to keep you waiting. Come on, Bess, let’s get over to your dress rehearsal!”

  “Okay, Daddy!”

  As they started down the sidewalk, Bess reached into one of her shopping bags. She pulled out a pair of fuzzy pink mittens. “I’m so happy Daddy bought me these at Muller’s,” she said to George and Nancy. “I’m going to wear them on Sunday.”

  They soon arrived at the Christmas tree. It was in an open area between Tiny Ted’s Toy Shop and Star’s Jewelers. Nancy thought the tree looked even taller than the one from last year. It was almost as tall as her house!

  “All right, people, let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!”

  Nancy saw a tall, thin man standing in front of the Christmas tree. He was dressed in a long gray coat and a furry-looking hat. He was holding a clipboard in one hand and a cell phone in the other.

  There were two young women running around. They had clipboards and cell phones too.

  “Shelly, call Alice Stone over at Today’s Times, and make sure she got the press release,” the man barked at one of the women. “Annie, call WRIV and see which reporter they’re sending over on Sunday. Make sure it’s not that cranky one.”

  “Yes, Mr. Farnsworth,” both women said at the same time. They started punching numbers into their cell phones.

  The man named Mr. Farnsworth looked sharply at Nancy and her friends. “Who are you?”

  Mr. Marvin stepped forward. “We got a call from the mayor’s office asking us to be here. This is my daughter, Bess Marvin. She won the ‘Why I Love River Heights’ essay contest. This is her cousin George Fayne, and this is Nancy—”

  “Oh, right, yes, yes, yes.” Mr. Farnsworth glanced down impatiently at his clipboard. He checked something off with a pen. “I’m Franklin Farnsworth, the deputy mayor. Let’s get started, shall we? Which one of you is Bess again?”

  “I’m Bess!” Bess waved her hand. “Where’s the mayor? And where are Mr. and Mrs. Claus?”

  “I’m standing in for the mayor. He’ll be here Sunday. And the Clauses won’t be here till Sunday either. Let’s see, we can use . . . ” Mr. Farnsworth peered around. “Shelly, you be Santa Claus! And Annie, you be Mrs. Claus! My assistants,” he explained to Nancy and the others.

  The two young women rushed over to Mr. Farnsworth.

  Bess leaned over to Nancy. “Those women don’t look like Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus,” she whispered doubtfully.

  “I know, I know. But just pretend,” Nancy whispered back.

  Nancy, George, and Mr. Marvin moved off to the side as the dress rehearsal began. Mr. Farnsworth had Bess stand right next to the Christmas tree.

  “On Sunday evening a big crowd will gather around the tree,” Mr. Farnsworth explained to Bess. “The mayor will give a speech. At the end of the speech, he’ll flick a switch, and the lights on the Christmas tree will come on. Then he’ll hand you the key to the city.”

  Mr. Farnsworth reached into his pocket and pulled out a black velvet bag. He handed the bag to Bess. “You will then open the bag and pull out the key. . . . Go ahead, do it.”

  Bess opened the bag and pulled out a big gold key. She beamed. “Wow, it’s beautiful! It looks old.”

  “It is old,” Mr. Farnsworth said. “It’s an antique.”

  “That means it’s superold,” Nancy whispered to George. George nodded.

  “Just as you’re pulling out the key, Bess, Mr. and Mrs. Claus will drive up in their sleigh,” Mr. Farnsworth went on. He turned. “Shelly! Annie! Pretend you’re driving up in a sleigh!”

  Shelly and Annie glanced at each other. Then they held up their hands as if they were holding reins. They started skipping over to where Bess was standing.

  “Great! Fabulous!” Mr. Farnsworth said, looking pleased. “Now, Bess, you should—”

  Mr. Farnsworth stopped. His cell phone was ringing, and he answered it with a frown. “What now? Hello, Farnsworth here. What do you mean, the files are gone?”

  Mr. Farnsworth sighed, then hung up. “I have a . . . little emergency to take care of. I must leave right away. Can the rest of you stay and run through this a couple more times? Do the exact same thing, except in the end, you, Bess, need to hand the key to Santa Shelly. Mr. Marvin, maybe you could play the part of the mayor.”

  “No problem,” Mr. Marvin said. “Mayor Marvin. I like that.” He smiled and straightened his hat.

  “You can hang on to the key until Sunday,” Mr. Farnsworth told Bess and Mr. Marvin. “Just be very careful with it—it’s one-of-a-kind. Keep it in a safe place.”

  “Okey-dokey!” Bess said, nodding.

  Nancy turned to George. “Bess is do
ing great!” she whispered.

  “There are going to be zillions of people here on Sunday,” George whispered back. “I hope she doesn’t get nervous.”

  “It’s good she gets to practice now,” Nancy whispered.

  After Mr. Farnsworth left, Bess, Mr. Marvin, Shelly, and Annie started to run through everything one more time. People stopped on the sidewalk to watch.

  Shelly and Annie pretended to ride up to the Christmas tree on their “sleigh.” Bess smiled and reached into the black velvet bag to hand the key to Shelly.

  “I hereby present you with the key to the city,” Bess began.

  But just then, a snowball flew through the air and hit her square in the back. Bess cried out and stumbled forward. Then she lost her balance on a patch of ice—and fell to the ground!

  3

  Missing!

  Bess sat up on the patch of ice. She looked really mad.

  “Who did that? Who threw a snowball at me?” she demanded as she shoved the key back in its bag.

  Mr. Marvin rushed up to her. “Are you okay, pumpkin?” he asked worriedly.

  “I’m fine, Daddy,” Bess replied, reaching around to rub her back. “I want to know who did that though!”

  Nancy glanced over at Tiny Ted’s Toy Shop. The snowball had come from that direction.

  She saw two boys standing in front of Tiny Ted’s. She recognized one of them. His name was Gary. He went to River Heights Elementary School.

  Gary and his friend were pointing at Bess and snickering. Nancy put her hands on her hips and marched up to them.

  “Did you throw that snowball at Bess?” Nancy asked them angrily.

  Gary grinned. “Who, us?”

  “Why would we do a thing like that?” the other boy said, giggling.

  “We wouldn’t want Miss Contest Winner to get all covered with snow!” Gary said.

  Nancy glanced down at Gary’s mittens. They had snow all over them—as though he had just been making snowballs.

  “You did do it, didn’t you?” Nancy said accusingly.

  Just then Mr. Marvin marched up to Gary and the other boy. Bess and George were right behind him.