World Record Mystery

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER ONE: FOR THE RECORD!

  CHAPTER TWO: OUT OF STEP

  CHAPTER THREE: WITH ANY LUCK

  CHAPTER FOUR: THE CLUES IN THE BAG

  CHAPTER FIVE: KNOCK YOUR SOCKS OFF

  CHAPTER SIX: OUT OF CLUES

  CHAPTER SEVEN: THE RIVAL

  CHAPTER EIGHT: A BIG MESS

  CHAPTER NINE: ALL THAT GLITTERS

  CHAPTER TEN: GO, KATIE!

  Nancy Drew Clue Book #9: ’Springtime Crime’ Excerpt

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  For the Record!

  “Go, Katie! Go, Katie!”

  Nancy Drew and her best friends, Bess Marvin and George Fayne, joined the rest of the crowd at Starcade cheering for River Heights teen Katie McCabe as she spun across the electronic floor pad of the Dance-A-Thon video game. The local arcade was full of fans watching the gaming whiz practice her moves. Katie’s feet flew over the lit-up squares, and she added arm movements to match the rhythm. In just a few hours, a judge from the Beamish Book of World Records would be there to record Katie’s attempt to break the current high score!

  “This is so exciting!” exclaimed Nancy.

  “I hope by the time I’m sixteen I can dance like Katie,” Bess said. She tried out a kick step and almost crashed into George.

  Nancy laughed. “Good thing you have a few years to practice. I think you might need them.”

  Nancy and her friends were eight, and even though they didn’t have dance moves like Katie, they were already experts at one thing: solving mysteries. Nancy, Bess, and George called themselves the Clue Crew.

  George shook her head, causing her short dark hair to flop this way and that. “I know dancing takes a lot of athletic skill, but I’ll take soccer over sashaying anytime.”

  George was the tomboy of their group. She and her cousin Bess were as different as night and day, but that didn’t stop them from being as close as could be.

  Bess pulled her blond hair into a ponytail and fastened it with a sparkly clip. “I just hope the judge hurries up and gets here.”

  Nancy laughed at her eager friend. “I hate to tell you, but I heard that the judge isn’t scheduled to arrive for a couple of hours. That just means we have time to play some games of our own, if you want.”

  George led the way to the change machine that let them exchange their allowance money for game tokens. “How about some Skee-Ball to start?” she suggested. “It’s my favorite.”

  The three girls took turns bowling at the Skee-Ball game. Bess got three balls into the tiny opening worth one hundred points and collected six tickets when the game ended.

  “I’m saving up for the lava lamp I saw behind the prize counter,” she said. “It will look super groovy in my room! And the base is pink—my favorite!”

  “You’ll need to win a lot more games to have enough tickets for a prize that big, Bess,” Nancy said, handing her friend the three she’d scored.

  “I have that same lava lamp in my arcade, and it costs seventy-five fewer tickets than here.”

  The girls turned around to find Christopher Finn, the owner of Gamespot, just behind them. His arcade was down the street and was another popular hangout spot for the kids in River Heights.

  “Sorry to eavesdrop,” Mr. Finn said, stuffing his hands in his pockets. “It’s just so crowded in here, I couldn’t help but stand close.”

  Nancy was jostled again, this time by a kid racing past her to the photo booth. She grimaced. “That’s okay, Mr. Finn. There are a ton of people in here today.”

  “Tell me about it,” he replied. “My arcade’s practically a ghost town this morning. Everyone would rather be here, cheering on Katie. I sure wish I had the Dance-A-Thon game at my place.”

  Mr. Finn hung his head and shuffled past the girls. Bess, Nancy, and George shared a sympathetic look, but it took only a few moments for them to get back in the mood to play.

  The arcade was full of energy and sounds: bells, dings, chimes, laughter, and happy squeals!

  Nancy was a pro with the giant padded hammer as she earned eight tickets at Whack-A-Worm. Next the girls climbed into plastic cars that moved them side to side and up and down as they raced each other on big screens in front of them. Bess and Nancy leaned into the racetrack turns while George yelled at her car to go, “Faster, faster!”

  When they were done racing, Bess and George played against each other in air hockey. For two girls so different, their skills were well matched and the game ended in a tie score.

  “Hmm, I know we said I’d play the winner, but how will we pick now?” Nancy asked, rubbing her chin.

  “I’ll play you, Nancy.”

  The girls spun around to see Michael Malone holding up a game token in his hand. Michael was in fourth grade and a close buddy of Ned Nickerson, one of Nancy’s friends.

  “Sure, Michael. I’ll play you,” Nancy said. “Are you any good?”

  Michael held the token up to the sky and blew on it, before dropping it into the air hockey machine and pressing start.

  “Not to brag too much, but I’m good at every game. I have the high score on three of the machines here.”

  He flipped the red puck in his hands before setting it onto the center of the table.

  Out of Step

  Bess put her hand on her hip. “Well, not to brag, but Nancy here is pretty good herself. And what was with that blowing-on-the-token thing?”

  Michael smiled as he moved his mallet back and forth in front of his goal, blocking Nancy’s attempt to shoot a goal. “That’s for luck. It’s just a thing I do whenever I put a token into a game. Must be working too, since I do hold all those high scores.”

  The puck landed on his side of the table, and he aimed at Nancy’s goal. With one hard whack, he sent the round piece of plastic right through the empty space she was guarding. George made a face as the scoreboard read 1–0.

  “Well, you won’t be holding any records on the Dance-A-Thon game, that’s for sure. No one can beat Katie.” George grabbed the puck from underneath the machine and returned it to the middle.

  “That’s true,” Michael acknowledged. “She’s really amazing at that one. I’m all left feet when it comes to dancing. But I do have another talent I’m hoping will earn me my own Beamish World Record.”

  He glanced up at George, and Nancy took advantage of his attention being off the game to send her puck flying at Michael’s goal. She scored!

  Bess and George jumped up and down. When they finished celebrating, Nancy asked, “Did you say you had your own world record in mind?”

  Michael nodded, this time keeping his eyes firmly on the hockey game in progress. “That’s right. I’m kind of worried, though. Earning a world record is a really long process. You have to contact a judge months and months ahead of time. Even then there’s no guarantee one will come.”

  The puck went back and forth, back and forth across the surface.

  “I was hoping the judge could watch me too,” Michael continued, “but she’ll only be in town for the afternoon. So there would only be time to watch Katie’s attempt. It stinks. HEY!”

  He yelped as a little girl came up behind him and covered his eyes.

  “Guess who?” she asked.

  Thwap! The puck slammed into Michael’s goal. “No fair,” he said as he pried the hands off his face. “I was distracted by my little sister!”

  Nancy shrugged, but then she grinned. “Oh, all right. We won’t count that goal.” She turned to the girl standing next to Michael. “Hi, Caroline.”

  Caroline Malone waved at Nancy and ducked as her brother swatted at her. She quickly moved out of his reach and stood next to Bess.

  “Oh, wow! Caroline, those are really awesome laces!” B
ess said, pointing at Caroline’s white sneakers. They sported glittery laces with tiny rhinestones sparkling along them. “Where did you get them?”

  Caroline blushed and smiled. “I made them. If you want, I can make you a pair too. I have lots of supplies left over.” She turned to Nancy and added, “You and George, too.”

  “Would you really? I’d love my own pair. I have the perfect sneakers for them!” Nancy exclaimed. “George, what about you?”

  “No offense, Caroline, but rhinestones aren’t really my thing,” George said.

  “Would it have to be laces?” Bess asked. “I have a purse strap I’d love to have decorated, if it’s not too much work.”

  Caroline nodded. “Easy peasy! I can BeDazzle anything!”

  Bess clapped. “I can even pay you for it. If you don’t mind payment in game tokens, that is . . . since I just spent the last of my allowance.”

  “Wow,” Caroline breathed. “This is so cool!” She looked between the girls happily, until her brother tugged on her arm.

  “C’mon, sis. I think I just got a great idea for getting the judge to make time for me!” He tossed his air hockey mallet at George. “Here. You can finish. Thanks for the game, Nancy.”

  Nancy, Bess, and George watched Michael and his sister disappear into the crowd.

  “That was weird. He left mid-game,” said Nancy.

  George shrugged and plopped the puck into the center of the table. “Get ready to eat my dust, Nancy!”

  A few minutes after Nancy had beaten George 10–8, the girls noticed a commotion over by the Dance-A-Thon machine.

  “Do you think the judge is here?” Bess asked.

  “Let’s find out!” Nancy said, grabbing hold of her friends.

  But when they got there, they saw a small crowd surrounding Katie McCabe, who was wiping tears from her cheeks.

  “What happened?” Nancy asked her classmate Deirdre. Nancy and Deirdre weren’t always the best of friends, but Deirdre was always up on the latest gossip. Sure enough, she had her reporter’s notebook out and was scribbling in it, taking notes for the blog post she was going to write about the day.

  “Katie says she can’t attempt the high score today! Apparently, she took a break to get some water and switch the headband she’s been practicing in for the lucky one she wears whenever she plays the game for top scores. But when she opened her bag, the headband was gone!”

  Deirdre’s eyes were sparkling the way they always did when she had juicy gossip to deliver. But then she looked over Nancy’s shoulder and squeaked. “Oh! Gotta go! I snagged an interview with Max Bensen, the boy who currently holds the record Katie’s trying to break, and I just spotted him! Bye!”

  Deirdre rushed over to a teenage boy in baggy pants, wearing a baseball cap low over his eyes. She didn’t even spare a backward glance at the three girls she’d left behind.

  Nancy, Bess, and George exchanged a look. “Girls, do you know what this means?” Nancy asked. Before they could even speak, she answered herself.

  “A mystery that needs solving. The Clue Crew is on it!”

  With Any Luck

  Nancy and her friends had a notebook of their own. But instead of a place to compile news tidbits, like Deirdre’s was, theirs was a Clue Book. They used it to write down all the suspects and clues as they solved their way through every mystery. It had never failed them before, and Nancy knew it wouldn’t this time either.

  “We have some information gathering to do, girls,” she said to her friends, clicking her pen.

  Nancy, Bess, and George glanced over at Katie again. The star dancer, who always seemed so confident and happy on the dance pad, was anything but upbeat now.

  “This is really bad,” said Bess. “What if we can’t find her lucky headband before the judge gets here? Michael made it sound like it was super hard to get the Beamish World Records people to come watch an attempt. This could be her one big chance!”

  George chewed her lip before saying, “Yeah. We know we’re the best junior detectives in River Heights. But are we the fastest?”

  Nancy tucked her notebook under her arm and grabbed both her friends by the hands. “We won’t be if we don’t stop standing around and get to work. C’mon, let’s start by talking to Katie.”

  They squeezed through the people surrounding Katie until they were standing next to the teenager. She wore knee-length black leggings underneath a hot-pink ballet tutu, paired with a tank top that read GRRRL POWER. Katie’s hair had a matching streak of hot pink.

  Bess sighed happily and whispered to George, “I love when someone owns her style.”

  George rolled her eyes and whispered back, “Headband, remember?”

  Bess put a hand on her hip. “You don’t have to remind me to think of accessories, George. Half the time I already am!”

  Nancy cleared her throat. “Excuse me, Katie?”

  Katie turned and looked at the girls. “Yes?” she asked, tucking a tissue underneath her eye and blotting her tears. “Sorry,” she added, motioning to the tears. “I know it’s just a video game, but this record means so much to me. And so does my lucky headband.”

  All three girls nodded in sympathy.

  “We’re hoping we can help you out. We specialize in solving mysteries like this,” Nancy said, not bothering to hide the pride in her voice.

  From behind her she heard, “They aren’t lying. These girls are the best detectives around!”

  The voice came from their classmate Quincy Taylor, from River Heights’s Ghost Grabbers Club. The girls had met Quincy when he’d thought the costume Nancy’s dog Chocolate Chip had been wearing in the Howl-a-Ween Pet Parade might have been haunted by a ghost. The Clue Crew had been able to prove Chip’s strange behavior had been caused by something way less creepy . . . and had earned a fan for life.

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence, Quincy,” Bess said.

  Katie’s tears were already drying, and while she wasn’t quite smiling, her mouth turned up a little in one corner. “I’d love if you could help me!”

  But then it drooped again. “Except I don’t really have much to give you in terms of clues. I was so in the zone during my practice round that I didn’t pay any attention at all to my duffel bag until about five minutes ago, when I went searching for my lucky headband.”

  Nancy smiled. “That’s okay. Maybe the bag itself will tell us something. Could you show us where it is?”

  “Oh, and also describe the missing headband for us,” added George.

  “Yes, spare no detail on the fabulous accessories!” Beth piped in. George poked her in the side, and the next word out of Bess’s mouth was a quiet “Ouch!”

  Katie led the girls to a spot just to the left of the Dance-A-Thon game pad, where a pinball machine displaying an OUT OF ORDER sign cast a long shadow on the tile floor. A black duffel with a hot-pink handle poked out from underneath the game. It was open and the contents were jumbled, as if someone had been searching through them and hadn’t bothered to return anything neatly to its place. It might have been Katie, who’d just been looking for the lost headband. Or, Nancy thought, maybe it was whoever had taken it.

  “I keep my bag right under this pinball machine, so no one trips on it. It’s my usual spot, and no one has ever bothered it before. I never imagined I had to even think about theft, especially since there’s nothing in here anyone else would find valuable. Just a plain white headband, some fresh socks, and a handful of clean washcloths. I can get pretty hot when I’m dancing really hard, and the headband keeps any sweat from dripping in my eyes while I dance. If I can’t see, I could miss a move, and even one misstep means my perfect score goes . . . bye-bye!” Katie made the fingers on her left hand waggle as she raised them, miming something flying away.

  Beth shuddered. “That sounds like a lot of pressure.”

  Katie smiled. “It can be. But I love it. And once I’m in the groove, I feel like I could dance forever. It’s getting into that groove that’s the problem now.
I need my headband for that!”

  “What if we ran to my house and brought you one of my headbands to keep your hair out of your eyes?” Nancy suggested, but Katie shook her head sadly.

  “I wish that would solve things, but I need my lucky headband to play. I know it might sound silly, but actually, a lot of athletes are superstitious. Some baseball players refuse to change their socks or shave their beards when they’re on a winning streak.”

  George put in, “When I’m playing basketball, I always have to bounce the ball three times before shooting a free shot.”

  “Ooh, I read that Bettina Williams, the tennis star, does that. She bounces five times before her first serve, and twice before her second,” Nancy added.

  Katie nodded. “I really do believe my headband brings me luck. I can’t imagine trying to break the world record without it. It just wouldn’t work. I know it!”

  Nancy touched Katie’s arm. “We’ll do our very best to find it, then. Can you describe it to us, please?”

  “Sure. It’s pretty basic, really. Just a loop of plain old white, stretchy fabric. About this thick—” Katie held up her fingers about an inch apart. “Really, it’s nothing special . . . except to me.”

  As she talked, Katie tugged the duffel out from under the pinball machine and handed it to George. “Maybe you can find some clues in here, but I can’t begin to imagine who would do something like this to me!”

  Just then Katie’s mom called over and motioned for Katie to come speak to Max Bensen, who must have finished his interview with Deirdre. Katie thanked the girls and rushed to Max. He gave her a sympathetic hug and pointed at the clock on the wall. Katie grimaced.

  The girls did too. The judge would be there soon.

  The Clue Crew didn’t have any time to waste!

  The Clues in the Bag

  George set the canvas duffel bag on top of the out-of-service pinball machine. The motion made one of the tiny bells inside the game ring. All three girls began to gently pull items from the bag, inspecting each closely.