Babysitting Bandit

  A thief is on the loose!

  “Cal, give the babies their rattle or we’re going to have to have a time-out!” Mrs. Jacobs exclaimed.

  The chaos and confusion went on for a while, until finally, Mrs. Gregory put on the Happy Baby Songs CD, and the twins calmed down and started twirling in place. Cal dropped the silver rattle and started dancing too. Mrs. Jacobs picked up the rattle and put it back on the bookshelf, next to a row of encyclopedias.

  Nancy and her friends played with the twins for a little while longer. Just before five, the girls started picking up the twins’ toys.

  Nancy frowned as she returned Squeak Squeak to the book shelf. “Where’s the silver rattle?” she asked George. “I thought I saw Mrs. Gregory put it here somewhere. Did you move it?”

  George smiled at Anna Lin, then turned to Nancy and shook her head. “I didn’t move it.”

  “I didn’t move it either,” Bess piped up.

  Join the CLUE CREW & solve these other cases!

  #1 Sleepover Sleuths

  #2 Scream for Ice Cream

  #3 Pony Problems

  #4 The Cinderella Ballet Mystery

  #5 Case of the Sneaky Snowman

  #6 The Fashion Disaster

  #7 The Circus Scare

  #8 Lights, Camera … Cats!

  #9 The Halloween Hoax

  #10 Ticket Trouble

  #11 Ski School Sneak

  #12 Valentine’s Day Secret

  #13 Chick-napped!

  #14 The Zoo Crew

  #15 Mall Madness

  #16 Thanksgiving Thief

  #17 Wedding Day Disaster

  #18 Earth Day Escapade

  #19 April Fool’s Day

  #20 Treasure Trouble

  #21 Double Take

  #22 Unicorn Uproar

  NANCY DREW #23 and THE CLUE CREW®

  Babysitting Bandit

  By Carolyn Keene

  Illustrated By Macky Pamintuan

  If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”

  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

  An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division

  1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

  www.SimonandSchuster.com

  First Aladdin paperback edition November 2009

  Text copyright © 2009 by Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  Illustrations copyright © 2009 by Macky Pamintuan

  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

  ALADDIN is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc., and related logo is a registered trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  NANCY DREW and related logos are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  NANCY DREW AND THE CLUE CREW is a registered trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster

  Special Sales at 1-866-506-1949 or [email protected].

  The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com.

  Designed by Lisa Vega

  The text of this book was set in ITC Stone Informal.

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  Library of Congress Control Number 2008943892

  ISBN 978-1-4169-7813-8

  ISBN 978-1-4169-9702-3 (eBook)

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER ONE: DOUBLE TROUBLE

  CHAPTER TWO: MISSING?

  CHAPTER THREE: A GREEN CLUE

  CHAPTER FOUR: THE STRANGE SCIENCE PROJECT

  CHAPTER FIVE: A FURRY SUSPECT

  CHAPTER SIX: HIDE AND GO SEEK

  CHAPTER SEVEN: ANOTHER CLUE

  CHAPTER EIGHT: A CLUE CREW SLEEPOVER

  CHAPTER NINE: THREE DOWN

  CHAPTER TEN: HAPPY BABIES

  CHAPTER ONE

  Double Trouble

  “What’s in your backpack, Bess?” Nancy Drew asked as she skipped down the sidewalk.

  “Yeah, it looks super full,” George Fayne said, skipping along next to Nancy.

  “It’s my babysitting kit,” Bess Marvin explained. She paused to hoist the bulging backpack higher on her shoulders, then started skipping again. “I have everything I need to take care of the twins: some of my old baby toys that I found in the attic. And books. And paper and crayons. And Togo.”

  “Togo?” George repeated.

  “Togo is my stuffed tiger. When I was a baby, my parents would pretend it could talk to me, and I would do whatever it said. Like … ‘Bess, eat your broccoli,’ and, ‘Bess, don’t throw your sippy cup.’” She added, “I thought we could use it with the twins so they’ll listen to us.”

  “Or maybe the twins are smart and they’ll know stuffed tigers can’t talk,” George teased Bess.

  George and Bess were cousins, although they had really different personalities. They looked different, too; George had short, curly brown hair and brown eyes, and Bess had long, blond hair and blue eyes.

  Nancy and her friends were on their way to the Jacobses’ house, which was just down the street from the Drews’ house. Mrs. Jacobs had hired the three girls to be “mother’s helpers” for her eighteen-month-old twins, Lily Mei and Anna Lin, whom she and her husband had adopted from China. A mother’s helper was like a babysitter, except that the parent or parents stayed home while the mother’s helper played with the baby—or, in this case, babies.

  Mrs. Jacobs had asked Nancy, George, and Bess to watch Lily Mei and Anna Lin on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays after school for a couple of hours so she could make phone calls and do chores. Mr. Jacobs worked in an office in downtown River Heights, so he usually didn’t get home until dinnertime. The job would last for a few weeks, until Mrs. Jacobs’s twelve-year-old daughter Margaret, was finished with a big science project. After that, Margaret would be able to take over with the twins.

  They soon reached the Jacobses’ house. They went up to the front door and rang the bell. A moment later, Mrs. Jacobs answered. Her long honey-colored hair tumbled loosely from a clip, and her jeans and black sweatshirt were splattered with what looked like mashed banana. A cell phone was pressed between her right ear and her shoulder.

  “Oh hi, girls. You’re right on time!” Mrs. Jacobs said.

  Nancy peered through the door at the Jacobses’ living room. The twins were sitting on the floor, going through a black leather purse. One twin pulled out a slim gray wallet and dumped out all the money, credit cards, and receipts. The other twin tossed a tube of lipstick across the room. A silver pen followed, then a checkbook, then a pack of gum.

  “I’ll have to call you back,” Mrs. Jacobs said into the phone. “Come in, come in,” she said to the girls.

  Nancy, George, and Bess entered the front hall, then followed Mrs. Jacobs as she stepped over a low baby gate into the living room.

  “Lily Mei! Anna Lin! Look who’s here!” Mrs. Jacobs called out brightly.

  The twins stopped what they were doing and glanced up with curious expressions. They were identical, with the same large, brown eyes, small,
pert noses, and shiny, chin-length black hair with bangs cut straight across their foreheads. They wore identical T-shirts and denim overalls embroidered with flowers, except that one twin had a purple tee and the other twin wore pink.

  “Nancy, George, and Bess are going to be playing with you today,” Mrs. Jacobs said to the twins. “Why don’t you have a tea party while I talk to them, okay?”

  She bent down quickly and scooped up the contents of her purse. Just as quickly, she got a toy tea set from a bookshelf and set it on the floor between the twins.

  The twins got busy with the tea set. Mrs. Jacobs kept her eyes on them as she addressed the girls. “So you can see that they’re kind of a handful,” she said apologetically. “Anyway … let me go over everything with you. Just stop me if you have any questions.”

  “Okay,” Nancy said. George and Bess nodded.

  “The twins love to be read to. There’s a bunch of books in a basket in the corner, there, and also up in their room,” Mrs. Jacobs began. “Just watch that they don’t rip the pages or draw on them. They like to finger paint, but they try to eat the paints, so we use vanilla pudding with food coloring mixed in it. I keep that in the fridge. Just make sure they’re wearing their painting smocks, which are in their closet. As for toys … well, there are toys all over the house. But they do have their favorites.

  “Like what?” George asked her.

  Mrs. Jacobs got a few more toys from the bookshelf. One of them was a silver, moon-shaped rattle. The other was a little stuffed mouse toy. “The rattle belonged to Margaret when she was a baby,” she said, smiling softly. “It’s engraved with her name and birthday. The twins are really too old for rattles, but for some reason, they just love this one. As for the mouse … his name is Squeak Squeak.

  They fight over him, so you have to tell them to share nicely. If they won’t share, take him away. Oh, and if they’re being kind of hyper and crazy, there’s a CD on top of the CD player that calms them right down. It’s called Happy Baby Songs.”

  “I brought some toys and stuff too,” Bess said, setting her backpack on the ground.

  “Oh, wonderful! The twins like to—oh, dear! Sir Barkalot! No, Sir Barkalot!” Mrs. Jacobs cried out.

  A big, shaggy white dog leaped over the baby gate and tore through the living room. He opened his mouth and hungrily scooped up a plastic cookie from the twins’ tea party. The babies began wailing.

  “Bad dog!” Mrs. Jacobs chided Sir Barkalot. She reached into his mouth and pulled out the cookie, which was now covered with doggie-drool. “Oh, dear! You have to watch out for him,” she told Nancy, George, and Bess. “Everything goes into his mouth. He’ll try to eat toys, balls, shoes—even CDs.”

  “CDs?” Bess gasped.

  “CDs. Lily Mei, Anna Lin, it’s okay. Mommy got your cookie back from the doggie,” Mrs. Jacobs reassured the twins. They snuffled and stopped crying.

  Mrs. Jacobs continued giving Nancy, George, and Bess instructions about the twins. She told them about snacks, diaper changes—which she would handle—discipline, and safety. She showed them how to hook and unhook the baby gates.

  “It’s important that you never let the twins out of your sight,” she finished. “They can get into trouble in about two seconds flat.”

  “Just like Sir Barkalot,” Nancy noted.

  “Exactly! Oh, and we have a kitty-cat, too. Pumpkin Pie.”

  “Meow!” the twins said at the same time.

  Mrs. Jacobs beamed. “That’s right—meow! Anyway, she’s around here somewhere.”

  “Mom, are there any banana muffins left, or did the little monsters eat them all?”

  Nancy turned around. A girl with short, honey-colored hair came into the living room, followed by a blond girl and a redheaded boy.

  “Margaret!” Mrs. Jacobs snapped. “Please do not refer to your sisters as ‘little monsters.’ We talked about that.”

  “Whatever. Are there any muffins left? Lacie and Matt and me are starving!” Margaret said.

  “Lacie and Matt and I. Yes, we still have muffins. And there’s some lemonade in the fridge.” Mrs. Jacobs turned to the three girls. “Nancy, George, Bess … this is my daughter Margaret. These are her friends Lacie and Matt. They’re doing a science project together.”

  The six kids exchanged hellos. Lily Mei and Anna Lin ran up to Margaret and threw their arms around her legs. “Mah-Mah!” they exclaimed happily.

  Margaret patted their heads. “Yeah, hi,” she said, sounding bored. She glanced at Lacie and Matt and rolled her eyes.

  “What? They’re so cute,” Lacie said.

  “Yeah, they’re way cuter than my sisters,” Matt piped up.

  “So you’re stuck with the little monsters, huh?” Margaret said to Nancy, George, and Bess. “Good luck with that!”

  Mrs. Jacobs put her hands on her hips. “Margaret!”

  “Sorry, Mom. ’Kay, we’re outta here. Muffins, people!” Margaret called out to her friends. They headed for the kitchen, which was separated from the living room by another baby gate.

  “I’m sorry about that,” Mrs. Jacobs said, lowering her voice to a whisper. “Margaret is having some … adjustment problems with Lily Mei and Ann Lin. She was an only child for twelve years, and it hasn’t been easy for her.” She gazed down at the silver, moon-shaped rattle, which one of the twins was now holding. “She’s even mad that the twins play with her rattle.”

  George nodded. “I have two brothers, Sebastian and Scott. It’s hard to share with them sometimes.”

  “Yeah, my sister Maggie can be a pain too,” Bess agreed.

  Mrs. Jacobs smiled. “So you understand. Anyway … oh my, where has the time gone?” she exclaimed, glancing at her watch. “Do you have any questions? No? Then why don’t I leave you to play with the twins while I start dinner?”

  “Sure,” Nancy said. “We can have a tea party with them.”

  “Wonderful! I’ll be right in there if you need me,” Mrs. Jacobs said, pointing to the kitchen.

  After she left, Nancy, George, and Bess sat down on the floor next to the twins. “Hi!” Bess said. “I’m Bess! And this is Nancy, and this is George.”

  The twins blinked at her. One of them wandered over to a pile of wooden blocks and began stacking them. The other one stood behind Nancy and peered over her shoulder.

  “I’ll pour some tea,” Nancy said, picking up the teapot and tipping it over one of the cups. “What do you want in your tea, Anna Lin? Sugar? Honey? Lemon? Milk? What about you, Lily Mei?” She put a pretend-lump of sugar in one of the cups.

  “Which one’s Lily Mei and which one’s Anna Lin?” George whispered to Nancy. “They look exactly alike!”

  Nancy frowned. “I’m pretty sure the one in purple is Lily Mei.”

  “No, I think the one in pink is Lily Mei,” Bess whispered.

  “Your tea is ready!” Nancy called out to Lily Mei, or whichever twin was playing with blocks.

  Except … she wasn’t there. She wasn’t anywhere in the living room.

  Nancy felt a rush of panic. Oh, no! She, George, and Bess had taken their eyes off Lily Mei for two seconds—and she had disappeared!

  CHAPTER TWO

  Missing?

  “Where’s Lily Mei?” Nancy cried out, jumping to her feet.

  George and Bess glanced around the living room. “She’s gone!” Bess gasped.

  “She couldn’t have gone very far,” George said worriedly.

  Nancy realized that George was right. There were only two ways in or out of the living room—the kitchen in one direction and the hallway in the other—and they were both closed off by baby gates.

  Nancy could see Mrs. Jacobs in the kitchen, washing dishes. Margaret and her friends were standing at the counter, pouring lemonade from a pitcher. None of them seemed to know what was happening with Lily Mei.

  Was Lily Mei hiding somewhere in the living room? Nancy wondered.

  Anna Lin was sitting quietly on the floor, nibbling on a pretend-coo
kie. She didn’t seem to notice that her twin sister was missing.

  “Bess, you watch Anna Lin. George and I are going to look for Lily Mei,” Nancy said, trying to stay calm.

  “Look where?” Bess asked her.

  “She could be hiding behind the couch, or—”

  Just then, the door bell rang. Nancy watched as Mrs. Jacobs turned off the kitchen faucet and stepped over the baby gate, into the living room. Sir Barkalot was right behind her, barking.

  “I think that’s my friend, Mrs.—where’s Lily Mei?” Mrs. Jacobs demanded, stopping in her tracks.

  Nancy gulped. So did George and Bess.

  “She’s … that is … ,” Nancy began. She didn’t know how to tell Mrs. Jacobs that they had lost Lily Mei.

  “Peek-a-boo!”

  Lily Mei jumped out from behind the love seat. She burst into a fit of giggles. Anna Lin started giggling too. So that’s where Lily Mei was, Nancy thought. Whew!

  Mrs. Jacobs’s expression relaxed. “Peek-a-boo to you, too, sweetheart!”

  Anna Lin hid her face in her hands, then peered through her fingers. “Peep-a-goo!” she squealed.

  “That’s peek-a-boo, bunny. I forgot to mention that this is one of their favorite games,” Mrs. Jacobs said to Nancy, George, and Bess. The doorbell rang again. Sir Barkalot barked. “Oh, right! Excuse me, I’ve got to get that.”

  Mrs. Jacobs stepped over the baby gate into the hallway and opened the front door. Nancy saw a woman standing there along with a little boy. The boy was dressed in a green polo shirt, jeans—and a red cape.

  Before Mrs. Jacobs had a chance to say hello, the boy rushed into the house and jumped over the baby gate, his cape flapping wildly behind him. Sir Barkalot bounded after him, barking.

  “Look out, it’s Super Sonic Man!” the boy yelled. The twins clapped and shrieked in delight.

  “Cal! You come back here right this second!” the woman called out.

  “Please don’t worry about it, Sarah,” Mrs. Jacobs said.

  Mrs. Jacobs introduced her guests to the girls as her next-door neighbor Mrs. Gregory, and her five-year-old son, Cal. “He has a lot of energy,” Mrs. Gregory apologized.