Circus Act, Page 2

  Nancy was puzzled. She thought she was going to talk about being a detective.

  “Celeste jumps through hula hoops,” Nancy said.“And she hops over blocks.”

  “Awesome!” Katie cried. “And you’re going to bring Celeste on my show, right?”

  Nancy saw Scooter hold up a sign that read, YES! But she knew the answer was NO!

  “No, Katie,” Nancy said, shaking her head.“I can’t take Celeste out of camp.”

  Katie stared at Nancy. Then she turned to the camera. “My next guest is Shirley, the school crossing guard. We’ll find out what school crossing guards do when there’s no school.”

  “Cut!” Scooter shouted. He shut off the video camera, and the girls stood up.

  “We can’t have a show without an animal act!” Scooter complained.

  “I know some elephant jokes,” George offered.“How do you know if an elephant—”

  “Forget it,” Katie snapped.“I have to call Shirley the school crossing guard. She’s supposed to be here, and she’s late.”

  As the girls left Katie’s house Nancy felt bad. The last thing she wanted to do was disappoint a friend.

  “You’re hardly eating your barbecue chicken, Nancy,” Mr. Drew said. He flipped a piece of chicken on the sizzling grill.

  “Too much cotton candy?” Hannah joked. Hannah Gruen had been the Drews’ housekeeper since Nancy was only three.

  Nancy shook her head. She told her dad and Hannah all about Katie.

  “I said I couldn’t bring Celeste to her show,” Nancy said.“Now I feel awful.”

  “You would have felt worse if you’d brought Celeste and got in trouble,” Mr. Drew said.“It’s better to tell the truth right away than feel bad later, right?”

  “Right!” Nancy smiled. “You have the answer to everything, Daddy.”

  “He’s not a bad cook, either!” Hannah said, taking a bite of chicken.

  Nancy’s puppy, Chocolate Chip, begged for scraps. But Nancy shook her head. “Even Celeste eats dog food,” she told her.

  After Nancy finished her dinner she went into the den and turned on the TV. Using the remote she looked for Katie’s show on the River Heights Community Channel. Instead Nancy found a news flash.

  “Mr. and Mrs. Weber,” a reporter was saying.“Are you sure Celeste is missing?”

  Nancy sat straight up in her chair.

  “Celeste’s cage door was left open,” Hilda sobbed.“And now she’s gone!”

  Nancy froze.

  “I didn’t leave Celeste’s cage open,” Nancy thought out loud.“I didn’t!”

  3

  Clowning Around

  Ihope Hilda and Gunther believe me,” Nancy told Bess and George as they walked toward the circus tent the next morning.

  “Don’t worry, Nancy,” Bess said.“No one will blame you.You’ll see.”

  But as soon as the girls entered the circus tent . . .

  “There she is!” a six-year-old camper cried.“She left Celeste’s cage open!”

  “But Ididclose the door,” Nancy told the Webers.“And I latched it, too!”

  “Not well enough,” Gunther said.

  Nancy’s heart sank. She had told the truth. What more could she do?

  George stepped up to the Webers. “Someone is bound to find Celeste sooner or later,” she said.“They’ll read her dog tag and know who she is. Right?”

  “Wrong.” Gunther sighed.“Celeste never wore a dog tag.”

  “But all dogs wear tags,” Nancy said. She thought of Chocolate Chip and her heartshaped tag.

  “Celeste isn’t justanydog,” Gunther said.“She’s a canine celebrity.”

  “Now we’ll never get her back!” Hilda said, dabbing her eyes with her cape.

  “Awesome!” Orson cheered. “I mean . . . that would be . . . awful.”

  Why is he so happy? Nancy wondered.

  “Okay, kids,” Gunther said.“Put on your costumes now. The clowns will rehearse with me first. All other campers will do warm-up exercises with Hilda.”

  “What about me?” Nancy asked in a small voice.“Should I put on my costume?”

  Gunther heaved a big sigh.“You mightas well. In case Celeste comes back.”

  “Fat chance,” Orson muttered.

  “Orson,” Gunther said, “you’ll be tumbling today. So you can leave your big shoes in the costume room.”

  Orson looked disappointed. “What’s Bosco Bigfoot without his big shoes?”

  “A pest!” George mumbled.

  All of the campers stared at Nancy as they headed toward the costume area.

  “This isn’t fair,” Nancy told Bess and George. “Someone else left the cage open. Either on purpose or by mistake.”

  “How can you prove it?” George asked.

  “With this!” Nancy pulled her blue notebook out of her pocket.

  Nancy carried her detective notebook everywhere. But she hadn’t thought she’d need it at circus camp.

  Opening the notebook to a fresh page, Nancy wrote,“Where is Celeste?”

  “Someone could have stolen Celeste,” Nancy thought out loud.“But who?”

  “I bet Splatter knows,” Bess said. “His pen is right next to Celeste’s cage.”

  “Elephants never forget, but they don’t talk either,” Nancy said. “Let’s search Celeste’s cage for clues.”

  “But what about our warm-up exercises?” George asked.

  Nancy looked at her watch.“They won’t start for another fifteen minutes. We still have some time.”

  Gunther and Hilda were busy setting up the ring. Nancy, Bess, and George hurried over to Celeste’s empty cage.

  The first thing Nancy did was search the dirt ground for footprints. She saw something that made her eyes fly open.

  “Look!” Nancy said, pointing down. “A trail ofpawprints!”

  Nancy studied the prints. They led from the cage to an opening in the tent.

  “If Celeste made those prints,” Bess said, “it shows that she walked out.”

  “And she wasn’t alone,” Nancy said. She placed her own sneakered foot inside a giant footprint.“There’s also a trail of huge footprints next to the paw prints.”

  “You mean someone with big feet led Celeste out of the tent?” George asked.

  “Big feet?” Bess asked. She narrowed her eyes.“As in Bosco Bigfoot?”

  “Orson said Celeste made him sneeze,” Nancy pointed out.“He also seemed pretty glad when Celeste disappeared.”

  Nancy had her first suspect. She wrote the word “suspects,” then Orson’s name right below it.

  “Some other clowns have big shoes, too,” Nancy said. “We really should match Orson’s shoe with the print to be sure.”

  Bess squeezed her nose.“You mean touch Orson’s shoe?”

  “It’s a stinky job, but somebody’s got to do it,” Nancy said. “As soon as the clowns are in the ring we’ll go into the costume room. Then we’ll grab Orson’s shoe and compare it to the footprint.”

  “Gotcha,” George said.

  The girls waited until all the clowns were in the ring. Then they raced to the costume room. It was behind a white canvas curtain painted with colorful animals.

  Nancy peeked behind the curtain. “No other campers,” she said in a low voice. “The coast is clear.”

  The girls slipped into the costume room. The hooks and racks were filled with costumes. A cubby shelf stood against the side of the tent. Two more curtains served as dressing areas.

  “Check it out,” George said. She grabbed a big rubber horn and tooted it.

  “Shh!” Nancy warned. She found Orson’s cubby right away. It was the one with the fake peanut brittle can inside.

  Nancy pulled a big shoe out of the cubby. She slipped it under her arm.

  “All systems go,” Nancy said. She was about to turn when George grabbed her arm.

  “Listen!” George hissed.

  Nancy did listen. She heard a strange putt-putt-putt sound. Someone was
coming. Or something!

  “Quick!” Nancy said.“Let’s hide!”

  George pointed the rubber horn toward a costume rack.“Behind there!”

  Putt-putt-putt-putt!

  The girls ran behind velvet jackets and ruffled dresses.

  Nancy held her breath as they peekedout. A tiny yellow car was rolling around the curtain and into the costume room!

  Putt-putt-putt-putt!

  The car stopped. A door opened and Orson Wong stepped out. Then another clown. And another. And another. Until the whole Chuckle Brigade had filed out!

  Nancy stared at the clowns. They each had a rubber nose and a plastic daisy on their jackets.

  Orson walked over to his cubby. He pulled out one shoe. But when he reached for the other one he began to shout: “My shoe is missing! Nobody leave the tent!”

  Orson’s loud voice startled Nancy. She stumbled back—right against George’s rubber horn!

  “BEEEEEP! BEEEEEEP!”

  Nancy froze. She could practically feel the clowns staring right at the rack.

  Oh, great, Nancy thought.

  Busted!

  4

  Working for Peanuts

  There’s your shoe, Orson,” a small clown with a green wig said as the girls stepped out.

  “Ah-ha!” Orson pointed to his shoe under Nancy’s arm. “Everyone wants to walk in the shoes of the great Bosco Bigfoot.”

  “In your dreams!” George sneered.

  The clowns lined up shoulder to shoulder.

  “Okay, gang,” Orson told the other clowns.“Ready, aim—spray!”

  The girls shrieked. The daisies on the clowns’ jackets were squirting water!

  Nancy dropped Orson’s shoe as she tried to cover her face.

  When the daisies dripped their last drops, a sputtering Nancy turned to Orson.

  “That was sneaky!” Nancy scolded.

  “We were just clowning around,” the green-wigged clown said with a grin.

  “You were supposed to laugh,” another clown wearing droopy overalls said.

  But Nancy, Bess, and George were not laughing.

  “What were you doing near Celeste’s cage?” Nancy demanded.“We saw your big footprints next to her paw prints!”

  For a moment Orson thought about that. Then he shrugged.“Yesterday after cotton candy I went back for my nose. The one I sneezed off, remember?” he asked.

  “I remember.” Nancy shuddered when she thought of the wet nose in her hand.

  “After I picked it up I walked out of the tent,” Orson explained.“Alone.”

  “Was Celeste still in her cage?” Nancy asked.

  “Yeah,” Orson said. “Growling at me as usual.”

  Nancy stared at Orson.“Is that the whole truth?” she asked.

  “You bet!” Orson said. He held out his hand.“Let’s shake on it.”

  “Don’t do it, Nancy!” George warned.

  But Nancy had never turned down a handshake. It wouldn’t be polite.

  Nancy sighed. She grabbed Orson’s hand and jumped. He had a small tickly buzzer tucked in his palm.

  Orson rocked back and forth as he laughed—until he began to sneeze.

  “Ahhh-choooo! Ahhh-choooo!”

  The girls ducked as Orson’s nose flew over their heads.

  “You see that?” Orson complained. “Celeste may be gone, but her fur is everywhere.”

  Orson put on his nose and his big shoes. Then he turned to the other clowns.“Come on, you guys. Let’s practice tossing those cream pies.”

  Nancy watched as the clowns marched out of the costume room.

  “Orson is no longer a suspect,” she said. “But he’ll always be a pest.”

  After Nancy crossed Orson’s name out of her notebook the girls changed into their own costumes. Then they joined Hilda and the others for warm-up exercises.

  “By the way, Nancy,” Hilda said. “If Celeste isn’t found by tomorrow you’ll have to do something else in the show.”

  Nancy’s heart sank. She didn’t want to do anything else. She wanted to work with Celeste.

  I’m going to find Celeste, Nancy thought, if it’s the last thing I do!

  While everyone practiced their circus acts Nancy kept busy juggling beanbags. During the juice break, she, Bess, and George returned to the scene of the crime.

  Nancy walked around Celeste’s cage. She stopped next to the pile of dog food.

  “That’s weird,” Nancy said.“I fed Celeste beef dog food yesterday. Now the whole bag of beef is gone.”

  “So?” George asked.

  “So whoever took Celeste might be feeding her, too,” Nancy decided.

  “You mean someone may behidingCeleste?” Bess asked.“Who would do that?”

  Nancy wasn’t sure—until she saw the Flying Tremendoes walking through the tent on their hands.

  “Show-offs,” Bess said.“They still think they’re the stars.”

  “Exactly!” Nancy cried. “The Flying Tremendoes could be hiding Celeste until the show is over. That way they can be the stars of the Super Show!”

  Nancy added the Flying Tremendoes to her suspect list. She was about to shut her notebook when a splash of bright blue paint landed on her page.

  “Hey!” Nancy complained. She glanced up and saw Splatter the elephant. He was in his pen, painting on white paper.

  The girls moved closer to get a better look. The painting looked like a dog made out of sticks.

  “That’s the funniest-looking dog I ever saw,” Bess said.

  “He’s an elephant,” George argued.“What do you expect—theMona Lisa?”

  “I wonder if Splatter is painting Celeste,” Nancy said slowly.“If he saw whotook Celeste, he might be trying to tell us something with his painting.”

  “How would we know?” George asked.

  “I’m going to have Splatter do a composite sketch,” Nancy announced.

  “A what?” Bess asked.

  “My dad took me to visit a police station once,” Nancy said.“A woman was telling an artist how to draw the thief who stole her purse.”

  “So Splatter can paint the thief who stole Celeste,” George said, her eyes flashing.“I like it. I like it.”

  Nancy placed a clean sheet of paper on the floor of Splatter’s pen.

  “Splatter?” Nancy asked. “Who opened the cage yesterday and took Celeste?”

  Splatter swung his trunk back and forth. Then he dipped his paintbrush into the pots of paint and began to paint.

  “Go, Splatter!” the girls cheered as the elephant slopped paint on the paper.

  When Splatter was done he tossed the painting out of his pen. It was a picture of a girl with shoulder-length brown hair.

  “Look familiar?” George asked.

  “Not yet,” Nancy said.“There are lots of girls at camp with medium-length brown hair.”

  “But only one elephant who can paint,” Bess said proudly. “I’m glad I’m working with Splatter!”

  Nancy waved the painting dry. Then she slipped it into her notebook. Maybe it would make sense later.

  The girls spent the rest of the morning learning how to march in the Super Show parade. Amy led the parade and carried a big banner with the camp name.

  I hope Amy still invites us to her clubhouse, Nancy thought. But more than anything I hope I find Celeste.

  After camp the girls ran to Nancy’s house to watchThe Katie and Lester Show. But when they turned on the TV, the show had already started.

  “Oh, rats!” George said.“We must have missed your part, Nancy.”

  “Shirley the school crossing guard has something called bunions,” Katie was saying.“So my guest today is Brandon. He sellsice cream at the River Heights swimming pool.”

  “Hey,” Brandon said nervously.

  “Brandon,” Katie said.“Of all your years selling ice cream, which flavor melts faster? Chocolate or vanilla?”

  Lester stretched his feathery neck toward Brandon. Then he yanked Brandon
’s glasses off with his beak.

  “Hey!” Brandon cried. “Tell crackerbreath to quit it!”

  “Uh-oh!” Lester squawked.“Arrrk!”

  Nancy and her friends giggled.

  “Okay, okay,” Katie said to the camera. “Our next show will be super-duper special. Our guest will be the most amazing, awesome dog in the world! And wait until you see what she does!”

  “Ruff, ruff!” Lester squawked.

  An amazing dog?

  Nancy stared at Bess and George. There was only one amazing dog they knew.

  “Bess, George!” Nancy cried. “Could Katie be talking about Celeste?”

  5

  Snoops and Hoops

  Maybe Katie didn’t say ‘dog,’” Bess said. “Maybe she said . . . pig.”

  “Since when do pigs go ‘ruff, ruff’?” George asked.

  “Katie did want Celeste on her show more than anything,”Nancy said.“And Katie does have shoulder-length brown hair, just like the girl in Splatter’s painting.”

  “But Katie’s our friend,” George said.

  “I know, I know,” Nancy groaned. She couldn’t imagine Katie going to the circus camp and taking Celeste. But a detective had to consider all possibilities.

  “Are you going to write Katie’s name in your notebook, Nancy?” Bess asked.

  “I’ll write it inpencil.” Nancy sighed.“A pencil with a big, fat eraser.”

  Nancy wrote Katie’s name in her notebook. Then she looked at her watch.

  “Katie usually tapes her new show around now,” Nancy said. “Let’s go to her house and check out that amazing dog.”

  The girls walked the short distance to Katie’s house. As they neared the Zaleskis’ front yard Nancy noticed something strange. There was a stack of colorful hula hoops on the grass.

  “Katie doesn’t play with hula hoops,” Bess said.“She says they make her dizzy.”