Circus Act, Page 3

“Unless,” Nancy said slowly, “the hula hoops are for Celeste.”

  Bess let out a little gasp.

  “If Celeste is here, she might be in Katie’s basement,” George said. “That’s where she videotapes her show.”

  The girls raced across the yard to Katie’s house. Nancy saw a small window at the bottom of the house. It was just inches up from the ground.

  “I’ll bet that’s the basement window,” Nancy whispered. “Let’s see if we can see something down there.”

  The girls kneeled by the window. Nancy peeked inside. She couldn’t see much, but she could hear a low howling noise. It sounded just like a dog.

  “Katiedoeshave a dog down there!” Nancy whispered.

  “Is it pink and white?” Bess asked.

  Nancy pressed her nose against the window.“I think I see—”

  “Arrrk!”

  Nancy gasped. Lester the parrot flew up against the window. He flapped his wings against the glass and screeched: “Peekaboo! Peekaboo! Arrrk!”

  Bess shrieked as the girls fell back on the grass.

  “Hey!” Nancy heard Scooter shout. “Someone is spying on our show!”

  “Busted by a parrot,” George groaned.

  Katie and Scooter ran out of the house. They stood over the girls.

  “Why were you peeking in my basementwindow?” Katie asked. She looked more confused than angry.

  “Peekaboo!” Lester squawked from Katie’s shoulder.“Raaaak!”

  Nancy dusted herself off and stood up. “We wanted to see the amazing dog you said you had,” she said.

  “No problem,” Katie said. She put two fingers in her mouth and whistled loudly. After a few seconds a little gray dog ran out of the house.

  “Meet Toby,” Katie declared. “Toby the singing schnauzer.”

  Nancy stared at the dog. He was cute. But he was definitely not Celeste.

  “He’smydog!” Scooter said proudly. “I taught him myself.”

  “No way,” George said. “Dogs might be able to hopscotch, but they can’t sing.”

  “That’s what you think,” Katie said. She turned to her cousin.“Hit it, Scoot!”

  Scooter took a harmonica out of his pocket. Then he began to play.

  “‘She’ll be comin’ round the mountain when she comes,’ ” Katie sang.

  “Yee-haaa!” Lester screeched.

  Toby threw back his fuzzy head. Then he opened his mouth and began to howl.

  Nancy and Bess giggled. But George clapped her hands over her ears.

  “Put a sock in it!” George begged.

  Toby stopped howling. He wagged his tail happily.

  Nancy knew that Katie didn’t have Celeste. But she still had one question.

  “Katie?” she asked. “Why are all those hula hoops in your yard?”

  “Oh, those are for Lydia,” Katie said. She pointed over Nancy’s shoulder.“The other act in the show.”

  Nancy spun around. A girl wearing a sparkly leotard was running into the yard.

  “I’m ready for my close-up, you guys!” Lydia said with a giggle.

  Lydia picked up three hula hoops. She twirled them on her arms and one leg.

  “She giggles a lot,” Scooter said. “But she’s better than ice-cream boy.”

  Nancy smiled. All the pieces had fallen into place, and Katie hadn’t taken Celeste.

  Lydia was spinning three hoops aroundher neck when Nancy, Bess, and George left Katie’s yard.

  “That Toby was funny,” Bess said.

  “A real howl!” George joked.

  Suddenly Nancy heard a rumbling noise. She looked up and saw Joey, Lori, and Tyrone speeding down the block on in-line skates.

  “Beep! Beep!” Joey yelled. He and Tyrone were eating bags of blue cotton candy as they skated. Lori was holding a big white envelope under her arm.

  “Slow down!” Nancy shouted.

  The Flying Tremendoes swerved on their skates. Then they fell to the ground in a big heap. Joey and Tyrone dropped their bags of cotton candy. Bunches of papers flew out of Lori’s white envelope.

  “See what you made us do!” Tyrone complained.

  “Some acrobats!” George said, shaking her head.“You can’t even roller-skate!”

  Nancy read one of the papers on the sidewalk: “Hurry, hurry, hurry! See the stars of the Super Show—the Great Flying Tremendoes!”

  “What are these?” Nancy demanded.

  “We made those flyers ourselves,” Joey bragged.“Now everyone will know who therealstars of the show are.”

  “But Celeste is the star and you know it,” Nancy argued.

  “Not anymore,” Tyrone said. “Celeste is history. The Flying Tremendoes rule!”

  Lori, Joey, and Tyrone gave one another high fives. They picked up the flyers and skated away.

  “You forgot your cotton candy!” Bess called. She waved the two bags in the air.

  “They forgot this, too,” Nancy said. She picked up a yellow piece of paper from the sidewalk and studied it.

  “What is it, Nancy?” George asked.

  “It’s the order slip from the copy shop,” Nancy said. “The Flying Tremendoes had those flyers made up last week.BeforeCeleste was missing.”

  “What does that mean?” Bess asked.

  Nancy narrowed her eyes.

  “It means the Flying Tremendoes might have known that Celeste would be gone!”

  6

  Food for Thought

  Maybe the Flying Tremendoesarehiding Celeste!” Bess gasped.“So they can be the stars of the show!”

  Nancy opened her notebook to her clue list. She wrote the words “order slip.” Then she wrote the date of the order and the date that Celeste disappeared.

  “What an awesome clue!” George said.

  “I have another clue,” Bess said. “Why were the Flying Tremendoes eating blue cotton candy when the cotton candy we ate in camp today was yellow and white?”

  “Bess!” George said, rolling her eyes.“What does cotton candy have to do with a missing poodle?”

  “I don’t know.” Bess tucked the cotton candy under her arm. “Just food for thought.”

  Nancy shut her detective notebook. “We’ll question the Flying Tremendoes first thing tomorrow morning,” she said.

  “What if they don’t tell the truth?” Bess asked.

  “Then the Flying Tremendoes,” Nancy said,“will be theLyingTremendoes!”

  That night Nancy lay in bed but couldn’t sleep. She turned on her night-light and opened her notebook. Then she unfolded Splatter’s painting and spread it across her bed.

  If the Flying Tremendoes took Celeste, Nancy wondered, then why did Splatter just paint one girl?

  Nancy noticed something else. The girl in the painting was wearing purple sneakers. Who at camp had purple sneakers?

  Nancy turned off her night-light and snuggled under her quilt.

  Purple sneakers, cotton candy, painting elephants! Nancy thought as she drifted off to sleep. This case is turning into a threering circus!

  “What do you call a flying elephant?” George asked the next morning in the circus tent.

  “What?” Nancy asked.

  “A jumbo jet!” George laughed.

  “I hope he remembers to pack his trunk,” Bess added.“Get it? Get it?”

  “I get it,” Nancy said. But she wasn’t really laughing. She was too busy checking out the campers’ feet.

  No purple sneakers, Nancy thought. Just acrobat slippers and clown shoes.

  Nancy saw Joey, Lori, and Tyrone inside the ring. They were standing on their heads with their backs to the girls.

  “Ew!” Bess said. “They’re going to get sawdust in their hair.”

  Nancy pressed one finger to her lips. She waved her friends closer to the ring.

  “Good job, you guys!” Nancy heard Lori say.“No one will ever find it now.”

  “Yeah,” Joey sneered.“We hid it nice and good!”

  Nancy stared at Bess and George
. What did they hide? Celeste?

  “Oh, Nancy!” a voice called out.

  Nancy spun around. Hilda and Gunther were walking toward them.

  “Celeste has not been found yet,” Hilda said. “So we’ve decided to make you a member of the Chuckle Brigade.”

  “You mean a clown?” Nancy gulped when she imagined herself with a weird wig and a red rubber nose.“What do I have to do?”

  “It’s easy,” Gunther said.“All you have to do is stand still while Bosco Bigfoot throws a pie in your face.”

  “Bosco Bigfoot?” Nancy cried.

  She saw Orson holding a cream pie and smiling slyly. “I hope you like lemon meringue,” he snickered.

  Nancy felt sick. It was bad enough that Celeste was missing. Now she had to get a pie in her face, too!

  “Go to the costume room and pick out a clown costume,” Hilda told Nancy. “Then you can practice with the other clowns.”

  “Don’t worry, Nancy,” Bess said as the Webers walked away.“We’ll help you pick out a real funny costume.”

  “And if that’s not funny enough,” George said,“try an elephant joke.”

  Nancy knew her best friends were trying to make her feel better.

  “Thanks, but I’mnotgoing to be a clown in the Super Show,” Nancy said.“I’m going to investigate the Flying Tremendoes, and then I’m going to find Celeste!”

  The girls did not go straight to the costume room. They stopped off at the animal tent to look for more clues.

  “Look!” Nancy said.“Now the bag of dog biscuits is missing.”

  “You don’t think Splatter is eating the dog food, do you?” Bess asked.

  “Not unless it has peanuts,” George said.

  Nancy heard footsteps outside the tent. She waved her friends to the opening and looked outside. Her eyes opened wide.

  The Flying Tremendoes were running away from the tent and into the park. They were clutching their capes around them.

  “Why are they wearing their capes?” George said.“They weren’t before.”

  “Unless they’re hiding something underneath those capes,” Nancy said. “Like the bags of dog food.”

  “Nancy!” Bess exclaimed.“They might be bringing the dog food to Celeste!”

  “Let’s follow them!” Nancy said.

  But when the girls ran into the park, they couldn’t find the Flying Tremendoes.

  The girls knew not to walk too far into the park. They stopped under a tree and looked around.

  “Where did they go?” George asked.

  “Who knows?” Bess said. She pointed at the ground. “But don’t step in that yucky pink and white stuff.”

  “What pink and white stuff?” Nancy asked. She looked on the ground and saw four strands of pink and white fluff.

  “It looks like pink and white fur!” Nancy exclaimed. “Celeste must be around here somewhere!”

  7

  Hide and Sneak!

  Here’s another piece!” George said. She picked up a strand of white fluff.

  “And another!” Bess pointed to some fluff stuck to the trunk of the tree.

  “I don’t get it,” Nancy said. “If Celeste’s fur is here, then where is Cel—”

  Nancy didn’t finish her sentence. Clumps of pink and white fur were suddenly falling down from the tree.

  “Hey!” George shouted.

  “It’s raining poodle fur!” Bess cried as a clump of fluff fell on her head.

  Nancy looked up. She saw the FlyingTremendoes sitting up in the tree and eating cherry vanilla cotton candy.

  “Looking for something?”Tyrone asked. He was lying back on one of the tree branches and grinning.

  Nancy felt a bit silly. The pink and white poodle fur was really cotton candy.

  “We’re looking for Celeste the Hopscotch Poodle!” Nancy yelled up.

  “You said you were hiding something,” George said.“We heard it ourselves!”

  Joey, Lori, and Tyrone looked nervous— as if they really were hiding something.

  “Come down from that tree!” Nancy demanded.“So we can talk about it.”

  “Okay.” Joey popped a clump of cotton candy into his mouth. “But if you want to talk, you all have to come up here.”

  “But it’s high,” Bess complained.

  “Du-uh!” Joey said. “No one climbs as high as the Flying Tremendoes!”

  “Up, up, and awaaaay!” the Flying Tremendoes announced.

  Bess put her hands on her hips and glared up at the tree.

  “You think you’re so great,” Bess shouted.“But you’re not the best tree climbers in River Heights!”

  “Then who is?”Tyrone demanded.

  Bess pointed to George.“She is.”

  “I am?” George gasped. Then she grinned. “Yeah . . . I am!”

  “Go for it, George!” Nancy cheered.

  George marched to the tree, hugged the trunk, and inched her way up. Then she grabbed onto a branch with one hand.

  The branch began to shake. Nancy jumped as a bag of blue cotton candy fell from the tree. Then another. And another.

  Nancy ducked as more bags of colorful cotton candy fell down from the tree.

  So that’s it! Nancy thought. The Flying Tremendoes didn’t steal Celeste. They stole cotton candy and hid it up in the tree!

  “Ah-ha!” Bess cried. “I knew there was something fishy about that cotton candy yesterday.”

  “Good work, Bess,” Nancy said. “You really did get some evidence.”

  “Yeah.” Bess blushed.“Except I ate most of it.”

  “Okay, okay,” Joey said as the Flying Tremendoes climbed down from the tree. “You caught us—sticky-handed.”

  “We thought you were hiding Celeste,” Nancy said.

  “Celeste?”Tyrone scoffed.“No way!”

  “Then why did you have those flyers made up before Celeste was even missing?”

  “The ones that said you were the stars of the Super Show,” George added.

  “Because we knew we were the real stars,” Lori bragged.“Whether that dog was here or not.”

  Tyrone looked worried.“You’re not going to tell Gunther and Hilda about the cotton candy, are you?” he asked.

  “You can’t!” Joey begged. “If they find out, the Flying Tremendoes will be up, up, and out of here.”

  “What you did was wrong,” Nancy said. “But we won’t tell as long as you put that cotton candy back into the cart.”

  “Fine with me,”Tyrone said.“I was planning to do that anyway.”

  “Because you were beginning to feel guilty?” Nancy asked hopefully.

  “No!” Tyrone grabbed his middle. “Because I was beginning to feelsick!”

  While the Flying Tremendoes gathered the cotton candy bags Nancy and her friends returned to the tent.

  “That rules out the Great Flying Tremendoes,” George said.

  “And leaves me with zero suspects.” Nancy sighed. She remembered the Chuckle Brigade.“And a pie in my face!”

  With the help of Bess and George, Nancy picked out a clown costume. It had a rainbow wig, baggy polka-dotted pants, and a striped jacket.

  Nancy spent the rest of the morning practicing with the clowns. She held one end of a jump rope while another clown jumped on stilts.

  “And now for my big finish!” Orson announced. He lifted the pie in his hand and aimed it straight at Nancy.

  Oh, noooo! Nancy squeezed her eyes shut. She expected to hear a splat but instead she heard a loud “Ah-ah-ahahchooooooo!”Then a splat.

  Nancy opened her eyes. Orson hadsneezed and jammed his own face into the lemon meringue pie!

  Nancy giggled. Maybe being a clown wasn’t so bad after all!

  After the rehearsals, the kids ate lunch. When Gunther wheeled out the cotton candy cart he looked puzzled.

  “This is very strange,” Gunther said. “Yesterday the cart was half empty. Now it’s completely full.”

  Nancy smiled. She may not have found Celeste,
but she did find missing cotton candy. That was better than nothing.

  “Bess, George,” Nancy said.“Why don’t you come to my house after camp? Hannah said she’d bake circus cookies.”

  “What about Celeste?” Bess asked. “You’re not giving up, are you, Nancy?”

  “No,” Nancy said. “But even detectives need a milk and cookie break.”

  Just then Nancy saw Amy carrying a big duffel bag on her shoulder.

  “That looks heavy,” Nancy called to Amy.

  “It’s my costume,”Amy said, quickly.“I’m taking it home to wash.”

  That’s funny, Nancy thought. The Webers sent all of the costumes to a laundry service to be cleaned.

  “We still want to see your clubhouse, Amy,” George said.“It sounds awesome.”

  Amy’s face grew pale. “My clubhouse? Can’t! Not yet! It’s too messy!”

  Nancy watched as Amy hurried to the cotton candy cart.

  “Who cares if it’s messy?” George asked. “She should see my room.”

  Nancy didn’t get it either. Suddenly Amy didn’t want them to see her clubhouse.

  The girls walked to the back of the cotton candy line. Nancy saw Amy reaching into the cart for a bag. Then she noticed something else.

  Amy’s sneakers were bright purple!

  8

  Doggy in the Window

  Bess! George!” Nancy whispered.“I think I know who may have taken Celeste!”

  “Who?” Bess whispered.

  “Amy is wearing purple sneakers,” Nancy said. “Plus, she’s carrying a heavy bag, which might be holding the dog food.”

  “Hey!” George said.“Do you think Amy is hiding Celeste in her clubhouse?”

  Nancy watched as Amy walked across the street to her house.

  “I don’t know,” Nancy said.“But I think we should visit Amy after camp.”