The Crook Who Took the Book (4 page)

“Ew, a spider web,” Bess whispered.

“Shhh,” George said. “It's no big deal.”

Nancy shivered a bit as they headed into the damp basement. Julia led them into a big storage room. It was crowded with cartons, old books, and cast-off furniture.

“Now, where did I put that box?” she muttered. She began searching a cluttered shelf.

Tap. Taptaptaptap. Taptap.

Nancy picked up a flashlight and shone it into the shadowy corner of the storage room. “Anderson!” she said, with surprise.

Anderson Quilling was sitting at a desk in the corner, typing away on a big black typewriter. He was frowning at the page, and his hair looked messier than ever. But when he looked up and saw Nancy and her friends, he smiled.

“Oh, hello, girls,” Anderson said. “This is where I do my writing. It's very quiet down here.”

Julia turned from the shelf she was searching. “Anderson writes and
writes and writes,” she whispered to the girls. “But nobody will publish his books. But I have faith. I think he'll be a big success one day.”

She turned back to the shelf. A moment later she cried out, “Here's the box!” She held out the brown box to the girls. “Look, the lock has been broken.”

“May I see it, Julia?” Nancy asked.

“Of course.” Julia handed the pretty polished box to Nancy. George and Bess crowded near to peer at the box, too.

“What are you looking for, Nancy?” Bess asked.

“I don't know, exactly,” Nancy said with a shrug.

She looked at the box's bottom. Then she looked at the top and all around its sides. Finally Nancy fiddled with the broken lock and flipped the box open.

“Hmm,” she said.

“What?” Bess, George, and Julia said together.

“Look at that,” Nancy said. She pointed to the hinges that joined the lid to the box. “Something is caught here.”

Nancy plucked a bit of fabric from the
hinge. “It looks like felt,” she said, holding the scrap between her fingers. “Red felt.” She looked at Julia. “Do you remember seeing this on the box before?” she asked.

Julia shook her head. “Let's ask Anderson.” She took the scrap from Nancy and approached the store clerk.

“I hate to bother you, Anderson,” Julia said, “but do you remember seeing this bit of felt in the box hinges when you picked it out yesterday?”

“No,” Anderson said. “I don't think it was there when I gave you the box.” Then he started typing again.

“Let's go upstairs, girls,” Julia whispered. As they walked up the stairs, Nancy asked Julia another question.

“After Anderson gave you the box, what did you do with it?”

“Well, I checked to make sure the book was inside,” Julia recalled. “Then I locked the box. And then I put it on a shelf beneath the cash register at the front desk.”

“Hmm,” Nancy said. “Can I hang on to that scrap of felt?”

“Sure, Nancy,” Julia said. She handed over the fabric. “What do you think it is?”

“Maybe this felt was part of the thief's clothes,” Nancy said. “And it got caught in the box hinges.”

Silently, she was thinking one more thing: Maybe that thief was Anderson Quilling!

G
ood thinking, Nancy,” Julia said as they left the basement. “The red felt is a great piece of evidence.”

When they reached the top of the stairs, the phone at the front desk was ringing.

“Excuse me,” Julia said. She dashed away to answer it.

Nancy turned to George and Bess. “Do you remember if Anderson Quilling was wearing any red felt yesterday?” She whispered so no one would hear her.

“I don't know,” George said. “I never notice clothes and stuff like that.”

Bess tilted her head and thought hard. “I
think he was wearing lots of brown,” she said.

“Julia said she left the box on a shelf under the front desk,” Nancy whispered. “Anderson could have gotten to the box, broken the lock, and left with the book. That would explain why he wasn't at Mr. Sandback's appearance.”

“Why would Anderson do that?” Bess asked.

Nancy glanced at Mr. Sandback. He was now sitting on an easy chair near the front desk. He had a small smile on his face. As soon as Julia hung up the phone, he stood up and turned to her.

“Oh, Julia,” Mr. Sandback said. He draped his long, skinny frame over the counter. He had a glint in his eye. “I have an idea. Your shop clerk, Quilling. He's an odd fellow, isn't he? Perhaps he took my book?”

“Anderson?” Julia said. “Never! He's worked for me for years. I trust him completely.”

“But,” Mr. Sandback said, “isn't it poss—”

“Dad,” Julia said, sounding exasperated. “It
isn't
possible. Anderson gave me the
box. Then he left. I saw him drive away myself. And
then
I saw the book in the box and locked it. So, by the time the lock was broken and the book was stolen, Anderson was long gone.”

“Oh,” Nancy whispered to her friends. “I guess that rules out Anderson Quilling.”

“Well, then who
is
it?” Bess practically shouted.

Julia and Mr. Sandback both jumped and looked in the girls' direction.

“Sorry,” Nancy said. “We're just really frustrated by this mystery. I'd love to find that book for you. But all I have is one clue.” She held up the scrap of red felt.

“You know,” Mr. Sandback said, rubbing his chin slowly, “this reminds me of one of my own mysteries—
The Absent Award.
”

“I have that book at home,” Nancy said excitedly.

“It's a story much like this one, isn't it?” Mr. Sandback said. “Except instead of an author being awarded with a rare book, an actor is given a trophy.”

“But the award was stolen,” Nancy said. “I remember. You had a really cool detective
tracking down all these clues. It was a great book.”

“Thank you,” Mr. Sandback said. He walked back to the comfortable chair and sat down. He gave Nancy, Bess, and George another big smile.

“Who knows?” he said. “Maybe there are some clues to be found in that book.”

“Uh, maybe,” Nancy said. But inside, she wasn't so sure.

The Absent Award
is just a story, she thought to herself. This is a real-life mystery. How can there be clues in a book?

As if he could read her mind, Mr. Sandback said, “Remember what I said yesterday, Nancy? Life is full of mysteries. And the solutions can be easy to find. You just have to know where to look. You have to pay attention to the hints that are dropped in your lap.”

“Thanks for the advice,” Nancy said. Now she was really confused. Talking to Mr. Sandback was a mystery in itself!

“And remember, don't lose that clue,” Mr. Sandback said. He pointed at the bit of felt in Nancy's hand.

“That
is
good advice,” Nancy said with a smile. She unzipped her book bag and pulled out her shiny blue clue notebook. Then she slipped the scrap of fabric into the pocket in the notebook cover.

“Oh, look, it's almost four o'clock,” Bess said, pointing to her watch. “I told my mother I'd be home by four-fifteen. We'd better get going, guys.”

“Well, thanks for showing us the box, Julia,” Nancy said. “I'll be sure to let you know when I find some more clues.”

“Bye, Mr. Sandback. Bye, Julia,” called George and Bess. Then the girls headed home.

• • • 

That night Nancy sat on her bed. Her chocolate Lab puppy, Chocolate Chip, was nestled against her side. She had her clue notebook in her lap. She looked at the suspect list and crossed out Anderson Quilling's name. Under “Clues” Nancy wrote, “Red felt caught in the gift box. Part of thief's clothes?”

Nancy sighed and patted Chip's head. She couldn't very well go through the
closets of everyone who'd been at the Book Nook yesterday. Looking around her room, Nancy's eyes fell on her bookshelf.

“Maybe,” Mr. Sandback had said, “there are some clues to be found in that book.”

With a shrug Nancy got off the bed and plucked
The Absent Award
from her bookshelf. Sitting at her desk, Nancy began flipping through the first pages of the book. She stopped at a picture of a wooden box.

“Hey, that looks a lot like the box at the Book Nook,” she said.

The box was open and empty. Nancy remembered—it had held the award before it was stolen. When Nancy looked at the picture a second time, she gasped.

“I forgot,” she said. She quickly read the words on the page next to the picture.

“There!” Nancy said, pointing to the sentence she'd been looking for. Then she read aloud: “‘The award absconder had left not a trace. Or so it seemed. But then our wily detective spotted something on the box—a swatch of red felt caught in its hinges.'

“Wow!” Nancy said. “Both boxes had red felt in the hinges. How strange!”

Nancy turned the page. “Maybe Mr. Sandback's right,” she said. “Maybe there
are
clues in
The Absent Award.
”

Eagerly, she started to read more. But then Mr. Drew popped his head into her room.

“Nancy,” he said, “time for lights-out.”

“Okay, Daddy,” Nancy said. She shut the book and slipped it into her book bag.

“How's the mystery coming?” Mr. Drew asked as Nancy got into bed. Chip padded to the end of the bed and yawned. Then she flopped down and rested her head on her feet.

“It's too early to tell,” Nancy decided, yawning herself. “But after I do more reading tomorrow, maybe I'll have a better idea!”

T
he next morning Nancy couldn't wait to read more of
The Absent Award.
During the math lesson, she got her chance. The bell rang in short bursts. It was a fire drill.

Nancy grabbed her book. Then she walked outside with the rest of her class. All the other kids and teachers in Carl Sandburg Elementary were outside, too. They had to wait fifteen minutes before going back to their classrooms.

As they stood on the front lawn, Nancy opened
The Absent Award
and started to read.

“Ah-ha,” Nancy read. “Our wily detective
has spotted another clue. He deduced that the thief had been to an elementary school. How did he make this brilliant deduction, you ask? That careless crook had left something behind on a bench in front of the school. It was a blue leather eye—”

“Hey!” Kyle Leddington's yell caught Nancy's attention. He was standing near a bench near the school's front door. He was waving something in the air.

It was blue.

It was leather.

“I just sat on this thing,” Kyle said.

“What is it?” Bess asked.

“It looks like an eyeglass case,” Kyle said.

Nancy froze. Then she returned to the sentence she had just read: “It was a blue leather eyeglass case. There was no doubt that it belonged to the terrible award thief.”

“Whoa,” Nancy whispered. “This is weird.”

“Somebody must have lost it,” George said.

Kyle threw his head back and yelled, “Did anybody lose a blue eyeglass case?”

Bess glared at Kyle. “I guess he never
heard of the lost-and-found.”

But nobody else spoke up.

“I wonder where it came from,” Kyle said.

I wonder too! Nancy thought. This is so strange. First I found some red felt, just like the clue in
The Absent Award.
Then this eyeglass case turns up. What next? Maybe the book will tell me.

Quickly, Nancy flipped the pages. In the next chapter the wily detective found his next clue—at a candy store.

“The thief must have had a tremendous sweet tooth,” Nancy read. “So intent was he on filling up on sugar, that he didn't notice he had dropped a slip of paper in the candy store. Yes, right between the licorice and the jelly beans. And on this slip of paper were directions to a place. What sort of place it was, the wily detective could not know. But he was sure of one thing—this was where the thief intended to hide the stolen award.”

Hmm, Nancy thought when she finished reading. A candy store.

There just happened to be a store right
near Carl Sandburg Elementary. It was called the School Bell. Kids went there to buy school supplies or toys. But the School Bell sold candy, too.

Nancy had a feeling that she'd find more than chocolate at the School Bell today. She turned to Bess and George. “Let's go to the Bell after school today,” she suggested.

“The School Bell?” Bess said. “As in candy? Sure! What gave you that idea, Nancy?”

“Well,” Nancy said with a little smile, “let's just say I have
another
hunch.”

• • •