The Halloween Hoax

Is this ghost for real?

The girls were too scared to scream. They were too frozen with fear to run.

“Woof!” Chip barked. She jumped out of Dr. Funk-n-Stine's arms and ran straight to Nancy.

“G-g-good girl!” Nancy stammered.

She scooped Chip up and ran with her friends out of the TV station. Mrs. Marvin's car was waiting for them.

“That was him,” George said as they raced to the car. “That was Dr. Funk-n-Stine!”

“He said he would be back,” added Bess.

Nancy hugged her puppy tight. She didn't want to believe in ghosts. But seeing was believing. And she was pretty sure she had just seen the ghost of Dr. Funk-n-Stine!

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!

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 PAPERBACKS

An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division

1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com

Text copyright © 2007 by Simon & Schuster, Inc. Illustrations copyright © 2007 by Macky Pamintuan All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

ALADDIN PAPERBACKS, NANCY DREW, and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc. NANCY DREW AND THE CLUE CREW is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Designed by Lisa Vega.

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

First Aladdin Paperbacks edition August 2007

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Control Number 2007921782

ISBN-13: 978-1-4169-3664-0

ISBN-10: 1-4169-3664-5

ISBN-13: 978-1-4424-5912-0 (ebook)

C
HAPTER
O
NE
:      TV T
ROUBLE

C
HAPTER
T
WO
:      S
PIRIT ON THE
S
ET
!

C
HAPTER
T
HREE
:    A S
ECRET
R
OOM

C
HAPTER
F
OUR
:     F
UNK-N
-S
TINE
O
NLINE

C
HAPTER
F
IVE
:     F
RIGHT IN THE
N
IGHT

C
HAPTER
S
IX
:      C
HIP ON THE
C
ASE

C
HAPTER
S
EVEN
:   F
OLLOW
T
HAT
G
HOST
!

C
HAPTER
E
IGHT
:   M
ONSTERS IN THE
H
OUSE

C
HAPTER
N
INE
:    W
RITE
A
WAY

C
HAPTER
T
EN
:      M
ONSTER
B
ASH
!

TV Trouble

“Hey, Nancy,” George Fayne said, cracking a smile. “Your tail is ‘dragon.'”

Eight-year-old Nancy Drew glanced back. The tail of her dragon costume was hanging over the bench and
dragging
on the floor.

“Dragging. Dragon. I get it.” Nancy giggled.

Bess Marvin reached down to tie her ballet slipper. She was dressed as a ballerina in a pink tutu.

“What could be better than wearing our Halloween costumes four whole days before Halloween?” Bess asked.

The tin cans on George's homemade robot costume clanked together as she moved.
“Wearing our Halloween costumes
and
being on the
Dudley the Science Dude
show!” she said.

Nancy high-fived her two best friends. The girls were sitting in a real live TV studio with the rest of their third-grade class. Their teacher, Mrs. Ramirez, had gotten them surprise tickets for Dudley's special Halloween show. Dudley was a cool scientist who performed awesome experiments on TV.

Nancy looked past the TV cameras and lights at Dudley's laboratory. The set looked just like it did on TV. The counter was filled with test tubes and microscopes. Jars were stuffed with animal teeth, shells, and rocks. There were maps on the walls and computers with science information flashing on their screens.

“Where is Dudley, anyway?” Andrea Wu complained. Andrea was dressed as Little Bo Peep. Her best friend, Kayla Bruce, was dressed as her sheep.

Quincy Taylor's caterpillar costume crunched as he wiggled on the bench. “By the time the
show starts I'll be a butterfly!” he groaned.

“Dudley will be here,” Shelby Metcalf declared as she stood up. She was dressed up like Dudley, in a yellow lab coat and blue goggles. “In the meantime—who wants to join my Dudley the Science Dude Fan Club? We'll meet at my house every week and do one of Dudley's experiments.”

“The gross ones?” Peter Patino asked.

“For sure!” replied Shelby.

Some hands shot up. Shelby looked at Nancy, Bess, and George. “Don't you want to join my club too?” she asked.

“Thanks, but we already have a club,” Nancy admitted.

“It's called the Clue Crew,” added George.

“We solve mysteries,” Bess explained.

“Oh, that!” Shelby smiled as she remembered. “But solving mysteries can't be as fun as growing a fungus on dirty gym socks!”

“Eww,” Bess said, making a face.

Deirdre Shannon's pointed princess hat
shifted as she tossed her hair behind her shoulders. “How do we know Dudley is a
real
scientist?” she asked. “He's probably just an actor who plays one on TV.”

Shelby's eyes flashed. “Sure he's a real scientist,” she insisted. “Last week he turned a penny green. An actor can't do that.”

A woman holding a clipboard walked over. “Hello, kids,” she said. “My name is Valerie, and I'm a producer. That means I help Dudley plan all his shows.”

The class sat at attention as Valerie spoke.

“There are four studios inside Station WRIV-TV,” Valerie explained. “You're in the studio that tapes
Dudley the Science Dude
every week.”

Next Valerie introduced the crew. Mike, Fran, and Bill were stagehands. They set up Dudley's experiments and props. Sam was the director. He chose which scenes the people at home watched on TV. He also made sure the show went as planned. The stage manager's name was Lisa. “Lisa's job is to tell Dudley when to start
talking and when to stop,” Valerie explained.