Carnival Creep

“My sack is filled with eggs, too! ” George cried. She shook a dripping foot. “Look at my gross sneakers! ”

Bess was wearing sandals. “Look at my gross toes! ” she wailed.

Other kids stepped out of their sacks. Their feet were messy, too.

While the kids tried to clean their sneakers a woman with bright red hair hurried over. She was carrying a clipboard and wearing a yellow carnival cap.

“It’s Shirley Vega, ” Bess whispered. “The director of the carnival.”

“What’s this about eggs in the potato sacks? ” Shirley demanded.

Nancy could see Brenda inching her way over with her reporter pad.

“I don’t know how it happened, Shirley, ” Nina said. “I brought the potato sacks out before the carnival opened. They were perfectly clean then.”

“It’s not your fault, Nina, ” Shirley said. She narrowed her eyes. “Someone is making trouble at the carnival. This isn’t the first thing to happen.”

“Does this mean there won’t be a potato sack race? ” a girl asked.

“Not if I can help it! ” Shirley said. She turned to Nina. “There are more sacks inside the school. Let’s get them.”

Shirley and Nina went inside the school. Nancy and her friends found a water hose to wash off their icky feet.

“That’s it! ” Brenda called as she ran over. “The perfect story for my paper. ‘Trouble at the River Heights Carnival! ’”

“Don’t, Brenda, ” Nancy warned. “Then nobody will come to the carnival.”

“And Isabelle might not come either, ” Bess said.

“So what? ” Brenda said. “I told you she sings like a parrot.”

George pointed the water hose at Brenda, but Nancy grabbed her arm.

“And speaking of Isabelle, ” Brenda said. “Maybe I’ll give her a copy of my newspaper. I do know where she lives.”

“You wouldn’t! ” Nancy said.

Brenda began to walk away. “A good reporter always tells the truth.”

“Wait! ” Bess called out. “If Nancy finds the troublemaker will you forget about the article? ”

“Bess! ” Nancy said. “I didn’t come to the carnival to solve a mystery.”

“But you did bring your detective notebook, didn’t you? ” Bess asked.

“Yes… but, ” Nancy said slowly. She carried her notebook wherever she went.

“Then you came to solve a mystery! ” Bess said cheerily. She turned to Brenda. “Well? Is it a deal or not? ”

“I guess, ” Brenda said. She pointed a finger at Nancy. “But you have to solve your case by Wednesday.”

“That’s tomorrow! ” Nancy complained.

“I know, ” Brenda said. “I want to finish my article tomorrow night. That way I can deliver my papers Thursday morning.”

Nancy frowned. Thursday was the day Isabelle was supposed to sing. She had to do something!

“Okay, ” Nancy told Brenda. “But only if you agree to one more thing.”

“What? ” Brenda asked.

“That if I find the troublemaker, you’ll write something nice, ” Nancy said.

“Nice? ” Brenda choked. “You mean, like the Ferris wheel? The bunnies in the petting zoo? The new taffy flavor? ”

Nancy nodded. “Do we have a deal? ”

“Yes, we have a deal, ” Brenda said. “But only because I don’t think you’ll do it.”

Nancy ignored what Brenda had said. She held out her hand to shake, but Brenda jumped back.

“Yuck — eggy! ” Brenda cried. Then she turned on her heel and walked away.

“Leave it to Miss Snooty Pants to spoil the carnival, ” Bess said.

“Brenda’s not spoiling it, ” Nancy said. “The carnival creep is.”

“Let’s go back, ” George said. “I see Nina coming with the clean sacks.”

The race began again, but Nancy, Bess, and George lost to a tall girl with long legs.

“Another panda down the drain.” George sighed.

Nancy was sad that she didn’t win, but she was excited to start her new case.

As she and her friends walked back toward the school building they saw Chloe Mondesky. She was carrying a bag of honey-roasted peanuts.

“Hi, Cruncher, ” the girls said.

“Mmph, ” Cruncher said through a mouthful of peanuts.

“Check it out, ” George whispered as Cruncher walked away. “She’s wearing a blue ribbon on her shirt.”

“It’s probably from last year, ” Nancy decided. “So she can remind everyone that she was once the pie-eating champ.”

The girls sat down on a wooden bench in front of the beanbag toss.

Nancy pulled her blue detective notebook from the pocket of her shorts. She opened to a clean page and wrote, “The Case of the Carnival Creep.”

“Creep is right, ” George said. “Who would want to make trouble at a carnival? ”

“It can’t be Jason, David, and Mike this time, ” Nancy said.

Jason Hutchings, David Berger, and Mike Minelli were the biggest troublemakers in the girls’ class. But Nancy hadn’t seen them at the carnival yet.

“What about Brenda? ” Bess asked. “Maybe she’s causing trouble so she can write about it for her newspaper.”

Nancy shook her head. “Brenda came into the carnival the same time we did.”

“And she would never get her hands messy with gross eggs, ” George added.

Nancy thought hard.

“Maybe it’s someone who’s mad at the carnival, ” she said. “Like Cruncher. She was really mad about those coconut pies.”

“Or Orson, ” George added. “He was steaming when Frogzilla was disqualified.”

Nancy wrote “Cruncher” and “Orson” in her notebook. She was happy to have two suspects. But she still needed clues.

The girls ran back to the soccer field. Nancy searched the area where the potato sacks had been stacked. She found an empty peanut bag and a paper cone from a slushy.

“None of the contestants were eating, ” Nancy said. “So these might have belonged to the carnival creep.”

Nancy slipped the evidence between the pages of her notebook. But as the girls walked back to the booths she was puzzled.

“The wrappers came from the carnival, ” Nancy said. “But where did all those raw eggs come from? ”

Just then a loud cheer filled the air. Nancy turned and saw a crowd standing in front of a small stage. On the stage was a chicken pecking at a toy piano.

“It’s Henrietta! ” George cried.

Nancy’s eyes opened wide. “Chickens lay eggs, ” she said. “Maybe the raw eggs came from Henrietta Von Peck! ”

Nancy and her friends ran closer to the stage. They stood on their tiptoes to see over the crowd. Standing next to the stage was a short bald man. He was wearing a yellow suit and a red bowtie — chicken colors.

“There’s Henrietta’s manager, Lou Fowler, ” Nancy pointed out. “He’s here with Henrietta every year.”

A few feet away from the stage was a striped tent. Above the tent opening was a gold star with the initials HVP.

“That’s got to be Henrietta’s tent, ” Nancy said. “Let’s check it out.”

The girls squeezed through the crowd. While Henrietta pecked out “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, ” they slipped into the tent.

The first things Nancy saw were white feathers scattered on the ground.

“Are those Henrietta’s? ” Bess asked.

“Probably, ” George said. “Unless she and Lou had a pillow fight.”

The girls searched the tent. Nancy found a wire cage, a hot plate, frying pan, and finally — a bucket of eggs.

“Wait! ” Nancy said. “The eggshells in the sacks were white. Those eggs are brown.”

“Buck! Buck! Buck! ”

Nancy spun around. A ruffled white chicken was flapping into the tent.

It was Henrietta. And she looked mad!