The Cinderella Ballet Mystery (5 page)

BOOK: The Cinderella Ballet Mystery
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“That's an awesome idea!” Nancy said eagerly.

George got on the Internet and typed in
a series of commands. After a moment, she glanced up from the computer. “It's a French word pronounced like ‘tie,'” she announced. “It means ‘size.'”

“Size?” Bess frowned. “So ‘taille thirty-five' means size thirty-five?”

“I've never heard of a size thirty-five,” Nancy said.

“Me neither,” George said. “It sounds really, really big!”

George entered this new information into the computer. As she typed, Bess took the rhinestone from Nancy and examined it closely.

“It's so pretty,” Bess said. Then she frowned. “If Gregory stole the Cinderella slippers and put them in his dance bag, the rhinestone could have fallen off one of the slippers.”

“Or someone could have planted the rhinestone there to make him look guilty,” Nancy pointed out.

George looked up from the computer. “We have three clues now: the barrette, the piece of
paper with ‘taille 35,' or size 35, on it, and the rhinestone heart,” she reminded the other members of the Clue Crew. “The barrette doesn't exactly fit with Gregory being the thief.”

“That's true,” Nancy agreed. “Although Gregory sure owns a lot of weird stuff. Today I saw a magnifying glass in his dance bag.”

“A magnifying glass?” Bess repeated. “Who does he think he is, Sherlock Holmes?”

Just then, a bell-like
ting!
sounded on Nancy's computer. George peered at the screen. “Andrea is instant messaging us,” she announced.

“What did she say?” Nancy asked, leaning over.

“She says, ‘Check out Deirdre's website right away,'” George read.

“Deirdre's website?” Bess repeated, looking confused.

George typed in the address for the Dishing with Deirdre site. Nancy and Bess got up from the bed and gathered around George.

The home page of Dishing with Deirdre filled
Nancy's computer screen. Across the top of it was the blazing headline
WHO STOLE CINDERELLA'S SHOES?

“What!” Bess burst out.

“Typical Deirdre,” George muttered.

Nancy reached forward for the mouse and used it to scroll down the page. Deirdre had written a “late-breaking story” about the theft of the Cinderella slippers from Tim McGuire's dance studio.

Then Nancy noticed something strange. Deirdre had included a photograph of the Cinderella slippers.

The slippers were lined up on a sidewalk in front of a brick wall.

What is wrong with this picture?
Nancy asked herself.

CHAPTER SEVEN
A New Suspect

Nancy pointed to the photo. “Do you notice something really weird?” she asked her friends.

George and Bess stared at the photo. “N-no,” George said after a moment.

“It's just a picture of the slippers,” Bess said, shrugging.

Nancy stabbed her finger at the computer screen. “This photo was taken
outside
,” she explained. “How did Deirdre take a photo of the slippers outside?”

Bess gasped. “She must have taken the slippers from the studio!” she exclaimed.

George's eyes widened. “Maybe Deirdre is the slipper thief!” she said.

Nancy peered at the screen. “George, can you make this photo bigger?” she asked.

“No problem,” George said.

George's fingers flew over the keyboard as she zoomed the photo to 150 percent, then 200 percent. “Is that big enough for you?” she asked Nancy.

Nancy nodded. “Perfect! Now, can you print it out?”

George went into the print menu and hit several keys. Nancy's printer whirred to life. A minute later it spit out a color copy of Deirdre's photo. The copy was twice the original size of the photo.

Nancy studied the printout. “None of the heart-shaped rhinestones are missing,” she said after a moment. “That means this photo was taken
before
the rhinestone got into Gregory's bag somehow.”

“Maybe Deirdre stole the slippers, then planted the rhinestone in Gregory's bag to make him look guilty,” Bess suggested.

“Maybe,” Nancy agreed.

“Deirdre's photo is an important clue,” George said. “I have a feeling the Clue Crew is getting close to solving the case!”

“Yes!” Bess said, giving George a high five.

“I hope you guys are right,” Nancy told her friends.

On Friday during recess, Nancy, George, and Bess found Deirdre on the swings. Madison was
pushing her. The day was cool but sunny. A slight breeze stirred the leaves on the trees.

“Higher, higher!” Deirdre shouted to Madison.

Madison pushed Deirdre extra hard. Then she caught sight of Nancy and her friends and stopped.

“Madison, push!” Deirdre shouted.

“Uh, Deirdre? We've got company,” Madison said.

Deirdre glanced down. She frowned when she saw Nancy and the others.

“Oh,” Deirdre muttered. “
You
guys.”

“Hello to you, too!” Bess called out cheerfully.

Deirdre dug her shoes into the dirt to slow down the swing. Dust sprayed up into the air. The swing came to a stop.

“Did you see the late-breaking story on my website?” Deirdre asked the girls with a sly smile.

“We sure did,” Bess replied.

“It was a really interesting read,” George added.

“And you had a really interesting photo to go with it,” Nancy piped up.

Deirdre beamed. “Thanks! I took it myself, of course.”

Nancy smiled. “Of course. Right
after
you took the slippers from Mr. McGuire's studio.”

“More like
stole
,” Bess said meaningfully.

“What made you do it, Deirdre?” George asked her.

Deirdre's cheeks flushed red. “What are you talking about? I'm not the slipper thief! I just took a photo, that's all,” she insisted.

“Deirdre's totally innocent,” Madison defended her friend. Nancy noticed that Madison kept her eyes on the ground, though.
Is she hiding something?
Nancy wondered.

“I think you guys are taking this Clue Crew stuff a little too seriously,” Deirdre said, her tone turning mean. “I mean, it's not like you're real detectives or anything.”

Nancy dug into her pocket and pulled out the folded-up computer printout. She unfolded it and held it up for Deirdre to see.

“Well, this is a
real
clue,” Nancy said coolly.
“And according to this clue, you took this photo outside. Which means that you took the slippers from the studio.”

Madison gasped. “Deirdre, we didn't think of that,” she said, sounding panicked.

“Be quiet, Madison,” Deirdre whispered.

“So you
are
the slipper thief,” Nancy said to Deirdre. “Maybe you stole the slippers just so you could write a killer story about it for your website!”

Deirdre got up from the swing. She had a determined look on her face. “I am absolutely, definitely not the slipper thief,” she said firmly. “All I did was … well, I kind of
borrowed
the slippers for, like, one or two seconds on Tuesday.”

“What does that mean, ‘borrowed'?” Bess asked her.

“I wanted to take a photo of the slippers for my website because they were so awesome looking and special,” Deirdre explained. “But Mr. McGuire said I couldn't take photos in his studio
because it bothered the other dancers or whatever. So I borrowed the slippers during a break. I took them outside, took the photo, and then brought them right back in. It was Madison's idea,” she added.

“We didn't steal the slippers,” Madison insisted.

“I thought Mr. McGuire said that you couldn't even bring your camera to rehearsals any longer,” George said to Deirdre.

“He doesn't understand,” Deirdre complained. “A reporter can't be without her camera!”

Nancy was thoughtful. “You took the photo on Tuesday,” she said after a moment. “But you didn't post your story until Wednesday, after the slippers were missing. “

Deirdre nodded. “The whole thing was kind of a coincidence. I took the photo on Tuesday and posted it on my website Tuesday night. Ask anybody! Then on Wednesday, we all found out at rehearsal that the slippers had been stolen. When I got home that night, I wrote my excellent piece called, ‘Who Stole Cinderella's Shoes?'
I posted it right away, next to the photo. I was really glad that I just happened to have the photo to go with the story.”

Nancy considered this. Deirdre sounded like she was telling the truth. Or was she?

The bell rang, signaling the end of recess. “Gotta go,” Deirdre said, waving at Nancy and the girls. “Good luck with your Crew Clue or whatever.”

“Clue Crew!” George corrected her.

Deirdre ignored George. She turned and hurried through a crowd of kids toward the door. Madison followed close behind.

“Do we believe her?” Bess asked Nancy and George.

“I don't know,” George replied, frowning in Deirdre's direction.

Nancy stuffed the printout of Deirdre's photo back into her pocket. “I don't know either,” she said worriedly. “But I
do
know this: Tomorrow is opening night. We're running out of time!”

CHAPTER EIGHT
The French Clue

“It's the dress rehearsal, and I don't have any shoes to wear!” Andrea said, her eyes welling with tears.

It was Friday night. Mr. McGuire's studio was filled with the cast of the “Cinderella” ballet. Parents and other volunteers were busy helping the children on with their costumes or stage makeup.

“You can wear your pink ballet slippers for tonight,” Mr. McGuire told Andrea. His cell phone began ringing. “Excuse me,” he said, walking away to take the call.

Nancy was standing nearby, her mouse costume slung over her arm. She walked over to
Andrea. “It's going to be okay,” she told Andrea. “The Clue Crew is going to keep looking for your Cinderella slippers until we find them!”

“I don't know,” Andrea said doubtfully.

Nancy patted her dance bag. “We have those three clues I e-mailed you about: the rhinestone, the barrette, and the piece of paper with a French word on it. They're in my bag. We have some suspects, too. Don't worry, we'll find your slippers by tomorrow night.”

“Okay,” Andrea said. But she didn't look very sure.

One of the parents called Andrea over so she could style her hair. Andrea waved to Nancy and rushed off.

Nancy glanced around the room. Bess was getting sparkly eye shadow put on her eyelids by one of the volunteers. She looked so pretty in her fairy godmother costume, which was a glittery gold dress with a matching tiara.

George was on the other side of the studio, wearing her wicked stepmother costume: a long,
dark gray dress with a high collar. Her eyebrows had been transformed into pointy, severe arches with a black eye pencil. Nancy thought George looked pretty scary!

“Can I help you on with your costume, Mademoiselle Nancy?”

Nancy turned around. Ms. Zelda was standing there. She had a box of safety pins in one hand and a sewing kit in the other. There was a long white tape measure draped around her neck.

“Thanks, Ms. Zelda, that would be great,” Nancy said. Her mouse costume
was
kind of complicated.

Ms. Zelda led Nancy to a quiet corner of the studio. She took the mouse costume from Nancy and studied it carefully. “Why don't you sit on the floor and we can slip this on your feet first?” she suggested.

Nancy obeyed. Ms. Zelda tugged the mouse costume over Nancy's feet, which were covered with pink ballet tights.

“Hmm, maybe the mouse legs are still a little long,” Ms. Zelda fretted. “I must pin them for you.”

“Okay,” Nancy said. “Thanks, Ms. Zelda.”

As Ms. Zelda worked, Nancy looked around restlessly. She wished she could gather her Clue Crew around her and get back to work: searching for clues, interviewing witnesses, anything. But she knew this was dress rehearsal time. No matter how important it was to find the missing slippers, she, George, and Bess had to focus on their last chance to rehearse.

Ms. Zelda gave a big yawn. “Oh,
pardonnezmoi
,” she said, covering her mouth.

“Are you sleepy?” Nancy asked with a smile.

Ms. Zelda yawned again and nodded. “I have been working so hard here lately,” she explained. “Sewing all the costumes, helping with the ticket sales, even designing the program. Oh, and a few nights ago Mr. McGuire asked me to help him move some old
Nutcracker
set pieces from the set storage area up to the
attic, to make room. It was hard work—
tres difficile
. My muscles still ache from that.”

Nancy sat up a little straighter. The set storage area? That was where she had found the piece of paper with the words “taille 35” on it.

BOOK: The Cinderella Ballet Mystery
9.22Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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