The Fashion Disaster (4 page)

“I'm just going inside the trailer to get something, Mom,” Maya's voice said next.

“Oh, no!” Bess gasped. “She's coming!”

“What do we do?” George whispered.

“We have to hide,” Nancy said. “Right now!”

“Hide? Where?” George said.

The girls quickly looked around the trailer. Nancy spotted a large wire dog crate. Draped over it was a satiny blanket.

“Lola's crate,” Nancy whispered. “There's room in there for all of us!”

“Gross!” Bess groaned.

The girls crawled inside.

Nancy gulped as she sat on a rubber steak dog toy that squeaked. George reached out to drape the cloth over the front of the crate. The girls held their breaths as the trailer door creaked open.

Nancy could hear Maya walking into the
trailer. She also heard a
click-click
sound—like dog paws on tiles.

“What a time to run out of pictures, Lola,” Maya said. “Now where did I put your latest publicity photos?”

The girls were twisted inside the crate like pretzels. They heard Maya moving stuff around. Suddenly the
click-click-click
noise got louder and louder—as if Lola was walking toward the crate!

Back, Lola, back
, Nancy thought.

Lola popped her head under the blanket and into the crate.

“Oh, noooo,” Bess groaned.

After sniffing Bess's elbow and Nancy's sneakers, she began licking George's face!

George squeezed her eyes and mouth shut as Lola's tongue washed her face. Nancy hoped that George wouldn't yell out. But then Lola began licking George's mouth.

“Yuck! Ick! Phooey!” George yelled, wiping her mouth with both hands.

“Woof!” Lola barked.

One by one the girls spilled out of the crate. Maya stared at them as if they were from outer space.

“What are you doing here?” she demanded.

Nancy, Bess, and George all spoke at once.

“We're detectives!”

“We were looking for clues!”

“And the real person who switched the dog biscuits—”

“MOM!” Maya shouted.

“Maya—no!” Nancy said. “We can explain!”

Maya's mom peeked into the trailer.

“Guess what, honey?” she asked. “A nice television reporter wants to interview you with Lola. It's for the six o'clock news on WRIV-TV!”

“TV?” Maya said. A smile spread across her face.

“What should I tell them?” her mom asked.

“Tell them we're ready for our close-up!” Maya declared. She threw back her shoulders. Then she and Lola marched out of the trailer.

“I think I've seen you girls before,” Maya's mom said. “Aren't you—”

“Lola's biggest fans!” George cut in.

“And we were just leaving,” Nancy added.

“Bye-bye,” Bess said.

The girls bumped into one another as they squeezed through the trailer door. As they ran down River Street, Nancy glanced over her
shoulder. Maya was happily chatting to the reporter.

“That was close!” Nancy said when they slowed down. She pulled the plastic bag with the paper pieces from her pocket. “But we did pick up this clue.”

“And dog hairs!” Bess said. She pulled out her Hairy Fairy Wand and swept it across their clothes. “I knew this would come in handy someday.”

The girls talked about the case as they walked down River Street. With all its stores and places to eat, it was the busiest street in River Heights.

A woman walked by carrying a Funky Fido Boutique shopping bag.

“The Funky Fido Boutique is open today,” Nancy said. “Let's go there and question Patsy.”

The boutique was just down the block. Its window was filled with all kinds of dog clothes and accessories—sailor suits, hats, even angel wings!

“I don't get it,” Bess said. “Why would someone
who designs such sweet dog clothes do something so mean?”

“She did say mean things about Lola,” said George.

“Yeah, and I just thought of something,” Nancy added.

“What?” Bess asked.

Nancy stared at her friends and said, “What if Patsy is mean to
us
?”

“May I help you?” Patsy asked. Her back was to the girls as she hung fashion sketches on the wall. They were of dogs wearing ballet costumes.

“Why are those dogs wearing tutus?” George asked.

“I'm designing costumes for a doggy ballet called
The Muttcracker
,” Patsy said. She turned around and peered over her red-framed glasses.

“Weren't you and your little dog in the fashion show yesterday?” Patsy asked Nancy.

Nancy gulped as she nodded. Then she gathered her courage and got right down to business.

“Patsy, do you remember when Lola wouldn't
walk down the runway yesterday?” Nancy asked.

“How could I forget?” Patsy said. “I laughed so hard my contact lens almost popped out.”

The girls traded looks. Patsy was still saying mean things about Lola!

“Do you think you know who switched the biscuits?” Nancy asked Patsy.

“How should I know?” Patsy said with a shrug.

George stepped forward. “Then maybe you know where you were between twelve and one o'clock yesterday afternoon!” she said.

Patsy blinked hard. Then she smiled and said, “I'll take a wild guess. You girls are playing detective, right?”

“We're not playing, Ms. Ray,” Nancy said.

“We
are
detectives,” Bess added. “We're the Clue Crew!”

“You just gave me a super idea,” Patsy said. She grabbed a sketchbook and began drawing on a fresh page. “I'll design detective clothes for dogs. Like tiny trench coats and those tweedy Sherlock Holmes caps—”

“Ms. Ray, please,” Nancy cut in. “Can you tell us where you were yesterday?”

“Okay, let's see,” said Patsy. “Yesterday between twelve o'clock and one o'clock I was at the mayor's lunch party. That's it.”

Patsy turned back to her sketching. The girls began to whisper.

“She's acting like this is a big joke,” Bess complained. “How do we know she's telling the truth about the mayor's lunch party?”

“I have an idea!” George declared.

She walked up to Patsy and said, “Ms. Ray? Do you recall what you ate at Mayor Strong's lunch party on Saturday between twelve and one o'clock?”

Patsy smiled for the first time, a big, bright smile.

“Sure do!” Patsy said. “I had the most fabulous vegetable lasagna. And for dessert I ate these scrumptious chocolate brownies. Double chocolate, I think.”

“Vegetable lasagna and chocolate brownies are correct!” George declared.

Nancy smiled too. Patsy
was
at the lunch party. So she couldn't have been in the trailer switching the biscuits!

“I'll tell my mom you liked the food, Ms. Ray,” George said. “She cooked all of it, you know.”

“Your mom is a very good cook,” Patsy said. Then she added with a wink, “And you girls are
awesome
detectives.”

“Thank you!” Nancy, Bess, and George said together.

Maybe Patsy wasn't so mean after all!

The girls thanked Patsy and left the Funky Fido Boutique.

“Now our only suspect is Nicki,” Bess said. “And we don't have a clue where she is.”

“Clue!” Nancy gasped. “I almost forgot!”

She pulled the plastic bag from her pocket. Inside were the torn-up pieces of paper from the trash can.

“Let's put this note together and see what it says,” Nancy suggested. “Maybe it'll give us some more leads.”

The girls ran to an empty table in front of a café. Nancy poured the pieces out on the table. In a flash the girls were working at putting them together.

“It's just like a jigsaw puzzle!” Bess said.

As the pieces came together, George read the first words out loud: “MAYA . . . WE . . . KNOW . . . YOUR . . . SE.”

“Se . . . Se . . .” Bess thought out loud. “We know your seal! Your seahorse! Your set of crayons!”

George added the letter
C
.

“Sec . . . sec . . . secretary!” Bess shouted. “We know your
secretary
!”

“Bess,” George complained. “Wait until all the pieces are together.”

Nancy matched the last pieces:

R . . . E . . . T.

Then she read the message out loud: “MAYA. WE KNOW YOUR SECRET.”

The girls traded looks. Secret? What secret?

“Maybe Maya's secret is something embarrassing,” George said the next day. “Maybe she still sleeps with a teddy bear or something.”

Bess planted her hands on her hips. “I sleep with a teddy bear!” she said. “And a dolphin, and a stuffed kitty with ruby eyes.”

“Okay,” George said. “Then maybe she bites her toenails.”

“Ew,” Bess said. “That I don't do!”

The girls were in the school yard for recess. But they weren't playing tag or kickball or swinging on the swings. They were trying to figure out the mysterious note. Nancy had taped it together when she got home the night before.

“The paper is orange with a dog paw-print design around the edges,” Nancy said. “Whoever wrote it might like dogs.”

“Nicki likes dogs,” Bess pointed out. “And she probably knows some of Maya's secrets, too.”

A ball rolled over. Nancy kicked it back to the kickball game. A girl wearing an orange T-shirt waved thanks.

Nancy's eyes flew open. The shirt made her remember the Bow-Wow Brigade. They wore orange T-shirts too!

“You guys,” Nancy said, “didn't Maya say mean things about shelter dogs to the Bow-Wow Brigade?”

“Yeah!” Bess said. “Maybe they switched Lola's dog biscuits to get even.”

“And while they were switching the biscuits,” George added, “one of them might have stopped to write the mysterious note!”

“But what is Maya's secret?” Nancy wondered.

The end-of-recess bell rang. Nancy carefully folded the note and put it in her pocket. Then
the girls lined up with the rest of their class. Their friends Nadine Nardo and Kendra Jackson stood in front of them in the line.

“Hi, Kendra,” Nancy said. “Hi, Nadine.”

Kendra and Nadine spun around to face Nancy. But they didn't say hi back. Instead they glared at the girls with squinty eyes.

“What's up?” George asked.

“We heard about it during recess,” Nadine said. “How could you do that to Lola?”

“How could you switch her biscuits before the big fashion show?” Kendra asked. “That is so mean!”

Nancy couldn't believe it. Now their friends were blaming them for the biscuit brouhaha too!

“We didn't do it,” Nancy insisted.