Looking for Suspects

Carolyn Keene

The Nancy Drew Notebooks: Volume Sixty-Six

Zoo Clue

Copyright, 2005, by Simon & Schuster, Inc

IS THERE A CROOK ON THE LOOSE AT THE ZOO?

Nancy and her friends are on a class trip to the zoo. Everyone brought a camera and is excited because their teacher has announced a Best Photo contest. Whoever takes the best picture at the zoo wins a prize!

The trip is going great — until a flowerbed outside the monkey cage is wrecked and Nancy's class is blamed! The zookeeper is mad and says they might have to leave the zoo if someone doesn't come forward. Nancy is upset. Is one of Nancy's classmates a crook, or is someone else digging up trouble?

Photos and Fun

“Say, ‘cheese!’” someone cried.

Eight-year-old Nancy Drew squinted as a flashbulb went off in her face. “You’d better save some pictures for when we get to the zoo, George,” she said when she could see again. “You’ll never win the photo contest with a picture you took on the bus.”

Her best friend George Fayne grinned. George’s real name was Georgia, but she didn’t like to be called that. “Don’t worry,” she told Nancy. “I’m just warming up.”

Nancy smiled. She knew that George loved to win, whether it was at sports or photo contests or anything else.

Their third-grade teacher, Mrs. Reynolds, had announced that they would be having a photo contest today during their field trip to the River Heights Zoo. Everyone was supposed to bring a camera along and take lots of pictures. The best photo of the day would win a prize.

Bess Marvin was sitting across the aisle from Nancy and George. Bess was George’s cousin and Nancy’s other best friend. A girl from their class named Emily Reeves was sitting in the window seat beside Bess, but right now Bess was leaning over Emily and peering out the bus window. “We’re almost there,” Bess exclaimed.

“Cool,” George said. “Make sure you have your camera ready. We have to take plenty of pictures if we want to win the contest.”

Brenda Carlton, who was sitting right in front of Nancy and her friends, turned around. “You guys will never win,” she said, tossing her red hair over her shoulder. “I’m going to win first prize with my new digital camera. See? It’s a Ziperu 75-X. The battery lasts all day long.” She held up a fancy-looking camera.

Nancy scowled. She didn’t like Brenda much. Neither did George or Bess. “Oh yeah?” George said. “A special 75-zip-whatever camera won’t help you that much. Not unless it takes the pictures for you.”

Brenda shrugged. “It practically does,” she said. “See? As soon as I take a picture, it shows up on this little screen here.” She held up her camera and pointed. “Then I can decide whether to keep it and store it, or delete it and try again.”

Nancy looked down at her own camera. It was digital too, but it wasn’t nearly as fancy as Brenda’s.

“Well, I think George is right,” Nancy said, trying to be polite. “The important thing is to take an interesting picture, no matter what camera you’re using.”

“I guess,” Brenda said with another shrug. “But I don’t even care about the contest that much. I have more important things to do today.”

“Like what?” Bess asked, sounding surprised.

“I want to take some great pictures to put in the next issue of the Carlton News”, Brenda replied. “I’m sure I can get some good ones at the zoo.”

The Carlton News was Brenda’s newspaper, which her father helped her print on their home computer. Brenda was always snooping around for news or gossip to report in her next issue.

Jason Hutchings and a couple of his friends were sitting behind Nancy, George, and Bess.

“Hey, Brenda,” Jason said with a grin. “I hate to tell you, but a picture of a sleeping elephant’s behind isn’t really news, you know?”

His friends laughed loudly. “That’s right!” Mike Minelli cried. “Neither is a picture of a lion going to the bathroom!”

Nancy rolled her eyes at the boys’ silly comments, and George giggled. But Brenda looked upset.

“Be quiet,” she told the boys, sounding huffy. “You don’t know anything about news.”

“Maybe we can help you,” Peter DeSands put in loudly. “I could jump into the zebra pen and do a Wild West rodeo act. That would make a good picture!”

“Yeah,” Jason agreed. “Or maybe Brenda could take a picture of me doing the backstroke in the seal pond. That would win the photo contest for sure!”

“Stop it! Just stop it, you dumb stupid-heads!” Brenda cried.

Nancy sighed and shook her head. By acting so upset, Brenda was just egging the boys on to make more jokes.

She tried to think of a good way to change the subject. Before she could, Emily Reeves leaned over from the window seat beside Bess.

“Hey!” Emily exclaimed with a frown. “Would you all quit blabbing about taking pictures and the stupid photo contest? It’s just a waste of time. I don’t know why anyone cares about it, anyway.”

Nancy turned to stare at Emily. So did her friends. Even the boys fell silent for a moment.

That’s weird, Nancy thought. Emily could be a little impatient sometimes, but she was usually nice. It wasn’t like her to say something so rude for no reason. Why was she so down on the photo contest?

“Oh yeah?” Brenda said. “Who made you queen, Emily?”

Before Emily could answer, Mrs. Reynolds stood up at the front of the bus and clapped her hands for attention. Everyone faced forward in their seats. Just then the bus came to a stop. Nancy looked out the window and saw that they were in the zoo’s parking lot.

“Okay, class,” the teacher said when the bus was quiet. “I want to talk to you for a minute before we get off the bus and head into the zoo. I found out this morning that we’re going to be the only school group at the zoo today. That means it won’t be very crowded, so we won’t all have to stay together as a group.”

“Yeah!” the boys behind Nancy cheered.

Mrs. Reynolds shot the boys a stern look. “But that doesn’t mean you can all just run amuck,” she warned. “We’re going to divide into buddy groups. If you all will promise to stay with your groups, you can go wherever you want inside the zoo without waiting for a chaperone.”

“We promise!” several kids called out from the back of the bus. Nancy nodded eagerly with all the other kids. Usually during field trips everyone had to stay with the chaperones. This would be fun!

“Okay,” Mrs. Reynolds continued. “Then before we get off the bus, I want you to divide yourselves into your buddy groups — five people in each group.”

There was a murmur of voices as all the kids on the bus started figuring out their buddy groups. Nancy, Bess, and George all looked at each other right away. They knew without saying anything that they would be in the same group.

Then Nancy glanced over at Emily. She still looked upset.

“Do you want to be in our group, Emily?” she asked. “We need two more people.”

“Thanks.” Emily smiled at Nancy. “But Jessie and Phoebe probably want me to be in their group. I’d better go check.” She stood up and waited for Bess to slide her legs out to let her pass. Then she hurried off down the bus aisle.

“Okay.” Nancy glanced at her friends. “So who else should we get to be in our group?”

“How about Mari?” Bess suggested. “I’ll go ask her.”

“Good idea.” Nancy smiled. Mari Cheng was still fairly new in school. But all three of the girls liked her a lot.

Soon Bess returned with Mari, who took Emily’s old seat. “Thanks for inviting me to be in your group,” Mari said happily. “Who’s the fifth person?”

“Good question.” George glanced around the bus. “Maybe we should ask Katie Zaleski.”

Bess shook her head. “She’ll probably want to stick with Jenny March,” she said. “I think we should ask Julia Santos instead.”

“Or what about Josie Blanton?” Mari suggested. “She seems nice.”

“Yes, but she’s friends with Emily and Phoebe and Jessie,” George pointed out. “She’ll probably be in a group with them.”

Nancy looked around. The other kids were clustered into small groups all over the bus. “We’d better hurry up, or there won’t be anyone left without a group,” she said. “Then we’ll wind up having Jason Hutchings as our fifth person.”

Bess giggled. “Maybe they’ll let us have one of the monkeys from the zoo instead,” she said. “That would be about the same thing as Jason.”

The other girls laughed. Jason had almost as much energy as a monkey, and he was just as mischievous too.

“Maybe Mrs. Reynolds will let us stay a group of four,” George said hopefully.

“Maybe,” Nancy agreed. She bent down and picked up her backpack from the floor. In it she had packed a jacket in case it got cold, along with her camera and a few other items. A special zippered pocket on the outside held some money for lunch and her mystery notebook.

Nancy carried her notebook everywhere. She loved to solve mysteries of all kinds, and she kept notes for each case in the notebook. She wasn’t expecting to find any mysteries at the zoo, but Nancy liked to be prepared just in case.

“Come on,” she said, slinging her backpack over one shoulder. “It looks like Mrs. Reynolds is letting people off the bus now.”

The four girls walked up the aisle and down the bus steps. About half the class was already waiting in the parking lot.

Nancy looked over toward the zoo entrance. It was marked by a big arch with the name RIVER HEIGHTS ZOO written on it in big letters. On either side of the name were pictures of different animals.

Nancy shivered with excitement. She loved the zoo!

“Hello, girls,” Mrs. Reynolds said, suddenly appearing beside them. “It looks like there are only four of you, hmm?”

“That’s right,” Nancy said. When she turned to look at the teacher, she saw that Brenda Carlton was standing right beside her.

“Well, good,” Mrs. Reynolds said cheerfully. “Here you go, Brenda. You can join Nancy’s group!”

Monkey Business

After Mrs. Reynolds made a few more announcements, she and the other adult chaperones led the kids into the zoo. As they walked beneath the entrance archway, George leaned closer to Nancy.

“I still can’t believe we’re stuck with Brenda,” she grumbled. “If she keeps bragging about her fancy camera, I’m going to feed her to the lions.”

Nancy shrugged. She wasn’t crazy about having Brenda in their group either. But she decided to make the best of it.

“Okay, everyone,” Mrs. Reynolds called when everyone was inside the zoo entrance. “Stick with your buddy groups, okay? If you need anything, just find me, one of the other chaperones, or a zoo employee. Now go on and have fun!”

The kids all cheered and rushed away in different directions. Nancy and her group hurried toward the fountain in the middle of the entrance plaza. Behind it was a grassy area with some pretty flowerbeds along the edges, and beyond that were an enormous monkey cage and the sea lion pond.

“Wait,” Bess said as she walked. “Where are we going first?”

Brenda barely slowed down. “I want to go to see the tigers and get some pictures of them before it gets too crowded.”

Nancy looked around. It was a weekday, and the zoo was nearly empty. The only people in sight besides their own classmates were a small group of senior citizens heading into the gift shop and a young couple with a toddler standing over near the sea lions.

“Too crowded?” Nancy said with a smile. “I don’t think you have to worry about that, Brenda.”

“Besides, it might work better if we go in some kind of order,” George argued. “We could start right here with the monkeys instead.”

Nancy and Bess glanced at each other. The tigers were one of George’s favorite exhibits at the zoo. Nancy guessed that her friend probably didn’t want to go there just because Brenda did want to.

“I have an idea,” Mari spoke up. “Why don’t we start here and go in a circle all the way around the zoo? That way we won’t miss anything.”

Brenda pouted. “That’s probably what everyone else will do too,” she complained. “I’ll never be able to get any good pictures with so many people around.”

By this time they were walking past the flower garden. The monkey cage was right in front of them on the other side of the path.

Nancy stopped and looked up. The cage was taller than her house and almost as wide. Several full-size trees were growing inside and long vines hung down from the top of the cage, making it look sort of like a jungle. Nancy counted six sleek brown monkeys in the enclosure, swinging from the vines and clinging to the mesh sides of the cage. They chattered and flicked their tails around. Nancy thought they looked curious and happy.

She watched the playful monkeys for a moment, then glanced around. None of their classmates were anywhere in sight, though Mrs. Reynolds was strolling past the flowers on the other side of the lawn area with a couple of the other chaperones.

“It looks like everyone else is already long gone,” Nancy told Brenda. “They probably all went to see their favorite animals first or something. So I don’t think —”

“WHEEEEEEE!” a loud screech came from nearby, interrupting Nancy’s comment.

She looked over and saw the toddler she’d noticed earlier. The little boy was standing a few yards away clutching the bars of the cage and staring in at the monkeys. As she watched, he shook the bars as hard as he could. Then he bent down, grabbed a pebble from the ground, and hurled it into the enclosure.

“Hey!” Nancy blurted, taking a step toward the child. “Be careful there, little guy. You don’t want to hurt the animals.”

The toddler stared up at her, his mouth hanging open. “Playing!” he said.

Nancy glanced around and saw the child’s parents sitting on a bench just across the path, in front of the flower-filled lawn area. They were poring over a map of the zoo.

“Excuse me.” Nancy walked over to them. “Is that your son?”

The woman looked over at the toddler. “Yes, that’s our Tyler,” she said. “Is he getting in your way?”

“Oh, no, nothing like that,” Nancy said with a smile. “I just wanted to let you know that he’s trying to throw things into the monkey cage. He’s probably too young to realize that doing that could make the monkeys sick or injure them.”

“Oh! I’m so sorry.” Tyler’s father jumped up and hurried over to grab his son.

His wife smiled at Nancy, looking tired. “Thanks for telling us,” she said. “Tyler is a very active child. It’s hard to keep up with his energy sometimes.”

“Yes, thank you, young lady,” her husband said, returning to the bench. He was holding Tyler, who was wriggling in his arms, his clean white sneakers kicking wildly in the air.

Nancy smiled politely. “You’re welcome,” she said. She watched for a moment as the family made its way along the path toward the next exhibit, the sea lion pond. As soon as his father set him down, Tyler pulled on his dad’s arm and tried to run ahead.

“See?” Nancy whispered to George. “It could be worse — Tyler could be in our group instead of Brenda!”

Bess overheard her and giggled. “Good point,” she said.

Brenda marched over to them. “Okay,” she announced. “I took all the pictures I need of these monkeys. Let’s get going.”

“Wait!” Nancy protested. “I haven’t had a chance to take any pictures of them yet.”

Brenda sighed and rolled her eyes, but Nancy ignored her and pulled out her camera. She waited until all six monkeys were near each other, then took several pictures of them. She also took a few more shots with only one or two monkeys in them.

Bess, George, and Mari took some pictures too. Then George pulled out the zoo map she’d grabbed at the entrance. “Okay,” she said. “I say we go this way now.” She pointed to the left. “That’s where the giraffes are. I definitely want to get some pictures of them.”

Brenda crossed her arms over her chest. “No way,” she said. “I think we should go the other way first.”

Mari sighed. “Maybe we should take a vote,” she suggested. “Who wants to go George’s way?”

George, Mari, and Bess raised their hands. Nancy hesitated, feeling a little sorry for Brenda. But she raised her hand too.

“Fine,” Brenda huffed. “We’ll go your way, then.”

The others turned to the left. Brenda stomped after them at the end of the line.

Nancy was worried. The day at the zoo wouldn’t be as much fun if Brenda was acting grumpy the whole time.

She turned to glance over her shoulder at Brenda. When she did, she let out a loud gasp.

“Look out!” she yelled, sprinting right past Brenda and away from the group.

A Close Call

Nancy ran past the monkey cage toward the sea lion pond. When she’d turned to look at Brenda, she’d noticed little Tyler standing on the tall cement edge of the pond. His parents were nearby, but they were both looking at their map again. Nancy was afraid they wouldn’t see that their son was about to fall into the water!

“Look out!” she yelled again as she ran.

Tyler’s parents glanced up at her, then looked over at Tyler and gasped. “Ty!” the woman shrieked. “No!”

By then Nancy was almost at the pond. She leaped up the steps and climbed up on the edge. “Wa-wa!” Tyler cried happily, leaning a little farther over to peer at the sea lions swimming lazily below.

Nancy hung on to the cement with one hand and grabbed at Tyler with the other. She caught the back yoke of his overalls and pulled.

“No!” Tyler shouted angrily. “No! Ty want wa-wa!”

By the time Nancy pulled the toddler down from the wall, his parents were waiting for him. “Tyler!” his mother cried, grabbing him from Nancy and hugging him.

Tyler’s father patted his son on the head, looking relieved. “Thanks again, young lady,” he told Nancy gratefully. “That was quick thinking.”

“You’re welcome,” Nancy replied. “I’m glad he wasn’t hurt.”

Tyler’s mother gave the squirmy child one last hug. “I think we’d better go see about renting a stroller,” she told her husband wearily. “That might be safer.”

Nancy glanced over at the zoo entrance. Just beside the gift shop was a sign that read STROLLER RENTAL: 75 CENTS PER HOUR.

“That sounds like a great idea,” she said with a smile. “Good luck!”

Tyler’s parents thanked Nancy one more time and hurried toward the stroller rental place. A moment later the rest of Nancy’s group reached the pond.

“What was that all about?” George asked.

Nancy quickly explained what had happened. “I think Tyler woke up the sea lions,” she added, pointing into the pond. The sea lions were swimming around more actively now. “Maybe we should take a few pictures here before we move on.”

The others agreed. They all snapped a few pictures of the sea lions, laughing as the huge creatures dove and played and did flips in the water.

Then they heard a loud cheer from somewhere around the corner. “Let’s go see what’s going on,” George suggested.

“That’s the way I wanted to go in the first place,” Brenda muttered.

Nancy was glad that George didn’t hear her. She didn’t care which way they went, but she wished there could be less arguing about it.

Around the corner, they found some kids from their class watching a mother elephant giving her baby a bath. “Cool!” Mari said, pulling out her camera. For the next few minutes Nancy and her friends watched, took pictures, and laughed as the baby elephant danced and wriggled and squirted its mother.

“Come on,” Brenda said after a while. “That’s enough of these elephants. I want to go to the aviary next.”

“The aviary?” Mari said.

“Yes, the aviary,” repeated Brenda impatiently. “That’s the place where the birds live.”

“I know that,” Mari replied. “But going there right now would mean skipping the rhinos and the hippos.”

George shook her head. “No way,” she said. “I want to see those guys. The birds can wait.”

“But if we don’t get to the aviary soon, the others will scare the birds away into the treetops,” Brenda argued. “Then I won’t be able to get any good pictures of them.”

Nancy sighed. She didn’t understand why Brenda kept trying to take over their group. Just then she heard a shout from nearby.

Nancy turned to see Jason gesturing at them. “Come on!” he called breathlessly. “We’re all supposed to meet by the snack bar — RIGHT NOW!”

George looked suspicious. “Really?” she asked. “Or is this some kind of trick?”

“No way,” Jason said. “Mrs. Reynolds sent me. She seemed upset.”

The girls looked at each other and shrugged. Jason liked to play pranks. But he looked serious this time.

“Come on,” George said at last. “I guess we’d better go check it out.”

They all followed Jason back toward the snack bar, which was near the main entrance. When they got there, they saw that most of the class was already gathered at the picnic tables outside the snack bar. Mrs. Reynolds and the other chaperones were there too, along with a tall, older man in a zoo uniform. Mrs. Reynolds looked grim and worried.

“I wonder what’s going on?” Bess whispered anxiously.

Nancy shrugged. “I guess we’ll find out soon.” The girls took their place with the rest of the group.

“All right, class,” Mrs. Reynolds called when everyone was there. “Mr. Zane here is the head zookeeper. He needs to talk to you about something that just happened a few minutes ago.”

“That’s right.” The tall man stepped forward and stared out at the kids, his face very serious. “Come with me, please. I want to show you.”

Nancy and her friends exchanged glances. They had no idea what was happening. But they followed along with the others as the zookeeper led them out of the snack bar area into the main entrance plaza. He headed straight toward the lawn near the monkey cage.

As soon as she got close enough for a good look, Nancy gasped. The neat flowerbeds they’d seen just a few minutes earlier were a mess! It looked like someone had stomped through them, crushing the delicate blossoms, ripping some plants out by the roots, and tipping over a few clay pots and small statues.

“What happened?” she exclaimed.

The zookeeper heard her. “That’s a good question, miss,” he said sternly. He glanced out over the entire class. “Which of you kids is responsible for this vandalism?”

Nancy’s eyes widened. Vandalism? Nancy’s dad, Carson Drew, was a lawyer. He had told Nancy that vandalism was when one person wrecked another person’s property. Could someone from their class really have done this? It seemed too horrible to be true.

Brenda stepped forward and started taking pictures of the damaged garden. “Wow,” she uttered under her breath, sounding excited. “This is what I call real news!”

There was a loud murmur as the whole class started whispering about the destruction. Mrs. Reynolds stepped forward to talk quietly to Zookeeper Zane, who was frowning.

Nancy leaned forward a little, curious about what the adults were saying. Why was the zookeeper so sure that someone from their class was the vandal? She was beginning to think she had another mystery on her hands!

She stepped forward, almost bumping into Brenda, who was still taking pictures. “Watch it,” Brenda snapped, leaning down to photograph a broken flower stem.

Nancy noticed Emily Reeves, Jessie Shapiro, and Phoebe Archer watching Brenda suspiciously. “Hey,” Phoebe said. “It’s pretty weird that Brenda just stumbled on this great ‘news’ scoop, isn’t it?”

Emily nodded. “She was just complaining about needing stories for her next issue.”

Nancy bit her lip. She wasn’t surprised the other girls had thought of Brenda first — she could be a real troublemaker sometimes. But not this time.

“She didn’t do it, guys,” Nancy spoke up. “I’m sure of it. She’s in my group, and she was with us the whole time.”

“Really?” Phoebe glanced at Brenda and shrugged. “Okay, sorry. It was just an idea.”

Meanwhile Jessie was staring at Emily. “Hey,” she said. “ You didn’t do it, did you? When you said you were leaving for a minute to go to the bathroom?”

“No way!” Emily looked hurt. “I really did have to go. Maybe you guys did it while I was gone!”

As the girls argued, Mrs. Reynolds called for attention again. “All right, class,” she said. “I would like anyone who knows anything about this vandalism to step forward right now. That means if you did it, or if you know who did it.”

There was a long moment of silence. The kids looked at one another, everyone waiting for someone else to speak. Nancy craned her neck, trying to see all her classmates’ faces. Did anyone look guilty? She couldn’t tell.

“All right, then,” the teacher said at last. “Since there’s no real proof that any of you were involved, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. You can go back to what you were doing.”

The zookeeper looked grumpy. “Your teacher is right, there’s no proof. But I’ll be keeping a close eye on you kids from now on!”

As the adults and the other kids drifted away, Nancy was thinking hard. She stared at the damaged flowerbeds, still shocked that anyone would do something like this.

“It’s not fair that the zookeeper thinks it was one of us,” Bess said. “He said there wasn’t any proof.”

George shrugged. “He probably just figured it was us because we’re kids.”

“I know,” Nancy said. “But Bess is right — it’s not fair. It could have been anybody.”

She reached into her backpack and pulled out her notebook. Bess’s eyes widened. “Do you think you can solve the mystery, Nancy?” she asked.

Nancy shrugged. “I can try,” she said. “Come on, let’s check out the scene of the crime. There must be some clues there somewhere.”

Brenda was still busy taking pictures, but the other four girls stepped forward carefully. Nancy was examining a tipped-over statue when George let out a shout. “Check this out!” she called.

The others hurried forward and looked where George was pointing. “A hand- print!” Mari exclaimed.

Nancy leaned closer, peering at the print in the soft dirt of the flowerbed. “Yikes,” she said. “And it’s kid-size!”

Looking for Suspects

“Uh-oh,” Bess said. “I guess this means one of us really is the culprit!”

Nancy’s heart sank as she realized Bess was right. “It looks that way,” she admitted. “I haven’t seen a single other kid at the zoo today. Well, except for…”

Her gaze wandered over toward the nearby stroller rental stand. She remembered little Tyler — he’d already escaped from his parents long enough to cause trouble twice. Could he be the vandal?

Nancy bent over and stared at the handprint. The edges of the print were soft and sort of crumbly, making it hard to tell exactly how big it was. Was it small enough to be Tyler’s?

“Do you think that little kid could have left it?” George asked, guessing what Nancy was thinking.

Nancy shrugged. “I’m not sure,” she said. “But I’m sure of one thing. This is turning into a real mystery!”

She flipped open her mystery notebook to a clean page as she sat down on the nearest bench. Pulling out her favorite purple pen, she wrote THE ZOO MYSTERY at the top of the page.

Then she chewed on the end of her pen for a moment, thinking. Bending over the page, she wrote:

Clues

1. Kid-size handprint in dirt

Then she looked up at Bess, George, and Mari, who were watching her write. “I guess that’s the only clue so far,” she said. “Now I need to list our suspects.”

“You should definitely put Tyler at the top of the list,” Bess said. “He’s so hyper, he totally could have done it.”

Nancy nodded and wrote:

Suspect Number 1: Tyler

Mari looked worried. “That zookeeper seemed so sure it was one of us,” she said. “Maybe you should check it out?”

Just then Brenda wandered over. “What are you guys talking about?” she asked. Then she spotted Nancy’s notebook. “Oh!” she said. “Are you trying to solve the mystery? If you are, then I think Jason Hutchings and his friends should be your top suspects.”

Nancy blinked. “Jason?” she said. “Why?”

Brenda tossed her head. “Isn’t it obvious?” she said. “They love to cause trouble. Remember how they were blabbing on the bus about causing trouble at the zoo?”

“I guess,” Nancy said doubtfully. “I think they were joking, though.”

Still, she had to admit that Brenda had a point. The boys did love to play pranks. What if this was their way of pulling one on Brenda? Maybe they knew she would get all excited about the news story, and they were trying to make it look like she’d done the damage herself.

She added their names to her list. “Okay,” she said. “Anyone else?”

Nobody had any other ideas. Nancy stood up and tucked her notebook into her backpack.

“I’ll be right back,” Brenda announced. “I want to take a few more pictures of that handprint.”

“We should really start investigating,” Nancy said. “There’s not much time if we want to solve this mystery before we have to leave.”

“What are we going to do?” Bess asked.

“I want to see if Tyler and his family are still at the zoo,” Nancy said. “Also, I think we should interview some of the other kids to see if anyone knows anything.”

Brenda tried to argue, but the other girls sided with Nancy. Soon all five of them were hurrying along the zoo path looking for their classmates.

The first group they spotted was the one that included Emily, Jessie, and Phoebe, as well as Josie Blanton and Julia Santos. The five girls were at the big cat exhibit watching a tiger chew on a giant plastic bone.

“Hi,” Nancy greeted them, pulling out her notebook. “Can I ask you guys a few questions?”

Phoebe stared at the notebook. “Are you trying to solve this mystery?” she asked.

Nancy nodded.

“Cool! Maybe you can convince that mean old zookeeper that it wasn’t one of us who ruined his silly flowers,” Phoebe continued.

“That’s what I’m trying to do.” Nancy smiled. “I need to figure out where everyone was when it happened. So what were you guys doing right before you heard we were supposed to meet at the snack bar?”

“We were taking pictures of the giraffes,” Josie said.

Jessie giggled. “Right,” she said. “That baby giraffe is so cute! I got a really good shot of it scratching its neck on a tree —”

“That’s cool,” Julia broke in. “But wait until Mrs. Reynolds sees the picture I just took of that tiger! I’m sure it’s going to win the photo contest!”

Bess looked worried. “I hope there still is a photo contest,” she said. “What if Mrs. Reynolds cancels it because of what happened?”

“Oh, no!” Phoebe exclaimed. “I never thought about that.”

“I just thought of something else,” Jessie said anxiously. “What if she lets us have the contest, but makes us leave the zoo early?”

“That would be terrible!” George exclaimed. “I don’t have anywhere near enough photos yet, and —”

“BE QUIET!” Emily yelled suddenly. “All of you, just stop talking about the stupid photo contest, okay?”