Dare to read: Нэнси Дрю и Братья Харди

Dare to read: Нэнси Дрю и Братья Харди

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ПРИЯТНОГО ЧТЕНИЯ!

Carolyn Keene

Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew: Volume Thirty-Five

Cooking Camp Disaster

Copyright, 2013, by Simon & Schuster, Inc

 

Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew need to discover who’s tricking their taste buds!

Nancy, Bess, and George are excited to be spending some of their summer at Kid Kuisine, a cooking camp where they are going to learn how to make delicious treats from Chef Giorgio. At the end of the camp, they will be cooking for their families — and someone will win Best Chef!

But after a few days, it’s clear that one of their fellow campers is not as excited as they are. From salty brownies to super-spicy pizza, things are not as yummy as they should be: Someone is sabotaging the food. Could it be the stuck-up Jeremy, who is intent on winning Best Chef? Or the chef’s assistant, who might have hidden motives of her own? It’s up to the Clue Crew to figure out who’s ruining the recipes — and everyone’s appetite!

 

“I’ve never been to a cooking camp before, ” said eight-year-old Nancy Drew. She peered out the car window eagerly.

“Me neither. I wonder what we’ll learn to cook, ” her friend George Fayne added.

“I hope it’s cupcakes. They’re my favorite! ” George’s cousin Bess Marvin chimed in.

“Well, if it’s cupcakes, make sure to save a couple for me, ” Hannah Gruen called out cheerfully from the driver’s seat. The Drews’ longtime housekeeper, Hannah had helped take care of Nancy from the time she was three. This morning she was driving the girls to camp. “Okay, here we are! As soon as I find a place to park, we can get you ladies settled in.”

Nancy, George, and Bess were spending a week at Kid Kuisine, a summer day camp just outside their hometown of River Heights. As Hannah pulled into the driveway, Nancy craned her neck to see outside. The main building reminded her of a gingerbread house, with candy-colored shutters and flowering window boxes. The sprawling yard was filled with apple trees, gardens, and a pond.

A big sign near the front door read: WELCOME TO KID KUISINE! On it were hand-painted pictures of cookies, pizza, and fruits and vegetables.

This is going to be so cool! Nancy thought excitedly.

Hannah led Nancy, George, and Bess inside and handed their forms to an older girl sitting at the front desk. The girl had shoulder-length brown hair and chunky black glasses; her name tag said ROSEMARY.

Rosemary squinted at their forms. “Okay, so, um, welcome, Nancy, Bess, and Georgia —”

“George, ” George corrected her.

“Sorry. George. Everyone’s in the kitchen.” Rosemary lifted her arm to direct them and accidentally knocked down a container full of pens and pencils. “Oops! Why am I always doing that? ”

While Rosemary picked up the pens and pencils, Hannah gave Nancy a quick hug. “I’ll see you girls later. Have fun! ”

“Thanks, Hannah! ” Nancy said, hugging her back.

Nancy and her friends headed through an arched doorway into the kitchen. It was a large, sunny room that was way bigger than Nancy’s kitchen at home. Along the walls were several fancy-looking silver refrigerators as well as shelves filled with bottles, boxes, and jars of ingredients. In the middle of the room was an enormous island with sinks and counter space. Copper pots and pans hung from the ceilings, gleaming brightly.

There were six kids — three boys, three girls — sitting on stools around the island. A tall, bald man was showing one of the girls how to hold a wooden spoon properly.

The man beamed at Nancy, George, and Bess. “Magnifico! You must be our last three campers! I am Chef Giorgio, your instructor in the art of fine cooking! ”

“Chef Giorgio? That sounds like my name, George, ” George said with a smile.

“I will have to call you Little Giorgio, then, ” Chef Giorgio said merrily. “Come in, please, and find some empty seats. Now that we’re all here, we can go around and introduce ourselves.”

Nancy and her friends sat down. The girl from the front desk, Rosemary, wandered into the kitchen just then and began rearranging a rack of spices. Her eyes flicked anxiously in Chef Giorgio’s direction. Nancy wondered why she seemed nervous.

“Okay, so why don’t we all go around the room, say our names, and tell us a little something about yourselves? ” Chef Giorgio suggested. “You can go first, ” he said to the girl with the wooden spoon.

“Me? Oh! ” The girl sat up very straight. She had long, curly red hair and freckles. “I’m Chloe O’Malley! I’m eight years old! My favorite food is pizza! I have a dog named Lola, and she loves pizza too! ”

“Lola is not your dog, she’s mine, ” the girl next to her said in a snotty voice. “I’m Cristin O’Malley, ” she said to everyone else. “I’m ten years old, and I can do a front and straddle split. Oh, and I have the biggest City Girls collection of anyone in my whole entire school.”

“Grazie, Chloe and Cristin. That means ‘thank you’ in Italian. Okay, next? How about you? ” Chef Giorgio gestured to a boy sitting across from the two sisters. He had scruffy blond hair and glasses and a T-shirt that said: GENIUS AT WORK.

“My name is Jeremy Kline. I’m ten, and I already know how to cook perfectly, ” he said matter-of-factly.

“Magnifico! You’ll be a valuable addition to our little class, then, ” Chef Giorgio said. “How about you? Have you done any cooking before? ” he asked the boy next to Jeremy.

“Uh, yeah. I like to mix ketchup and orange juice and feed it to my little sister. It gives her a wicked stomachache, ” the boy said, grinning. “Oh, and I’m Dev Kapoor, by the way.”

“Ketchup and orange juice? Ew, ” Bess whispered to Nancy.

The boy next to Dev gave him a high five. “Dude, I’m all over that recipe! ”

“And what’s your name? ” Chef Giorgio asked him.

“Dylan. Dylan Wong. You can all call me Mr. Wong, ” he joked.

Nancy, George, and Bess introduced themselves next. When they were done, Chef Giorgio pointed to a girl sitting to the right of Nancy. She was wearing a pretty red dress with flowers. “And you? Tell us about yourself.”

The girl squirmed in her seat. “Who, me? I’m Talisha. Talisha Nadine Eggers. I’m eight, and I... well... I don’t know really know how to cook, ” she said quietly.

“Well, you will be an expert by the time this week is over! ” Chef Giorgio said. “Okay, then. Let’s get started with our class. We have some basics to go over first. Rosemary, will you please hand out some aprons to our students? ”

While Rosemary did this, Chef Giorgio went over a bunch of safety rules, like how to handle the ovens, burners, and knives and other sharp utensils. He added that each camper would have his or her own workstation, with a sink, counter space, and so forth.

“Every day, you will learn to make a delicious new recipe, ” Chef Giorgio said. “And this Friday, which will be the last day of camp, there will be a very special event. We are going to —”

Chef Giorgio was interrupted by a very loud whirring noise. A moment later, someone screamed, “Help! ”

 

 

Nancy glanced quickly around the kitchen. Who was in trouble?

Across the island, Dev and Dylan were cracking up. They had turned on one of the blenders; it was causing the loud whirring noise. Dev was pushing buttons, making the blender go from low to medium to high. Dylan was dangling his hand over the top of the blender and pretend screaming, as though his fingers had gotten chopped off.

“Boys! Stop that right this instant! ” Chef Giorgio rushed across the kitchen and shut off the blender. “I will not tolerate shenanigans. Please behave, or you will be asked to leave this camp! ”

“We are super, super sorry, ” Dev said with a straight face.

“Yeah, we feel really, really bad about this, ” Dylan added. Nancy wondered if they were serious or just faking — again.

Bess turned to Nancy. “For a moment, I thought this was going to be a new case for the Clue Crew, ” she said in a low voice.

Talisha, who was sitting on the other side of Nancy, leaned over. “The Clue Crew? What’s that? ” she asked curiously.

“George, Bess, and I have a club called the Clue Crew. We solve mysteries, ” Nancy explained to Talisha.

Talisha’s eyes grew big. “Oh! That sounds cool! ”

Chef Giorgio returned to his place in front of the group. “All right, let us move on. What was I saying? Oh, yes. We will have a special event on the last day of camp. First, you will all prepare a gourmet lunch and invite your parents and any other special guests you wish to include. And second, I will be awarding a prize for Best Chef! ”

“You mean like a contest? ” Cristin said.

“Yes, like a contest! I will decide who did the best job of making our recipes every day. And on Friday, I will announce the winner and give out a prize, ” Chef Giorgio explained.

“Maybe one of us will win, ” George whispered excitedly to Nancy and Bess.

“I wonder what the prize will be? ” Bess whispered back.

Chef Giorgio went over a few more details about the week’s activities. He added that there would be a second session of camp starting next Monday, for anyone who might want to come back for another week of cooking. “Now I will show you around the rest of our magnifico camp, ” he announced. “After that, we will return here to the kitchen to make our first recipe: peppermint brownies! ”

Yum! Nancy thought. She and Hannah sometimes made brownies at home, but they’d never made peppermint brownies.

Chef Giorgio began his tour. First he showed everyone the big dining hall where they would be having their final-day banquet. Then he showed them the grounds. There were several gardens, including an herb garden and a vegetable garden. The vegetable garden had tomatoes, peppers, and sugar snap peas, among others. Nancy loved sugar snap peas, especially when Hannah cooked them with lots of butter!

After the tour, the group returned to the kitchen to make the peppermint brownies. Chef Giorgio listed the ingredients on a blackboard and demonstrated each step of the cooking process.

Rosemary went around helping everyone melt bittersweet chocolate pieces and margarine on the stove. While the mixture cooled, the students mixed sugar, eggs, vanilla, and cocoa powder in big mixing bowls.

“I’m definitely going to win Best Chef, ” Jeremy, the boy with the GENIUS AT WORK T-shirt, said to no one in particular. He poured two cups of sugar into his bowl. “I know pretty much everything there is to know about cooking. I do it all the time at home.”

“Well, my mom’s a caterer, so I know a lot about cooking too, ” George said as she poured sugar into her bowl.

“That’s nice. You’ll probably come in second place, then, ” Jeremy said.

“There is no second place, ” George pointed out.

Jeremy shrugged. “Too bad for you, then.”

George turned and made a face at Nancy. She was obviously not happy about Mr. Show-Off. Nancy smiled sympathetically at her friend. So far the boys at the camp were turning out to be not very nice.

• • •

After a picnic lunch outside, everyone returned to the kitchen to put the finishing touches on their peppermint brownies. Then Chef Giorgio walked around tasting samples.

“Mmm, magnifico! ” he said to Chloe, who blushed and grinned with pleasure. “Yes, very good, but perhaps a touch less flour next time, ” he said to Cristin.

He reached George’s workstation. “Little Giorgio! Let’s see what you have created! ” he said with a big smile.

George cut into her pan of brownies and handed the chef a big piece. He popped it into his mouth...

...and his smile instantly vanished. “Yuck! This is the worst peppermint brownie I have ever tasted! ” he cried.

 

 

 

George’s face fell. “What do you mean, Chef Giorgio? ” she said miserably.

“Here, taste! ” Chef Giorgio broke off a piece of his peppermint brownie and thrust it at her.

George took a bite. “Yuck! You’re right! It’s supersalty! ”

“Supersalty? ” Nancy repeated. That didn’t make sense. A teaspoon of salt was one of the ingredients in the recipe. But a teaspoon was hardly enough to make the brownies taste supersalty.

“You try it, ” George said, handing the brownie to Nancy.

Nancy bit into it cautiously. “Ew, definitely salty, ” she said, scrunching up her face.

Puzzled, Nancy leaned over to George’s workstation and peered at the salt jar. It was tall and clear, and it had a masking-tape label that said “Salt” on it. There was a tiny red smudge next to the word “Salt.”

Beside it was an identical jar containing sugar. It had a masking-tape label that said “Sugar” on it. This label had a tiny red smudge too.

Then Nancy noticed something else. The labels were slightly crooked, as though they had been slapped on hastily. The labels on her own jars were not crooked. Neither were the labels on Bess’s jars.

Acting on a hunch, Nancy opened George’s salt jar and dipped her finger inside for a taste. When she licked her finger, she realized that the salt jar contained sugar. She did the same thing with the jar marked “Sugar.” Likewise, the sugar jar contained salt.

“Your sugar jar has salt in it, and your salt jar has sugar in it, ” Nancy announced to George. “You must have put two cups of salt into your peppermint brownie batter instead of sugar! ”

“No way! ” George exclaimed. “No wonder my brownies taste so gross.”

Chef Giorgio pointed to Rosemary. “This is obviously your fault. You must have put the labels on wrong. You are always mixing things up! ”

Rosemary gasped. “What? No way! I didn’t do that, I swear! ”

“We’ll discuss this later. In the meantime, I must finish tasting everyone’s peppermint brownies, ” Chef Giorgio said testily.

Rosemary cheeks turned beet red. She looked nervous and embarrassed. Nancy wondered if Chef Giorgio was right. Did Rosemary simply make a mistake?

Just then, Nancy saw that Jeremy was staring at George over the top of his glasses and smiling smugly. Could he have switched the labels to mess up George’s peppermint brownies? Or was he just gloating over her bad luck?

• • •

“Can I borrow some tomato sauce? I want to make my pizza extra tomato-y! ” Bess called out to Nancy.

“Sure! I’m going to make my pizza extra cheesy, ” Nancy said, passing the tomato sauce to Bess.

It was Tuesday morning. Today’s assignment was making pizzas to eat for lunch. It was great fun stretching the soft, pillowy pizza dough. Nancy also loved putting different ingredients on top. She even made a smiley-face design with a bunch of pepperoni pieces.

But not everyone seemed to be having a good time. Across the island, Cristin and her sister Chloe were arguing.

“Your pizza looks like Lola’s throw-up! ” Cristin was saying.

“My pizza does not look like Lola’s throw-up! I’m telling Mom! ” Chloe protested.

! “Crybaby! ”

“You’re a crybaby”

“Girls, girls, let’s calm down, ” Chef Giorgio called out. “I think we could all use a little break. Why don’t we go outside and pick some fresh herbs for our pizzas? ”

Nancy, George, Bess, Chloe, Dev, and Dylan stopped what they were doing and followed Chef Giorgio out the door. Talisha, Cristin, Rosemary, and Jeremy stayed behind to go to the restroom first.

Outside in the herb garden, Nancy went up to Chloe. “Are you okay? ” she asked her.

Chloe sniffed. “I’m okay. My sister can be supermean. But I guess sisters are like that. Do you have a sister? ”

Nancy shook her head.

“Well, you can have mine if you want, ” Chloe said. “I’m just kidding! She can be nice sometimes. Like, she gave me a pink soccer ball for my birthday. Pink’s my favorite color! ”

“Did you say ‘soccer’? ”

Nancy turned around. Talisha was hovering nearby. She, Cristin, Jeremy, and Rosemary had caught up to the rest of the group and were picking herbs.

“I love soccer, ” Talisha went on, smiling shyly. “When I grow up, I want to be a soccer player.”

“That sounds cool, ” Chloe said. “I want to be a fashion designer. Or a veterinarian. Or maybe a chef.”

“Why, so everyone can eat your dog-vomit food? ” Cristin said as she passed by with a bunch of basil leaves.

Chloe gasped. “I am so telling Mom you said that! You’re going to be grounded forever! ”

“You’re going to be grounded forever! ”

“Girls! ” Chef Giorgio rubbed his temples. “Am I going to have to separate you two again? ”

• • •

Back in the kitchen, Chef Giorgio and Rosemary helped put everyone’s pizzas in the very hot ovens to bake. Nancy loved the smell of the pizzas cooking. It was like being in an Italian restaurant!

Twenty minutes later, the pizzas were done, and the kids chopped fresh basil and oregano leaves from the herb garden to put on top. Then came the best part: lunchtime! Nancy couldn’t wait to sit down and taste her pizza.

Rosemary passed out plates, napkins, forks, knives, and cups of water. Everyone sat down on their stools and prepared to chow down.

Nancy picked up a gooey slice and bit into it. “Ow! ” she cried. Her mouth was on fire. Her pizza was the spiciest thing she’d ever eaten!

 

 

The other kids began crying out in pain too. Nancy grabbed her cup of water and downed it in one gulp.

“I don’t understand. Is there something wrong with the pizzas? ” Chef Giorgio said, sounding concerned.

“Yes! Hot! ” Bess said with a gasp, pointing to her mouth.

“Superhot! ” George agreed.

While the kids guzzled water, Chef Giorgio went around the kitchen inspecting and tasting everyone’s pizzas. After a few minutes, he said, “There are red pepper flakes on all these pizzas. How could this be? ”

“Red pepper flakes? ” Nancy repeated. She remembered that Hannah sometimes put red pepper flakes in her homemade salsa — but just a teeny-weeny amount, because it was so spicy.

“We only keep one bottle of red pepper flakes in our kitchen because we hardly ever use it, ” Chef Giorgio said. “Rosemary, please check the pantry to see if it’s there. Go, hurry! ”

“Yes, Chef, ” Rosemary said, scurrying away.

A moment later, she was back. “It’s not there, ” she announced. “The bottle is missing! ”

• • •

“This is two days in a row of weird stuff going on, ” Nancy said to George and Bess in a low voice. “Today it was the red pepper flakes. And yesterday, George, someone switched your salt and sugar jars.”

The three girls were making a second batch of pizzas along with the other campers. The first batch had to be thrown out because they all had red pepper flakes on them.

“How do you know someone switched my jars? ” George said as she arranged pineapple slices on her rolled-out pizza dough. “Chef Giorgio thought Rosemary probably just mixed up the labels by accident.”

“Maybe. I noticed something funny, though, ” Nancy piped up. “The labels on your jars had these little red smudges on them.”

“Really? What were they? ” Bess said.

“I’m not sure. Mine didn’t have them, and neither did yours, Bess.” Nancy glanced around the kitchen. “We should look around and see if anyone else’s labels have those smudges.”

“Um, are you guys discussing your mystery? ” Talisha said suddenly. She was shredding cheese at her workstation, to the right of Nancy’s. She seemed to be having a hard time; the cheese was spilling everywhere. “Did you solve it yet? ”

“Not exactly, ” Nancy said. “We’re not sure if there is a mystery.”

“I heard you talking about those red smudges. Maybe they’re fingerprints? ” Talisha suggested.

“Hmm, maybe, ” Nancy said.

“But why would they be red? ” George pointed out.

“Because, um... hey, where did it go? ” Talisha said, glancing around.

“Where did what go, Talisha? ” Bess asked her.

“Chef Giorgio! Chef Giorgio! ”

Nancy glanced up at the commotion. Cristin was waving her hand wildly and trying to get Chef Giorgio’s attention.

Chef Giorgio was showing Dev how to chop mushrooms. “What is it, Cristin? ” he called out.

“I know who put the red pepper flakes on our pizzas, ” Cristin announced. “It was my sister, Chloe! ”

 

 

Chloe gasped. “Wh-what? I did not put red pepper flakes on everyone’s pizzas! ” she stammered.

“You did too! I have proof! ” Cristin insisted.

“What proof? ” Chef Giorgio demanded.

Cristin marched over to the row of backpacks hanging on the wall. Most of the backpacks had their owners’ names or initials on them: DK, TNE, Dylan Wong, Jeremy, and so forth.

Cristin pointed to a pink backpack with Chloe’s name on it. A small plastic bottle was sticking out of a side pocket. The bottle had a red cap.

Chef Giorgio walked over to the backpack and pulled out the bottle. “Red pepper flakes, ” he said gravely. “Chloe, what is the meaning of this? ”

“But... but... I didn’t put that there, ” Chloe blurted out. “I’m innocent! ”

“Well, if you didn’t put it there, then how did it get there? ” Chef Giorgio pointed out. “It seems we have a mystery on our hands.”

Dev whispered something in Dylan’s ear, and the two boys cracked up. Nancy frowned. Did they put the red pepper flakes in Chloe’s backpack?

• • •

“Who needs a snack? ” Hannah said merrily. She balanced a tray in her hands as she walked into Nancy’s room.

“I’m superfull from camp! ” Nancy said, patting her stomach.

“Me too, ” George added.

“Well... maybe just a tiny snack, ” Bess said with a grin.

Hannah set the tray down on the desk and left. It was late Tuesday afternoon, and the three girls were hanging out at Nancy’s house. They had decided it would be a good idea to have an official Clue Crew meeting to discuss what was going on at camp. Nancy’s puppy, Chocolate Chip, was curled up on the bed, taking a nap.

Nancy got her special detective notebook out of her desk drawer. George booted up Nancy’s computer. Nancy liked to write down clues and suspects in the notebook while George typed up the information.

“Okay, let’s start with suspects, ” Nancy said, uncapping her pen. “Who could have switched George’s salt and sugar labels? And ruined everyone’s pizzas? ”

“Jeremy! ” George said immediately. “J-E-R-E-M-Y, ” she spelled out loud as she typed. “He really wants to win Best Chef. Maybe he’s worried I’ll beat him, so he decided to destroy my peppermint brownies.”

“What about Dev and Dylan? ” Bess said, grabbing a fistful of popcorn from the tray. “They did that dumb thing with the blender yesterday. They’re really into pranks! ”

Nancy wrote down the three boys’ names. “I guess we should add Chloe, too, because of the red pepper flakes, ” she mused. “The thing is... whoever put the red pepper flakes on the pizzas probably did it while we were outside picking basil and stuff, right? ”

“Right, ” George agreed.

“That’s the problem. Chloe was with us that whole time. I know, because she and I were talking, ” Nancy said.

“Oh! That is a problem.” George looked thoughtful. “I remember that a few kids stayed inside to go to the bathroom. They came outside a few minutes after everyone else.”

“Enough time to sprinkle red pepper flakes on everyone’s pizzas? ” Bess said.

“Maybe. So who went to the bathroom? ” Nancy scrunched up her face, trying to remember. “Jeremy... and Talisha...”

“And Cristin. Oh, and Rosemary, too, ” George said, typing.

“But the red pepper flakes bottle was in Chloe’s backpack, ” Nancy said. “Unless someone put it in there to make Chloe look guilty? ”

While George entered everything on the computer, Nancy read over what she’d written in her notebook so far:

 

SUSPECTS

 

CLUES

 

SUSPECTS

 

Rosemary: We caught her maybe messing up Talisha’s cake. She said she was just pretending to decorate it, though. Chef Giorgio is kind of mean to her. Maybe she wants to get revenge and cause trouble for his camp?

 

Nancy read over what she’d written. And read it a second time. And a third time. Their suspect list was getting very long.

She felt like she was overlooking something — something obvious. What could it be?

“Chloe! ” Nancy said suddenly. “Bess, remember what you said yesterday? About how someone might have put the red pepper flakes bottle in her backpack? ”

Bess nodded. “Uh-huh.”

“What if it was Cristin? ” Nancy said excitedly. “Maybe she’s the culprit. And she was just trying to make Chloe look guilty! ”

 

 

“That makes sense, ” George said. “The two of them are always fighting.”

“Like all the time! ” Bess agreed.

“I think we should add Cristin to the suspect list, and take Chloe off, ” Nancy suggested.

“Good idea. And tomorrow, let’s ask Cristin some questions. Maybe we can get her to crack, ” Bess said.

“Crack? ” Nancy repeated, confused.

“That’s detective talk for ‘make her confess, ’” Bess said, giggling.

• • •

But on Thursday, Cristin wasn’t at camp. Chloe told everyone that she was staying home for the day because she had a doctor’s appointment.

“So now we can’t make Cristin crack, ” Bess complained in a low voice to Nancy and George.

Nancy, George, Bess, and the rest of the campers were preparing their workstations for the day’s project: fortune cookies. Nancy was really psyched about this assignment. She and the others were going to write their own fortunes to put inside the cookies!

“Maybe she’ll be here tomorrow. And we can still try to make our other suspects, um, crack today, ” Nancy said to Bess.

“Yeah. We still have Evil Jeremy, Dev and Dylan, and Rosemary, ” George pointed out.

“We’re running out of time, though. Tomorrow’s the last day of camp, ” Bess said worriedly.

Talisha leaned over to Nancy and the girls. “Are you guys talking about your mystery? Have you solved it yet? ”

“Um, not yet, ” Nancy replied. She wondered why Talisha seemed so interested in their case.

“Have you thought about doing fingerprint analy... analysis? Did I say that right? You could make everyone press their fingertips on an inkpad and then on a piece of paper! ” Talisha suggested. “And what about witnesses? Maybe someone here saw or heard something suspipicious... I mean, suspicious! ”

“Wow, are you a big mystery fan or what? ” Bess asked her curiously.

Talisha blushed. “Yeah, kind of. I read a lot of mystery books. And I like mystery movies, too.” She added, “I like mysteries almost as much as I like soccer! ”

“Soccer’s awesome, ” George agreed.

“It’s the awesomest! I was supposed to go to soccer camp this summer. But my mom and dad made me do cooking camp instead. They said I needed to try something new.” Talisha made a face.

“Cooking’s fun too, right? ” Bess said.

Talisha shrugged. “I guess. I don’t know. I’d rather be playing soccer.”

• • •

After lunch the campers met back inside the kitchen to snack on their fortune cookies. Before lunch they had all written their own messages on thin slivers of paper and put them into the folded, still-warm cookies. Now they were cool enough to eat.

Some of the kids traded cookies with each other, including Bess and George. When Bess opened hers, she started laughing. “Ha-ha! ‘You will be a millionaire someday, ’” she read out loud. “Yay! ”

George opened hers. “‘You will rule the universe! ’” she read, grinning. “Yes! ”

Nancy’s fortune cookie was cooling on a small blue plate. But there was another fortune cookie sitting on her cutting board. It was bigger than hers and kind of lumpy-looking. She wasn’t sure who had given it to her.

Nancy cracked it open. She gasped when she saw the bizarre message inside:

 

 

 

Nancy stared at the strange message. She noticed that it was written in red ink. And there was a weird red smudge at the edge of the paper — a different, slightly lighter shade of red. It looked similar to the smudges that she’d seen on George’s salt and sugar labels.

Nancy leaned over and showed the message to George and Bess. “What do you think it means? ” she whispered.

“I guess someone really, really wants you — or us — to stop snooping.” George squinted at the red smudge. “It’s kind of shaped like a fingerprint. But it’s kind of blurry, too.”

Bess pointed to the words. “Why are some of the letters in the message capital letters? ”

Nancy nodded slowly. The letters T, N, and E were capitalized. The rest of the letters were not. “Do you think it’s some sort of code? ” she said out loud.

“Or maybe it’s the word ‘ten, ’ mixed up, ” George suggested.

Nancy thought hard. T, N, E. What could those letters stand for? Was it the word “ten” scrambled around, like George said? Or was it something else?

The letters actually seemed familiar to her. She wasn’t sure why. She had seen them before, in exactly that order...

Her gaze fell on the backpacks hanging up across the room. They were labeled with the campers’ names and initials: DK, Dylan Wong, Jeremy, Chloe O., TNE...

TNE!

Nancy whirled around to face the workstation on her right. Talisha Nadine Eggers. TNE.

“Talisha! You left me this fortune cookie, didn’t you? And you’re the one the Clue Crew has been looking for! ” Nancy said, surprised.

Talisha glanced up from washing out a bowl she had used to make the fortune-cookie batter. She had a big, happy smile on her face. “Uh-huh. Yay, you finally caught me! And now you can turn me in to Chef Giorgio! ” she said eagerly.

“You’re the one who messed up my peppermint brownies? ” George cried out.

Talisha nodded. “Uh-huh. I’m really, really sorry! The three of you walked away for a minute to get something in the refrigerator. So I switched the salt and sugar labels really superfast, when no one was looking. Then I put strawberry jam on my fingers and left my fingerprints on the labels, so the Clue Crew would catch me right away! ” She frowned. “Except, uh, you didn’t.”

“Wow. And did you mess up everyone’s pizzas too? ” Bess asked her.

“Yup! I even put the bottle of red pepper flakes right here in the middle of my cutting board! That way, I figured you would definitely catch me. But then it disappeared! ” Talisha pointed to Chloe, who was on the other side of the kitchen munching on a fortune cookie. “I think that maybe her sister Cristin took it and put it into her backpack. To get her into trouble or whatever.”

Nancy gazed at Chloe. That made sense, and was pretty much what Nancy, George, and Bess had guessed, anyway.

But the rest of Talisha’s confession made zero sense.

“I don’t get it, ” Nancy said to Talisha. “Why did you try so hard to get caught? I mean, Chef Giorgio would have made you leave the camp! ”

“But that’s what I wanted! ” Talisha insisted. “I never wanted to go to cooking camp. I wanted to go to soccer camp! I came up with my plan on Monday. Remember? When those boys Dev and Dylan did that blender thing? And Chef Giorgio told them they would get kicked out if they kept breaking the rules? Plus, you guys told me about your Clue Crew club? I figured I could break the rules too, and you’d catch me and turn me in to Chef Giorgio! ”

“That’s a crazy plan! ” George said.

“Yeah, but it almost worked, ” Bess pointed out.

“Why did you give me this fortune-cookie message and tell me to stop snooping? ” Nancy asked Talisha. “Tomorrow’s the last day of camp. It’s too late to switch camps now, isn’t it? ”

“I thought it was. I was going to give up on my plan after the peppermint brownies and the pizza. But then last night Mom and Dad told me they were going to sign me up for another week of cooking camp, next week. I had to do something! ” Talisha said.

“I understand why you wanted to go to soccer camp so badly, but you almost ruined cooking camp for everyone else this week, ” George pointed out.

Talisha hung her head. “Yeah. I know. I feel really badly about that. Maybe there’s something I can do to make it up to all of you guys? ”

• • •

“Mmm, this is delicious. What do you call it? ” Carson asked Nancy.

“I call it the Clue Crew Calzone. It has cheese and sausage in it, plus a mystery ingredient! ” Nancy said with a grin.

Hannah chuckled. “I guess you can’t give me the recipe, then. It’s top secret! ”

It was Friday at lunchtime. The Kid Kuisine dining hall was filled with dozens of people: the nine campers, their parents, and other guests. The kids were serving everyone lunch with Rosemary’s help. Chef Giorgio was at the door, greeting people as they came in.

Nancy, George, Bess, and the other campers had spent the morning cooking a gourmet feast. The menu included not-spicy pizza and also calzone, which was kind of like a folded-over pizza. For dessert, there were peppermint brownies — with no extra salt.

Talisha was serving pizza and calzone to her mom and dad, Mr. and Mrs. Eggers. Nancy was glad the mystery was finally solved. Talisha had told Chef Giorgio everything, and her parents, too. This morning Talisha had updated Nancy, George, and Bess, saying that her parents weren’t going to make her come back to the second session of cooking camp, but that she wouldn’t be able to go to soccer camp, either. Maybe later in the summer, after she’d spent a few weeks helping out at home and making up for what she’d done. In the meantime Talisha had baked cupcakes at home and brought them in for everyone, to say “I’m sorry” for what she’d done.

The event seemed to be a big success. The food was yummy. Dev and Dylan were behaving and not pulling any pranks. Chloe and Cristin weren’t arguing, even though Nancy had confronted Cristin earlier about the bottle of red pepper flakes. Cristin had admitted to her and Chloe that she’d planted it in Chloe’s backpack. Chloe had forgiven Cristin only after Cristin promised to give Chloe one of her City Girls dolls.

Even Rosemary seemed to be happier. That morning she had told Nancy, George, and Bess that Chef Giorgio had apologized to her last night for being so mean to her all the time. He had explained to her that the chef business was very tough and he was just trying to prepare her for what lay ahead.

“Excuse me! May I have your attention? ”

Chef Giorgio was standing at a microphone near the doorway. “First of all, I want to thank all of you for being here today. I hope you’re enjoying the children’s magnifico food! Buon appetito! ” he said loudly.

Everyone cheered.

“Second of all, I want to announce the winner of our Best Chef contest. This award goes to the camper who made the most successful recipes this week. The prize is a gift certificate for two at the Double Dip ice cream shop. And the prize goes to...” Chef Giorgio paused dramatically.

Nancy glanced around the room. Jeremy was smiling confidently at George and pointing to himself, like he was going to win. George was smiling confidently back at him and pointing to herself, like she was going to win.

“It’s a tie! Our winners are Jeremy Kline and Little Giorgio! ” said Chef Giorgio. “That’s my nickname for George Fayne, ” he added.

Everyone clapped. George looked shocked. So did Jeremy.

“Wow, lucky you! You get to go to the Double Dip with Jeremy! ” Nancy teased George.

“Yeah, you’re going to be best friends now, ” Bess joked.

“Um... uh...” George shrugged and laughed.

Nancy and Bess laughed too. Then the three friends sat down with their parents and Hannah and dug into some Clue Crew Calzones.

Mystery solved!

LET’S MAKE SOME BARK!

 

No, not the kind of bark that comes from trees! LOL! Nancy, George, and Bess love to make peppermint bark for dessert or a yummy afternoon snack. You can make peppermint bark at home too, with the help of a parent or other grown-up.

 

Here are the ingredients you will need:

 

1 pound milk chocolate (either bars or chips)

24 hard peppermint candies or mini candy canes

Cooking spray

 

You will also need the following equipment and supplies:

 

A 9× 12-inch cookie sheet

Wax paper or parchment paper

A large microwavable bowl (for the chocolate)

A large Ziploc bag

A hammer or rolling pin

 

Now just follow these simple steps:

 

Spray cooking spray onto the cookie sheet. Then line the cookie sheet with a piece of wax paper or parchment paper. Make sure the paper hangs slightly over the long sides of the cookie sheet.

Ask a grown-up to help you melt the chocolate. Put the chocolate in a large microwavable bowl and microwave on medium for thirty seconds. Stir and check to see if it’s melted; if not, repeat for another thirty seconds. Keep repeating this step until the chocolate is melted. Take the bowl out of the microwave and allow the chocolate to cool slightly. (OPTION: You can also melt the chocolate in a double boiler on the stove. Ask a grown-up to help you do this.)

Pour the melted chocolate onto the cookie sheet. Spread evenly with a spatula or wooden spoon.

Put the peppermint candies or mini candy canes in the Ziploc bag and seal. Ask a grown-up to help you smash the candies into little pieces with a hammer or rolling pin.

Spread the smashed-up candies on top of the melted chocolate.

Refrigerate for an hour or until the chocolate is hard.

Once the peppermint bark is hard, you can peel off the paper and break the bark up into uneven pieces.

 

VARIATIONS: You can experiment with different toppings for your bark. Try s’mores bark (put mini marshmallows and broken-up graham cracker pieces on top instead of peppermint candies or candy canes). Or try nuts ’n’ berries bark (put different kinds of nuts and dried cranberries or raisins on top). Or any other kind of bark you can think of!

Buon appetito!

 

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Dare to read: Нэнси Дрю и Братья Харди

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Dare to read: Нэнси Дрю и Братья Харди

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Carolyn Keene

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