Lucas ran past Nancy and flattened his body against his bedroom door. “If you go in there, you’ll be in big trouble!” he warned.
Nancy frowned. Lucas seemed to be in a panic about something. What was going on?
Nancy pointed to the door. “That’s your room, right?” she asked Lucas.
Lucas hesitated. “R-right. So?”
“So we were just looking for you,” Nancy explained. “We wanted to ask you some questions and stuff.”
Lucas glanced around nervously. “Questions . . . about what?”
“About your grandmother,” George piped up.
“M-my grandmother?” Lucas repeated.
The Yorkies were still sniffing like mad at the closed door. One of them began yipping and scratching the wood on either side of Lucas. The other one joined in.
“By the way, what’s in your room?” Bess asked Lucas. “More dogs? Or doggie biscuits? Or what?”
Lucas turned white as a ghost. “You all have to go!” he burst out. “Right now! I’m really, really super-busy, and besides, Grandma’s going to be home any minute. Maybe we could do this question thing another time, okay?”
Nancy was going to argue with him, but he really wanted them to leave. “Come on, let’s go,” Nancy said to Bess and George. The three girls waved goodbye to Lucas and the yipping Yorkies and headed down the stairs.
Once they were back outside, George turned to Nancy. “Why do you think Lucas was being so weird?”
“I don’t know,” Nancy said, pulling on her mittens. “He sure was acting suspicious.”
“Nancy!” Bess gasped. “I just had an idea! What if Lucas is the collar thief?”
Nancy nodded. Bess’s idea made sense. “That sure would explain why he wouldn’t let us into his room. Maybe he was hiding Chip’s collar in there.”
She paused at one of the stone Yorkie statues. It had a bow around its neck. “On the other hand, Lucas doesn’t even like dogs,” she murmured. “So why would he steal the doggie collar?”
Carson Drew took a sip of coffee. “So how’s your big case going, Pudding Pie?” he asked Nancy.
It was Sunday morning. The two of them were having brunch at Chez Meow, a restaurant in downtown River Heights. It was called Chez Meow because a cat named Meow lived there.
Nancy liked Chez Meow. There were framed pictures of cats all over the bright yellow walls. Meow herself, who was big and white and fluffy, sat preening her fur in a sunny window.
While they ate, Nancy filled her father in on the day before. When she had finished, he said, “So you’re adding Mrs. Vander-pool’s grandson to the suspect list, eh, Pudding Pie?”
Nancy nodded. “Yes, Daddy. The problem is, I can’t figure out a motive for him.”
“Hmm, that is a problem,” Carson agreed.
Nancy took a bite of her strawberry pancakes. Then she reached into her pocket and pulled out her special notebook.
She uncapped her pen and opened to the page about the missing-collar case. She wrote Lucas’s name under “Suspects.”
While Nancy wrote, Carson glanced at the Sunday paper. “Hey, look at this!” he said after a minute. “You’re in the newspaper!”
Nancy’s head whipped up. “What?”
Carson slid the newspaper across the table. He pointed to Alice Cahill’s “Pet Corner” column. It said:
The Pet Corner
Special Sunday Bulletin
By Alice Cahill
We’ve all heard of white-collar crime. But doggie-collar crime? Friday, at the newly revamped Dashing Dog Pet Salon, owned by canine beauty wiz Rex Rumford, a Stella Sipowitz original disappeared under mysterious circumstances. After the collar was raffled off to third-grader Nancy Drew and her Lab, Mocha Chip . . .
“Mocha Chip!” Nancy cried out. “She got Chip’s name wrong!”
“Keep reading,” Carson said. “What else does she say?”
Nancy scanned the rest of the column. Alice mentioned how the collar had vanished while Nancy, Bess, and George walked around the pet salon. She also mentioned that Nancy planned to get on the case:
Says the amateur detective Drew: “I’m going to conduct a dogged investigation and collar the collar thief!”
Nancy pointed to the quote. “I don’t remember saying that,” she murmured.
Just then the front door of the restaurant opened, and Alice Cahill breezed in. She noticed Carson and Nancy sitting there.
She gave Nancy a little wave. “Hope you enjoyed my column!” she called out. “Must run! I’m here to interview Meow and her owner for my next column!”
“Is that her?” Carson whispered to Nancy.
Nancy nodded. “Uh-huh.”
Alice sat down at a table and pulled out her notebook and green pen. The owner of Chez Meow scooped Meow up in her arms and sat down across from Alice.
Nancy and Carson discussed the case some more as they finished their brunch. When they were done, Nancy asked her father if they could stop by the Dashing Dog before going home.
“I want to see if Rex Rumford found any new clues to the thief,” Nancy explained.
“No problem, Pudding Pie,” Carson replied.
A short while later they walked through the front door of the Dashing Dog. It was just around the corner from Chez Meow.
“Hello, hello,” Rex greeted them. He was holding a small white collie in his arms. “I was just about to give Snowflake a special herbal bath. It’s very relaxing. What can I do for you?”
“I’m still trying to find out who stole Chip’s collar,” Nancy told Rex. She hugged her blue notebook to her chest. “I’m trying to collect all the information I can.”
Rex frowned. “I feel terrible about that. Just terrible! But I’m afraid I have no new information for you.” He added, “What about you? Have you learned anything?”
Nancy was about to reply when she noticed something. The raffle jar from Friday was still on the front counter. She could see all the entry slips inside.
Most of the slips had black letters on them. She remembered that there had been a black pen sitting on the counter, for the guests to use.
But looking at the raffle jar now, Nancy saw that a bunch of entry slips had been filled out in a different color: green.
“That’s strange,” Nancy said out loud.
“What is it, Pudding Pie?” Carson asked her.
Nancy walked over to the jar and turned it upside down. The entry slips spilled out onto the counter.
Nancy picked out the slips with green ink on them. There were twelve of them. And the name on all of them was Cahill!