The Krunchies Klue
Nancy couldn’t believe it. The Hollywood Herald had published an article about Fluffington!
There were three photographs that accompanied the article. There was one of Fluffington posing next to a bowl of Krunchies. There was one of Mr. Banner. And there was one of a woman with short, silver-blond hair. Her name was Felicity Katz.
Who’s Felicity Katz? Nancy wondered.
“What’s going on, Nancy?” George said curiously. She got into bed beside Nancy and peered over her shoulder. Bess got into bed on the other side, holding her teddy bear. Mr. Drew sat down in an armchair and took a sip of his coffee.
The three girls read the article together:
HOLLYWOOD—Celebrity feline Fluffington disappeared mysteriously from Thunderchickens Studios on Tuesday morning.
The Krunchies spokes-cat was in the middle of shooting her first film, The Aliens Next Door, directed by Brett Banner.
According to an anonymous source close to the movie, Fluffington was “probably kidnapped by someone who wants to sell her on the black market for a lot of money.”
Felicity Katz, president of the Fluffington Fan Club, was visibly upset when she heard the news. “America’s favorite feline must be found!” she declared.
Mr. Banner would not comment on this story.
Nancy glanced up from the newspaper. “How did the reporter find out about Fluffington?” she said, stunned.
Bess jabbed her finger at the article. “It says something about an ‘anonymous source close to the movie.’ Who could that be?”
“Maybe it’s that mean, nasty Beezil,” George suggested.
“Or maybe it’s someone we don’t even know,” Nancy mused. “We haven’t met everyone at the studio.”
Mr. Drew glanced at his watch. “Speaking of which, I need to head over to the studio very soon. Brett called and wanted me to look over some—”
“Can we go with you, Daddy?” Nancy burst out. “I think this is a good time for the Clue Crew to look around for more clues.”
“Definitely,” George agreed.
“As long as we get some breakfast first,” Bess said, hugging her teddy bear to her chest.
Nancy’s dad smiled. “Okay. Breakfast first, then off we go to Thunderchickens Studios.”
Everyone at Thunderchickens Studios was buzzing about the Hollywood Herald article when Nancy, George, Bess, and Mr. Drew got there. Mr. Banner was pacing up and down the hallway in front of his office, barking into his cell phone. “How did this happen? Who leaked this to the reporters? I want to know now!”
He hung up as soon as he spotted Mr. Drew. “Carson! I need to talk to you ASAP.”
“I’m all yours, Brett,” Mr. Drew said. “These girls want to look around the studio, if that’s okay with you. They’ve been working very hard to try to help find Fluffington.”
“Young detectives. How wonderful!” Mr. Banner said, beaming. “Look around all you want, girls. Let me know if you need anything.”
“Thanks, Mr. Banner,” Nancy said.
Mr. Banner led Mr. Drew into his office and closed the door. “Now what?” George said to Nancy and Bess.
“Now we start looking for clues,” Nancy replied. “We should look in all the places where we didn’t look before.”
“Sounds like a good plan,” Bess agreed.
Nancy glanced around. She decided to start with the hallway, to the right. She thought there were some rooms in that direction that the Clue Crew hadn’t searched yet.
While they walked, George pulled her spiral-bound notebook out of her pocket and flipped to a page. “So far, we have three clues: the catnip we found in Beezil’s backpack, the long white kitty hairs on Tucker’s T-shirt, and the kitty scratches on Tucker’s arms,” she recited.
Nancy peeked behind a potted plant. She remembered seeing the big yellow stray cat, Honey Mustard, hanging out near it the other day. “There are no clues back here,” she said.
“Hey, what’s this?” Bess called over her shoulder. She had hurried ahead.
Nancy and George caught up to Bess. She was standing in the doorway of a small storage room. She pointed to a green wooden door on the far side of the room. The door was marked exit in faded letters.
Nancy hurried over to the door. She stood close to it and inspected it. There were scratches on both the door and the door frame. Nancy’s pulse quickened. They looked like kitty scratches!
She pointed out the scratches to George and Bess. “Maybe Fluffington scratched the door until it opened wide enough for her to escape,” she guessed.
“I bet that’s what happened!” exclaimed Bess.
Nancy opened the door slowly. Something caught her eye. There was a small red bowl on the ground, containing a single brown kibble.
“It looks like a Krunchies kibble,” Nancy noted.
Bess frowned. “I don’t get it. I thought Fluffington always got fed in her special blue bowl by the director’s chair. That’s what Yasmine told us, remember?”
“I remember,” Nancy said.
Nancy looked around. Across from where they stood was another building, surrounded by palm trees.
Mounted on top of the building was a camera, a security camera.
Thinking quickly, Nancy ran a few feet to the right. Then she skipped a few feet to the left.
“Nancy, what are you doing?” Bess asked her, giggling. “Are you exercising, or what?”
Nancy pointed to the security camera, which was moving back and forth in sync with her movements. “It’s following me,” she said. “It’s a . . . it’s a . . .” She paused, trying to remember exactly what the device was called. “It’s a motion-sensitive security camera—or something like that.”
“Cool,” George said. “But why are you playing games with it, Nancy? We have to look for more clues!”
Nancy smiled. “It is a clue, George. If Fluffington escaped through this green door, or if someone kit-napped her from this spot, the security camera might have taken a picture of it!”
