“There’s Sonia,” Nancy said, pointing to the swings. “Let’s go talk to her!”

It was Tuesday at recess. Even though it was January, the weather was nice, so the students had bundled up and headed outside after lunch. As Nancy, Bess, and George half walked, half ran across the playground, their boots kicked up clouds of fluffy snow. They passed groups of kids playing hopscotch, kickball, and other games.

“So what are we going to say to her?” George asked Nancy.

“Well, we shouldn’t let her know that she’s a suspect,” Nancy replied.

The three girls slowed their steps as they neared the swing set. Sonia was pumping her legs hard to make herself go way up high.

“Hey, Sonia!” Nancy said, waving.

Sonia waved back. “Hey! Do you want a turn?” she called out, dragging her heels along the ground.

“No. We just wanted to talk to you,” Nancy said.

Sonia frowned. “Uh . . . what about?”

Bess put her hands on her hips. “We know you stole Hoppity from Violet’s cubby, Sonia Susi! Where is she? Where are you hiding her? And how could you do that to your best friend?” she demanded.

“Bess!” Nancy whispered.

“What? Hoppity’s missing?” Sonia exclaimed.

“Don’t act surprised! You know perfectly well that—” Bess began.

“Bess!” Nancy poked her friend with her elbow. “Someone stole Hoppity from Violet’s cubby yesterday,” she explained to Sonia. “We thought maybe you might know something. Or maybe you saw something?”

“No,” Sonia replied. “Omigosh, this is awful! Violet must be so upset.”

Nancy pulled the blue doughnut out of her pocket. “Is this yours?” she asked Sonia.

Sonia squinted at the doughnut, then shook her head. “No. What is it? It’s weird-looking.”

“We’re not sure what it is,” George admitted.

“Where were you between lunch and the end of school yesterday, Sonia?” Bess demanded.

“I was in class! With you guys!” Sonia pointed out. “Why are you asking me all these questions? Do you really think I would steal Hoppity?”

“Well, you told everyone at Deirdre’s house that Violet kind of stole Hoppity from you,” Bess said. “Maybe you were getting back at her for that.”

“I would never!” Sonia cried out. She jumped off the swing and started heading toward the door. “I’m not going to talk to you guys anymore. You’re mean!” she complained.

Nancy watched Sonia as she stormed off. Was Sonia telling the truth? Or was she hiding something—just like Violet?

“I think Sonia should be our number one suspect,” Bess declared.

It was after school on Tuesday. She, Nancy, and George were in Nancy’s bedroom going over the case. Hannah had made them a big bowl of buttery popcorn and mugs of hot apple cider. She always gave them extra-yummy snacks when they were hard at work on a new mystery.

“I think so too,” George agreed. She was sitting at Nancy’s desk. Furrrocious was propped up next to the computer, looking ferocious in his karate uniform. “Nancy, what do you think?”

“I think we should start writing down all this stuff,” Nancy replied. She reached into her backpack and pulled out her purple notebook. She used it to keep track of the Clue Crew’s cases. “George, do you want to start a new file, too?”

“I’m on it.” George turned to the keyboard and began typing. She liked to record the Clue Crew’s clues and suspects on the computer. “After we’re done with this, maybe we could play Petopia?” she said hopefully.

“Yes!” Bess said, hugging Itty Bitty to her chest. “I didn’t get to play yesterday because I had other stuff I had to do.”

“Yeah, me too. We need to catch up!” Nancy agreed.

Nancy flipped to a clean page in her notebook. Where should she begin? She glanced around her lavender-and-white room as she thought about what to write. She grinned at Mocha Chip, who was lying in a doll-size bed next to Chocolate Chip, who was lying in a puppy-size bed. It was fun having a Make-a-Pet and a real pet!

Then she picked up her purple pen and wrote:

SUSPECTS

—Sonia Susi. She said that SHE came up with the idea about a Make-a-Pet bunny named Hoppity. She said that Violet stole the idea from her. Maybe she feels that Hoppity really belongs to her?

—Antonio Elefano. He likes practical jokes. Maybe stealing Hoppity was a practical joke?

“Can you think of any other suspects besides Sonia and Antonio?” Nancy asked Bess and George.

Bess shook her head. “Nope. We have a clue, though. The squishy blue thingy!”

“Yes!” Nancy turned to the next page and wrote:

CLUES

—The blue “doughnut.” We found it at the bottom of Violet’s cubby the same day Hoppity disappeared. Maybe Hoppity’s thief dropped it by accident?

“George, you said that maybe you saw it before, somewhere?” Nancy asked her.

“Yup. I still think I did. I just can’t remember for sure,” George replied.

Bess sat up, her blue eyes flashing. “Hey! You know how I said yesterday that it looked like a dolly bracelet? So maybe it’s a bracelet for a Make-a-Pet! When we were at the Make-a-Pet store on Saturday, they had a bunch of jewelry for the pets.”

“Bess, you’re a genius!” Nancy told her.

“I’ll check the Make-a-Pet website and see if they have it at their online store,” George offered.

Just then, Nancy heard a familiar ting! sound on her computer. An instant message window popped up on the screen.

“It’s from Violet,” George announced. She scanned the message quickly. “Uh-oh.”

“What?” Nancy jumped to her feet and began reading the message over George’s shoulder. Bess did the same.

Violet had written:

HELP!!!!!!! Something weird is happening with my Petopia game. My avatar is totally out of control!!!!!!!