“What’s in your backpack, Bess?” Nancy Drew asked as she skipped down the sidewalk.
“Yeah, it looks super full,” George Fayne said, skipping along next to Nancy.
“It’s my babysitting kit,” Bess Marvin explained. She paused to hoist the bulging backpack higher on her shoulders, then started skipping again. “I have everything I need to take care of the twins: some of my old baby toys that I found in the attic. And books. And paper and crayons. And Togo.”
“Togo?” George repeated.
“Togo is my stuffed tiger. When I was a baby, my parents would pretend it could talk to me, and I would do whatever it said. Like … ‘Bess, eat your broccoli,’ and, ‘Bess, don’t throw your sippy cup.’” She added, “I thought we could use it with the twins so they’ll listen to us.”
“Or maybe the twins are smart and they’ll know stuffed tigers can’t talk,” George teased Bess.
George and Bess were cousins, although they had really different personalities. They looked different, too; George had short, curly brown hair and brown eyes, and Bess had long, blond hair and blue eyes.
Nancy and her friends were on their way to the Jacobses’ house, which was just down the street from the Drews’ house. Mrs. Jacobs had hired the three girls to be “mother’s helpers” for her eighteen-month-old twins, Lily Mei and Anna Lin, whom she and her husband had adopted from China. A mother’s helper was like a babysitter, except that the parent or parents stayed home while the mother’s helper played with the baby—or, in this case, babies.
Mrs. Jacobs had asked Nancy, George, and Bess to watch Lily Mei and Anna Lin on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays after school for a couple of hours so she could make phone calls and do chores. Mr. Jacobs worked in an office in downtown River Heights, so he usually didn’t get home until dinnertime. The job would last for a few weeks, until Mrs. Jacobs’s twelve-year-old daughter Margaret, was finished with a big science project. After that, Margaret would be able to take over with the twins.
They soon reached the Jacobses’ house. They went up to the front door and rang the bell. A moment later, Mrs. Jacobs answered. Her long honey-colored hair tumbled loosely from a clip, and her jeans and black sweatshirt were splattered with what looked like mashed banana. A cell phone was pressed between her right ear and her shoulder.
“Oh hi, girls. You’re right on time!” Mrs. Jacobs said.
Nancy peered through the door at the Jacobses’ living room. The twins were sitting on the floor, going through a black leather purse. One twin pulled out a slim gray wallet and dumped out all the money, credit cards, and receipts. The other twin tossed a tube of lipstick across the room. A silver pen followed, then a checkbook, then a pack of gum.
“I’ll have to call you back,” Mrs. Jacobs said into the phone. “Come in, come in,” she said to the girls.
Nancy, George, and Bess entered the front hall, then followed Mrs. Jacobs as she stepped over a low baby gate into the living room.
“Lily Mei! Anna Lin! Look who’s here!” Mrs. Jacobs called out brightly.
The twins stopped what they were doing and glanced up with curious expressions. They were identical, with the same large, brown eyes, small, pert noses, and shiny, chin-length black hair with bangs cut straight across their foreheads. They wore identical T-shirts and denim overalls embroidered with flowers, except that one twin had a purple tee and the other twin wore pink.
“Nancy, George, and Bess are going to be playing with you today,” Mrs. Jacobs said to the twins. “Why don’t you have a tea party while I talk to them, okay?”
She bent down quickly and scooped up the contents of her purse. Just as quickly, she got a toy tea set from a bookshelf and set it on the floor between the twins.
The twins got busy with the tea set. Mrs. Jacobs kept her eyes on them as she addressed the girls. “So you can see that they’re kind of a handful,” she said apologetically. “Anyway … let me go over everything with you. Just stop me if you have any questions.”
“Okay,” Nancy said. George and Bess nodded.
“The twins love to be read to. There’s a bunch of books in a basket in the corner, there, and also up in their room,” Mrs. Jacobs began. “Just watch that they don’t rip the pages or draw on them. They like to finger paint, but they try to eat the paints, so we use vanilla pudding with food coloring mixed in it. I keep that in the fridge. Just make sure they’re wearing their painting smocks, which are in their closet. As for toys … well, there are toys all over the house. But they do have their favorites.
“Like what?” George asked her.
Mrs. Jacobs got a few more toys from the bookshelf. One of them was a silver, moon-shaped rattle. The other was a little stuffed mouse toy. “The rattle belonged to Margaret when she was a baby,” she said, smiling softly. “It’s engraved with her name and birthday. The twins are really too old for rattles, but for some reason, they just love this one. As for the mouse … his name is Squeak Squeak.
They fight over him, so you have to tell them to share nicely. If they won’t share, take him away. Oh, and if they’re being kind of hyper and crazy, there’s a CD on top of the CD player that calms them right down. It’s called Happy Baby Songs.”
“I brought some toys and stuff too,” Bess said, setting her backpack on the ground.
“Oh, wonderful! The twins like to—oh, dear! Sir Barkalot! No, Sir Barkalot!” Mrs. Jacobs cried out.
A big, shaggy white dog leaped over the baby gate and tore through the living room. He opened his mouth and hungrily scooped up a plastic cookie from the twins’ tea party. The babies began wailing.
“Bad dog!” Mrs. Jacobs chided Sir Barkalot. She reached into his mouth and pulled out the cookie, which was now covered with doggie-drool. “Oh, dear! You have to watch out for him,” she told Nancy, George, and Bess. “Everything goes into his mouth. He’ll try to eat toys, balls, shoes—even CDs.”
“CDs?” Bess gasped.
“CDs. Lily Mei, Anna Lin, it’s okay. Mommy got your cookie back from the doggie,” Mrs. Jacobs reassured the twins. They snuffled and stopped crying.
Mrs. Jacobs continued giving Nancy, George, and Bess instructions about the twins. She told them about snacks, diaper changes—which she would handle—discipline, and safety. She showed them how to hook and unhook the baby gates.
“It’s important that you never let the twins out of your sight,” she finished. “They can get into trouble in about two seconds flat.”
“Just like Sir Barkalot,” Nancy noted.
“Exactly! Oh, and we have a kitty-cat, too. Pumpkin Pie.”
“Meow!” the twins said at the same time.
Mrs. Jacobs beamed. “That’s right—meow! Anyway, she’s around here somewhere.”
“Mom, are there any banana muffins left, or did the little monsters eat them all?”
Nancy turned around. A girl with short, honey-colored hair came into the living room, followed by a blond girl and a redheaded boy.
“Margaret!” Mrs. Jacobs snapped. “Please do not refer to your sisters as ‘little monsters.’ We talked about that.”
“Whatever. Are there any muffins left? Lacie and Matt and me are starving!” Margaret said.
“Lacie and Matt and I. Yes, we still have muffins. And there’s some lemonade in the fridge.” Mrs. Jacobs turned to the three girls. “Nancy, George, Bess … this is my daughter Margaret. These are her friends Lacie and Matt. They’re doing a science project together.”
The six kids exchanged hellos. Lily Mei and Anna Lin ran up to Margaret and threw their arms around her legs. “Mah-Mah!” they exclaimed happily.
Margaret patted their heads. “Yeah, hi,” she said, sounding bored. She glanced at Lacie and Matt and rolled her eyes.
“What? They’re so cute,” Lacie said.
“Yeah, they’re way cuter than my sisters,” Matt piped up.
“So you’re stuck with the little monsters, huh?” Margaret said to Nancy, George, and Bess. “Good luck with that!”
Mrs. Jacobs put her hands on her hips. “Margaret!”
“Sorry, Mom. ’Kay, we’re outta here. Muffins, people!” Margaret called out to her friends. They headed for the kitchen, which was separated from the living room by another baby gate.
“I’m sorry about that,” Mrs. Jacobs said, lowering her voice to a whisper. “Margaret is having some … adjustment problems with Lily Mei and Ann Lin. She was an only child for twelve years, and it hasn’t been easy for her.” She gazed down at the silver, moon-shaped rattle, which one of the twins was now holding. “She’s even mad that the twins play with her rattle.”
George nodded. “I have two brothers, Sebastian and Scott. It’s hard to share with them sometimes.”
“Yeah, my sister Maggie can be a pain too,” Bess agreed.
Mrs. Jacobs smiled. “So you understand. Anyway … oh my, where has the time gone?” she exclaimed, glancing at her watch. “Do you have any questions? No? Then why don’t I leave you to play with the twins while I start dinner?”
“Sure,” Nancy said. “We can have a tea party with them.”
“Wonderful! I’ll be right in there if you need me,” Mrs. Jacobs said, pointing to the kitchen.
After she left, Nancy, George, and Bess sat down on the floor next to the twins. “Hi!” Bess said. “I’m Bess! And this is Nancy, and this is George.”
The twins blinked at her. One of them wandered over to a pile of wooden blocks and began stacking them. The other one stood behind Nancy and peered over her shoulder.
“I’ll pour some tea,” Nancy said, picking up the teapot and tipping it over one of the cups. “What do you want in your tea, Anna Lin? Sugar? Honey? Lemon? Milk? What about you, Lily Mei?” She put a pretend-lump of sugar in one of the cups.
“Which one’s Lily Mei and which one’s Anna Lin?” George whispered to Nancy. “They look exactly alike!”
Nancy frowned. “I’m pretty sure the one in purple is Lily Mei.”
“No, I think the one in pink is Lily Mei,” Bess whispered.
“Your tea is ready!” Nancy called out to Lily Mei, or whichever twin was playing with blocks.
Except … she wasn’t there. She wasn’t anywhere in the living room.
Nancy felt a rush of panic. Oh, no! She, George, and Bess had taken their eyes off Lily Mei for two seconds—and she had disappeared!