Thanksgiving Thief (6 page)

Nancy looked at Bess and George. “No, we're very serious,” she said. “I'd rather not tell
you where we found them, since it's part of an ongoing investigation, but we thought that you, as the expert, could help us with the case.”

“Of course,” Mrs. Fulton said. “They're wild turkey feathers.”

“
Wild turkey
feathers?” the girls exclaimed.

“You're kidding,” Nancy said.

Mrs. Fulton looked at the feathers again. “Nope, that's what they are,” she confirmed.

“Well,” Nancy said. She bit her lip in thought. “This is starting to make sense now. You've really helped—”

Just then, a man burst through the front door. “LOUISE! My green beans are ruined!”

Nancy and her friends looked at Mrs. Fulton.

“It's my husband,” she said.

Nancy looked at Mr. Fulton. “Were your green beans at the elementary school, by any chance?” she asked.

Mr. Fulton nodded.

“Oh no,” Bess said.

“Not again!” George added.

“What are you talking about?” Mrs. Fulton asked.

“We've seen this happen before,” Nancy told her. She turned to Mr. Fulton. “Were your green beans supposed to be for the Thanksgiving feast?” she asked.

Mr. Fulton's mouth dropped open. “Yes, but how did you know?” he said.

“It's a long story,” Nancy told him. “Can you tell us what happened?”

“My poor green beans! I work so hard in the summer, tending to them carefully, then canning them when they're ready, and then I put them in my garage until I take them to the school for the River Heights Thanksgiving Celebration,” Mr. Fulton said. “People love my green beans!”

“Oh yes!” Bess said. “They're delicious, and I don't even like green beans.”

“Let me guess. Somebody got into one of the storerooms and knocked all the jars off the shelves,” said Nancy, “and now there won't be any, right?”

Mr. Fulton blinked. “Right,” he said.

“Did you find any feathers at the scene of the crime?” Nancy asked.

“Yes, as a matter of fact, I did,” Mr. Fulton said. “Wow! You girls really are great detectives!” He pulled some brown-and-gray feathers out of his pocket and handed them to Mrs. Fulton. “Do you recognize these?”

“Yes, they're wild turkey feathers,” Mrs. Fulton said. She turned to Nancy and the Clue Crew. “Does this have anything to do with your investigation?” she asked.

“Yes, it does,” Nancy told her. “We're looking for a person who wants to destroy the River Heights Thanksgiving Celebration and who leaves a wild turkey feather at the scene of each crime!”

The next morning, Monday, when Nancy's alarm went off, she sat up and stretched. The first thing she thought was,
We need to find out who in River Heights would have access to a lot of wild turkey feathers, and we'll solve the case.

With that in mind, Nancy hopped out of bed, put on her robe and slippers, and, as she did every morning, opened her drapes to let in the sun.

Suddenly she gasped. Two wild turkeys were down on the front lawn, pecking at the dead grass, their bright red wattles flapping in the wind.

“Oh, wow!” Nancy exclaimed. “What are you two . . .”

Nancy didn't finish her sentence. All of a sudden, she was sure she was looking at the solution to the mystery the Clue Crew was investigating! But she also knew she had no real evidence—unless you could count the three wild turkey feathers—and how could she prove that they came from these two turkeys?

“I have to take you both into custody,” Nancy whispered. “You may not like it, but if you two are out to destroy the River Heights Thanksgiving
Celebration, then the Clue Crew is going to stop you!”

Of course, what would happen once she had them in custody? Nancy wondered. How in the world would she ever figure out if they were missing any of their feathers?
Do feathers grow back?
Nancy thought.
Wow, these crimes get more and more complicated around here!
Still, it had to be done, Nancy knew. She slowly closed the drapes so she wouldn't spook the turkeys if they happened to glance at her upstairs window.

Next, Nancy hurriedly called both Bess and George and told them the same thing: “You're absolutely not going to believe this. You have to come to my house right away! And use the back door!”

Then Nancy returned to the window and peeked out again. For a minute she panicked because the two wild turkeys weren't where they had been, but she craned her neck and saw that they were over by a tree on the far side of the yard.

Suddenly the turkeys flapped their wings, as though they were trying to fly but couldn't. Then they headed for the street.

“Oh my gosh!” Nancy cried. “They're escaping!”

Nancy dressed quickly, then raced downstairs.

As she started for the front door, Hannah called, “Where are you going without your breakfast, Nancy Drew?”

“I'm on a case, Hannah! I don't have time for food!” Nancy said as she unlocked the door. At that moment, someone rang the back doorbell, and Nancy was sure it was Bess and George. “Please tell them to come this way, Hannah! I'm chasing two turkeys down the street!”

“You're
what
?” Hannah cried.

But Nancy was already running down the front porch steps. She could still see the turkeys. They were trotting down the middle of the street. A car coming toward them swerved to keep from hitting them.

“Nancy!” Bess called out from the front yard. “What's going on?”

“Hurry up!” Nancy shouted back. “I'll explain on the way!”

Just as Bess and George reached Nancy, the turkeys decided to change direction.

“They're headed for Suzie's front yard!” Nancy said.

“So what?” said Bess.

“So I think they're the ones who're trying to destroy Thanksgiving in River Heights!” Nancy replied.

“Turkeys?”
said George.

“Yeah,
wild
turkeys,” Nancy said.

Nancy and the Clue Crew reached Suzie's house just in time to see the turkeys fly over the side fence.

“I didn't know turkeys could fly,” Bess said.

“They can't fly very far,” George said.

“Yeah, just enough to create problems for us,” said Nancy. “Come on!”

They ran toward the gate that led to Suzie's backyard.

“Maybe Suzie can help us,” Bess said.

Nancy looked at her watch. “She's probably already at school. She likes to get there early to use the library.”

George glanced down at her watch too. “That's where we should be, Nancy,
at school
!” she said. “Mrs. Ramirez said we were going to have a math quiz first thing.”

Nancy had forgotten that. She needed a good grade on this one, too, because she had missed several problems on the previous quiz.

Now the girls were inside Suzie's backyard, and the turkeys were running around, looking for a way to escape.

“I think we have them,” George said. “Here, turkey, turkey! Here, turkey, turkey!”

Suddenly the turkeys raced for the back fence, flapped their wings a couple of times, and were gone.

“Oh, great,” Nancy said. “Well, let's see if we can find them on the next block!”

George pointed to her watch. “The time, Nancy, the time!” she said.

“We have to do this, guys!” Nancy told her friends. “We can't let them destroy Thanksgiving!”

Bess turned to George. “Nancy's right,” she said. “We owe it to the citizens of River Heights, and that includes Mrs. Ramirez and her family!”

The Clue Crew raced out of Suzie's backyard, up to the corner, and over to the next street, where they saw the turkeys trotting down the center of the road.

“They're not going very fast,” said Nancy. “They probably think they outsmarted us.”

“They could also just be tired,” George pointed out.

Just then, one of the turkeys turned its head and looked right at the girls. It made a loud gobbling sound to the other turkey, and the other turkey gobbled back. Then the two of them took off.

“What do you think they said?” Bess asked.

“The first one said, ‘You're not going to believe this, but they're behind us again!'” Nancy said, “and the second one said, ‘You've got to be kidding me!'”

“I had no idea you understood turkey talk!” Bess giggled.

“Oh yeah,” Nancy replied. “Come on.”

For the next twenty minutes, the Clue Crew chased the turkeys all around the neighborhood, but then the birds seemed to vanish into thin air.

“Look at us,” Bess said. “We're all sweaty and messy!”

Nancy glanced down at her clothes. “You're right. We need to go home and change.”

“No, we don't,” George said. “At least this way, Mrs. Ramirez might believe the story we're going to tell her.”

As it turned out, Mrs. Ramirez did believe their story, but they still had to stay after school to take the test, and because they had missed part of school, their parents were also called.