Nancy stared at each blank page. Everything had vanished like some magic trick!
“Our suspects and clues disappeared, Chip,” Nancy said, tapping an empty page with the pen. “Just like the heart I drew on the kitchen calendar!”
Nancy stopped tapping to stare at the pen. It was the same pen she had used on the kitchen calendar. It was George’s Presto Pen from her spy-girl kit!
That’s when everything began to click....
“I also used this pen to write Hannah’s secret recipe!” Nancy said excitedly. “George may not know what the Presto Pen does, Chip. But I think I do!”
Nancy ran back into the house to phone her best friends. In a flash she and Bess were at George’s door.
“I’ll explain everything after I read the instructions for the Presto Pen,” Nancy said. “Did you find them, George?”
George nodded and said, “The instructions were actually still inside the box.”
But when the girls entered George’s room, they froze. Sitting on the floor and scribbling all over the spy girl kit instructions was George’s three-year-old brother, Scott!
“Scotty, no!” George said. “Give it back!”
Scotty put down his blue crayon. He pointed to the shiny charm bracelet circling Bess’s wrist and said, “Give me that first. The dragon one!”
Bess whipped her hand back. “It’s a unicorn!” she said. “And you can’t have it, Scotty!”
Scott pouted and scrunched the instructions inside his fist. He was about to cry when —
“Give it to him, Bess, please!” Nancy said.
“Yeah, Bess!” George snapped. “You’ve got a million of those girly-girl things!”
Rolling her eyes, Bess snapped off the charm and handed it to Scotty. In turn, Scotty handed George the instructions.
After unscrunching the instructions, George read about the Presto Pen out loud: “ ‘The Presto Pen writes a supersecret message with ink that disappears within twenty-four hours. Now you see it. Now you don’t!’ ”
“It’s disappearing ink?” Bess exclaimed.
“Just as I thought!” Nancy said happily. “I used the Presto Pen to circle my calendar, write in the Clue Book, and write Hannah’s secret recipe for pink-strawberry lemonade!”
“Wow, Nancy!” George said. “Are you saying —”
“Hannah’s top-secret recipe was never stolen!” Nancy said excitedly. “It — poof — disappeared!”
“Poof!” Scotty laughed.
The Clue Crew traded big high fives. Hannah’s top-secret recipe was out of sight but totally safe. They could ask Hannah to write it down again after they explained everything. And best of all...
“Our lemonade stand is back in business!” Nancy declared with a smile. “Katy Sloan tickets, here we come!”
• • •
Early the next day the Clue Crew sat behind their lemonade stand, happy to have solved another case. While Nancy stirred a pitcher of lemonade, a truck rolled by. It was the Mr. Drippy ice-cream truck!
“Guess what?” Henderson called from the truck. “My dad decided to keep his ice-cream truck after all. How awesome is that?”
“Awesome!” the girls called back.
They watched as the truck rolled away, playing the Mr. Drippy jingle. They were happy for Henderson, but not for themselves.
“We still haven’t earned enough money for Katy Sloan tickets,” Nancy said sadly. “And the concert is tomorrow.”
“You guys,” George said. “Maybe we should just forget about —”
“Katy Sloan!” Bess gasped.
Nancy and George followed Bess’s gaze and gasped too. Stepping out of a sleek white car was the singer herself. It was Katy Sloan!
Nancy’s heart pounded inside her chest as the star walked toward their lemonade stand. Katy Sloan smiled and said, “Hi.”
“Y-y-you’re Katy Sloan!” Nancy stammered.
“I’m in River Heights for my concert tomorrow,” Katy said nicely. “I’ve been rehearsing all day, so I could use a cold cup of lemonade.”
“We have lemonade!” George blurted.
“Pink-strawberry lemonade!” Nancy said.
“It’s awesome!” Bess squeaked.
“Great!” Katy said. “One cup, please.”
Nancy’s hands shook as she poured Katy a cup of lemonade. The girls watched wide-eyed as their favorite singer drank. Did she like it?
“Oh, wow!” Katy said after drinking the last drop. “This is the best pink-strawberry lemonade I’ve ever tasted!”
“Would you like another cup?” Nancy asked.
“No, thank you,” Katy said dropping a dollar into the jar. “But here’s a little something extra.”
The girls watched as Katy dropped three small red cards into the jar too. She gave a little wave and walked back to her car.
As the car drove off, Nancy pulled out the red cards. She looked at them and then let out a big shriek.
“Omigosh! Omigosh!” Nancy cried. “Three tickets to Katy’s concert at the amusement park tomorrow!”
Nancy, Bess, and George couldn’t stop jumping and shrieking. They were going to the Katy Sloan concert!
“Nancy, George,” Bess said as she stopped jumping. “We forgot to ask Katy Sloan for her autograph!”
“We can try tomorrow,” George said.
“For sure!” Nancy said with a big smile. “But this time I’m bringing a real pen!”
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