The girl brushed her dark hair away from her face. Without the scarf, Nancy and her friends could see her glasses.
It was Kirsten Levy — Dr. Arnot’s assistant!
Three important pieces of evidence had helped Nancy solve the mystery: Nancy remembered that when they first met Kirsten she’d been wearing the scarf as a headband. She’d also kept the can of grape soda she’d been drinking that morning, using it to prop open the door. Then there were her black Mary Janes.
“I can explain,” Kirsten said, her eyes filled with tears. “Please just give me a chance.”
“Why would you, of all people, steal the Starship 5000?” Bess asked. “Dr. Arnot is your boss!”
Kirsten twisted the scarf around in her hands, clearly nervous. “I wasn’t stealing it,” she said. “That’s the problem. This is all one big misunderstanding.”
“What do you mean?” Nancy asked.
Kirsten let out a deep sigh. “Remember how I told you about the group project I was working on at school? Well, my partner realized the Starship 5000 would be the perfect telescope to use during the presentation. I knew Dr. Arnot would be too nervous to let me borrow it, so I decided to lend it to my friend during the hour that your group was in the planetarium show. Our school is only five minutes away, so I thought she could bring it right back.”
“Right,” George said, remembering what Kirsten had told them when they’d first met her. “The Starship is the best telescope to view the Andromeda Galaxy. That’s what your project was about.”
Kirsten nodded. “That’s right. So I lent the telescope to my friend, but her car broke down on the way back to the museum. I wasn’t able to get the telescope here in time.”
“So you lied about it?” George asked, crossing her arms.
Kirsten wiped her eyes. “I didn’t mean to — at least not at first. It just happened. I was so scared Dr. Arnot would fire me. I was going to return it. I swear!”
“Where is it now?” Nancy asked.
Kirsten pointed behind them. “It’s on its way. My friend is dropping it off any minute. That’s why I was waiting by the side entrance. I’m meeting her there.”
Nancy smiled at her friends. She knew Dr. Arnot wouldn’t be happy that Kirsten had lied to him, but the telescope would be returned. Igor, the famous astronomer in Germany, would never even know it went missing. Wasn’t that the most important thing?
Nancy turned back the way they came, waving for her friends to follow. “Let’s go, then,” she said. “There are only a few minutes before the museum closes. No matter what happened, Dr. Arnot will be very happy to know the Starship 5000 isn’t gone forever.”
• • •
Nancy and her friends stood at the bottom of the stairs, looking out the side door. It led to a street behind the museum. Kirsten sat on the bottom step, waiting for her friend.
After a few minutes a taxi pulled up. A girl with a brown ponytail stepped out, the Starship 5000 in her hands. Her skin glistened with sweat. “Kirsten!” she cried. “I’m so sorry! My car just stopped running, and I forgot my cell phone at school. I called you from the gas station I walked to.”
Kirsten whispered something to her friend, who then looked over Kirsten’s shoulder at the girls. “Please — it’s not Kirsten’s fault,” the girl said. “I was the one who wanted to use the telescope.”
“I’m sure he’ll just be happy to have it back,” Bess said. She always seemed to feel a little bad for the suspects when they were caught.
“I’ll explain it to him,” Kirsten said sadly. She took the telescope from her friend and went back inside the museum, climbing the stairs to the roof. Her friend followed her, and Nancy, Bess, and George started up the steps after them. When they got to the roof the security guards were there, along with Lois and Dr. Arnot. The astronomer’s face brightened when he saw the telescope. “Thank the heavens!” he cried. “You found it! Kirsten, you’ve saved the day! What happened? Where was it?”
Kirsten bit her lower lip. “Dr. Arnot,” she began nervously. “I have to tell you something....”
The man took the telescope from Kirsten’s hands, holding it like a mother would hold a baby. He cradled it back and forth in his arms and petted it lovingly. Suddenly he whipped his head around and furrowed his bushy eyebrows. “What do you mean? What’s wrong?”
Kirsten took a deep breath and started speaking. Her friend stood right beside her. She explained the entire story to Dr. Arnot, saying that she’d only meant to borrow the telescope for a half hour. She was going to bring it right back.
“I know I should have asked,” Kirsten said. “And I shouldn’t have lied when you found out it was missing. I’m so sorry that I made you so worried. I just didn’t know what to do.”
For the first time, Nancy noticed that Kirsten’s hands were shaking. Dr. Arnot frowned, and then he finally spoke. “I’m very disappointed in you, Kirsten,” he said. “And we’ll have to discuss this later. But right now I’m just thankful that the telescope is back.”
“It was always safe,” Kirsten’s friend said. “I took good care of it. If you want someone to blame, you should blame me — I asked Kirsten to take it!”
Dr. Arnot set the telescope down on the roof, adjusting it so it pointed at the sky. “Let’s save the blame for some other time,” he said. “There are only a few minutes before the museum is closed for the night, and I haven’t seen a sky this clear and beautiful in a long time. What do you say? Should we all have a quick look at our celestial neighbors? Saturn and Venus are stunning through the scope.”
That made Kirsten smile. “Thank you, Dr. Arnot,” she said, dabbing her eyes.
“That would be lovely!” Lois clapped her hands together like an excited child. Almost as soon as she said it, the other members of the astronomy club climbed the stairs to the roof, looking for them.
“You found it!” Celia cried. Marty and Hilda came up behind her. “We were wondering.”
“Can I look too?” asked Trina. She stood on her tippy-toes, trying to see into the lens.
Nancy wrapped her arms around her friends, squeezing them into a tight hug as she looked up at the sky. It was a deep navy blue, with stars scattered across it like glitter. Dr. Arnot was right — it was beautiful.
“Good work, team,” Nancy said. “We did it.”
“Yes!” George said as Dr. Arnot showed Lois some stars through the telescope. “The Clue Crew cracks yet another case! And this one was out of this world!”
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