Thanksgiving Thief (5 page)

Just then, a voice said, “What are you two doing?”

Nancy and Deirdre turned. Mr. Davidson was staring at them.

“I think someone left the door to your refrigerator open, Mr. Davidson,” said Nancy.

Mr. Davidson rushed over. He took the turkey from Nancy. “Oh no!” he cried. He examined
the other turkeys in the refrigerator. “They're all spoiled! Now all my butcher shop customers will have to eat
frozen
turkeys for Thanksgiving!”

“Oh, that's terrible!” Deirdre said. “I guess my parents really will have to cancel the—”

“Wait, Deirdre! Please don't say anything to them yet!” Nancy interrupted. “Just give the Clue Crew a little more time. We'll get back on the case right now!”

Just then, George and Bess came into the kitchen.

“We wondered what had happened to you,” Bess said. “Mrs. Ramirez is ready for us to practice.”

“Our plans have changed,” Nancy told her friends. She quickly explained about the spoiled turkeys. “Somebody really is out to destroy Thanksgiving. This is no coincidence!”

“Why couldn't they attack some other holiday?” asked Bess. “Why did they have to choose my favorite one?”

“Thanksgiving is a holiday for people to give
thanks
for all they have,” Nancy said. “That
makes it doubly awful that someone is trying to wreck the celebration!”

“I agree,” George said.

“Would you mind if we took a look around, Mr. Davidson?” Nancy asked. “The Clue Crew is investigating the other kitchen crimes.”

“I wouldn't mind it at all, Nancy,” Mr. Davidson replied. He was a big fan of the Clue Crew. “Nothing like this has ever happened before.”

“Well, I need to go. . . . The pageant will go on!” said Deirdre.

“Tell your mother I'm sorry about the turkeys,” Mr. Davidson said. “I'll make sure it doesn't happen next year.”

When Deirdre was gone, Nancy said, “Do you know any reason why someone would do this, Mr. Davidson?”

Mr. Davidson shook his head. “No. In fact, I try to be nice to everybody. When Mr. Shannon said he was expecting a late delivery of cranberries and potatoes from a wholesale packer in Chicago, I told him I'd be glad to stay to make
sure everything was put away. I left the back door open so the driver could bring the boxes inside, because I was busy preparing the fresh turkeys.”

Bess looked at Nancy. “I wonder if we can connect the driver to the other crimes,” she said.

“I know him. He's not a crook,” said Mr. Davidson. “The way I see it, while he was busy bringing the boxes, someone slipped inside and
hid until after I was gone and then committed the crime.”

“Maybe the deliveryman left the refrigerator door open by mistake, and you didn't notice it,” George suggested. “Maybe he was in a hurry and just didn't get it closed.”

“No. He put the cranberries and potatoes in one of the storerooms,” Mr. Davidson said. “He didn't need to open the refrigerator door. Anyway, I'm sure it was closed when I left early this morning.”

Nancy walked over to the refrigerator and examined the handle. It didn't look very sturdy, and she was sure it wouldn't take much effort to open the door. The handle was also right next to the edge of a long table, which had several small white feathers and a
brown-and-gray
one beneath it.

“Is this where you plucked your turkeys, Mr. Davidson?” Nancy asked.

“It's one of the places,” Mr. Davidson answered.

“What color were the feathers of your turkeys?” she asked.

“They were all white,” Mr. Davidson said. “Why?”

“I was just curious, that's all,” Nancy said.

She couldn't believe it. The brown-and-gray feather was just like the ones Bess and George had found at the other crime scenes. She quickly put it into her pocket.

“Well, I guess we'd better be going,” she said. “I think there's something we need to investigate.” She turned to Bess and George. “Come on, let's go.”

Once outside, Nancy took the feather out of her pocket and showed it to them.

“Wow!” Bess said. “Now all three of us have feathers!”

“That's not the point, Bess,” Nancy said.

“It isn't?” said George.

“No,” Nancy said. “Do you realize that we've found the same kind of feather at all three crime scenes?”

“Oh yeah!” Bess remembered.

“I think the thief is using feathers as his calling card,” Nancy said. “He—or she—wants us to find them so we'll know it's the same person committing the crimes.”

“Why?” George asked.

“Some criminals like to be known by things like that,” Nancy explained. “When they read
about ‘the Feather Bandit' in the newspaper, they feel special.”

“That's true!” Bess said. “You see it on television all the time!”

“Right!” George put in. She looked at Nancy. “What are we going to do about it?”

“We're going to tell Mrs. Ramirez that we need to do some sleuthing instead of practicing our parts, and then we're going to my house to do a little research on the Internet,” Nancy said. “I want to find out if there have been crimes in other towns where feathers have been left.”

The Internet didn't turn up anything on “feather bandits,” so Nancy and the Clue Crew took their feathers to Mary White Cloud's house.

“This is the third time we've found a feather at the scene of a crime,” Nancy told her. “We think it's the thief's calling card.”

“Oh, I've heard about that on television,” Mary said. She sighed. “I'm sorry, but if these feathers did come from a thief and we have the pageant, I don't think you can use them.”

“Why not?” George asked.

“Well, if they were dropped by a thief instead of a bird,” Mary explained, “then that means they're negative, not positive, and you always
need to use positive feathers in a pageant when you're dealing with Native American culture.”

“That makes sense,” Nancy said. Bess and George nodded.

“We'll just have to start all over,” said Bess. She looked at her feather. “It was so pretty, too.”

“Do you know what kind of feathers these are, Mary?” Nancy asked.

Mary shook her head. “No, I don't. We don't always know what kind of a bird drops its feathers, but in our culture, it doesn't really matter, as long as the bird does it willingly.” She looked at Nancy. “Is it important to your investigation?” she asked.

“I think it could be,” Nancy said. She looked at Bess and George. “It might give us a clue as to who the thief is, if we knew where the feathers came from.”

“What if the thief is just picking them up off the ground like we were doing?” asked Bess. “It might mean nothing.”

“Or it might mean
something
,” George said. “I
agree with Nancy. We should check this out.”

“Well, you could ask Mrs. Fulton,” Mary suggested. “She teaches science, so she might know about birds.”

“That's a great idea,” Nancy said. She looked at her watch. “We still have time. It won't be dark for another hour.”

They used Mary's telephone to ask Mrs. Fulton if they could come over because they had something very important to talk to her about. She told them they could.

“See you later, Mary!” the girls shouted.

Nancy and the Clue Crew headed to Mrs. Fulton's house, which was down the street from Mary's.

When they arrived, Nancy rang the buzzer.

Mrs. Fulton opened the door. “Goodness, that was quick!” she exclaimed. “Come on in, girls.”

The girls headed through the door.

“Well, to what do I owe the honor of your presence, Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew?” Mrs. Fulton said. “I don't think either my husband
or I have committed a crime, although some of my students probably don't agree with me after that last test I gave them.”

“We found some feathers,” Nancy said. “We were hoping you could identify them for us.”

“Well, I may be able to, if they're not too exotic,” Mrs. Fulton said. “I studied ornithology in college, actually.”

“Orni-
what
?” Bess asked.

“That's the study of birds, Bess,” George said.

Nancy pulled the three brown-and-gray feathers out of her pocket and handed them to Mrs. Fulton. “Do you recognize them?” she asked.

Mrs. Fulton grinned. “Is this a Thanksgiving prank?” she said.