Read Online Sabotage At Willow Woods by Carolyn Keene - Free Book Online Page B

are you doing, Katrina?” Eloise asked, folding her arms in front of her chest. “If that’s even your real name? Since Jackie is really George , and I’m going to guess your mother didn’t actually name you Mirabelle,” she added with a pointed glare at Bess.
    I took a breath. “I’m Nancy,” I said. “Nancy Drew. Look, I’m really sorry. It was never my intention to mislead you guys.”
    “Really?” Barney asked, his eyebrow raised in doubt.
    I thought about that for a minute. “Well . . . okay. Honestly, it was. But it wasn’t just to mess with you orhurt your feelings. I’m trying to find out who keeps harassing Carrie Kim.”
    Eloise perked up. “Carrie Kim is being harassed?”
    In brief, I told her the whole sordid story: the note at the block party, the manipulated recording, and finally, the deceased squirrel that arrived in the mail. Barney paled visibly at that story.
    Eloise looked utterly disgusted. “My God,” she muttered. “You must think I’m an animal!”
    “No, I don’t,” I insisted, then gave a helpless shrug. “But I didn’t know how committed you were to the environmental cause or how far you’d go to stop the sports complex.”
    Eloise shook her head, then looked me confidently in the eye. “I’m very committed to the environmental cause. And I’ll do anything within my power—anything ethical, I mean—to keep the sports complex from being built. But I would never kill a squirrel . Jeez!”
    I glanced at Bess and George, who looked just as sheepish as I felt. Okay, I’d totally misjudged this one.
    “Anyway,” Eloise went on, placing a hand onher hip, “I believe in democracy. The voters get to decide whether Carrie Kim gets a town council seat, not just me.”
    “But,” I put in, as an important detail came back to me, “you had some Boylestown Teachers Association stationery in your locker.”
    Eloise frowned. “Yeah?” she asked. “And . . . ?”
    I explained. “The first note Carrie got, the one that was handed to her at the block party, was written on BTA stationery. That’s what led us to the high school in the first place. The paper smelled of smoke, and I was thinking Ms. Meyerhoff might have been involved.”
    Kiki, the Mohawked girl, sneered at me. “Ms. Meyerhoff?” she asked. “Sheesh, you aren’t a very good detective. Ms. Meyerhoff wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
    Barney nodded sagely. “She’s actually a member of PETA,” he explained, naming the famous animal rights organization. “There’s no way she would send you a dead squirrel. She’s the most peaceful person you’ll ever meet.”
    Eloise was looking more and more annoyed. “The stationery in my locker does belong to Ms. Meyerhoff,” she added, “so score one for Nancy Drew, I guess. But I didn’t steal it as part of some nefarious plot to scare your cousin. I work as her teacher’s assistant third period, and I write letters for her sometimes. That’s all.”
    Ahhhh. I glanced at Bess and George. Score one for Nancy Drew  . . . so why did I feel like this whole experience had been a spectacular failure? I’d upset some perfectly nice-seeming kids. And most infuriating, I was no closer to figuring out who actually was harassing Carrie.
    Suddenly a bright light turned on outside the house we were standing in front of, blinding all of us. A loud male voice boomed out from behind the light. “Who’s out there? Are those eggs? Eloise Stromberg, is that you again?”
    “Oh no,” Eloise muttered, looking around at the dozens of eggs Barney and Jake were holding. “I can’t get caught again. Scatter, guys!”
    I didn’t know what to do for a moment, but thenloud footsteps came pounding down the walkway from the house, and Eloise and her friends suddenly took off running in all different directions. Jake and Barney tossed the eggs on the ground, and Jake bolted down a winding driveway across the street. I looked helplessly at my friends.
    “Don’t just stand