Stacey and the Mystery Money Read online

  “You’ve been to one?” I asked.

  “Sure,” he said. “When we lived in New York for a while. I used to go there a lot.”

  “You lived in New York?” I asked. “Me, too.” We found a booth and sat down, and Terry and I talked about New York. Mary Anne asked if Terry had ever been to the top of the Empire State Building. She loves doing touristy things in New York.

  The waitress brought us menus, and we ordered. Mary Anne and Logan just asked for Cokes, but Terry ordered a cheeseburger and fries. I ordered the Rosebud Special, which is a turkey sandwich with their secret dressing.

  “So, Terry,” asked Logan, “do you play any sports?”

  “I like to watch baseball,” said Terry, “but I’ve never played on a team.”

  “Who do you think will be in the Series?” asked Logan. “I’m rooting for the Yankees.”

  “I hope the Rangers make it,” said Terry. “They’ve been my favorite team ever since we lived in Texas.”

  “Boy, you’ve moved a lot,” I said, blurting it out without thinking.

  Terry blushed. “Not so much,” he said.

  I thought for a minute. Portland, Oregon. New York. Texas. And now Stoneybrook. And hadn’t Kristy said that Georgie mentioned living in Iowa? That made at least five places, which seemed like a lot to me. But I didn’t say anything, since Terry didn’t seem to want to talk about it.

  Mary Anne leaned over and touched my arm. “You wouldn’t believe what Tigger did today,” she said. “He was so cute. He found this hair tie of Dawn’s, and he was chasing it all over the house.” She turned to Terry. “Do you have any pets?” she asked.

  “No, we can’t,” he answered. “I mean — my brother is allergic,” he added quickly.

  Terry looked uncomfortable again, so I changed the subject. “How do you like SMS?” I asked.

  “Well, it’s pretty different from my old school. The last one was just a tiny, country school with about fifty kids in each grade,” he said.

  Hmmm. I always thought Portland, Oregon, was a pretty good-sized city. Had Terry lived one other place that he hadn’t mentioned yet? I decided to change the subject again, since I didn’t want him to think I was giving him the third degree.

  “Did you guys hear that man at the movies?” I asked. “The one who was laughing so much?”

  Terry did a great imitation of that honking laugh, and we all cracked up. In the midst of our giggles, our food arrived. Terry offered his french fries around, and Logan took a few. Mary Anne sipped on her soda, and I dug into my sandwich.

  I glanced at Terry as we ate. He was so cute. Funny, too. And generous, the way he shared his food. I liked how polite he was, and he seemed really smart. Everything about him was attractive. Still, something was just a little “off” about him. But I shrugged at my doubts. He was a great guy, and I was having a terrific time on our first date. I wasn’t in love with him or anything, but he sure was nice.

  My thoughts were interrupted when I felt a sharp pain in my ankle. I looked up, surprised, and found Mary Anne giving me a strange look. Had she kicked me under the table? I looked back at her, and she brushed at her chin. Then she gave me another significant look. For a second I was confused, but then I understood. I wiped my own chin and discovered a smear of that secret dressing on it. Oh, my lord! I’d been sitting there with goop all over my face. I glanced at Terry, but he was deep in conversation with Logan. He hadn’t noticed. I sighed with relief and gave Mary Anne a grateful look. She smiled back.

  Then she turned to Logan. “Don’t you think we should be going?” she asked.

  Logan hesitated, but Mary Anne pulled on his sleeve and smiled at him. I knew she wanted to leave so Terry and I could have some time alone. Mary Anne is so sensitive that way.

  They finished their sodas and left, and for a minute Terry and I just sat there feeling shy. First dates are hard, aren’t they? Sometimes you just can’t think of a thing to talk about.

  “So, where did you live in New York?” I asked finally. Unfortunately, Terry had started to speak at exactly the same time.

  “How long have you known Mary Anne?” he asked.

  We laughed. “You go first,” I said. He talked for awhile about the Greenwich Village neighborhood where he had lived. Then I told him about my friendship with Mary Anne and the other members of the BSC. Soon we had forgotten about being shy. The conversation felt easy and comfortable, and I found myself liking Terry more than ever.

  Then, just as Terry was telling me about something funny that Georgie had done, I looked up and the smile froze on my face. The door of the café had opened, and Sam was walking in. He wasn’t alone.

  “What’s the matter?” asked Terry.

  “Nothing,” I said. “Go on.”

  He continued his story, but I could hardly pay attention. Sam was standing at a booth near ours, talking to a bunch of high-school guys. And next to him, hanging on his arm and smiling up at him, was a pretty red-haired girl. I recognized her from the production of Peter Pan that we had been involved in, and I knew she was in high school.

  I tried not to feel jealous. After all, Sam and I had agreed to date other people. And anyway, I was at the café with Terry. But seeing Sam with someone else gave me a strange feeling. I watched them talk, forgetting to listen to Terry. Then, suddenly, Sam turned and saw me. “Oh, no,” I said, under my breath. Quickly, I wiped my chin again — just in case.

  Sam and his date walked over to our booth. “Hi, Stacey,” he said. “This is Kathy.”

  “Hi,” I said, trying to sound normal. “This is Terry.” The situation was right up there with My Most Uncomfortable Moments. The four of us tried to make a little small talk, and then Sam and Kathy headed for the booth in back of ours and sat down.

  I noticed that Terry had finished his cheeseburger. I looked down and saw that half of my sandwich was still left, but I had lost my appetite. “Want to get going?” I asked. “We can walk around a little until it’s time to meet your mom.”

  “Sure,” said Terry. I think he understood that I felt awkward. We paid the check and left as quickly as possible. “Old boyfriend, huh?” asked Terry, when we were standing outside.

  I nodded. “It’s no big deal,” I said. I put my arm through his and we walked around the block. Being close to Terry made me forget about Sam or any other boy. It had been a wonderful date, and Terry James — John? — Hoyt was definitely major crush material.

  “So then,” I said, “I reach up to touch my chin and find out that I have this gross pink glop all over my face!” It was Monday afternoon, and I was at Claudia’s for a BSC meeting. I was sitting on her bed, with Claud and Mary Anne on either side of me. We had gotten a few calls, I had already collected dues, and we had taken care of club business, so I was giving everybody a blow-by-blow description of my date with Terry. By that time, my crush was common knowledge, so I thought I might as well tell all the details.

  “Nobody noticed but me,” said Mary Anne, meaning the secret dressing on my chin.

  “I sure hope not,” I said. Just thinking about it made me blush. “Anyway, it was really a nice date. Except for Sam.”

  “Sam?” asked Kristy. “I haven’t heard about that part yet. What happened?”

  “Well, maybe you know that he’s dating that girl Kathy,” I said.

  Kristy shook her head. “Sam never tells me anything.”

  “Take it from me, then,” I said. “He’s dating that high-school girl who was in Peter Pan —”

  “Kathy?” asked Dawn. “The redhead? She’s gorgeous.”

  “I know,” I said. I told my friends how they had come over to our table and how awkward I had felt. “It was like, ‘Hi, old boyfriend, meet new boyfriend,’ ” I said. “Yuck.”

  “Are you going to go out with Terry again?” asked Shannon.

  “I’d like to,” I said. “He really is a nice guy. He even called me on Saturday just to say what a good time he’d had the night before. Not too many guys bothe
r to do things like that.”

  “I thought he was so shy,” said Dawn.

  “Well, he is and he isn’t,” I replied. “He just doesn’t seem to want to talk about himself too much. Like, he didn’t really answer me when I asked what his father did. I only asked because the Hoyts seem to move so much.” I paused. “But he is friendly,” I went on. “He even —”

  “What?” asked Dawn, leaning forward. “Did he kiss you?”

  I looked at Claud. Of course, I had already told her about it. “He did. When his mom drove me home, he walked me up to the door and kissed me good night. It was just a little kiss, but it was nice.”

  “Woo, woo,” said Kristy. “Wait’ll Sam hears about that!”

  “You wouldn’t!” I cried.

  “No, I wouldn’t,” she admitted. “But I bet it would drive him crazy. Yesterday he was asking me who that ‘new kid in your school’ is. And now I know why. He’s jealous.”

  Somehow, that made me feel better. I mean, Sam Thomas is not the love of my life or anything, and I think our new arrangement is just fine. But I still feel a little jealous when I see him with another girl, and I was sort of glad to know he felt the same way.

  The phone rang then, and Kristy dove for it. “Baby-sitters Club,” she said. “We care about kids!” She listened for a moment. “Sure,” she said. “We’ll call you right back, Dr. Johanssen.” She hung up and turned to Mary Anne. “Who’s free on Wednesday afternoon?”

  Mary Anne checked the record book. “Dawn and Claudia,” she said.

  “Wednesday?” repeated Dawn. “You know, I was planning to take this cooking course at the natural food store that afternoon. It’s about new ways to cook tofu.”

  Mary Anne grimaced. “Sounds wonderful,” she said. “So, Claudia, how about you?”

  “Fine,” said Claudia. “I already know all the ways I like tofu. On somebody else’s plate, for example.”

  Dawn threw a pillow at her.

  Kristy picked up the phone and called Dr. Johanssen back to tell her that Claudia would be Charlotte’s sitter. When she hung up, she turned to face us and she looked serious. “Okay,” she said. “Now that we’ve heard about Stacey’s date, let’s move on to the important stuff. How are we going to catch those counterfeiters?”

  Ugh. I wished those dumb counterfeiters had never come to town. But the truth is, all weekend — well, except maybe for that one second during Terry’s kiss — I had thought about how we could nab them. I mean, my reputation was at stake. What if Terry found out he was dating a felon? Not that I had actually been arrested or anything, but still…. And what about the reputation of the BSC? If Mrs. Hemphill really got talking, we might lose business. Come to think of it, we hadn’t received very many calls that afternoon.

  “Well, we’ve done a lot of research,” I said. “I have all these articles,” I pulled a pile of papers out of my backpack, “and some other notes and stuff.” I passed the papers around, and everyone started leafing through them.

  “Charlotte sure is interested in the mystery,” Jessi said. “You should have seen her spying on people all over town.” She told us about Charlotte’s detective work.

  “So most likely they’re using some kind of fancy copy machine,” said Shannon, after skimming one of the articles.

  “Definitely,” I said. “I mean, there’s no point in doing it the old-fashioned way anymore. The copy machines make it easy.”

  “But they make it easy to get caught, too,” said Mallory. “The new counterfeit bills aren’t as real-looking as the old engraved fake bills. I mean, look how quickly Betty figured out that Stacey’s bill wasn’t the real thing.”

  “Don’t remind me,” I groaned.

  “Sorry,” said Mal. “All I’m saying is that we shouldn’t have any trouble tracking these guys down. All we have to do is stake out copiers. We don’t even have to bother watching the Cadillac dealership or jewelry stores or anything like that.”

  “I’m glad you’re so confident,” I said. “In the meantime, I’ll be checking every bill before I spend it. I never want to be in that situation again.”

  Kristy had been quiet for a few minutes. Suddenly, she spoke up. “Oh, my lord!” she said.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Is something wrong?” asked Mary Anne, concerned.

  “It sure is,” said Kristy. “I just figured something out. I think I may know who the counterfeiters are.”

  “You’re kidding!” I exclaimed. “Tell us! Who?”

  Kristy paused. “You’re not going to like this,” she said, looking at me.

  “What do you mean?” I asked. “Of course I’ll like it, if you really cracked the case.”

  “I think it may be the Hoyts.”

  “Oh, come on,” I said, laughing a little. “I thought you were serious.”

  “I am,” said Kristy.

  There was silence for a moment, and then everyone started talking at once. Everyone but me, that is. I was just sitting there picturing Terry’s sweet smile and beautiful eyes. Somebody that cute couldn’t be a criminal. I was sure of it.

  “I don’t understand,” Shannon was saying. “Why do you think it’s the Hoyts?”

  “A lot of reasons,” said Kristy. “Everything just fell into place all of a sudden.” She held up a hand and started to tick off her fingers, one for each point she made. “First of all, they move around all the time. Second, they haven’t even unpacked at their house here, which probably means they’re ready to move again at a moment’s notice. Third, Georgie won’t let me open a hall closet in that house. What could be in there that could be so bad for me to see?” She paused for a second and glanced at me.

  I must have looked as if I were in shock. I felt Mary Anne put her arm around me.

  “Fourth,” Kristy continued, “Terry won’t say what his father does and can’t even remember all the places he’s lived. And fifth,” she held up her hand with all five fingers spread, “I found that fake ID of Tasha’s. Her picture, with a different name. What else can all of this mean?”

  “I — I’m sure there’s some explanation for everything,” I said.

  Nobody jumped in to agree with me. Instead, they all just sat there thinking.

  “The Hoyts moved here, what, a few weeks ago?” said Dawn finally. “Isn’t that about when the counterfeiting started?”

  “Dawn!” I cried. “I can’t believe you said that. So what if they moved here recently? That’s circ — circumfer — circumstantial evidence!” I finally spit out the word, which was one I had heard on that TV show with the judge. Circumstantial evidence is evidence that doesn’t necessarily prove anything but that might change a judge’s — or a jury’s — mind. Sometimes it’s not even allowed in court.

  “Okay, what about the fact that they haven’t unpacked much?” asked Claudia.

  I turned to her. My best friend, a traitor. “Maybe they’re just very busy,” I said coolly.

  “What about that closet that Georgie wouldn’t let Kristy into?” asked Mal. Everybody was against me. I knew they didn’t mean to appear that way, but I also knew I had to stick up for Terry. He and his family just couldn’t be counterfeiters.

  “The Hoyts deserve their privacy, the same as any other family,” I said. “Who knows? Maybe the closet was just a big mess and Georgie was embarrassed for anyone to see it.”

  “That’s true,” said Mary Anne thoughtfully. “I wouldn’t want certain people to see some of the closets in our house.”

  I gave her a grateful look. At least one person in the club didn’t automatically assume that the Hoyts were guilty.

  “Then again,” said Mary Anne, “I did wonder about Terry the other night. He seemed kind of secretive, if you know what I mean.”

  Oh, great. Even Mary Anne was ready to arrest Terry’s family. “You guys,” I said. “All of this is totally circumstantial. You haven’t said a thing yet that even makes me suspicious.” Okay, maybe I was overstating the case. But I did feel that they we
re jumping the gun.

  “All right,” said Kristy. “What about that fake ID?”

  “Uh,” I said, stalling for time. I couldn’t think of an answer for that one. “Maybe it wasn’t even Tasha’s,” I said finally. “Maybe it belonged to a cousin or something. A girl that looks just like her.”

  “Yeah, maybe,” said Kristy doubtfully.

  “Anyway,” I said, “I just don’t think it’s them. They’re a really nice family.” I didn’t mention my previous thought: that Terry was too cute to be a criminal. Somehow I didn’t think that would go over too well.

  “They seem nice,” said Kristy darkly. “But that might be their cover. They move to a town, infiltrate the neighborhood, even let their kids make friends with the locals,” here she shot me a significant glance, “and then they start making money. When the situation gets too hot and the police start to sniff them out, they just up and move to the next town.”

  I was stunned. Did Kristy really think Terry had asked me out because his counterfeiter-father had told him to? “No way!” I cried. Then I calmed down a little. “Look, I just don’t think it’s a good idea to concentrate on the Hoyts. For one thing, I’m positive they’re innocent. And for another thing, there are a lot of other suspicious people we should be watching out for and checking up on.”

  “That’s true,” said Kristy. “I mean, if we spend all our time on one set of suspects, another suspect may be getting away with making fake money right under our noses. We’re not positive it’s the Hoyts, so we should keep an eye on all our suspects.”

  “Who are our suspects?” asked Mallory.

  “The man wearing a hat indoors, for one,” I said. “He really looked strange to me. I haven’t been able to forget about him.”

  “Isn’t there anyone a little easier to find?” asked Jessi.

  “Well, there’s Mr. Fiske,” I said slowly. “He was at the store that day, and he was also spotted pricing fancy copiers.” I started to talk faster. “Plus, he has access to that copier in the basement at school! I bet he’s up to something. He’s always seemed a little odd to me.”