"Stupid Mr. Trent and his stupid puzzles," Nancy grumbled to herself. "Stealing an old carousel horse should not be this hard!"
She shook her head and tried to think of happy things, like smashing Miles the Magnificent Memory Machine into a hundred tiny pieces. Dumping a bucket of paint on Elliott's head. Taunting Ingrid with a cheeseburger.
Nancy sighed happily, as she turned the dials on the spook's chest to spell out "Spatzi". The fingers on the spook's arm quickly melded together. When she slipped the carousel ring onto the arm, a trapdoor appeared on the floor, along with a sign that read "Oh, Joy! This is it!"
Nancy shook her head. She had no idea why Mr. Trent wasted his engineering genius on stupid stuff like invisible ink and harmonica songs. But then again, Mr. Trent must have been pretty stupid, if he died in bankrupcy instead of selling his valuable carousel horse.
Nancy ducked down into the hidden passageway. Sure enough, the carousel horse was at the bottom of area, along with a letter for Joy.
"Ah, there's my precious $250,000 horse!" Nancy said. "Finally! I'll just take the horse for myself and leave the letter for Joy. She'll be so thrilled to get the letter, she won't remember the horse."
Nancy read the letter. Crap. It specifically mentioned the horse.
"Not the end of the world," Nancy said. "I'll just make a forgery." She had to come back later anyway, to move the horse when no one else was around. Walking around with the missing carousel horse in broad daylight would be asking for someone to catch her.
"Hey, Nancy? What are you doing?" a voice called.
Nancy turned around. Elliott the artist was standing there, at the top of the stairs.
"Oh, uh, just investigating Kessler's workshop!" Nancy said. "There's nothing interesting in here. No need for you to come down!"
Elliott started going down the stairs. "I just came here looking for my pliers, and whoa! Is that the stolen horse?"
"This? This is just a worthless prototype," Nancy said.
"Let me see," Elliott said. He rushed over and examined the horse. "Wait a sec, I recognize this! This is the horse that was sold and replaced years ago!"
"Like I said, it's not important," Nancy said, forcing a smile. "I'm here to find the stolen horse, not this one."
"But this one is incredibly valuable!" Elliott said. "Like I told you, they commissioned some hack to replace it. If this is the real deal, it's worth well over a hundred thousand dollars! Probably more, thanks to the haunted rumor."
"That's why I started the rumor in the first place," Nancy said.
"Huh?" Elliott asked.
Nancy ripped off the horse's leg and smashed Elliott over the head with it. He immediately fell to the ground, unconscious.
"Great, now I'll have to frame him," Nancy said. "I...he's an art guy, so I'll say he's been making forgeries. Yeah, that's why he's been so far behind in his work! Nobody will question...wait, what's that?"
Nancy was caught by surprise, when she saw valuable jewels falling out of the horse's leg.
"Well, well, a little icing on the cake!" she said, rubbing her hands gleefully.
It was ridiculously easy to convince Harlan Bishop that Elliott was the culprit. When Nancy offered to give him all the credit for the capture, he was practically squealing with happiness.
Much to Nancy's dismay, she wasn't able to sell the carousel horse that Mr. Trent hid. She was forced to hand it over to the police as "evidence" of Elliott's guilt. And by the time the dust had settled, the bids for the stolen horse were so low, there was no point in selling it anymore.
So Nancy pretended to find the stolen horse. By now, she had done this trick dozens of times. It's really easy to locate a lost item, when you're the one who stole it in the first place. Everyone was impressed with her detective skills, and she was given a lifetime pass to Captain's Cove Amusement Park, along with a fun card containing unlimited credits.
The stolen jewels weren't worth as much as Nancy had hoped. Apparently, hiding jewels inside a working carousel horse for decades did not keep them in pristine condition. Who knew? At least they would pay for a few more of Nancy's trips. She had plans to visit Washington, London and Arizona in the near future...
