Nancy Jew and the Case of the Queen’s Missing Diamonds

One day, Nancy was out canoeing with her friend Micah Blachman, visiting from Westchester County. Just then a heavy tide blew the boat back and forth. Nancy got tossed into the river along with Micah. “We will have to swim to shore, I guess, but our canoe is definitely done for.” Micah said. Nancy agreed, and swimming with all of their might, they were able to get to the coastline within half an hour. Nancy and Micah caught the bus, and headed for River Heights. Just as they were about to change from their sopping wet clothes, the phone rang. Micah ran to pick it up. “A flight reservation has been made for a Miss Nancy Jew, and a Mr Micah Blachman in River Heights.” the voice stated. “The Queen, Her Majesty, would like to see you.” Micah gaped in astonishment. “OK, we will be there,” Micah said. Micah briefly told Nancy what the phone call said. Nancy, too, was astonished about the Queen of England potentially wanting her for a case to solve with Micah. Swiftly, Nancy called Carson Jew, her father, and Jeremy Blachman, Micah’s father, who both always assisted them in cases. They boarded the plane to England the following day, and made their way to Buckingham Palace through the bustling streets of London. They told the guards who they were, why they had come, and their identification. They led her to the Queen, who told them the full story. “I have diamonds, of many colors and sizes, that I treasure. I have heard all about you, and trust you to keep my case a secret. Last week, while I was asleep, my safe was robbed, and the diamonds were stolen. My private detectives that I hired could not find them, and I thought you could help me.” “We will certainly try, Your Majesty, The Queen,” they chorused. Micah took out his magnetic powder and magnifying glass, but as hard as he tried, he could not find a single fingerprint. “Here,” he said to Nancy, “why don’t you have a try?” Nancy looked and saw a clue that Micah had overlooked. There was a man’s name slightly etched on to the safe. Rod Astineel, it read. Their next stop was the police. The police said that Rod was not a person, but his name was a pseudonym used by a known thief named Alma Polty.

Micah knew he needed to find Alma Polty if he was going to be able to find the diamonds. The first thing he did was tell the queen they were helping her by trying to find their new lead, Alma Polty. The queen gasped when she heard Alma’s name. “Alma Polty? Alma Polty was the name of my family’s private chef when I was growing up! She was like a second mother to me, and she made such wonderful pfeffernüsse cookies! I can still taste them in my mind!” The queen explained that Alma left the palace suddenly when the queen was just a girl, and hadn’t been seen since. “This is starting to piece together finally!” Nancy said. “If she hadn’t been seen since, she was obviously a criminal.”

“I don’t believe that kind Alma could ever be a criminal,” the queen said, but I will tell you that thinking of her makes me hungry for some pfeffernüsse cookies. She rang the bell, and immediately her servants arrived. She then asked them to scour the city for the best cookies and bring them to her on the palace’s fanciest gold-plated plates. Two hours later, after Micah, Nancy, Carson, and Jeremy had a chance to take a quick nap, the servants returned with five different varieties of pfeffernüsse cookies for them to all taste. They sat down with giant glasses of milk and enjoyed their decadent mid-afternoon snack. Suddenly, the queen shrieked. Alarmed, Nancy worried she was choking and ran to her side. But she wasn’t choking. “These cookies — plate number three — I would recognize them anywhere. These are Alma’s pfeffernüsse!” On a sudden instinct, Micah rang for the servants. He asked where plate number three had been bought from, and if they knew what the name of the salesclerk was, and any other details that they learned about the shop of plate number three of pfeffernüsse. The servants came back and reported that they had been from the Anderson Bakery on Oxford Street. “Oxford Street!” Nancy exclaimed, “I have heard of that! I solved a mystery with Micah about a mysterious, phantom figure on Oxford Street!” Quickly, the queen, Nancy, Micah, Mr. Blachman and Mr. Jew finished the pfeffernüsse and the quartet went to Anderson Bakery while the queen got ready for a party that night. The queen moaned, “How can I ever do my party without my diamonds!” Although sympathetic, the group ignored the queen’s comments and proceeded on their trip to Anderson Bakery.

When they arrived, they learned that Mr. Anderson was out, but they asked to see the salesgirl who had sold the servants the pfeffernüsse cookies. “Where did they come from?” asked Micah. “Sandamun Bakery on 55th Street.” the salesgirl answered. Nancy and Micah decided to go to Sandamun Bakery while Mr. Blachman and Mr. Jew went to a nearby bookstore to get some reading material for their stay in London. Nancy and Micah started to walk to the bakery, but soon after they had started a man in a car said, “Are you going to Sandamun Bakery? I will drive you there.” Nancy and Micah readily accepted the invitation, but when the ‘bakery’ came near, Nancy commented, “This does not look like a bakery to me.” When they reached the bakery, there was no one there, but Nancy and Micah decided to look around the building. Just then, they realised that they were locked in! Nancy and Micah split up on each part of the bakery and tried to look for a window but with no luck. They waited for someone to come by, and continuously screamed for help. Nancy and Micah went around the ‘bakery’ to hunt for clues. They found a fragment of The New York Times saying that a company in Colorado, Lincolntop Boats was smuggling boats around the USA. Nancy and Micah puzzled over the piece of the New York Times in London. “At least we have found one of the gang’s secrets — smuggling boats!” Nancy said. Meanwhile, at the bookstore, Mr. Jew and Mr. Blachman were becoming worried. “Micah and Nancy should have been back now.” Mr. Jew said. Mr. Jew and Mr. Blachman went to Sandamun Bakery, but Nancy and Micah were nowhere to be found. Shivering with fear, Mr. Jew and Mr. Blachman made their way back to the car. “Wouldn’t an empty building be a great place to hide a prisoner?” Mr. Blachman said. Mr. Jew agreed and proceeded to drive to the nearest empty building, and finally, they found Nancy and Micah parched and unconscious. They panicked but quickly regained courage, and found a garden hose to not only revive them, but also give them water to drink. When Micah and Nancy told them of their adventures, their expressions became grave. “I don’t like you taking such chances.” Mr. Blachman said.

Quickly, Mr. Blachman and Mr. Jew along with Micah and Nancy went back to the palace. When they arrived, everybody had a delicious dinner, sponsored by the queen and they all retired early. In the morning, Nancy and Micah decided to go to the real Sandamun Bakery. Luckily, Mr. Sandamun was there and when Nancy and Micah asked him, he answered, rather brusquely, “From Sherill Tenkelereson on 3381th Street.” “He certainly acted suspicious, but we will try to go there anyway.” Micah said. Since 3381th Street was in another part of town, they took the tube to 3381th Street. They arrived, and found Mrs. Tenkelereson was a most charming old lady, and Micah steered the conversation toward pfeffernüsse, and the lady had much to say about them. Nancy and Micah learned that she had a special recipe for them, and Nancy and Micah each asked for a copy. They left, and went back to the palace to talk to Mr. Blachman and Mr. Jew about them.

They just told them to keep trying to find clues, and even the slightest thing out of the ordinary can be a very valuable clue.

Nancy and Micah went to the park to see some lovely roses and petunias. Eventually, they got tired and went back to the palace to go to bed. The next day, they decided to try Mrs. Tenkelereson’s pfeffernüsse recipe, and it was delicious. They gave it to the queen and she, too, was awed by the goodness of the pfeffernüsse. But these cookies were not exactly the same as the ones from plate number three — somehow, they had not been able to perfectly recreate the pfeffernüsse recipe. They scoured the recipe to try to figure out what could be different. Suddenly Micah cried, “I have found it! There is a code in the ingredients. Lactose Milk, Ice, Baker’s Chocolate, Raspberries, Anise, Ravioli, Yam. Library, it spells out!” The others nodded their heads. “Yes, it makes sense that there was a code,” said Nancy. “Otherwise I wasn’t sure why there would be ravioli inside the cookies.” Nancy suggested they go to the Central Library of London in order to investigate, and see if it could get them closer to finding Alma Polty. Micah grabbed three more cookies for the trip. “I kind of like them with ravioli inside,” he said.

The four of them took the #6 bus right to the front entrance of the Central Library, and made their way inside. Immediately, something didn’t look right. “I see fiction, non-fiction, and periodicals,” said Micah, “but someone seems to have removed the sign for the mysteries.” The four of them headed up the stairs to where the mystery section should have been… and when they opened the stairwell door, instead of rows of books, they found a bare white wall. “I guess there’s nothing here,” said Mr. Jew. But before they turned back, Nancy tapped on the wall. “It’s hollow,” she said. “Just as I suspected.” Micah pulled out the travel-sized sledgehammer he kept in his pocket and hammered a hole in the wall. The entire wall instantly crumbled… to reveal Alma Polty!

“Thank goodness you found me,” said Alma, shocked to see the wall crumbled around her. Nancy and Micah were confused. “You’re glad you’ve been found?” asked Micah. “Aren’t you hiding here to avoid being caught with the Queen’s diamonds?” Alma laughed. “No, I’m not hiding at all. I’ve been imprisoned by Rod Astineel and framed for the crime. I loved the Queen and would never steal from her. In fact, Rod doesn’t realize that he dropped the diamonds when he locked me in here, and I’ve been keeping them safe for her all this time. The diamonds are right here, safely hiding in my bag of leftover pfeffernüsse crumbs.”

She pulled out the diamonds. “I never meant to disappear from the palace, but when Rod stole the diamonds, he also stole me! He locked me in the back of his truck and kept telling everyone that I was a thief. He had the police looking for me, convinced I was a criminal, but I was just an innocent baker locked in Rod’s truck. When he put me here in the library, I was relieved to finally have a bed to sleep in, but I was scared to come out because the police would arrest me for all the crimes they thought I committed. Luckily, you’ve found me now, and hopefully the Queen will allow me to come back and cook for her once again.”

The quintet went to the fake bakery on a hunch of Micah’s to see if Rod was hiding there. Nancy decided to bring some police officers with them. All of them got into a police car and soon arrived at the ‘bakery’. Rod indeed was hiding there, and quickly, the police officers put handcuffs on the man, and, after a lot of persuasion finally confessed to smuggling boats, stealing the diamonds, and committing many other crimes. The police officers took him to jail, while the quintet went back to the queen. Nancy showed her the diamonds, and Alma was rehired as the private chef. “How could I ever thank you enough!” “At the very least, I will give you one of my diamonds.” Nancy and Micah argued that they could not accept such a valuable gift, but the queen was firm, and they finally consented. The four said goodbye to the queen and Alma and boarded a plane back to Micah’s home. When they arrived, Nina Blachman, Micah’s mother, asked them how their trip was. The four of them chorused that it was amazing and they solved a mystery for the queen. She gasped, but was very happy that they had finally solved it. They showed her the diamond and she gasped again. They gave it to her, and she thanked them profusely. “I never knew you to not solve a mystery.” she said.