Close Encounters (Nancy Drew (All New) Girl Detective Book 21) by Carolyn Keene

book?” Ellie asked, looking baffled. But I noticed her hand move away from the phone.
    “Your family recipe book—the one you and Winnieused in the café. The one you stole this afternoon.” I watched her face as I spelled it out.
    “I was here all afternoon,” she declared, looking indignant.
    “Oh, then someone borrowed your van?” I suggested.
    Ellie’s forehead furrowed into a frown. “No one borrowed my van, and what’s that got to do with Winnie’s book? If that woman can’t keep track of her things, that’s her problem. It’s sure not mine anymore,” she concluded bitterly.
    “That’s weird. I’d think you’d be just as upset as Winnie that someone had made off with your family’s recipe book. It’s the only copy, after all.” George looked right at me. “Isn’t that the impression you got, Nancy?”
    I nodded, watching Ellie struggle to come up with a response to George’s remark. I knew we’d caught her in a lie, but that wasn’t enough. Bess was missing, and we needed to get to the root of what was going on. “Ellie, stop denying it. No one’s going to press charges against you if you return the recipe book now. We’ll just bring it back to Winnie.”
    Ellie’s expression darkened. “Okay, you’re right. I did take it. This afternoon. And yes, I was in town with my van. What’s all this to you, anyway?” she fumed. “I’ve got as much right to it as Winnie. Itoriginally belonged to our grandmother. When we decided to dissolve the partnership in the restaurant, the recipe book conveniently went missing.”
    “Oh, gimme a break!” George scoffed.
    Ellie stormed out from behind the counter. “Oh, sweet Winifred Armond didn’t tell you that part, did she? It takes two people to make a business work—and to make it fall apart. Everyone thinks I’m the bad guy here, but Winnie’s no angel. The book must have turned up again, because her menu is totally based on the recipes. She continues to profit from everything we dreamed of and started together. The café was as much my passion as hers. When we split up, she was supposed to copy the recipes and share them. Has she? No!”
    I had no patience for Ellie’s rant. “That’s all history, something you should have worked out before now. Instead you’ve stolen her book. I bet you also hacked into her computer, tampered with ingredients in her kitchen . . . and who knows what else you’ve done to get back at her?”
    “How about breaking into the place last night and making it look like the work of a bear?” George suggested.
    “That’s nuts. I didn’t break in. Bears have broken into several restaurants around here . . . private homes, too. Leave it to Winnie to try to blame that on me.”
    “The point is that you admit you stole the recipes. What about the other attempts to undermine her business?”
    Ellie’s bravado suddenly collapsed. “Okay,” she said. She heaved a tired sigh, and threw the papers she was holding down on the counter. “I’m sick of this whole feud anyway. Yes, I stole the book. And yes, I want Winnie’s business to fail, so I managed to play a few dirty tricks. As for her computer . . . that wasn’t my idea.”
    “Whose, then?” George asked.
    “My son started tampering with her system before he went back to school. He’s in Boston, studying to be a programmer. He seems to be able to access her machine from there. It’s a mystery to me how.”
    Her confession encouraged me. It was time to play hardball with this woman. “If your son’s such a techie, then he probably helped you on the other front.”
    “What other front?” Ellie asked, sounding genuinely startled.
    “The UFOs,” George answered. “We’re pretty sure they’re a hoax, and since the sighting this afternoon gave you cover to steal the book—”
    “Whoa!” Ellie snapped to attention. “You think the UFOs are a hoax?”
    I nodded.
    “And you think I have something to do withit?” She suddenly didn’t look the