Super Mystery #3: Baby-sitters' Fright Night
In this Super Mystery, some of the BSC gals head to Salem, MA, which is right up my alley. I live in Maine, so I’ve been to Salem a few times (including for part of my bachelorette party) and I’ve also always been fascinated by the Salem Witch Trials. So, with all that said, I couldn’t help but be let down by this SM. It wasn’t nearly as creepy as #1 or #2 and it didn’t luxuriate in all the Salem-y details that it could have. Here’s the deal:
Claudia, Jessi, Shannon, and Logan are back in Stoneybrook holding down the BSC fort and help the charges hold a Halloween parade.
Kristy, Mary Anne, Stacey, Abby, and Mallory are in Salem on a school trip and find out that the inn they’re staying at is also where a mystery author that Mal loves named Martha Kempner is staying, along with Mrs. Moorehouse, who owns a very valuable and supposedly cursed diamond called the Witch’s Eye.
While Mary Anne and Stacey are touring the museum where the Witch’s Eye is displayed, alarms go off and police rush in and it turns out the Witch’s Eye has been stolen. Mystery is afoot, and the BSC is of course on the case.
Back at the inn, Mary Anne finds a custodian costume, a wig, and sunglasses in some bushes, which indicates that whoever stole the diamond is staying at the inn. Abby buys a little pumpkin keychain at the gift shop that doesn’t have a price tag and is the only one of its kind. She pays $2 but I have a sneaking suspicion it’s worth more…
The BSC is being spied on (presumably by the thief) and Abby keeps getting targeted by thieves — first someone steals her fanny pack during a parade and then someone breaks in and ransacks her and Stacey’s room at the inn.
Eventually, the BSC solves the mystery by realizing that Martha Kempner, who was writing an article about the Witch’s Eye, was the culprit because she wore heels every day of the trip except the day of the theft (when she wore sneakers so she could easily, well, sneak). Turns out she also had an accomplice named Harry Hapgood who got outwitted and outplayed by Abby in the climactic showdown (so maybe he’s more Harry Hapless).
Abby rules.
As tax for my half-hearted recap, here’s a photo of my friends and I at WitchPix in Salem, doing a photo shoot in costume and taking it just seriously enough:
