“Do you want me to go check it out?” Claire asked.
“No!” Mrs. Beesley shook her head. “Whatever is up there, it’s too much for the two of us to handle by ourselves. I think I should call someone.” She strode down the hall.
Claire followed. “Who?” she asked as Mrs. Beesley picked up her phone. “Who are you going to call?”
“I-I don’t know,” Mrs. Beesley said. She put the phone down and sank into her chair. “Who would believe that I’ve got a ghost in my attic? None of my neighbors believe me. They all think I’m crazy.”
Claire touched Mrs. Beesley’s arm. “I believe you,” she said.
“You do?” Kaz gaped at Claire. “You really think there’s a ghost in Mrs. Beesley’s attic?” Kaz wasn’t so sure.
“Please, let me go up and look around one more time,” Claire begged. “If there’s really a ghost in your attic, I can talk to him and see what he wants.”
“I don’t know.” Mrs. Beesley scratched her head. “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
“I really don’t think he wants to hurt anyone,” Claire said. “Most ghosts don’t.”
“Well . . . ,” Mrs. Beesley said. “I don’t think I want to go back up there. But if you really want to look around one more time, you have my permission. Let’s make sure the attic door is propped open this time, though. Okay?”
“Okay,” Claire said.
She and Mrs. Beesley headed back down the hall. Claire opened the attic door, and Mrs. Beesley set a box in front of the door to hold it open.
Kaz drifted behind Claire as she marched up the attic stairs. When they reached the top, they stopped and listened.
All they heard was a gentle breeze through the leaves outside the open window.
Claire closed the window. They listened some more.
The attic was quiet.
“I don’t think there are any ghosts up here,” Kaz said, breaking the silence.
“I don’t, either,” Claire admitted. “But we’re detectives, remember?”
“What does that mean?” Kaz asked. When Claire said they should start a detective agency to find his family, Kaz thought that meant they would simply go over to someone’s house and look for ghosts. He didn’t know how to be a real detective like Claire’s parents.
Did Claire?
Claire sat down on an old trunk. “All I know is that Mrs. Beesley hired us to do a job,” she said. “Ghost or not, she hired us to find whatever is haunting her attic. So that’s what I think we should do.”
“Okay,” Kaz said. “How do we do that?”
“Maybe we should start by making a list of all the clues we’ve found so far,” Claire said. She reached into her detective bag and pulled out her notebook and green pen. “Let’s make a list of everything Mrs. Beesley said. Everything that makes her think there’s a ghost in her house.”
“She heard crying, scratching, and a reH-reH-REE sound,” Kaz said. “But that doesn’t sound like any ghost I know.”
“We should write it down, anyway,” Claire said.
“She also said she heard marbles rolling on the floor,” Kaz went on. “But I don’t see any marbles. Plus she gave her kids’ toys away a long time ago.”
Claire nodded as she wrote. “The noises usually stop when Mrs. Beesley comes up to the attic,” she said. “But they didn’t stop when she was up here by herself a little while ago. They got louder. Like someone was trying to scare her away.”
“She’s never seen a ghost in her house,” Kaz said. “Is that a clue? Because she would only see a ghost if the ghost was glowing, you know.”
“I know,” Claire said, writing it down. “It could be a clue. The fact that we haven’t seen any ghosts here is a clue, too. Because we can see them, even when they’re not glowing. The only ghost we’ve seen around here is your dog, Cosmo. But we never saw him inside the house.”
Kaz’s heart ached at the mention of his dog.
“He could’ve been inside when we weren’t looking,” Kaz said. “He’s strong for a ghost dog. He could’ve closed the attic door. He could’ve knocked the lamp off that dresser. He could’ve rolled things around the attic and made all kinds of noises.”
Claire wrote all that down.
“But he wouldn’t have made any footsteps,” Kaz said. “We heard footsteps.”
Claire nodded. “Anything else? We should write down everything. Because even if we don’t think it’s a clue, it could still be important.”
Kaz thought some more. “Mrs. Beesley said she sometimes feels a chill in the air.”
“Right,” Claire said. “And you saw Eli running across the yard right after the attic door slammed shut.”
“But Mrs. Beesley heard ‘ghost noises’ while you were talking to Eli, so he couldn’t have been the one making those noises,” Kaz said.
“So, does Mrs. Beesley have a ghost or not?” Claire asked, tapping her pen against her chin.
“Maybe she’s just a crazy person, like her neighbors and your mom and dad said,” Kaz suggested.
“Because she says she has a ghost in her house?” Claire asked. “People think I’m weird if I let them know I see ghosts. Do you think I’m weird, Kaz?”
“No,” said Kaz right away. He felt bad for even suggesting that Mrs. Beesley might be crazy.
“Let’s see if the answer is in the clues,” Claire said, turning back to her notebook.
Kaz hovered over Claire’s shoulder and watched her write YES next to each clue that sounded ghostlike, NO next to clues that did not sound ghostlike, and MAYBE next to clues that could go either way. When she finished she circled one MAYBE.
Kaz sighed. “We aren’t any closer to solving this case now than we were before we made that list.”
“ReH-reH-REE!”
Kaz and Claire turned to each other. “What was that?” Kaz asked.
“ReH-reH-REE! ReH-reH-REE!”
The noise was coming from under a bed in the corner of the attic.
“Is that the noise Mrs. Beesley heard?” Claire asked, wrinkling her nose. “You’re right. That doesn’t sound like a ghost at all.”
“Actually, Little John sort of sounds like that when he laughs,” Kaz said. Could Little John be hiding up there somewhere? Could he be Mrs. Beesley’s ghost?
Kaz dived down and swam under the bed. It was dark under there, but Kaz could still see pretty well.
“Is there anything under there?” Claire asked.
Clumps of dust. Acorns. A pencil. But no ghosts.
“ReH-reH-REE!”
Kaz spun around. “Little John?”
“ReH-reH-REE!”
The noise wasn’t just coming from under this bed. It was coming from a hole in a floorboard . . . under the bed.
Kaz stared into the hole, but it was too dark to see anything. So he shrunk down as small as he could and dived into the hole.
He counted one . . . two . . . three . . . four . . . five HUGE pairs of eyes staring at him.
“Aaaaaaahhhhhh!” he screamed as he shot out of the hole and up from under the bed.
“What?” Claire leaped out of Kaz’s way as he expanded to his normal size. “What’s the matter? Did you find Mrs. Beesley’s ghost?”
“Yes,” Kaz said, his heart pounding like crazy. “But they’re not ghosts. They’re solids!”
“They’re?” Claire said. “You mean there’s more than one?”
Kaz nodded.
“What are they?”
“I don’t know,” Kaz said. “All I know is they’re small . . . and furry . . . and they have really big, scary eyes. There are a whole bunch of them under that bed!”
Claire knelt down and peered under the bed.
“No, no,” Kaz said. He knew Claire would never see them like that. “You have to crawl under there
to see them. You might even have to move the bed. They’re in a hole in the floor.”
Claire stood up, grabbed hold of the edge of the bed, and pulled. Kaz backed away.
“There,” he said, pointing at the hole. “They’re in there.”
Claire opened her bag and took out a flashlight. She shone its light in the hole. “I don’t see them,” she said. She dropped to her knees and looked closer.
“Oh,” she said, rocking back onto her heels. “Now I see.”
Claire smiled at Kaz. “So . . . the chill in the air that Mrs. Beesley felt and the slammed door were probably caused by the wind from the open window. And Eli really did come over to get his ball like he said. But the ‘marbles,’ the crying, the reH-reH-REE sound, the rustling, the thumping, the scratching, the footsteps, the broken lamp—all of that was caused by our ‘ghosts’ that aren’t really ghosts.”
Kaz was impressed. Claire sounded like a real detective.
Claire swept the beam of her flashlight across the lamp cord . . . a pile of strange black pellets . . . and some acorns, then moved the flashlight back to the black pellets.
“In fact,” Claire said, walking over to the pellets. “I think we missed some clues. I bet our ‘ghosts’ left these behind.”
“How did the ‘ghosts’ even get in here?” Kaz asked. “Did they come in through the window?”
“I don’t think so,” Claire said as she walked along the far wall of the attic. “Mrs. Beesley said she just opened that window this morning. I think these guys have been here for a while. They must’ve come in a different way.”
Claire scanned the floor, the ceiling, and the wall in between.
“Aha!” she said, raising her eyes to the vent above the window. “Look up there.” She pointed.
Kaz swam up and took a closer look at the vent. He remembered feeling a draft when he swam by there yesterday. Now he knew why: Some of the slats on the vent were bent and broken.
Claire went to the attic stairs. “Mrs. Beesley?” she called down. “I found your ghosts.”
“Ghosts?” Mrs. Beesley appeared at the foot of the stairs. “You mean there’s more than one?”
“Yes. It’s a mom and four babies,” Claire said. “But they’re not really ghosts.”
Mrs. Beesley looked worried. “What are they, then?” she asked.
Claire smiled. “Come on up and see for yourself.”
Claire led Mrs. Beesley over to the floorboard with the hole and turned on the flashlight.
Mrs. Beesley squinted. “Squirrels?” she said. “Those are my ghosts?”
Claire nodded. “I think the mother came in over there. See?” She pointed to the attic vent. “Then she found this hole and made a nest in it for her babies.”
“ReH-reH-REE!”
Mrs. Beesley tipped her head toward the noise. “That’s the sound I heard earlier. That, and the crying, and the marbles rolling.”
“I think the babies make a crying sound when the mother is away,” Claire told Mrs. Beesley. “And the marble sound was probably rolling acorns.”
“Imagine that,” Mrs. Beesley said, shaking her head. “I can’t thank you enough for solving this mystery for me.”
So the case was closed. But Cosmo was still lost.
“Let’s go downstairs. I’ll get my purse so I can pay you,” Mrs. Beesley said.
Claire grinned at Kaz as she tramped down the stairs after Mrs. Beesley. “We’re going to get paid!” she mouthed. “Isn’t that great?”
Kaz didn’t care about getting paid. Ghosts had no use for money. He wanted to find his dog. That was the whole reason he came back to Mrs. Beesley’s house today. To find Cosmo.
But he had to face facts: Cosmo was gone. Probably for good.
“Thank you for believing me when I said I had a ghost in my attic,” Mrs. Beesley said as she placed several bills in Claire’s hand.
“I know what it feels like when people don’t believe you,” Claire said. “Thank you for the money.”
She opened her bottle, and Kaz swam inside. It was time to go back to the library.
“Cosmo could still be hiding somewhere in here,” Claire said to Kaz as she opened the front door and stepped inside the library entryway.
“I doubt it,” Kaz grumbled.
“Claire? Is that you?” Grandma Karen called from the craft room.
“Yes,” Claire said. She opened the bottle, and Kaz swam out.
“Would you come in here, please? I’d like to talk to you,” Grandma Karen said.
Claire headed for the craft room. Kaz drifted behind.
“Woof! Woof!”
Kaz could hardly believe his eyes. Grandma Karen was reading at the table. And there, at her feet, was his dog.
“Cosmo!” he cried. “Where have you been, boy?”
Cosmo swam up and licked Kaz’s face.
Had Cosmo been there at the library all along? Where?
Grandma Karen looked up from her book. “I think I know why Thor was behaving so strangely yesterday,” she said to Claire in a funny voice.
“Oh?” Claire said. Kaz could tell she was trying to “act normal,” like she didn’t see Kaz or Cosmo.
“Tell me, Claire,” Grandma Karen said. “Do you see a ghost dog anywhere in this room?”
“WHAT?” Claire’s voice went high.
Grandma Karen smiled. She dropped her hand over the arm of the chair and made a kissing sound. “Here, doggie, doggie!”
Cosmo started to GLOW.
“Oh no,” Kaz said, slapping his hand to his forehead.
Tail wagging, Cosmo broke away from Kaz and scampered over to Grandma Karen.
“Now do you see him?” Grandma Karen asked as she scratched Cosmo’s ears. Her hand passed through his head, but he didn’t seem to mind.
Claire looked around nervously. “Grandma,” she hissed. “Everyone can see him now.”
“Relax, dear,” Grandma Karen said. “There’s no one here but us.”
Well . . . and me, thought Kaz.
Grandma Karen stopped scratching Cosmo’s ears, and he stopped glowing. “You can still see this little dog, can’t you?” Grandma Karen said to Claire.
Claire bit her lip and nodded. “How did you know?”
“Well, the fact that you talk to yourself so often was a clue. And I just got off the phone with Victoria Beesley. She called to tell me what a help you were in finding her ‘ghost.’”
Kaz and Claire exchanged a look. They hadn’t expected their customers to call Claire’s grandma. Or worse: her parents.
“Also,” Grandma Karen said, leaning toward Claire. “Can I let you in on a little secret?”
“Sure,” Claire said.
“When I was your age, I could see ghosts.”
“What? Really?” Claire stared wide-eyed.
Grandma Karen nodded.
Claire tilted her head. “You mean you could see them when you were a kid, but you can’t anymore?”
“Not unless they’re glowing.”
“You know about glowing?” Claire asked. Her eyes grew even wider.
“Yes.” Grandma Karen smiled.
Claire pulled out a chair and sat down next to her grandma. “Tell me about the ghosts you saw when you were a kid.”
“Well, it started when I was nine, like you. One day I couldn’t see them; the next day I could. There were two of them at my school. And there was one at my friend JoAnn’s house. I don’t even remember all the ghosts I knew as a child. Most of them were very kind.”
Of course they were, Kaz thought.
“They kept me from feeling lonely,” Grandma Karen went on. “But then something happened when I got older, and I couldn’t see them anymore.”
“What happened?” Claire asked.
“I don’t know.�
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Claire bit her lip. “So it could happen to me, too. I might not always be able to see ghosts.”
“Well, I can’t say for sure. But probably,” Grandma Karen said gently.
Kaz felt a little stab in his heart. Claire was his friend. He’d never had a friend before. But there could come a day when she wouldn’t be able to see him. Not unless he learned to glow!
“I miss the ghosts,” Grandma Karen said with a wistful smile. “That’s why I like to pretend the library is haunted. I like to think there could still be ghosts floating around, keeping an eye on things. But then this morning, I heard Thor meowing really loudly. I came to see what all the trouble was, and I found him sitting in the doorway over there like he was afraid to come in. Then I saw this ghost dog come scampering through that wall.” She pointed at the wall of books in the back of the room.
“Through that wall right there?” Kaz asked, confused.
Beckett poked his face through the wall of books. “Yeah, yeah. I took pity on the poor animal and invited him to join me back here,” Beckett said. “He keeps that cat away.”
“Woof! Woof!” Cosmo barked, then darted through the wall. Beckett disappeared then, too.
Kaz grinned. He wouldn’t have guessed Beckett was an animal lover.
“I only saw the dog for a little bit,” Grandma Karen continued, “because he stopped glowing. But I knew he was still here. I could tell by the way Thor was carrying on.”
“I have news for you, Grandma,” Claire said. “There isn’t just a ghost dog in this library. There are ghost people here, too.”
“There are?” Grandma Karen leaned forward in her chair.
“Yes. There’s a ghost man named Beckett. He’s kind of boring. There’s also a ghost boy named Kaz. He’s my friend. He just got here a few weeks ago. And his dog, Cosmo, just got here yesterday.”
“Beckett . . . Kaz . . . and Cosmo,” Grandma Karen said like she was trying to remember all their names.
Claire told her grandma about Kaz’s old haunt getting torn down and his family all blowing away. Then she told about how she and Kaz had found Cosmo, lost him, and now found him again.
The Ghost in the Attic Page 4