Angie Sage - Araminta Spookie 3

by Frognapped

  Sir Horace did not say anything for a bit and then he said, “Why?”

  “Because that is a really important part of my plan. Trust me.”

  Wanda snorted like a pig, but I ignored her as I was too busy pushing Sir Horace underneath the tent.

  The tent was empty except for Nosy Nora, who was hanging around beside the big fish tank looking worried. Outside the crowd was getting impatient to come in—the Fish Frolics Show was already twenty minutes late. You could hear babies crying, children squealing, and people grumbling to each other. I gave Sir Horace a push and said, “Just go and stand by the fish tank. Remember you are called Dad. Okay?”

  I think Sir Horace nodded but it was hard to tell. But as he floated off toward the fish tank Nosy Nora yelled, “Hey, Dad! Where have you been?”

  “Come on, Wanda,” I said. “Let’s leave him to it. We’ve got to find Aunt Tabby and Brenda and sort them out now.” And I pushed her back outside.

  We found Aunt Tabby and Brenda in Squid Café talking with Vera and Mabel. Aunt Tabby was holding our hats and she looked really irritated. Vera and Mabel did not look happy.

  Brenda zoomed in on Wanda. “Where have you been? You’re covered in mud and spiderwebs.” I could see a handkerchief moment coming on. Sure enough, Brenda fished out a big pink hanky, spat on it, and started rubbing at Wanda’s face.

  “Mo-om,” said Wanda in a muffled way, and wriggled out of Brenda’s grasp. “Don’t.”

  Wanda did not tell Brenda where we had been, which was good. I thought Wanda’s training was going quite well, as when she had first come to Spookie House she used to tell Brenda everything we did, which had led to a lot of Aunt Tabby trouble.

  However, I could see we were heading straight for Aunt Tabby trouble here. “Araminta,” she said sternly. “I have bought your hats back. If you need extra spending money you should ask me. I can’t believe how much you made Vera and Mabel pay for these.”

  “Oh, but we wanted to,” said Vera—or was it Mabel?

  “Oh yes, we really did,” said Mabel—or was it Vera?

  I got out my detective notebook. “I can take an order for more,” I said.

  “No, Araminta, you can’t,” said Aunt Tabby.

  “Oh please,” said Mabel—or was it Vera—“we would love to order some more.”

  “How many would you like?” I asked before Aunt Tabby could say anything.

  “We’ll have two of each,” said Mabel/Vera.

  “So that there’s no fighting,” giggled Vera/Mabel.

  “I will give your order to our resident knitter,” I told them. “It will be ready in two weeks.”

  “Araminta, really…” Aunt Tabby said very faintly. But she didn’t say anything else.

  Suddenly Nosy Nora’s squeaky voice came over the loudspeakers. “Ladies and gentlemen, please make your way to the Water Wonderland tent where the world-famous Fish Frolics Show is about to begin!” The loudspeaker did a horrible high-pitched squeak and everyone winced. Then we all heard Nora say, “What was that, Dad? I can’t hear what you’re saying. What? Are you sure?” There was a silence, then the loudspeaker came on again. “Um. Would Wanda Wizzard and Araminta Spookie please make their way to the big tent as soon as possible. Dad—are you sure?” Then there was a crackle and the loudspeaker went dead.

  “We’ve got to go,” I told Aunt Tabby. “They can’t start without us. Come on, Wanda.”

  “You are not going anywhere without your hats,” said Aunt Tabby. “At least then I can keep an eye on you. Put them on.”

  There was no time to waste arguing over hats. I stuffed my squid hat on and Wanda crammed on her fish hat and we zoomed off into the crowd.

  Nosy Nora was not pleased to see us. “You keep getting me into trouble,” she said. “Did you know there are two old ladies wearing hats just like yours? I chased them all the way to Squid Café and nearly got trapped by your creepy aunt.”

  “Really?” I said. “What a coincidence.”

  Nosy Nora looked at me like I was one of those horrible suckerfish stuck on the side of that tank. “Anyway,” she said, “I don’t know why Dad wants you to help,” she said grumpily. “He’s not thinking straight. He sounds like he’s got a cold or something.”

  “I expect he thinks you can’t do it all on your own,” I said.

  “There’s not exactly a lot to do anyway,” said Nora sulkily. “It’s only the stupid frogs and then Dad does the shark thing and splashes everyone and then they all go home.”

  “I’ll do the frogs,” Wanda piped up.

  “Oh all right,” said Nora. “They’re nasty, slimy things anyway.” She picked up the red frog bucket and handed it to Wanda. Wanda grabbed the bucket. “I’ve got the fro-ogs, I’ve got the fro-ogs!” she sang and did a weird Wanda-dance around in circles.

  That was a mistake. She blew our cover. One thing a detective should never do is blow her cover. It leads to trouble.

  Nosy Nora looked suspicious—very suspicious. “What’s going on?’ she asked.

  “Don’t ask me,” said the shark, peering out from behind the big striped curtain at the back of the tank.

  “Shh,” I told Sir Horace—but it was too late.

  Nora stared at me. “I don’t believe it is Dad under there,” she said. “I’ve heard all about you, Araminta Spookie, and I think you are fibbing.”

  “But—” I said. I was going to tell her that I had never said it was Old Morris in the shark suit, but Nosy Nora wasn’t listening.

  “I think it’s your creepy aunt in there. It’s just the kind of weird thing she’d do. I’m going to look!”

  “No, its not Aunt—”

  But it was too late. Nora unzipped the shark suit and went pale. “There’s no one there!” she yelled. “It’s haunted!”

  “That’s right,” I told her since, whatever anyone may think, I do not tell fibs.

  “Where’s my dad?” she yelled. “What have you done with him?”

  We didn’t say anything.

  “I’ll find him! I’ll find him and then you’ll be sorry!” Nosy Nora raced over to the tent flaps and threw them open. An excited murmur went up from the people waiting to come in. “You do the show, you and your horrible spooky shark—since you’re so smart!” Nora shouted and she disappeared into the crowd.

  Before Wanda and I had time to think, everyone rushed in and started fighting over the best seats. Aunt Tabby and Brenda won, along with Mabel and Vera, who plonked themselves down right in front of the fish tank. That was bad enough, but I couldn’t believe my eyes when right behind them I saw Nurse Watkins and Uncle Drac. How did they get there?

  But I didn’t have time to think about that for long. Soon everyone was sitting down and a horrible hush came over the tent. A whole forest of eyes stared at us like they expected us to do something.

  “What are we going to dooooo?” wailed Wanda under her breath.

  There was only one thing we could do—the all-new Spookie Shark Show.

  12

  THE SPOOKIE SHARK SHOW

  The Spookie Shark Show was amazing. Everyone said that they had never seen anything like it.

  Wanda got the spotlight working and the frogs opened the show. I could see why Barry was so upset about losing his frogs because they are very talented, particularly when you consider how stupid the average frog can be. Barry must have put in a lot of training hours—almost as many as I had put in training Wanda to be a detective.

  The frogs leapfrogged all the way around the fish tank as though they had been practicing for weeks. Wanda trained the spotlight on them and followed them perfectly. She even got clever and started changing the colors so that one minute the frogs were blue and the next they were bright red, then purple. I had watched Barry with his frogs tons of times so luckily I knew all the stuff they could do. They did:

  The Leaning Frog Tower

  The Triple-Frog Pogo Stick

  The Double-Frog Cartwheel

  The Four-Frog Catapu
lt

  It was just perfect—until they fell in the fish tank and Wanda had to go in and get them. But that was okay; everyone thought that that was part of the show. Wanda made a lot of fuss, but she caught all the frogs and threw them back into the bucket. Then, just to show that we had meant to do that, I held the bucket up and bowed. Everyone clapped so I bowed again.

  Meanwhile Wanda was trying to get out of the fish tank, but she only has short little arms and she couldn’t pull herself up. “Araminta,” she spluttered, “help me get out.” But I didn’t think that was such a great idea as the crowd was enjoying it and I could tell it would be a really dramatic moment for the shark to come in. I rushed over to the striped curtain at the end of the tank where Sir Horace was waiting.

  “Sir Horace!” I whispered. “It’s time for your shark thingy. Jump in.”

  The shark didn’t seem very keen. “I’ll get rusty,” it said.

  “No you won’t. You’re not wearing your armor—remember? And you’ve always wanted to learn to swim, haven’t you?”

  “Have I?”

  “Yes, you have. Just think how useful it would have been. So now’s your chance.” And before he had time to think about it, I pushed him in. There was a huge splash and the shark landed in the tank. The audience screamed so loud that my ears rang. Wanda screamed too, which was great because it made the show very exciting.

  It was fantastic. It really looked as though Wanda was being chased by a shark. The trouble was that I had forgotten about Brenda. As soon as Brenda saw the shark she raced up and fished Wanda out with the frog net. The audience loved it.

  Wanda sat on the edge of the tank coughing and spluttering and looking grumpy, but Brenda was really getting into it. The audience cheered and whistled and Brenda did a curtsey. And then she did another one. And another. Since Brenda was stealing the show I told Sir Horace, “You can come out now.” He floated up out of the fish tank and stood on the ledge. Everyone screamed! Brenda’s eyes nearly popped out of her head and she keeled over with a great big thump.

  I never thought I would say that Nurse Watkins was useful—but she was. She rushed onto the stage with her little black nurse’s bag (the one she had stolen the frogs in) and lifted Brenda’s feet up above her head. It was very dramatic, and when Brenda woke up the crowd gave a huge cheer and Nurse Watkins took a bow as if she did that kind of thing every day. I suppose it reminded her of all the wrestling matches she had won.

  People say that you have to leave a crowd wanting more, so I grabbed hold of Nosy Nora’s megaphone and announced, “Ladies and gentlemen, the Spookie Shark Show is over.”

  A big disappointed “Aaaah” went up from the crowd, but I just kept going because that is what you do when you are running a really successful fish show.

  “Please give a big hand for Barry Wizzard’s frogs!” I said. Everyone clapped and whistled. “Also Wanda and Brenda Wizzard, Sir Horace the Shark, and last but not least, Nurse Watkins!”

  Everyone cheered and cheered. I thought they would never stop. I waited for someone to thank me, which is what they should have done, but no one did, so I said, “And I am Araminta Spookie. This was the Spookie Shark Show. Thank you!”

  People whistled and stamped and clapped and I took a bow. And then I took another. And another. It was fantastic. I think I shall probably consider running fish shows as a serious career option from now on.

  But the adulation of a crowd is a fickle thing. Soon everyone was trooping out of the tent, the adults moaning about the hard seats and the kids whining for ice cream.

  And suddenly Aunt Tabby and Uncle Drac were looming over us.

  Uncle Drac was smiling but Aunt Tabby was not. She had a big frown and her eyebrows met in the middle like two angry caterpillars. I could see a serious Aunt Tabby moment coming on so I got in first. “Aunt Tabby, you have to meet me and Wanda at the ticket office in ten minutes—it’s very important,” I told her. “And bring Barry’s van.”

  “Araminta, you are not going anywhere—” Aunt Tabby started, but we didn’t hear the rest. I had the frog bucket in one hand and Wanda’s wet paw in the other and we were off, heading for the ticket office.

  13

  TREASURE

  Nosy Nora had got there before us. We found her trying to push the safe off the trapdoor. She looked up when we came in and said, “Oh, it’s you, Wanda Wizzard, and your weirdo friend. I see you fell in, ha-ha. What have you done with my dad?”

  “We haven’t done anything with him,” said Wanda.

  Nosy Nora snorted. “Well, he didn’t get down there all on his own,” she said.

  “Yes he did,” I told her. “And then we put the safe there. It is for his own good. In fact it is probably better if he stays there forever.”

  “Why?” asked Nora suspiciously.

  “There’s a very angry ghost who is after him. You dad has stolen his treasure and he wants it back.”

  “Oh, ha-ha.” Nora snorted again. It was not a nice snort. Wanda’s snorts sound like quite a sweet little pig, but Nora’s was more like an evil-minded camel.

  “Yes, ghost. The one that was in the haunted shark suit. Remember?”

  Nora did not reply.

  “He’s really, really mad,” said Wanda. “In fact he will be here in a few minutes and if your dad doesn’t give him back his treasure chest he will be even more angry. He has a very sharp sword, you know.”

  Nora looked pale. “Does he?” she said.

  “Yes. And he is really good at using it,” I told her.

  I could see that Nora did not like the sound of this. I was right. “If Dad gave him back his treasure, would he go away?” she asked.

  “Probably. You can never tell with ghosts, but I expect he would. I mean, why would he want to stay in this dump?”

  Nora nodded. I could tell that she thought Water Wonderland was a bit of a dump too. “Okay,” she said. “You help me get Dad out and we’ll give the treasure back.”

  “It’s a deal,” I said.

  “Shake on it,” said Nora. So we did.

  The three of us pushed the safe off the trapdoor and Old Morris was up the ladder like a rat up a drainpipe. He was not in a good mood.

  “Right, you pesky, kids,” he snarled. “You can make yourself useful and help me up with this chest. Then you can scram—got that?” Wanda and I nodded. We were humoring him. Sometimes detectives have to do that. Also we needed his help to get the chest up.

  Old Morris shoved the chest through the trapdoor and then sat on it, looking puffed. “Right,” he said. “You two with the ridiculous hats can get lost. And don’t come back.” Then he stood up and groaned while he held his back and said to Nosy Nora, “You wait here. I shall go and get a crowbar. We’ll have this thing open in no time. Who knows, it may make our fortune.” He chuckled as though he had made a clever joke—which he had not.

  “But it’s not yours, Dad,” said Nora. “It belongs to a fierce ghost.”

  “A really horrible ghost,” put in Wanda, which I did not think was very fair to Sir Horace.

  Old Morris snorted like a whole flock of evil-minded camels and said, “You kids heard what I said—scram,” and then stomped off to get his crowbar.

  “Quick,” said Nora. “Take the chest before he gets back. And those slimy frogs too, then we won’t have to do those stupid shows anymore.”

  The three of us managed to carry the chest outside, and just as we got out the door Aunt Tabby, Brenda, and Uncle Drac turned up in Barry’s van. It was perfect timing. We heaved the chest into the back. Aunt Tabby poked her head out the window and asked, “Where did you get that, Araminta?”

  “It belongs to Sir Horace,” I said. “We are rescuing it for him. And we have Barry’s frogs.”

  Aunt Tabby did not look as thrilled as I thought she might. “Hmm,” she said. “Beryl says that they should probably stay here for a while.”

  “Beryl? Who’s Beryl?” I asked.

  “Beryl Watkins, dear. She was sitting
next to us at the show.”

  “Nurse Watkins? But she stole them in the first place. Of course she thinks they should stay here.”

  Aunt Tabby tutted impatiently. “Really, Araminta, you do say the most ridiculous things. Beryl didn’t steal the frogs. They jumped into her bag when she wasn’t looking. She had a terrible shock when she arrived on her emergency call to Old Morris’s turtle bite and she opened her bag. Beryl doesn’t like frogs. Anyway, they all jumped out and headed straight for the pond. She says they were probably tadpoles in that pond and wanted to come back to spawn.”

  I would have liked to question Nurse Watkins myself, since I was not sure that Aunt Tabby was a reliable witness. But there was no time for that—I could see Old Morris coming out of one of his sheds with a huge crowbar in his hand. It was time to go.

  I pushed Wanda and the frog bucket into the back of the van and slammed the door, but as we drove out of Water Wonderland Wanda said, “What about Sir Horace?”

  Wanda has a knack of reminding you of things when it is just a bit too late. I was about to bang on the little driver’s window that looks into the back of the van and get Aunt Tabby to stop when I saw the weirdest thing.

  Sir Horace—the suit of armor Sir Horace—was hitchhiking with his foot! Lying beside the ditch was the empty shark suit.

  The van screeched to a halt and Aunt Tabby got out. A moment later the back doors opened and Aunt Tabby helped Sir Horace climb in. He looked really grumpy—you could tell by the way he plonked himself down right on top of his treasure chest and didn’t say anything at all.

  Aunt Tabby dropped Sir Horace’s arms into the van with a clang and said, “Araminta, I don’t know how Sir Horace got into the ditch, or how his arms fell off, and I don’t think I want to know either. But why do I think it has something to do with you? And as for how the shark suit got here….” Aunt Tabby shook her head and slammed the doors shut.