The Ghost at the Fire Station Read online

  Several of the firefighters heard the noise and ran toward them.

  “What’s going on? What are you kids doing?” Dick asked.

  “Claire caught the fire station ghost,” Brynlee said.

  Claire raised her ghost catcher. “He’s in here,” she said.

  “Uh . . . you should know that Kaz and I aren’t the only ghosts around here,” Little John said from inside Claire’s water bottle.

  Kaz looked curiously at Little John. He wanted to ask about the other ghost. But before he could, one of the firefighters said, “So, no more moaning and groaning in the middle of the night?”

  “No more blankets being pulled off us during the night?” said another firefighter.

  “And Sparky will go into the garage and the TV room now?” Dick said.

  “Let’s find out,” Brynlee said. She went back out to the garage and held the door open. “Here, Sparky. Come here, boy.”

  Sparky looked at Brynlee and backed away.

  RJ grabbed Sparky’s collar and tried to lead him into the garage, but Sparky plopped down and refused to move.

  “Maybe Sparky doesn’t know the ghost is gone,” Brynlee said.

  “Or maybe there’s another ghost,” Claire said.

  “There’s definitely another ghost. A man,” Little John said. He passed back through the water bottle and expanded to full size. Kaz did the same.

  “Did you see him, Little John?” Kaz asked. “Did you talk to him?”

  “I saw him. But I didn’t talk to him. I was . . . too scared to talk to him,” Little John admitted.

  “You were scared?” Kaz gaped at his brother. Little John wasn’t afraid of anything. Or anyone.

  “He was big,” Little John said. “Really big!” He expanded to show Kaz just how big this other ghost was. “And he was moaning really loud and banging into things. He sounded mad. That’s probably why Sparky doesn’t like him.”

  “I tell you, there was enough banging and clattering around last night for two ghosts,” Dick said.

  “I think there’s more than one ghost, too,” Tom said. “There was a lot of moaning and groaning last night.”

  “Really?” David said. “I slept through it all.”

  “You’re such a sound sleeper, I’m surprised you don’t sleep through the alarms,” Dick said.

  “Maybe we should all stay overnight at the fire station this weekend,” Brynlee said. “Claire, too. Then if there really is another ghost here, she can catch it!”

  A sleepover at the fire station. That sounds like fun,” Claire’s mom said.

  “So I can go?” Claire asked.

  “Yes,” her mom replied.

  “I hope you find the fire station ghost,” her dad said. “And I’m glad you found the other ghost. The one that was lost.”

  “Thanks, Dad,” Claire said.

  Little John glowed. “I . . . wasn’t . . . lost . . . ,” he wailed. “I . . . always . . . knew . . . where . . . I . . . was.”

  “Yes, well . . .” Claire’s dad smiled as though he didn’t know what to say to that. Kaz had a feeling Claire’s dad was still getting used to the idea that there were ghosts in the library. That ghosts really existed.

  “It’s too bad you didn’t talk to the ghost at the fire station,” Kaz said to Little John while Claire packed her bag.

  Little John rubbed Cosmo’s belly. “I told you. He was big. And scary.”

  “Did the ghost see you?” Claire asked Little John. “Did he know you were there?”

  “I don’t know,” Little John said. “I was watching TV, but I heard him in the hallway. He was moaning and groaning, and sort of swaying back and forth. Like this.” He raised his arms and teetered from side to side “He was soooo big. I was scared, so I hid. I didn’t see him during the day. Only at night.”

  Claire zipped up her suitcase. “Well, I’m not afraid. And neither is Kaz.”

  “Uhhh . . . ,” Kaz said. That wasn’t exactly true.

  “Are you guys ready?” Claire asked. She held out her water bottle.

  Little John backed away. “I think I’ll stay here with Beckett and Cosmo tonight,” he said.

  “Really?” Kaz said. If Little John was so scared of the ghost that he didn’t even want to go to the fire station, maybe Kaz shouldn’t go, either?

  Little John shrugged. “You guys are the detectives. Not me.”

  That was true. Kaz and Claire were a team. Scared or not, he had to go with her. So he shrank down . . . down . . . down . . . and went into the water bottle.

  Claire grabbed her overnight bag, detective bag, and water bottle. Then she and Kaz set off for the fire station.

  Brynlee, RJ, and Sparky were waiting at the main entrance when Claire arrived.

  “Hi, Claire!” the twins greeted her.

  “Woof! Woof!” Sparky got up on his hind legs and sniffed at Claire’s water bottle.

  Brynlee laughed. “I don’t know why he likes your water bottle so much.”

  Claire and Kaz grinned at each other. It wasn’t the water bottle that Sparky liked. It was what, or rather who, was inside the water bottle.

  “Hi, Sparky,” Kaz said. He wished he’d thought to bring Cosmo. Sparky and Cosmo would probably have a lot of fun together.

  “Sparky still won’t go into the fire station through the garage,” RJ said as he opened the main door to the fire station. Sparky charged through the door.

  “He still won’t go in the TV room, either,” Brynlee added. “So I think the ghost is still here.”

  There was only one light on in the back of the office. Nobody worked in the office on a Friday night.

  Claire set her bags down on a chair. “Let’s see if we can find the ghost,” she said as she got out her ghost glass and ghost catcher.

  Kaz passed through the bottle and expanded to his usual size.

  “Woof! Woof!” Sparky leaped up to lick Kaz, but his tongue passed all the way through him.

  “Watch the tongue, Sparky!” Kaz said as Claire and the others moved down the hallway. He swam hard to catch up.

  Sparky stayed close to Kaz.

  Dick and David were in the TV room. “Hi, kids,” they said when Claire, Brynlee, and RJ walked in. Kaz sailed behind them, but Sparky dropped to his belly in the doorway and let out a doggy groan.

  “Hi, Dad,” Brynlee said. “We’re looking for the ghost.”

  “Good. I hope you find it,” Dick said.

  The firefighters returned to their TV show. Claire wandered slowly around the room, her ghost glass in one hand and her ghost catcher in the other. Neither she nor Kaz saw any ghosts.

  “Can we check the rest of the station?” Claire asked the twins.

  “Sure,” RJ said.

  They checked the kitchen and the sleeping quarters. They peered into the radio room through the window. Sparky trotted along beside them. Everything seemed to be in order. But as soon as they opened the door to the garage, Sparky sat down and began to howl. “Arooooooooooo!”

  Claire bit her lip. RJ scratched his head.

  “Is the ghost in the garage?” Brynlee asked the dog.

  “Ar-ar-arooooooooo!” Sparky howled.

  “Let’s find out,” Claire said as she opened the door. She and the twins went out into the garage and clomped down the stairs. Kaz swam behind them.

  Sparky stayed put inside the station.

  All the doors in the garage were closed, so Kaz could swim freely. While Claire searched the garage for ghosts, Kaz checked inside the fire trucks and inside some cabinets.

  Still no ghosts.

  “I don’t think the ghost is out here,” Brynlee said. “Let’s go back inside. Maybe we’ll see it during the night!”

  “Yeah, I’m hungry,” RJ said. “Let’s get something to eat.”
/>   With Dick’s help, the kids baked some frozen pizzas and popped some popcorn. Then they took their snacks into the TV room and watched a movie with the firefighters.

  Sparky watched sadly from outside the doorway.

  When the movie was over, it was time for bed. Sparky leaped to his feet and wagged his tail when everyone finally came out of the TV room.

  Claire and Brynlee made up beds in one of the bedrooms. RJ rolled out a sleeping bag on the floor in the other bedroom, where his dad and David slept. Sparky pranced back and forth between the two rooms.

  “He doesn’t know where to sleep!” Brynlee said.

  “It’s funny he doesn’t mind being in the bedrooms,” Claire said.

  “Why?” Brynlee asked.

  “I thought the firefighters said the ghost wakes them up during the night,” Claire said. “It steals blankets. If Sparky doesn’t like to go into rooms where he’s seen the ghost, you’d think he wouldn’t want to be in the bedrooms.”

  “Maybe he never saw the ghost in the bedrooms?” Brynlee said.

  “Maybe,” Claire said. “That seems kind of strange though, don’t you think?”

  “I don’t know,” Brynlee said with a shrug.

  But Kaz thought it seemed strange, too.

  At 10:30, everyone turned out the lights and tried to sleep. Sparky must’ve been tired, because he curled up on the floor next to RJ and went to sleep, too.

  While the solids slept, Kaz roamed around the fire station, searching for the ghost.

  “Hello?” he called out every now and then. “Where are you, ghost?”

  The only one who was awake besides Kaz was the person who was working in the radio room. This time it was a man. The screens in front of him were dark, and he was reading a book.

  It was a quiet night at the fire station.

  Kaz returned to the room where Claire and Brynlee were sleeping. Then he noticed Claire’s blanket was gone. Completely gone. Where did it go? he wondered.

  He glanced over at Brynlee. While he was watching, the blanket that was covering Brynlee started to move. Someone or something was under her bed . . . pullllling the blanket off her.

  Was Kaz about to meet the fire station ghost?

  Kaz hovered above Claire. Watching. Waiting.

  “Ohhhhhhhh,” a voice moaned. But the voice didn’t come from under Brynlee’s bed. It came from somewhere else in the fire station.

  Kaz peered out into the hallway. He didn’t see a ghost.

  But he heard it: “Ohhhhhh,” it moaned.

  Brynlee bolted up in bed. “What’s happening?” she asked.

  “What?” Claire said groggily. “What’s that noise?” She raised her head, then sat up all the way. “Brr. It’s cold in here.” She shivered.

  “I know,” Brynlee said, hugging her arms to her sides. She dropped her voice to a whisper. “I think the ghost is here.”

  “He was under Brynlee’s bed,” Kaz said. “I saw him pull the blanket off Brynlee. He’s in another room now.” Did he take the girls’ blankets with him?

  Brynlee reached over and turned on a table lamp.

  “My blanket’s on the floor,” Claire said. She picked it up and wrapped it around her shoulders.

  “Oh! So’s mine,” Brynlee said. But when she tried to pick it up, she couldn’t. Someone or something under her bed pulled back.

  Brynlee gasped. “The ghost is under my bed!” she said as she let go of the blanket and scooted to the far corner of her bed.

  Kaz frowned. Most ghosts could pick up a solid object like a blanket. But if a solid person pulled on the object like Brynlee did, they would pull it right out of the ghost’s hands. Solids were way stronger than ghosts.

  “Let’s see this ghost,” Claire said.

  Brynlee backed up even farther and hugged her knees to her chest.

  Still holding her blanket around her, Claire got out of bed, dropped to her knees, and peered under Brynlee’s bed. When she raised her head, she smiled. Then laughed.

  “What?” Brynlee said with a scowl. “What’s so funny?”

  “Come look,” Claire said.

  Brynlee hesitated for a second. She leaned over just far enough to see under the bed.

  Kaz dove down and took a peek, too.

  Sparky was curled up on Brynlee’s blanket under the bed.

  “Sparky!” Brynlee laughed. “Come out of there. Give me back my blanket!” She tugged on the blanket some more.

  Sparky got off the blanket and crawled out from under the bed. He wagged his tail at Kaz.

  Kaz tried to pet the dog, but his hand passed through him.

  “Now we know who’s been stealing blankets during the night,” Brynlee said with a pointed look at the dog.

  “Yes, but we still don’t know why Sparky won’t go in the TV room or the garage,” Claire said. She paused, then tilted her head toward the door. “And we don’t know who’s been moaning. Do you hear that?”

  “Ohhhhhhhhh,” the voice moaned again.

  Brynlee nodded. She and Claire went to the door and poked their heads around the corner. Kaz hovered above them.

  This time they saw a large dark shadow moving across the wall way down the hall.

  “That must be the ghost,” Brynlee said in a low voice.

  “Is there a light switch in the hallway?” Claire whispered.

  “Yes. Right here,” Brynlee whispered back. She flipped the switch, and the shadow disappeared in the light. But the moaning continued: “Ohhhhhhhhhhh.”

  “Do you need your ghost-hunting stuff?” Brynlee asked Claire.

  “I don’t know,” Claire said. “That doesn’t sound like a ghostly moan to me.”

  It didn’t sound very ghostly to Kaz, either.

  “Let’s follow the sound,” Claire said. As they crept down the hallway, the moaning grew louder. And louder. It sounded like it was coming from the kitchen.

  Sparky charged ahead into the kitchen as Dick and RJ came into the hallway behind Claire and Brynlee.

  “What is all that moaning?” Dick asked, rubbing his neck.

  “Did you guys hear it, too?” RJ asked.

  “Woof! Woof!” Sparky barked from the kitchen. But it was an excited bark, not an angry or frightened bark.

  They all went into the kitchen and found David staggering around, moaning. His eyes were open, but he had a funny look on his face, like he wasn’t actually seeing anything in front of him. Sparky was right beside him, wagging his tail.

  “David?” Dick said, walking over to him.

  “What’s the matter with him?” Brynlee asked.

  Dick smiled. “Nothing. He’s sleepwalking.” Dick grabbed David’s arm and gave it a gentle shake.

  David blinked and jerked back. “What? What’s going on?” he asked. He looked confused. “What am I doing in the kitchen?”

  “You were sleepwalking,” Dick said.

  “I was?” David asked with a yawn.

  “And moaning,” Brynlee told him. “Really loud.”

  “I was?” David said again.

  “I don’t think he was really moaning,” Dick said. “He was just talking in his dream. But it sounded like moaning to us.”

  “What were you dreaming about?” RJ asked.

  “I don’t know,” David said as he yawned and stretched. “I don’t remember.”

  “You’re the ghost who’s been moaning and groaning and banging into things during the night!” Dick said to David. “No wonder you never hear those noises. You’re the one making them!”

  “So we don’t have a ghost at the fire station after all?” David asked.

  “I don’t know,” Claire said. “I don’t think so. But we still don’t know why Sparky won’t go into the garage or the TV room.”

  If only
Sparky could tell them what was upsetting him.

  Just then the fire alarm sounded. Bright lights came on all over the station.

  “Aroooooooooooooo!” Sparky howled.

  Fire!” David said, the alarm blaring all around them. The kids backed against the wall, trying to stay out of the way as Dick and David raced to the garage. They heard the big doors rise and the sirens starting up.

  “Come on,” RJ shouted over the alarm. “We can watch the trucks from the main door.”

  Claire, Brynlee, and Kaz followed RJ down the hall. They all crowded around the glass door and watched as the first fire truck roared out of the garage. Sparky sat behind the kids and howled.

  More firefighters raced into the station.

  “How did all those firefighters get here so fast?” Claire asked, her hands over her ears.

  “Most of them live nearby, like we do,” Brynlee said.

  In the next few minutes, two more trucks raced out of the garage with lights flashing and sirens blaring. Then the garage doors went down, and all was quiet at the fire station.

  Claire rubbed her right ear. “My ears are still ringing,” she said.

  Kaz’s ears were ringing, too.

  “Alarms are loud,” RJ said. “They have to be to wake the firefighters up during the night.”

  “Speaking of night,” Brynlee said with a yawn. “Should we go back to bed?”

  “I’m hungry,” RJ said. “I want to get a snack first. Does anyone else want a snack?”

  “Sure,” Claire said. She looked at Brynlee and RJ. “Hey, you guys have the same pajamas. Is that another twin thing?”

  “No,” Brynlee said with a scowl. “It’s a mom thing.”

  They all trooped down the hall and into the kitchen. Kaz drifted behind them.

  Sparky stopped just outside the kitchen door and sat down. “Aroooooooo!” he howled. “Ar-ar-aroooooooo!”

  Everyone turned.

  “What’s the matter, Sparky?” RJ asked.

  “Is he afraid to come into the kitchen now?” Claire asked.

  “I don’t know,” Brynlee said. “Come here, Sparky.” She patted her legs.