The Hide-and-Seek Ghost Read online

  “It’s not,” Little John argued.

  Eli sighed. “I don’t hear that ghost now,” he said. “Big surprise. It never shows up when I need it to.”

  “Should I glow?” Little John asked Kaz.

  “NO!” Kaz said.

  “I can tell it’s still here, though,” Eli said into the phone.

  “How can you tell?” Claire asked.

  Eli shivered. “Because it’s really cold in here,” he said. “Do you think you could come over and find it now?”

  “Sorry. I have to go to bed soon,” Claire said. “But I’ll come over tomorrow after school.”

  “Okay,” Eli said with disappointment. “See you tomorrow.” He hung up and plugged in his phone. Then he scurried downstairs.

  “What do you think Lauren is doing?” Little John asked Kaz a few minutes later. The ghosts hovered above Eli and his parents, who were watching TV in the family room. Lauren was up in her bedroom.

  “I don’t know,” Kaz said. He was much more interested in the TV show than he was in Lauren.

  “She could be planning her next trick,” Little John said. “Maybe I should go keep an eye on her.”

  “I’ll stay with Eli,” Kaz said. “Then if either Eli or Lauren does something suspicious, we’ll know about it.”

  Little John swam away, and Kaz watched the rest of the TV show with Eli and his parents. When it was over, Eli’s mom yawned and stretched. “Time for bed, Eli,” she said.

  Eli slumped down on the sofa. “Do I have to?” he asked.

  “Yes,” his dad replied. “It’s late.”

  “Are you guys going to bed, too?” Eli asked.

  “Soon,” his mom said. “We’re going to watch the news first.”

  “Can I watch the news with you?” Eli asked.

  “No. It’s past your bedtime.” Eli’s dad pointed toward the stairs.

  “I don’t want to be up there all alone,” Eli said in a small voice.

  “Your sister’s up there,” his mom said.

  Eli rolled his eyes. “That’s like being alone,” he grumbled.

  “What’s the matter, Eli?” His mom ruffled his hair. “I know you’re not afraid of the dark.”

  “No,” Eli said. “But I’m kind of afraid of ghosts.”

  “There’s no such things as ghosts!” Eli’s dad said.

  “Ding . . . dong . . . you’re . . . wrong . . . ,” a ghostly voice wailed from the kitchen.

  It’s the ghost,” Eli said, pulling his knees to his chest.

  His mom scowled. His dad glared.

  “What? Why are you looking at me like that?” Eli asked, his eyes shifting from one parent to the other. “I’m not doing anything!”

  His parents got up from the sofa and headed for the kitchen.

  “Wait for me,” Eli said, running after them. Kaz followed close behind.

  Lauren and Little John were already in the kitchen. Little John shrugged at Kaz as Lauren went from cupboard to cupboard, opening and closing doors.

  “What are you doing, Lauren?” her mom asked.

  “Looking for the recorder,” Lauren said.

  “What recorder?” her mom asked.

  “The recorder that he hid in here.” Lauren tilted her head toward Eli. “Didn’t you guys hear that weird voice?”

  Eli stomped his foot. “I didn’t hide any recorder!” he said.

  “Yes, you did,” Lauren insisted. “And I’m going to find it and prove that you’re the ghost once and for all.”

  “Maybe you’re the ghost!” Eli shot back. “You were in here when that voice started talking.”

  “I was getting a snack,” Lauren said. “You probably rigged something up to go off when I opened the refrigerator.”

  “I didn’t!” Eli argued.

  “Did you see what happened?” Kaz asked Little John.

  “Not really,” Little John said. “I followed Lauren down here. And I heard the voice, too. It was right behind me. But when I turned around, there was nothing there.”

  “There’s a cabinet behind you.” Kaz pointed.

  “I know. I looked in there, but I didn’t see anything,” Little John said.

  Eli and Lauren’s mom opened the refrigerator door. “I don’t see any of Eli’s contraptions in here,” she said, peering at the shelves.

  “That’s because there aren’t any contraptions in there,” Eli said. “I’m telling you, it’s a ghost. A real, live ghost!”

  “It did sound like a real ghost wailing,” Little John said.

  Kaz had to agree that it did. But he’d heard wailing like that before when he and Claire had been out solving other cases. And each time there was another explanation.

  Lauren and her parents opened every cupboard and pulled out every drawer in the whole kitchen while Eli stood in the middle of the kitchen with his arms crossed.

  “See?” Eli said when they finished. “No recorder.”

  “Wooooooooo!” Something wailed in the living room this time.

  Everyone rushed to the living room. Nothing seemed to be out of place. There were no ghosts. No hidden recorders. Nothing.

  “I don’t know what’s going on around here,” their dad said. “But it’s time for bed. For real this time.”

  “What about the ghost?” Eli asked.

  “There’s no such thing as ghosts,” his dad said.

  His mom nodded. “We’re all scaring ourselves silly. Things will look better in the morning.”

  “I wish Claire was here,” Kaz moaned once Eli and his family were asleep. He and Little John wafted back and forth along the upstairs hallway. Kaz had no idea how they were going to solve this case.

  “Claire’s good at solving mysteries,” Little John said. “But so are we. We can figure out what’s going on ourselves.”

  “How?” Kaz asked.

  “I don’t know,” Little John said. “We need a plan.”

  They’d already searched the house from top to bottom.

  They’d tried splitting up. Kaz had kept an eye on Eli, and Little John had kept an eye on Lauren.

  Kaz didn’t know what else to try. “About all we can do is wait for something else to happen,” he said.

  “Maybe we can make something else happen,” Little John said. “If it’s a real ghost, maybe we can figure out a way to make it come out.”

  “How?” Kaz asked again.

  “Well,” Little John said as he and Kaz reached the end of the hallway. They turned around and drifted back the other way. “If a new ghost came into the library, what could it do to make you or me come out?”

  “It could say, ‘Hi! Are there any other ghosts in this place?’ ” Kaz said. But they’d already tried calling out to any real ghosts in Eli’s house.

  “Eli said the ghost likes to play hide-and-seek,” Little John said. “Maybe we should hide and see if we can make the ghost find us!”

  “Sure,” Kaz said. Like that will actually work.

  Little John cupped his hands around his mouth and called out, “Do you hear that, you ghost? We’re going to play hide-and-seek. This time, it’s your turn to find us!”

  Kaz rolled his eyes. Only a real ghost would have heard Little John. And Kaz didn’t think it was a real ghost. It was never a real ghost.

  But right at that very moment, a ghostly shoe shot through the floor right between Kaz and Little John. And a voice they both recognized called out, “Okay. Ready or not, here I come!”

  Is that . . . ?” Little John stared at the ghostly shoe that floated in front of him.

  Kaz grabbed the shoe and turned it all around. “It sure looks like Finn’s shoe,” he said. The voice sounded like Finn’s, too.

  “Finn?” Kaz called. “Are you here?”

  A ghost boy’s head popped through the
floor in front of Kaz. “I thought you wanted to play hide-and-seek,” the boy said as he rose through the floor. “But you’re not even hiding. Got you!” He tagged Kaz. “Got you, too!” He tagged Little John.

  Kaz and Little John gaped at their big brother. It really was him!

  “You’re the ghost at Eli’s house?” Little John said, not quite believing it.

  “Yes,” Finn said.

  “You’re the one who dropped the marbles down the stairs?” Kaz said. “You’re the one who left that book on Eli’s bed and made everyone think Eli was trying to scare people away? And you’re the one who kept appearing and disappearing in front of Eli?”

  “Yes. Yes. And yes!” Finn said.

  “Why?” Kaz asked. “And why didn’t you let us know you were here? You must have known we were here. We’ve been here for hours!”

  “I wanted to see if you could figure it out,” Finn said with a shrug. “I thought you were a big-shot detective now.”

  Kaz narrowed his eyes. “How do you know I’m a detective?” he asked.

  “A few months ago, I heard Eli talking about a girl detective who finds and catches ghosts,” Finn said. “Then I saw a girl go into that house next door. I knew she was the detective because I recognized her from when I was in the library. That is one weird solid girl!”

  “Claire’s not weird,” Little John said. “She’s nice.”

  Finn snorted. “Any solid who can see ghosts when they’re not glowing is weird!” He took his shoe from Kaz and plopped it on his right foot. There was no shoe on his left foot.

  “Anyway,” Finn went on. “I saw you floating outside the house next door a couple of months ago. That girl, Claire, was chasing you and calling your name. I figured you were working together. I’ve been trying to get Eli to call your detective agency forever! I had to glow a lot before he finally believed I was a ghost and not his imagination.”

  “Why did you only glow around him and around people who want to buy this house?” Kaz asked. “Why didn’t you let the rest of his family see you, too?”

  “I thought that if he was the only one in the family who saw me, and he was getting blamed for things I was doing, then maybe he’d finally call you guys,” Finn explained. “But he never did. Not until he saw that girl walk by his house the other day.”

  “Hey, I think I saw you float across the window,” Kaz said, remembering the ghostly whatever-it-was he saw for just a second. “Cosmo probably saw you, too. I bet that’s why he was going crazy. Did you see us inside Claire’s water bottle?”

  “Her water bottle?” Finn said. “What were you doing in there? And why are you guys hanging out with a solid girl, anyway? Why aren’t you at the old schoolhouse?”

  There was no quick answer to that.

  Kaz took a deep breath. “We better start at the beginning,” he said. He and Little John told Finn what all had happened since he had passed through the wall and blown away from the old schoolhouse. They told him about the old schoolhouse getting torn down—

  “Wait. What?” Finn cried. “The old schoolhouse isn’t there anymore?”

  Kaz and Little John shook their heads. Then they told Finn about how the rest of the family had gotten separated, too. Little John told about the ghosts he met in the purple house. Kaz told about meeting Claire, and how they’d formed C & K Ghost Detectives, and how none of their cases had led to real ghosts. But still, somehow, they’d managed to find Cosmo, Little John, Grandmom and Grandpop, Mom and Pops, and now him.

  “Wow. That’s amazing,” Finn said.

  “So, where have you been all this time?” Little John asked Finn.

  “Well,” Finn began. “First I rode the wind with Grandmom and Grandpop. They stayed together because they were holding hands, but I got separated from them when the wind blew me into a house.

  There was a solid dog there that kept jumping up, trying to eat me, so I didn’t stay very long. I went back into the Outside and then the wind blew me to the library. But I didn’t want to stay there. Not with a solid girl who could see me when I wasn’t glowing.”

  “You left your other shoe there,” Little John said, pointing at Finn’s stockinged foot.

  “I know,” Finn said. “My foot hurt because that solid dog kept biting it. So I took it off. I forgot to put it back on when I left the library.”

  “Where did you go after that?” Kaz asked.

  “To a movie theater,” Finn said. “I liked it there. There were other ghosts there. Like this ghost girl, Jessie. She was really cute. And this ghost guy, Dave. He was old, like Mom and Pops, but guess what? He passed through a wall and got separated from his family when he was a kid, too! We kind of bonded over that. Plus we both liked to wail at the solids who came to see the scary movies.”

  “Why did you leave if you liked it there so much?” Little John asked.

  “I didn’t mean to. I sort of accidentally passed through the wall,” Finn said.

  Kaz shook his head. “You never learn.”

  “Hey, I didn’t know that was an Outside wall!” Finn said. “And I do too learn! I haven’t blown away from this haunt yet!”

  Later that afternoon, the front door opened, and Eli and Claire walked in.

  “Claire!” Kaz exclaimed. He and Little John had been waiting all day for Eli and Claire to return. They had decided not to go to school with Eli that morning because they wanted to hang out with Finn. And because Claire had told Eli that she’d come over after school to find the ghost.

  “Guess what?” Little John said to Claire. “We found the ghost at Eli’s house. It’s our brother, Finn!”

  Finn raised his hand in greeting.

  Claire nodded slightly. She couldn’t really talk to the ghosts. Not in front of Eli.

  “I don’t know where that ghost is right now—” Eli began.

  “Over . . . here . . . ,” Little John wailed. His whole body started to glow, and he waved at Eli.

  Eli’s eyes opened wide.

  “Little John!” Kaz exclaimed.

  “Th-that’s not the same ghost I’ve been seeing,” Eli told Claire as he backed away from Little John.

  Finn started to glow, too. “Don’t . . . worry . . . I’m . . . here . . . too . . . ,” he wailed.

  Eli’s eyes opened wider. “Oh no!” he cried. “We’ve got two ghosts!”

  “You guys!” Kaz said, shaking his head. “Why are you trying to scare that boy?”

  Little John and Finn stopped glowing.

  “Eli wanted Claire to come over and catch a ghost,” Little John said. “She should pretend to catch us.”

  “She can do that without you glowing,” Kaz said.

  “Where’d those ghosts go?” Eli muttered as he looked all around.

  Claire opened her backpack and pulled out her ghost glass and ghost catcher. “I see them,” she said, peering through her ghost glass at Finn.

  Finn stuck out his tongue and waved his fingers at Claire.

  “You better get out of the way, Finn,” Kaz warned as Claire raised her ghost catcher.

  “Why?” Finn asked.

  Claire pressed the button on her ghost catcher and it roared to life.

  “AHHH!” Finn cried out. He swam backward and pressed his hands to his ears as Claire aimed her ghost catcher at a spot away from all the ghosts. “WHAT IS THAT?”

  “IT’S CLAIRE’S GHOST CATCHER!” Kaz had to yell to be heard over it. “SHE USES IT TO MAKE SOLID PEOPLE THINK SHE CAN CATCH GHOSTS.”

  “SHE COULD CATCH US WITH THAT IF SHE WANTED TO,” Little John said.

  “I THINK YOU’RE RIGHT,” Kaz said as Finn hovered between him and Claire.

  Finally, Claire turned that awful machine off. “Got ’em,” she said to Eli. “Both your ghosts are in here.” She tapped the side of her ghost catcher.

  “He doesn�
��t really believe that, does he?” Finn asked. He swam over and took a closer look at Claire’s foil-wrapped “ghost catcher.”

  Eli looked doubtful. “Are you sure?” he asked.

  “I’m sure,” Claire said firmly. She shoved her ghost catcher back inside her backpack. “If you have any more problems, give me a call. But I don’t think you will.”

  “Okay,” Eli said.

  “Ha-ha-ha-ha!” Finn laughed. “He does believe it!”

  Claire raised her water bottle to the ghosts and wiggled her eyebrows.

  “Are you thirsty, Claire?” Eli asked. “Do you want to fill your water bottle?”

  Claire smiled uneasily. “No. I’m good, thanks,” she said, dropping her empty water bottle to her side. She wiggled her eyebrows at Kaz again.

  “Oh! I think Claire wants us to go with her,” Kaz said, swimming over to her.

  “Go where?” Finn asked.

  “Did our parents say we could stay at the library?” Little John asked.

  Claire didn’t answer. She just moved closer to the front door.

  “We can talk to Claire once we’re Outside,” Kaz said as he shrank down . . . down . . . down . . . and swam into the water bottle. Little John swam in behind him.

  “Come on, Finn!” Little John called from inside the bottle.

  “You’re coming with us, aren’t you?” Kaz asked.

  Finn shrugged. “I guess,” he said. He shrank down . . . down . . . down . . . and swam into the bottle with his brothers.

  Did Mom and Grandmom and Grandpop say we could stay at the library?” Little John asked Claire as soon as they were outside Eli’s house.

  “Are Grandmom and Grandpop still there? Or did they go back to Valley View?” Kaz asked.

  “What about Beckett?” Little John asked. “Have you seen Beckett? We couldn’t find him before we left.”

  “Why don’t you guys let the girl talk instead of asking so many questions,” Finn said.

  Claire raised her water bottle to her eye level so she could talk to the ghosts while she walked down the street. “Thanks, Finn,” she said. “Okay, here’s what happened. I came home from school yesterday and your parents and grandparents were really mad. They crowded around me and wanted to know where you were and when you were coming back.”