I looked up from my second plate of strawberry waffles. “I’m just hungry.”
“Fine,” said Mom. “But what’s the hurry?”
I opened my mouth to tell her, and then thought better of it. She’d heard enough ghost stuff.
After breakfast I called up Steve and Lucy.
“Get your butts over here,” I whispered into the phone. “I think I’ve solved the haunting.”
My two buds hurried right over. Steve was grinning from ear to ear as he bounced up the porch steps. But Lucy looked more serious. “What happened?” she asked. “What did you find out?”
“Follow me,” I said, leading them upstairs to my bedroom.
Once we were inside I shut the door and showed them the latest batch of old newspapers.
“Listen to this,” I said, and read from the article that had caught my attention.
The search for the Wood family’s missing ruby veered in a new direction yesterday as police questioned the bewildered nanny, Alice Everett, about its disappearance. A thorough search was made of the house. However, no progress was made, police admitted last night.
Miss Everett was too distraught to make any comment. The grief-stricken young woman was the only one present when the Woods’ only child, Robert, was killed in a fall from a cherry tree.
Mrs. Wood, mother of the dead boy, said she was very upset that the nanny was a suspect in the matter of the missing ruby.
Mr. and Mrs. Wood are leaving the home where so many happy memories have become painful. Mrs. Wood said Miss Everett would be staying on as caretaker of the house.
“Wow!” said Lucy, wide-eyed. “The witch is the nanny!”
I nodded. “That’s what I suspected, but this proves it. But why would the nanny kill Bobby?”
“Maybe Bobby knew what happened to the ruby and she didn’t want him to tell,” Steve suggested.
Lucy clapped her hands together. “Yes!” she exclaimed. “It’s finally starting to make sense.”
“Could be,” I said. “The witch-thing is the ghost of the nanny, Alice Everett. She lived in this house for years after Bobby died. And when she died, she became a ghost, too.”
Steve shook his head in disbelief. “I wonder if the old lady knew Bobby was haunting the house before she died.”
“Maybe Bobby hid the ruby,” said Lucy excitedly. “That’s why the old lady was so mean and never went anywhere.”
“Or she just hid the ruby herself out of meanness,” said Steve.
I nodded at them solemnly. “I think the ruby is still in the house,” I said. “And you guys are going to help me find it!”
29
“You know where we have to look first, don’t you?” said Lucy, chewing anxiously on the end of her ponytail.
“Not the cellar!” Steve protested.
I nodded—Lucy was right. “That’s where the witch hangs out,” I said. “There must be a good reason.”
“The nanny-ghost-witch doesn’t want us to find the ruby,” said Lucy. “That’s why it’s so scary down there.”
Steve picked up my baseball bat and hefted it. “This time will be different,” he vowed. “If that old beast comes after me, I’ll swing for the bleachers. Pow!”
He took a cut with the bat that made the air whistle.
“Okay,” he said. “Let’s do it.”
Mom had sent Sally off to some play group so we only had to lie low until my parents had shut themselves in their office.
“Everybody be as quiet as possible,” I whispered as we gathered in the kitchen.
We roped ourselves together like mountain climbers, just like the last time we made an expedition into the cellar.
“It may look silly,” said Lucy, double-knotting the rope at her waist, “but it sure worked.”
Lucy and Steve both had baseball bats as weapons. A sudden inspiration made me take the fire extinguisher from the kitchen wall.
“Here goes nothing,” I whispered, opening the basement door.
We all clicked on our flashlights and the beams sprang into the darkness.
I started down, the extinguisher held out in front of me like a machine gun. Let the old witch come for me! I’d blast her into smithereens.
The basement was as silent as a tomb.
“We’ll have to look in every box, every toe of every shoe,” I said, dumping a boxful of old boots onto the floor. “If that stolen ruby is here, we’ll find it.”
“That’s right,” said Lucy, a little more loudly than necessary. “And we’ll just stay right here until we do find it.”
“What if it’s not here?” Steve said, alarmed, but Lucy and I didn’t answer.
Lucy was sure we’d find the ruby. And I was sure the witch-nanny couldn’t bear for us to be messing in her things.
We searched in silence for a few minutes, our ears tensed for any sound.
“Hey, Jason, get a load of this,” teased Steve, pulling a battered straw hat from a box. “Just your size. You’ll have to wear it on our next expedition.”
I looked up and a movement behind Steve caught my eye.
But before I could get a better look there was a flash of light, a loud POP! and the sharp tinkle of shattering glass.
We were plunged into blackness.
30
“The lightbulb exploded,” said Lucy in a tense whisper. She blended into the shadows.
The image of Steve’s grin stayed behind my eyes like a photographic negative.
In a panic we shone our flashlights in every direction.
Cackling laughter sprang up and taunted us from every direction. Surrounded by the awful noise we huddled together, afraid to move.
HEEEEE-HEEEE-HEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
“Get out!” screamed the witch-ghost. “Get out or die!”
“There!” screamed Steve.
Lucy and I pointed our flashlights. I caught a flash of black material slipping into the darkness, then lost it.
Our light beams were shaking. My knees, too. I was ready to give up. I swept my flashlight around, looking for the stairs.
Then something soft hit my face! I couldn’t see! I was blinded.
The smell of death was filling my head and choking off my air.
My breath stopped. Dead air flowed down my throat and froze my lungs.
“Ahhhh!” screamed Steve. “She got me!”
I shook my head wildly but the clingy stuff stuck to my face.
Then something grabbed my shoulder. In a panic I flailed my
