“Hi, Claudia! Hi, Stacey!” Karen Brewer, Kristy’s seven-year-old stepsister, patted each girl on the head as she passed by.
“Hi, Karen, Andrew, Mrs. Engle,” Claudia said as they squeezed through, heading for a small table in the corner at the rear of the restaurant. Andrew is Karen’s younger brother; Mrs. Engle is their mother.
Byron folded his napkin into a paper airplane and sailed it toward the far end of the table where Tom sat. The napkin only made it as far as Adam, who picked it up and threw it a little farther. Claudia picked it up and returned it. They passed the airplane back and forth, until Tom grabbed it and wadded the napkin into a ball. He threw the ball at Byron and it hit Mrs. Pike.
“Tom, please apologize to Mrs. Pike,” Claudia said.
“Sorry,” Tom mumbled, folding his arms and looking down.
“I think you all need to stand up awhile,” said Mrs. Pike. She grabbed her purse and pulled out her billfold. “Here, go play video games while we’re waiting for the pizza.”
Tom stayed in his seat.
“You want to go too?” Claudia asked him.
Tom shook his head.
“At the theater you wanted to play video games more than you wanted to see the movie.”
“There aren’t any good ones here,” said Tom. “We had really good games at the arcade I used to go to. My mom used to let me play for hours. She would bring rolls of quarters when we went there.”
“That must have been fun,” said Claudia. “Which game is your favorite?”
“I like all of them. Except the ones they have here,” he added quickly.
“That’s too bad. Your dad gave me quarters in case you wanted to play.”
“Maybe later,” said Tom.
“Am I getting old or is it very noisy in here?” Mrs. Pike asked.
“It’s pretty noisy,” Stacey said. She’d given the girls a pencil and they were passing it around as they played ticktacktoe on napkins.
“Two in a row, one more to go,” Vanessa said.
“Claudia, did your new boyfriend ever come out of the bathroom?” Alan Gray asked, stopping at their table.
Claudia scowled. “This is Tom Cates. His dad is opening a bookstore in the old Gable house. I’m baby-sitting for him and his sister, Gillian.”
“Whatever you say.” Alan joined a table of eighth-grade boys.
“What boyfriend? Who is he talking about?” Stacey asked.
“It’s a long story.”
“Alan Gray’s so irritating,” said Stacey.
“Tell me about it.”
A small roar came from the video arcade. Mrs. Pike rushed to see what was going on. An older kid had cut in line in front of Adam. Adam tried to explain that he’d been waiting, but the boy had pushed him. Adam’s brothers protested and some friends of the older boy joined him. Soon everyone was shouting and pushing.
After Mrs. Pike and some other mothers separated the boys, they returned to the table. The pizzas arrived at the same time.
“No wonder they have to stay with their mom,” said Tom.
Tom and Gillian ate their pizza without even a pause. Claudia had hoped they’d make it last until Mr. Cates arrived, but they didn’t.
“My cheese is in bed, a bed of red, it’s soft and chewy, stretchy and gooey,” Vanessa rhymed.
“Does she always talk like that?” Gillian whispered to Claudia.
“Only some of the time,” said Claudia. “She wants to be a poet.”
As soon as they were finished eating, Mrs. Pike rounded up her family and left.
As more people left, a few at a time, the noise level gradually decreased. After Stacey and Charlotte left, Tom decided he would play video games. Gillian stood close by him, watching.
Claudia breathed a sigh of relief when the restaurant quieted down. She couldn’t wait to get home.
I’d agreed to return to Poe and Co. on Monday to help.
“More of the BSC to meet?” Ms. Spark asked when I entered with Abby, Stacey, and Claudia. “I do know Claudia, from Saturday.”
I introduced the rest of my friends to her.
“Uh-oh,” said Abby. “I feel by dose stoppig up already.”
“I don’t think we can open the windows with the rain and everything,” I said. “Abby’s allergic to paint,” I explained to Ms. Spark.
“Maybe you should go upstairs and supervise Tom and Gillian,” she suggested. “Larry hasn’t even thought about painting anything up there yet.”
“That’s great,” said Abby.
“And Claudia, Mary Anne mentioned that you’re the artist in the group. Is there any chance you could paint some trim on this wall?” Ms. Spark pointed at the white wall Logan and I had primed on Saturday.
“I guess it depends on what you want me to paint,” said Claudia.
“Let me take care of some other jobs and then we’ll talk about some ideas I have,” Ms. Spark said. “Mary Anne, would you take Abby upstairs and introduce her to Tom and Gillian? Let’s see, what else do we need? Stacey, would you like to check in more books? I’ll show you what to do.”
“Abby, let’s go upstairs and meet Tom and Gillian,” I said. “Then I’ll come back and help Stacey.”
“Good, by dose is really stuffy,” said Abby, sniffing.
At the top of the stairs I called Tom and Gillian.
“We’re in the living room,” Gillian answered.
I followed the sound of her voice.
“It used to be a bedroom,” Tom said when we entered the room.
“Nice,” said Abby.
“This is Abby Stevenson. She’s going to stay up here with you guys this afternoon,” I explained.
“Another baby-sitter?” said Tom. He turned and stared at the television.
Gillian smiled at Abby. “Do you know how to play Hi, Ho Cherry-O?” she asked. “We have that game.”
“Where’s my dad?” asked Tom. “I don’t want to stay up here with girls all afternoon.”
“He’s busy,” Abby said.
Ouch, I thought. That’s probably the last thing he wants to hear.
“Pretty soon the store will open and things will settle down a little,” I added.
“Right,” said Tom, looking at me as if I had three eyes.
“I’ll be downstairs if you need anything,” I said to Abby.
As I came down the steps, I heard a familiar but unexpected voice.
“Those boxes must be heavy.” What was Alex Gable doing back here? I wondered.
He was in the receiving room, lifting boxes onto the table beside Stacey.
“Hi, Alex,” I greeted him.
“Hi. You were here on Saturday. Mary Anne, right?”
“Right. I see you’ve met Stacey. She’s in the BSC too,” I told him.
Alex had hoisted a box halfway to the table when it slipped out of his hands and books tumbled across the floor. “You are?” His eyes grew large as he stared at Stacey. “I thought I’d seen you at Stoneybrook High.”
“I’m thirteen, just like Mary Anne,” said Stacey, smiling.
“You’re sure?” Alex asked, glancing at me.
Did he think we were kidding him?
Stacey assured him she was thirteen as we gathered the loose books and stacked them on one end of the table.
“Is Mr. Cates here? Or are you in charge?” Again, Alex turned to Stacey. He leaned forward, resting his arm on the table and smiled broadly.
Alex Gable was flirting with Stacey! It somehow made him seem a lot more like other high school boys.
“Mr. Cates is here,” Stacey answered.
“And Ms. Spark,” I added. “They’re in the office.”
“I’m picking up some papers for my dad. There wasn’t anyone in the front room, only workmen in Benson Dalton Gable’s office, and then I found Stacey.” Again, Alex smiled at her. “Have you seen the entire house yet?” he asked.
“Today’s my first day on the job. But Mary Anne’s been here a couple of times,” said S
tacey.
“You haven’t seen anything … odd, have you?” Alex asked me.
“Odd? What do you mean?”
“Just how much do you know about Benson Dalton Gable?” Alex asked.
“Just that he used to live here,” said Stacey.
Not as much as I want to, I thought. “Only what you talked about last Saturday,” I answered.
“Did you know that there’s a mystery surrounding his death?” Alex said in a low voice.
Stacey and I shook our heads. I moved a little closer to Stacey.
“For one thing, no one knows for sure when he died because we’ve never been able to find his grave. And Poe was one of his last-known visitors.” Alex grinned, watching us closely.
“Have you ever read any of Poe’s stories? ‘The Cask of Amontillado’? ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’?” he asked.
I felt cold and rubbed my arms. “I have,” I answered. Stacey shook her head again.
“Then you know what they’re about. In both stories, one man kills another and hides the body. Behind a wall, under the floor. Actually, in ‘The Cask of Amontillado,’ he doesn’t even bother to kill the man first. He walls him up alive.”
I wouldn’t want to be around a campfire with Alex Gable telling ghost stories. What he said and the way he said it gave me goosebumps.
Stacey moved a little closer to me. “Do you think the house is haunted?” she asked. It was just what I was thinking. “Could his body still be,” Stacey looked around, “here?”
Alex shrugged. “Who knows? Many of his papers vanished too. And that happened around the time of his death. The two could be connected. Dad and I would like to publish a collection of his work, but there are too many gaps. I’ve looked everywhere in the house, but I keep thinking that with all the construction, maybe something will turn up. You haven’t seen anything, have you?”
“Nope,” I said.
“Keep your eyes open and give me a call if you do,” said Alex — to Stacey, not to me.
“Mr. Cates is in his office,” I said. “Knock if you need to see him.”
“Thanks.” Alex smiled at Stacey one last time, then left.
“He’s a cheery person to have around,” said Stacey. “Now I feel like I may be walking on top of Benson Dalton Gable every time I take a step.”
“That’s an interesting notion,” I said. “I wonder if there’s anything to back up Alex’s theory, or if his imagination is working overtime.”
“I don’t have a clue.”
“Well, let’s get to work,” I said.
We’d checked in two boxes of books when I heard a commotion in the hall.
“Tom, you said you were going to the kitchen for a snack,” I heard Abby say.
“Be back in a minute,” I said to Stacey.
“I did. Look.” When I joined them, Tom was holding out a handful of cookies.
“You know you aren’t supposed to bother your dad,” Abby continued. “Please go back upstairs.”
“What happened?” I asked as Tom disappeared at the top of the stairway.
“Tom came downstairs to eat a snack, which I thought was okay, but he was gone so long, I came down to check. I found him in the office with his dad and Ms. Spark.”
“Go back upstairs before you’re all stuffed up again,” I said. “Is everything else all right?”
“Tom and Gillian spend more time whispering to each other than they do talking to me, but it’s okay,” said Abby, heading for the stairs.
As I passed Benson Dalton Gable’s old office, I saw someone leaning over the desk. “Professor Kingsolver?” I asked.
“Hello,” she said quickly, straightening up. “I couldn’t seem to find anyone but workmen around.”
“Mr. Cates is in his office,” I said. I looked around the room. It had undergone a slight change since the last time I’d been in there. The old wall had been ripped away, and new drywall installed. It hadn’t been primed yet — a job for Logan.
“I’ve often imagined Poe and Gable sitting across from one another at this desk. See, it has places for two people to sit.” Professor Kingsolver showed me the kneeholes on each side. “They would be discussing writing, maybe even exchanging manuscripts.” She looked around the room as she ran her hand over the desk slowly.
Meow. Meeeeoooow.
Professor Kingsolver jumped and moved a few steps backward, toward the door. I knelt down to search for Pluto. He sounded scared. I couldn’t see him, though.
I heard a scratching sound across the room.
“Where is he?” Professor Kingsolver said in a shaky voice.
“It sounds as if he’s over there,” I said, pointing. The cat meowed again as I stared at the new drywall. He sounded nearby, yet muffled. Then I remembered the story, “The Black Cat,” and how the cat had ended up trapped behind the wall. It crawled in while the husband was hiding his murdered wife’s body. A chill settled over me. Did I want to find the cat?
The meows became more frantic. I had to find him. As soon as I pressed my ear against the raw wallboard, the meows stopped. Could Pluto really have gotten behind the wall? Maybe he was trapped in a neighboring room.
“Maybe he’s closed up in the room next door,” I said to Professor Kingsolver. “I’ll check.”
Professor Kingsolver followed me into the hallway.
I paused and looked up and down what now seemed a dim, dark tunnel instead of the formerly inviting hall. No cat. No meows.
There was only one door near Benson Dalton Gable’s office. I opened it and the meows resumed. It was a small closet, and remembering what had happened to Ms. Spark my first day on the job, I stepped back quickly expecting the cat to jump out. He didn’t.
The kitchen was on the other side of the office, but after a quick check, I realized that the meowing couldn’t have come from there. Appliances lined the wall between the kitchen and Gable’s office.
“Did you find the cat?” Professor Kingsolver asked as I returned to the hall.
“Not yet.” I tried to smile.
I stood at the door to the office and examined each wall carefully. The meows resumed, again seeming to come from behind the new drywall. “Pluto. Here, kitty,” I called softly. I tapped on the wall.
A scratch and a meow answered my call. I decided it was time to tell Mr. Cates what might have happened.
I ran the short distance down the hall to his office and knocked on the door.
“Enter!” he called.
“I’m sorry to bother you, but I think Pluto is trapped behind the wall in Benson Dalton Gable’s office,” I said breathlessly.
Mr. Cates and Ms. Spark stood up quickly and followed me to the small room.
The cat was howling now. The noise had drawn Stacey into the hallway and she stood beside Professor Kingsolver.
“What is that?” asked Stacey.
“I think the cat’s behind the wall,” I explained.
Ms. Spark summoned one of the workmen, and he and Mr. Cates used a small axe to knock a hole in the fresh wallboard well above Pluto. The workman reached inside the hole and ripped the new drywall away from the studs.
As soon as the opening was big enough, Pluto jumped out and ran away.
Pluto must have crawled inside after the old wall was torn away and was still there when the new wall was nailed into place. No wonder he was upset!
“I’ll fix this right away,” the workman said to Mr. Cates. “I never would have thought to see if a cat was in there, before I finished up.”
“Thanks, Andy,” Mr. Cates answered.
“This is the oddest place,” said Professor Kingsolver. “There are some very strange things going on here. That black cat … walled up, just like in the Poe story.”
Professor Kingsolver was saying out loud what I was thinking. And she didn’t even know about the sound of the beating heart.
“I think this house is haunted,” Professor Kingsolver burst out.
“I hope not,” Mr. Cates said, laughing ner
vously. “I’ve sunk my life savings into this place, and if a ghost scares away my customers, I’m in big trouble.”
“That won’t happen. It’s all coincidence,” said Ms. Spark, patting Mr. Cates’s arm as she glared at the professor.
“Did you — did you find that drip I heard Saturday?” I asked.
“Drip?”
“The sound Logan and I heard, while you were gone,” I said. “Like a —”
“Oh, yeah!” he said before I could go any further. “No, we looked, but we didn’t find a thing.”
* * *
The first thing I did at the BSC meeting that afternoon was pull out the mystery notebook. We use it to keep track of clues when we’re involved in a mystery. (We’ve solved quite a few.) I thought that there were definitely mysterious things happening at Poe and Co.
I listed everyone we’d met at the store so far: Ms. Spark, Professor Kingsolver, Alex Gable, and his father. I added Mr. Cates, Tom, and Gillian. Who in this group might be behind the strange happenings and why?
Kristy didn’t give me a chance to finish what I intended to write down. “What are you doing?” she asked as I stared at the list of names, thinking.
“So many weird things have happened at Poe and Co. I thought it was time to start keeping a record,” I said.
“A mystery!” said Abby. “I have a question. Where is Mrs. Cates?”
“I don’t know,” I answered. “All Mr. Cates said was that she left. And Tom and Gillian seem to be having trouble with it.”
“They don’t like Ms. Spark much, that’s for sure,” Abby said. “I think Tom wanted to see what they were doing in his dad’s office and that’s why he went in. Also, he made me a little nervous every time he and Gillian whispered together. I hope they weren’t planning something else for Ms. Spark. She seems pretty nice to me.”
“They could be trying to scare her away,” Kristy said. “Remember the first day you sat for them? Tom shut the cat in the closet, and then told her to open the door.”
“But how would they make the sound of that heartbeat?” I asked. “And would they know about the Poe stories?”
“Alex Gable seems to think there may be a dead body someplace in the Gable house. Benson Dalton Gable’s body,” said Stacey.