4 THE DUMBWAITER

CHAPTER 4 THE DUMBWAITER Did you hear that?" Claire sputtered as the girls walked over to the elevators. "That other librarian called me a little girl!" Kaz and Little John hurried to catch up. "Like I said, I don't know why Lynette is a children's librarian," Maddie said. "She's good with books and technology, but she's not so good with kids. I think she's scared of kids." Claire looked doubtful. "Grown-ups aren't scared of kids," she said. "Some of them are," Maddie said. The elevator doors opened, and Claire and Maddie stepped inside. Kaz and Little John

followed them in. "Which floor?" Claire asked. "Fifth. That's where the dumbwaiter is," Maddie said. She reached around Claire and pushed the button. The doors closed, and the elevator started rising. "Wow. There are eleven floors in this library," Little John said, staring at all the elevator buttons. "That's a lot of floors," Kaz said. He wondered what was on all those floors. The elevator stopped on the fifth floor. The doors opened, and everyone got out. "Where's the dumbwaiter?" Claire asked. There was a railing in front of them. Beyond the railing was a huge wall of light blue diamond- shaped windows. "Over here," Maddie said. She led Claire and the ghosts around the corner. There were no bookshelves on this floor. Just lots of people working at computers.

"This is it," Maddie said. She stopped in front of a tall pillar that had a metal door in the middle. The door was closed. Claire put her ear to the door. "I don't hear anything," she said. "Just wait," Maddie said. "You will." The girls and the ghosts watched the door and waited for something to happen. "The ghost is going to start crying any second now," Maddie said, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. They waited some more. Finally, Little John said, "What are we waiting for? Let's go in there and talk to the ghost." "Oh, that's a good idea," Claire said. "What's a good idea?" Maddie asked. "Little John wants to go inside the dumbwaiter and talk to the ghost," Claire told Maddie. "I don't know if we should barge in uninvited," Kaz said. "Let's just talk to it from out here." He

wafted over to the door. "Hello? Is anyone in there?" No one answered. "We're ghosts, too," Little John said. "Any ghost in there will be happy to see us." He shrank a little so he'd fit inside the compartment, then plunged headfirst through the door. Kaz wasn't so sure the ghost would be happy to see them. But he shrank and followed his brother, anyway.

There were two shelves inside the dumbwaiter. Kaz and Little John checked both shelves. There was nothing on either one. No books. No other ghosts. Nothing. "Maybe the ghost isn't home right now," Little John said. "Should we wait?" "Nah," Kaz said. "Let's go report back to Claire." They passed through the door and exp-aa- a-a-a-nded. "There's no ghost in there," Little John announced. "They said there isn't a ghost in there," Claire told Maddie. "There has to be," Maddie said, staring at the pillar. "People hear it crying in there all the time." "Maybe it left," Claire said with a shrug. "Maybe," Maddie said. But it didn't sound like she believed that. "Or maybe it's not a real ghost," Kaz said. "Maybe it's just someone pretending to be a ghost

to make people think the library is haunted when it's really not." "Solid people like to do that sort of thing," Little John said. "Especially around Halloween," Kaz added. He felt bad that Maddie couldn't hear what he and Little John were saying. But if they wailed, then everyone in the library would hear them. "Let's search the rest of the library," Maddie said. "Maybe it found a new place to hang out." She led Claire past the computers and over to a tall, narrow escalator. Behind the escalator was a staircase that led down into a strange red tunnel. Kaz hoped they weren't going down there. "Should we split up?" Claire asked. "We could cover more ground in less time." "Well, I can't see ghosts like you can," Maddie reminded Claire. "I don't mean you and I should split up. I mean Kaz, Little John, and I should split up," Claire said.