9 Ghosts Uncovered

CHAPTER 9 GHOSTS UNCOVERED "ReH-reH-REE! ReH-reH-REE!" The noise was coming from under a bed in the corner of the attic. "Is that the noise Mrs. Beesley heard?" Claire asked, wrinkling her nose. "You're right. That doesn't sound like a ghost at all." "Actually, Little John sort of sounds like that when he laughs," Kaz said. Could Little John be hiding up there somewhere? Could he be Mrs. Beesley's ghost? Kaz dived down and swam under the bed. It was dark under there, but Kaz could still see pretty

well. "Is there anything under there?" Claire asked. Clumps of dust. Acorns. A pencil. But no ghosts. "ReH-reH-REE!" Kaz spun around. "Little John?" "ReH-reH-REE!" The noise wasn't just coming from under this bed. It was coming from a hole in a floorboard... under the bed. Kaz stared into the hole, but it was too dark to see anything. So he shrunk down as small as he could and dived into the hole. He counted one... two... three... four... five HUGE pairs of eyes staring at him.

"Aaaaaaahhhhhh!" he screamed as he shot out of the hole and up from under the bed. "What?" Claire leaped out of Kaz's way as he expanded to his normal size. "What's the matter? Did you find Mrs. Beesley's ghost?" "Yes," Kaz said, his heart pounding like crazy. "But they're not ghosts. They're solids!" "They're?" Claire said. "You mean there's more than one?" Kaz nodded. "What are they?" "I don't know," Kaz said. "All I know is they're small... and furry... and they have

really big, scary eyes. There are a whole bunch of them under that bed!" Claire knelt down and peered under the bed. "No, no," Kaz said. He knew Claire would never see them like that. "You have to crawl under there to see them. You might even have to move the bed. They're in a hole in the floor." Claire stood up, grabbed hold of the edge of the bed, and pulled. Kaz backed away.

"There," he said, pointing at the hole. "They're in there." Claire opened her bag and took out a flashlight. She shone its light in the hole. "I don't see them," she said. She dropped to her knees and looked closer. "Oh," she said, rocking back onto her heels. "Now I see." Claire smiled at Kaz. "So... the chill in the air that Mrs. Beesley felt and the slammed door were probably caused by the wind from the open window. And Eli really did come over to get his ball like he said. But the 'marbles,' the crying, the reH-reH-REE sound, the rustling, the thumping, the scratching, the footsteps, the broken lamp—all of that was caused by our 'ghosts' that aren't really ghosts." Kaz was impressed. Claire sounded like a real detective. Claire swept the beam of her flashlight across the lamp cord... a pile of strange black pellets...

and some acorns, then moved the flashlight back to the black pellets. "In fact," Claire said, walking over to the pellets. "I think we missed some clues. I bet our 'ghosts' left these behind." "How did the 'ghosts' even get in here?" Kaz asked. "Did they come in through the window?" "I don't think so," Claire said as she walked along the far wall of the attic. "Mrs. Beesley said