6 THE GHOST COMES BACK

CHAPTER 6 THE GHOST COMES BACK So, did you bring home any more lost ghosts?" Beckett asked as he met Kaz and Claire in the library entryway. Claire twisted the top off the bottle, and Kaz swam out and expanded to his normal size. Kaz's ghost dog and Claire's solid cat scampered over to greet them. Claire gave Thor's ears a quick scratch. "No," Kaz said glumly. He rubbed Cosmo's belly. "We need to talk about this case," Claire said as she headed for the craft room. Kaz, Beckett, and

Cosmo followed. Claire sat down at the table. "I don't know about you, Kaz, but I think Jonathan saw a real ghost." Kaz agreed. "And I think the ghost he saw was probably your mom," Claire said. Kaz agreed with that, too. "But you searched the whole school and you didn't find her," Claire went on. "That's because she's not there anymore," Kaz said. "Well, that's what I thought... until we saw that message after school," Claire said. "My mom didn't write that message," Kaz said. His mom would never draw creepy eyes on a wall or write a scary message. "What message?" Beckett asked. "Someone wrote, 'Beware. I'm here. And I'm watching' on a wall at my school," Claire said. "We don't know who wrote it. It could've been a

ghost." "It wasn't a ghost," Kaz said. Claire unzipped her bag and pulled out her clues notebook. "Let's write down everything we know about this case," she said. "The things we know for sure. Maybe that'll give us a clue about who could have written it." Kaz and Beckett hovered above Claire as she wrote: 1. Jonathan saw a ghost in the cafetorium

yesterday. 2. Kaz found a bead that belongs to his mom. He found it close to where Jonathan saw the ghost yesterday. "You found a bead that belongs to your mother?" Beckett asked. "Yes." Kaz reached into his pocket and pulled out the ghost bead. "How do you know it's your mother's?" Beckett reached for the bead, but Kaz held tight to it. "I just do," Kaz said, slipping the bead back inside his pocket. He knew his mom's necklace when he saw it. Claire kept writing: 3. Someone drew two eyes and wrote "Beware. I'm here. And I'm watching" in— Claire raised her head. "We don't know what they wrote it with. Maybe paint. But maybe ghost blood." "Ghost blood!" Beckett sniffed. "There's no

such thing as ghost blood." "That's what I told her," Kaz said. "But it did kind of glow. You know, like ghosts do." Claire added: —something. We don't know what they wrote it in. Then she moved on to number four. "We're pretty sure the storage room was locked," she said out loud as she wrote. "But Mr. Hartshorn's keys were on the table," Kaz said. "A girl named Amber thought that a boy named Noah took them and wrote the message. And Noah thought Amber did it." Claire set down her pencil and leaned back against her chair. "Anyone could have taken Mr. Hartshorn's keys and written that message. Or... a ghost could've passed through the wall or the door and written it." Kaz didn't think a ghost had done it, but he didn't want to argue with Claire. "You should come to school with me again

tomorrow and look for more clues," Claire told Kaz. "No," Beckett said, shaking his head. "Absolutely not. Kaz already had a day off from his ghost skills. He can't take another day off." "You know what, Beckett?" Claire said, her hands on her hips. "You're not the boss of Kaz. If he wants to come to school with me, he can!" "That's right," Kaz said. He decided he would go to school with Claire again tomorrow. He would try to figure out who wrote that message on the storage-room wall. Maybe he'd even find more beads from his mom's necklace. The next day, while Claire was in class, Kaz searched her school for clues. And for beads. He didn't find any clues or beads. After school, he watched Claire's rehearsal again. Today, the red curtain was open and there was a small house in the middle of the stage. Jack's house. Kaz floated all around it. He was