9 FOUND!

CHAPTER 9 FOUND! Is that...?" Little John stared at the ghostly shoe that floated in front of him. Kaz grabbed the shoe and turned it all around. "It sure looks like Finn's shoe," he said. The voice sounded like Finn's, too. "Finn?" Kaz called. "Are you here?" A ghost boy's head popped through the floor in front of Kaz. "I thought you wanted to play hide- and-seek," the boy said as he rose through the floor. "But you're not even hiding. Got you!" He tagged Kaz. "Got you, too!" He tagged Little John. Kaz and Little John gaped at their big brother. It really was him!

"You're the ghost at Eli's house?" Little John said, not quite believing it. "Yes," Finn said. "You're the one who dropped the marbles down the stairs?" Kaz said. "You're the one who left that book on Eli's bed and made everyone think Eli was trying to scare people away? And you're the one who kept appearing and disappearing in front of Eli?"

"Yes. Yes. And yes!" Finn said. "Why?" Kaz asked. "And why didn't you let us know you were here? You must have known we were here. We've been here for hours!" "I wanted to see if you could figure it out," Finn said with a shrug. "I thought you were a big- shot detective now." Kaz narrowed his eyes. "How do you know I'm a detective?" he asked. "A few months ago, I heard Eli talking about a girl detective who finds and catches ghosts," Finn said. "Then I saw a girl go into that house next door. I knew she was the detective because I recognized her from when I was in the library. That is one weird solid girl!" "Claire's not weird," Little John said. "She's nice." Finn snorted. "Any solid who can see ghosts when they're not glowing is weird!" He took his shoe from Kaz and plopped it on his right foot. There was no shoe on his left foot.

"Anyway," Finn went on. "I saw you floating outside the house next door a couple of months ago. That girl, Claire, was chasing you and calling your name. I figured you were working together. I've been trying to get Eli to call your detective agency forever! I had to glow a lot before he finally believed I was a ghost and not his imagination." "Why did you only glow around him and around people who want to buy this house?" Kaz asked. "Why didn't you let the rest of his family see you, too?" "I thought that if he was the only one in the family who saw me, and he was getting blamed for things I was doing, then maybe he'd finally call you guys," Finn explained. "But he never did. Not until he saw that girl walk by his house the other day." "Hey, I think I saw you float across the window," Kaz said, remembering the ghostly whatever-it-was he saw for just a second. "Cosmo

probably saw you, too. I bet that's why he was going crazy. Did you see us inside Claire's water bottle?" "Her water bottle?" Finn said. "What were you doing in there? And why are you guys hanging out with a solid girl, anyway? Why aren't you at the old schoolhouse?" There was no quick answer to that. Kaz took a deep breath. "We better start at the beginning," he said. He and Little John told Finn what all had happened since he had passed through the wall and blown away from the old schoolhouse. They told him about the old schoolhouse getting torn down— "Wait. What?" Finn cried. "The old schoolhouse isn't there anymore?" Kaz and Little John shook their heads. Then they told Finn about how the rest of the family had gotten separated, too. Little John told about the ghosts he met in the purple house. Kaz told about meeting Claire, and how they'd formed C & K

Ghost Detectives, and how none of their cases had led to real ghosts. But still, somehow, they'd managed to find Cosmo, Little John, Grandmom and Grandpop, Mom and Pops, and now him. "Wow. That's amazing," Finn said. "So, where have you been all this time?" Little John asked Finn. "Well," Finn began. "First I rode the wind with Grandmom and Grandpop. They stayed together because they were holding hands, but I got separated from them when the wind blew me into a house.