The Mystery In the Window by Headline Books / Zoom Into Books

Angie Wilson

The Mystery in the Window

When her teacher informs the class that Duchess, the school cat, is missing, Gracie jumps right in on the case. She is used to snooping around, but when she finds a message in the window of an old, abandoned house, she thinks it's a little too freaky. BUT ... they don't call her 'Super Spy' for nothing—she decides she is not going to be scared away. When she finds more mysterious things going on in the old house, can she get anyone to investigate with her?

Award winning author, Angie Wilson, is a veteran elementary school teacher. Her books, Dori's Gift, and Dori's Activity Book, were awarded Mom's Choice Awards and Mrs. Wilson was a featured author at Book Expo America 2014. The Mystery at Darcy’s Discount Store won a Gold Mom’s choice Award and Reader’s Favorite International Book Award Honorable Mention for Best Children’s Book Grades 4-6. She is very active in the Headline Kids School Show Program and visits classrooms throughout the year. She can often be found traveling with her husband, Derek, a church consultant and minister. À

Award-winning author and illustrator, Ashley Teets, is a summa cum laude graduate of Alderson-Broaddus College where she earned a bachelor's of visual arts degree with a minor in creative writing. She has illustrated multiple award winning children's books. Ashley is also a portrait artist and muralist. For more information visit www.AshleyTeetsIllustration.com ISBN 9781882658527

$8.95

CAD 10.92

9 781882 658527 2015 Independent Publisher of the Year www.HeadlineBooks.com

50895

Gracie and The Mystery in the Window

Angie Wilson

illustrated by Ashley Teets

Headline Kids an imprint of Headline Books, Inc. Terra Alta, WV

Gracie and The Mystery in the Window by Angie Wilson illustrated by Ashley Teets copyright ©2016 Angie Wilson All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any other form or for any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage system, without written permission from Headline Books. To order additional copies of this book, for book publishing information, or to contact the author: Headline Books, Inc. P.O. Box 52, Terra Alta, WV 26764 www.HeadlineBooks.com Tel: 800-570-5951 Email: mybook@headlinebooks.com Headline Kids is an imprint of Headline Books

ISBN-13: 9781882658527 Library of Congress Control Number: 2015959680

P R I N T E D I N T H E U N I T E D S TAT E S O F A M E R I C A

For Laura, Alysha, and all of my other ‘Joy Belles’ who spent many Wednesday nights ministering to the precious souls at the nursing home.

Chapter 1 I jumped out of our car and hit the ground running. I’d had a bad morning—no, it was without a doubt the most awful, dreadful, terrible morning of my entire ten-and-a-half years on earth. The only thing that would have made it worse was for me to be tardy for school, so I raced up the sidewalk and frantically ran to the door. I almost made it ...but the bell rang as I ran along and Mrs. Caldwell, the door monitor, had left her post and the door was locked. I was doomed. As I walked around to the other entrance, the whole morning flashed before me. First, I overslept. Then, my toothbrush fell in the toilet (thankful for the extra one from my dentist). Next, I stubbed my toe on the edge of my dresser. Then, I dropped my Pop Tart on the way to the car and I stepped in something the neighbor’s pooper-scooper missed. And now, I’m late for school. I hate being late. 5

I hate the feeling of walking into a room and suddenly all eyes are looking at you. I hate hearing my teacher, Ms. T (short for Tameroski) say, “Gracie, I’m glad you decided to join us today.” I hate unloading my backpack when everyone else is already working on the morning assignment. Every little noise I make seems extra loud—like I’m doing it into a megaphone. But, the reason I hate the most is the fact that I will get lunch detention after three tardies ...and this is my second one this year. When I finally made it to class, after standing in line forev-er at the office behind all of the other late kids to get my tardy slip, the class was in the middle of a pop quiz. COULD THIS DAY GET ANY WORSE? I made it through the five questions about the story we had to read last night and didn’t miss a beat. It’s a good thing I always do my homework. Brayden Ericson, the class clown and the kid who never does his homework, was in a cold sweat. I think he might actually keep his mouth shut today ...no, I doubt it. It was a kinda normal morning after that, until lunch. We had Shepherd’s Pie, so yes, the day did get worse. At recess, however, things started looking up. Kenzie, my BFF, and I headed to our favorite spot on the playground—the top of the jungle-gym dome. It’s the coolest place ever. It’s taller than all the other equipment and built in on all sides with four windows—one facing each direction. It’s a super spy’s paradise! 6

We took our book bags, full of our spy supplies, to the dome and that is where the fun began. I unzipped my bag and rummaged through the sticky notes, pens, notebooks and pink camouflaged duct tape until I finally found my most prized possession—my binoculars! If there’s one thing you should know about me, it’s the fact that I always use my binoculars to investigate the world around me. My mom says I’m nosy, but I like to call it inquisitive. I slowly began to scan around the playground to see if anything suspicious was going on. Nope! Just the same ol’ same ol’—same ol’—kids playing the same ol’ games—like ball and tag and that kind of stuff. Boring. So, I started to check out the neighborhood around us. The school is in the middle of town, totally surrounded by houses and a couple of stores. Still, nothing was going on. Kenzie took a turn with the binoculars as I pulled out my notebook in case something came up. Little did we know that we were being spied on. Yes, we were about to find ourselves in the middle of a mystery that would upset the entire Brentwood Elementary School. Ms. T blew her whistle and we all lined up. She looked a little upset, but that wasn’t a big deal. Teachers look that way a lot. Ms. Then told us there was a crisis—Duchess was missing! Our entire class was shocked. Duchess—missing? Oh, no. It can’t be.

You see, Duchess is our school pet. She’s a stray cat that makes herself at home at the school. She’s always either on the playground or sleeping on a windowsill. She even wanders inside sometimes. Everyone takes turns feeding her. The teachers and students have bought enough cat food to last her a lifetime. Well, at least for one of her nine lives. We couldn’t believe our ears. How could this happen? Ms. T told us that Mr. Riverton, our principal, has been looking for Duchess for two days and he wants everyone to keep an eye out for her. Well, he doesn’t have to look any longer. He now has Super Spy Gracie on the case. This just made my day—a new case to solve. I wasn’t sure how, or when, or where, but one thing I knew...I would find Duchess. Kenzie and I spent every recess for the next two days in the jungle gym dome, searching for Duchess. Her mom even bought her a pair of binoculars so we could search more territory. The first big clue came at 12:35 on Wednesday. I was slowly scanning the area surrounding the school when I noticed something strange. Across the street from the playground is an old, abandoned house. It has three stories with lots of windows, little balconies, and little lacy, curly-cue looking decorations on every corner. And let me tell you, there are lots of little corners on this house. I must admit it’s not my favorite house in town. 8

Just looking at it gives me the heebie-jeebies. The paint is peeling, the porch is slanting, and it has two round windows in the front that kinda look like eyes. This old house has been watching the town for at least one hundred years. I mean, just between you and me ...it scares me! But, as spooky as it may be, I have checked it out closely every day because it’s the perfect hiding place for a curious cat. I zoomed in so I could investigate every little corner and I saw something on the third floor that made me gasp. Kenzie quickly turned and came to my window to ask me what I saw. It was a spooky kind of feeling, the kind that feels like your stomach suddenly takes a nose dive and decides to go hang out with your toes. I literally couldn’t say a word, but just stood there frozen, managing only to point. As she studied the house, she gasped, too. Had something changed since yesterday? ...Yes. Had someone been in the house? ...Yes. Could it have been Duchess? ...Absolutely not. Someone had messed with the curtain on the third floor window.

Chapter 2 Okay, so yesterday, and again on Monday, the curtains on the third floor were just hanging there. There was nothing weird about them or strange, but today—a totally different story. Someone had taken the two white, almost see through, curtains and tied them in a knot! This is Craziness with a capital ‘C.’ I mean, this house has been empty for longer than I’ve been alive. It looks like it is slowly crumbling. No one ever paints it, or cleans it, or does anything to it—except cut the grass. This is without doubt the weirdest thing ever! Kenzie and I were freaked out, to say the least. The two of us kept staring into our binoculars—afraid to look, but then afraid not to look as well. Our mouths were wide open in shock and we were speechless (I know, it’s hard to believe that I can be speechless, but it does happen). Although I was quiet on the outside, my mind was racing around in a hundred different directions trying to figure out 10

what was up. Okay, there’s always an answer to everything that seems spooky. We just have to figure it out! But, how could we possibly figure out what is going on in that old house? I kept searching, there had to be clues— there had to be an explanation. “It must be a ghost,” Kenzie stammered, “There’s just no other way to explain it.” I thought the same thing, but was just afraid to say it, then I remembered what my mom says about ghosts. “Kenzie, there’s no such thing as a ghost.” I said, trying to convince myself as I spoke. We just stood there staring until Ms. T blew her whistle and both of us nearly jumped out of our skin. “Well, we need to keep a closer eye on that house,” Kenzie whispered as we were in line. The two of us headed inside, but our minds were far away from schoolwork all afternoon. As Mom and I ate dinner, I filled her in on the weird curtain thing. She said there had to be a “logical explanation”. I wasn’t sure what that meant, so she put it in fifth grade words for me.

“Gracie, there has to be a clear-cut reason to what happened because curtains don’t just move on their own and we know that ghosts are not real. Someone was in the house. That’s your answer. The house belongs to Mrs. Sullivan who lives across the street. Maybe she is going to sell it, or perhaps she was cleaning. There could be a hundred reasons for what happened,” Mom said as she spooned a second helping of green beans onto her plate. Suddenly, the big mystery of the day did not seem so big. I stuck my fork into the baked fish filet, dipped it in tartar sauce, and just kinda twirled it around on my plate. I felt like a balloon with a leak. You know what I mean ...the way you feel when someone takes the wind out of your sails. I called Kenzie and I told her what Mom said. We decided we were just a little too freaked out over it and should probably just focus on the real issue of finding Duchess. We didn’t have any clues as to what happened to her, but we would work on it tomorrow at recess. The next morning at school, Ms. T had some news about Duchess. She said Mr. Riverton had left food and water for her and it looked like she ate some of it. He said she would probably show up soon. “How much did she eat?” we asked. “She ate most of it, which is really not like Duchess,” Ms. T answered. This led to a class discussion. Everyone was asking questions at the same time. We were all worried about her, because she is a big cat that loves to do two things—eat and sleep. 12

Why would she only eat some of her food? Was she sick? Was another animal eating the food? Ms. T said that we had a “valid point” (she uses that phrase a lot and we knew that it meant we had a good point). She told us to keep looking and we all agreed finding Duchess was on the top our list. We even suggested we skip the afternoon science lesson and go outside to look for her. Ms. T just gave us that ‘teacher look’ —you know what I’m talking about—where we knew her answer even though she didn’t say a word. But, we all agreed to keep searching. That was our plan and it was a great one, that is, until our discovery at recess. Kenzie and I both ran to the dome and gasped once again. What we saw in the window made cold chills run up our spine. The curtain was untied, but that wasn’t the scary part. We stood there unable to move, staring at the window. Someone or some thing had been in the house, and they had left us a message. There was a message written on the dusty window pane. Yes, you heard me—a message written on the window. There were two words, and it was just for Kenzie and me. We knew it was for us, because it read: “STOP SPYING!”

Chapter 3 If there’s one thing you should know about me—I love solving mysteries. In fact, nothing makes me smile more than to put on my super spy backpack and head out of our door to investigate the world around me. Sometimes, I have dead ends ...little things that look like they may be something suspicious, but they’re not. There are other times when I have actually helped solve crimes. I even received an award for helping out at Darcy’s Discount Store where my mom works. I was in on a shoplifting case and my inquisitive mind helped the policemen find the bad guys. So, reading all of those mystery books and watching all of those crime shows on TV has really come in handy. My point is, I’ve snooped around a lot, and there isn’t too much that stops me in my tracks. But the message in the window—that was a little too freaky for me. That window faces the playground, nowhere else. There are lots of kids on the playground every day, but all the other kids do what normal kids do ...play. So, the message had to 15

be for Kenzie and me because we are the only two with binoculars. As we stood there, I felt my legs start to shake. I whispered to Kenzie to duck down. We sat in the corner of the dome. With wide eyes we stared at one another, too scared to say anything. Finally, she said, “That’s it! I’m not coming up here and looking over there anymore.” I shook my head in agreement. I spent the rest of the day with this weird kind of feeling in my tummy. It was the feeling of butterflies in battle. Yes, a big ol’ war was raging deep inside of me. I wondered who on earth would know about us in the dome and why would anyone care? Part of me wanted to forget about it and leave my binoculars at home, but another part of me wanted to stand up and fight back. And that other part—that fighting part—well, that part is the one that won the war. I mean, we were not breaking the law by looking at the house, so what is the big deal? It’s not like we were snooping on someone because no one lives there. We were simply looking for Duchess. On the bus ride home from school, I told Kenzie that we could not give up, that we had to keep an eye on that house for Duchess’s sake. Every time I tried to make plans, her eyes would get really big and she would just shake her head ‘no.’ “I think we need to stay away,” she told me.

I tried as hard as I could to change her mind, but she wouldn’t budge an inch. The bus stopped in front of my apartment complex, I got up and gave Kenzie one last plea, but she said, “Let it be, Gracie.” My mom was working the evening shift at Darcy’s, so I headed upstairs to my sitter’s apartment. I have to take a minute to tell you that without a doubt, I have absolutely the most wonderful sitter in town. Her name is Aunt Bea. She’s not really my aunt, but she treats Mom and me just like family. She cooks for us and lets us hang out whenever we want. And, let me tell you, she is the best cook ever. She met me at the door with a glass of sweet tea and a Twinkie. What did I tell you? She’s the best. Did I mention that she always has snacks? I mean, her pantry looks like Walmart! I filled her in on the craziness of the week. I asked her about the history of the house. You see, Aunt Bea has lived in Brentwood for a hundred years (well, not really, but for a long, long time), and she knows about everyone and everything that goes on. So, ...she is the perfect one to ask about the spooky-dooky, creepy-weepy, heebie-jeebie house. “Well, Gracie, let me tell you, it used to be the most beautiful house on that street. Winnie Lakeland lived there for many years and she kept it looking as pretty as a picture. She was a very sweet lady who never married, and of course, had no one to leave it to, so her niece, Nancy Sullivan, inherited it when she passed.” 17

“Is that Mrs. Sullivan that lives across the street?” I inquired. “Yes, it is. Nancy isn’t able to take care of her house and Winnie’s house too, so it got pretty rundown,” Aunt Bea said. “So, who takes care of it?” “Well, no one that I know of. Her grandson mows the grass, but I think that’s all they do to it,” she said. “Are you talking about Dexter Sullivan? He’s in my room at school. I can’t imagine him mowing the grass.” “Yes, Dexter helps her out a lot, but he doesn’t have a choice—he’s the only grandchild who lives close by.” I tried to imagine Dexter working. Nope—not happening. I just couldn’t begin to picture it in my mind. “I think someone is just playing a trick on you, Gracie,” Aunt Bea said as she got up and headed to the kitchen. “There’s nothing for you to get all upset about.” I stuck the last bite of Twinkie into my mouth and began to lick the three little creamy spots that were left on the wrapper. It was too late, I was worried. And Kenzie was even more freaked out, so much that she won’t even go back up in the dome with me. Late that night, when all of Brentwood was fast asleep, I was lying in bed wide awake. Most nights, I get my zzz’s without any problem at all, but sleep was the furtherest thing from my mind. I said my prayers, counted sheep (by 2’s, 4’s and 6’s), and even practiced my spelling words. 18

Yes, you heard me, I practiced my spelling words! And that didn’t even make me sleepy, but I bet I’m the only one in Ms. T’s class that can spell the word ‘predicament’ both forward and backward! I finally fell asleep and guess what? I dreamed about the house. I dreamed I was trapped inside and no one would help me. I was on the third story, looking out the window at the kids playing on the playground and no one looked my way. I was jumping and yelling and waving my arms, but no one saw me or heard me. Finally, I fell and hit something hard, so hard that it woke me up. Yep, you guessed it—I fell out of bed just as Mom was coming in to wake me up for school!

Chapter 4 I couldn’t believe it was already time to get up. I felt like I had just fallen asleep. And that dream, or uh—nightmare, made me want to crawl back in bed and not go anywhere near the school, but staying home was not on my list of morning choices. Actually, the only choice I had was what breakfast food I wanted—a Pop Tart or a bowl of cereal. So, I quickly crunched through my Capt’n Crunch and headed for the bus. While most mornings seem to go by slower than a snail crossing a turtle’s back —this morning did not. It flew by. I wanted it to go slow, but no ...before I knew it, it was lunchtime. I can’t tell you what the story was about in our reading book, or how to do the math problems on my homework sheet, but I can tell you one thing—I sat in room 117 and decided I was not going to be scared away. I was going to solve the mystery of the message. As we lined up for lunch, Kenzie did not take her backpack with her and she begged me to leave mine. 20

“You need to stay away,” she pleaded. “Listen to the message and stop the spying.” “That’s all the more reason to keep spying. If someone wants us to stop, there must be a reason,” I said as I grabbed my spy bag and lined up. “Well, I’m not looking today. In fact, I’m not going up at all,” she said. “Then don’t, but that won’t stop me,” I blurted out, a little more forceful than I wanted it to be. I wasn’t mad at her, I was just frustrated. I mean, this is what being a super spy is all about—solving mysteries. How can we just sit back at a time like this? Yeah, it was kinda freaky, but I was more curious than ever. I ran to the dome as soon as we were allowed to leave the cafeteria. Kenzie ate very slowly today, but she watched as I ran outside. I must admit I was nervous, but I couldn’t wait to see what was waiting in the window. Once again, I was shocked. The message had been erased. Yes, someone had cleaned the window (Mrs. Sullivan will like that). I carefully scanned every corner of the window to make sure I hadn’t missed something. Nope—it was as clean as it could be. Hmmm, I wonder what is up with that? There were no clues in the window. The curtain was just hanging there like it should, and the window was super clean. I sat down and recorded all of the details. Of course, there really wasn’t that much to write, just info like the day, time, 21

and the words, ‘clean window’. So I sat there and doodled in my notebook. I stood up again and searched the playground for Kenzie. She was sitting at the picnic table talking with some of the other kids in my class. She wasn’t even looking my way. I grabbed my binoculars and once again zoomed in on the window. It was just so weird. Well, there was one thing I knew, someone had been in the house again. That’s a pretty big deal for a house that looks like no one has been in it for years. This went on for days. There weren’t any changes at the house for an entire week. Yep, that’s right, a week. I ran to the dome every day, but I didn’t find anything different. I was beginning to get bored with the house, but with Duchess still missing. I knew I couldn’t stop looking. Kenzie cautiously joined me in the dome after a week with nothing new. On Friday, she finally felt safe enough to peek at the house. We ran out to the dome, scurried up the steps and grabbed our binoculars. We really weren’t expecting to see anything. In fact, we were talking about the crazy ending to the novel our class is reading. I was right in the middle of a sentence when I stopped and literally took a step back. The mystery writer had returned. There was a message! It was in a different window (I guess the other one was too clean), but it was right there in big letters.

Kenzie dropped her binoculars and ran, but I stood there frozen in my spot. Once again, the mystery guy (or girl) caught me off guard. I really wasn’t expecting to see anything. For some reason, I thought the mystery was over. I know it was only one week, but it seemed like forever since we had any new clues. I zoomed in as close as I could get to see if there was anything else that would help us. Actually, I closely examined the entire house—inch by inch, but found nothing else. I decided right then and there that the only way I was going to get more info was to go inside. I had to get in that house one way or another. The thought of it made my tummy take another nose dive. I mean, I’m talking Scary with a capital ‘S’, but it had to be done. I carefully examined the house again. The great big letters were scribbled in the dust in a third story window right above one of the little side porches. There was a top covering the porch that looked like a pointy little birthday party hat. The top of the ‘hat’ had a little decoration that looked like an arrow, and it pointed to the window. And the creepy little lacy-looking arrow pointed to the message that read: “STOP NOW!”

Chapter 5 I ran in our apartment after school and yelled, “Mom, Mom! You’ve got to help! Mom, it’s an emergency!” Mom raced to the door with a look of fear on her face, “Gracie, what is it?” Seeing the look on her face, I realized that I had scared her to death. I tried to smooth it over a bit. “It’s the house. You have to help me get inside,” I said as I tried to smile a little. “Graceanne Faith!” she replied. I knew I was in trouble when she threw in my middle name. You see, there’s a little story behind my name. My dad left my mom when she first found out that I was on my way into the world, so she was all alone in her early twenties with no job and a baby on the way. She knew that it would take God, and a lot of grace and faith to be a single parent, so that’s what she named me ...Graceanne Faith! And, I think I’m living up to my name. 25

“What?” “First off, you scared me to death yelling like that, and secondly, what in the world are you talking about?” I filled her in on all that had happened with the old house. Mom did not support me at all with my investigation. She said there was absolutely no way that she would allow me to go inside someone else’s house. It was called trespassing and breaking and entering and it was against the law! She said I could get arrested and put in jail for such a thing. I had to think of a way to get in there without it being a crime. There had to be some connection somewhere that I could use, but I just couldn’t figure it out. This was driving me Crazy (with a capital ‘C’, might I add). I had absolutely nothing to go on. Nothing. Mom told me that I had to stop thinking about it. She said to not let it ruin my weekend, so I tried to put it out of my mind. Mom worked a short shift on Saturday morning, so she took me with her to Darcy’s. Miranda, Mom’s boss, allows me to hang out in her office at the store. It’s really the coolest place ever for a super spy. It is on the second floor, and it has a window you can see out of, but you can’t see in. Miranda calls it the ‘observation room.’ The store is loaded with security cameras and the office has the TV monitors where 26

you can sit back and see everything that’s going on in the store. Last summer, after an accident that left me with a sprained ankle, I came to work with Mom a lot. The observation room is where I worked on the shoplifting case. It was without a doubt the coolest summer ever! So, I loaded up my backpack and headed upstairs at Darcy’s. It is just amazing how many people take things they don’t pay for. I pulled my notebook out and started watching the aisles for some action. Sure enough, it wasn’t long before I discovered some thieves. The store has a new security guard. You see, the old security guard was an old guy named Ted. The new guy is nothing like Ted. He is young (and quite handsome, if you ask me) and good at his job. His name is Adam. He came in and out of the observation room throughout the day and I always had some info waiting on him. The store has a set of security walkie-talkies and they hooked me up with one so I could contact Adam as needed. Yeah, not a bad deal! I spent the entire morning sending info to him and he caught most all of them. It was an awesome day. And the best part was, I didn’t think about the mystery message one time. As Mom and I were pigging out on our pb&j’s we packed for lunch, Adam joined us. Suddenly, I could hardly eat when he sat down. Weird, I know, but I got this crazy little feeling in my tummy (nose dive again) and I just picked around at my lunch. He sat beside me, but his eyes were on my mom. Hmmmm. 27

You see, with Mom being a single parent, it is perfectly okay for a single guy to sit and talk with her, but it’s just kinda weird. Anyway, Mom just ate and talked and didn’t act all giggly or anything, so maybe they’re just friends. They were talking about the Brentwood Fall Festival that is coming up in a few days. It’s a big deal for our town. The main street is closed and there are people selling food and crafts and there’s lots of fun stuff in the middle of the main street. There are also carnival rides for the kids. As I sat there thinking about the festival, my tummy settled down, and before long I forgot about how cute Adam was and just joined in on the conversation. “Gracie, I heard about how you helped solve the shoplifting mystery here at Darcy’s,” Adam said as he shared a box of snack cakes he bought for everyone. “Yes, it was awesome,” I replied. “It was a dream come true to be in on a case.” “Well, you have quite a reputation at the security service. Our boss said we had better be legit if we worked here, because there was a little girl that would read our mail,” he said with a smile. “Your mail? I don’t read anyone’s mail but ours.” Mom and Adam laughed out loud and I didn’t even know what was funny. Mom explained that ‘reading mail’ meant to find out the truth about someone who was hiding something. Grown-ups have the weirdest expressions.

I helped myself to another chocolate cupcake from Adam as Mom told him about the mystery message that was driving me crazy. He asked me for details and I spent the next ten minutes telling him everything that happened. “I just need to get in that house and look for clues,” I said, hoping that he could offer a suggestion of how I could do that. “Well, Gracie, it’s kind of against the law to break into someone’s home, you know?” he said. “I know, Mom told me.” “I know this little nosy who girl won’t stop until she finds out who is behind it,” Mom said. Lunch was over and everyone went back to work. There wasn’t anything exciting that happened the rest of the afternoon. I only saw one person that made me take note ...Dexter. He came in with his mom and just wandered around while she shopped. He mostly hung out in the cleaning supply and the office supply aisles. Kinda weird, but then, so is Dexter. I took note of what he bought: a bottle of cleaning stuff, a huge can of wasp spray, and a pack of dry erase markers. I figured he was just helping his mom shop. I didn’t think it was really important, that is until recess Monday morning.

Chapter 6 It was recess and I was at my post. There weren’t any new messages, but something caught my attention. A big bunch of wasps were hanging out by the back door. Maybe that’s why Dexter was buying the spray, but if no one ever goes in the house, why does it matter if there are a few wasps? Of course, he mows the grass, so maybe that was why. I felt like this was a clue, but I wasn’t sure why. The message from Friday was still in the window. It looked like nothing had changed. It continued to look the same for three days and then the message was erased. The window was sparkling clean and the wasps had disappeared. Mom and I ate dinner on Wednesday with Aunt Bea. We talked about the case, but we couldn’t figure out any more clues. I suggested that we buy a camera and hide it somewhere close by so we could keep watch on the house. Mom informed me that she was a single parent working as a cashier at a discount store, there was no way she could afford 30

that, and again, we couldn’t set up a camera to spy on someone else’s property. “Maybe our finances will get better after I get my degree,” Mom said. I’m really excited my mom started college. She is going to be a teacher in a few years. “But, even if we had all the money in the world, I wouldn’t buy a camera for you to spy on people. Didn’t you learn your lesson when you spied on Mr. Chapman?” she asked. I just shook my head to let her know that I had learned my lesson about spying on people. You see, I was spying on the suspicious Mr. Chapman that lives above us and he caught me. I ended up falling and spraining my ankle and I had to get stitches as well. “But, Mr. Chapman is up to something, you know that, Mom,” I said, “and one day I’m going to get a good look into his apartment and find out what it is.” “No, you are not,” Mom answered quickly, “He is just a regular guy. There is nothing going on in his apartment you need to see.” “Well, if you would’ve let me go with you when we made him some cookies last summer, then I could’ve found out for myself.” “You are not going to get anywhere near his apartment. I was inside of it and there was nothing suspicious about it.” “But Mom, you aren’t a super spy like me. I guarantee I would’ve found something,” I said with a smile.

You see, I have always had a feeling that he is up to something. I’m not sure what it is, but I think he is up to no good. He is retired and stays inside all day and never gets out and socializes with anyone. I know there’s nothing wrong with being a loner, but I just have a weird feeling about the guy. I mean, who stays inside when there’s so much to do outside? “Just leave Mr. Chapman alone, Miss Graceanne,” Mom said and I knew that she meant business. It was Wednesday night, so Mom and I hurried home to get ready for church. I have the coolest class that meets every Wednesday night. It’s a club for girls and we do lots of fun things—stuff like having class outside in the summer, sleepovers at our teacher’s house, and visiting the nursing home. I know, most kids don’t enjoy going to nursing homes, but we have a blast. They have a big birthday party once a month at the home and our club provides the music (we sing for them), and then they have bingo. We also serve them cake and ice cream. I mean, how can you go wrong when you get cake and ice cream? Besides, we get to listen to some awesome stories and we’ve made a lot of older friends. Tonight happened to be a nursing home night, so the church van was loaded with about ten girls and two teachers. We practiced our songs all the way down the street. Nothing that needed a lot of work, just a few of the choruses we sing in church, and before we knew it we were pulling in the parking lot.

The minute we walked in, we had to work quickly. We sang while they set up for bingo. They played several rounds and we helped some of the clients who have trouble seeing the numbers. And then, it was cake time! This is my favorite time, because we get to visit with everyone. I sat down beside Ms. Lulu Mae and we talked for a while. She says that I’m her ‘girl,’ and she always saves me a seat. She talked about her son who visited from Virginia and I learned all about him. As the ice cream was served, she asked me about school and what was going on in my life. I told her that nothing exciting was happening except for the whole spooky message thing. She was very interested to hear all about it. The more I talked, the closer she listened. “Now, wait just a minute,” Ms. Lula Mae said, “are you talking about the big house that sits on the right side of the school?” “Yes, it belonged to Winnie Lakeland.” “Well, Gracie, I can’t believe this. Winnie was one of my dear friends,” she said. Now that got my attention. “Are you serious?” I asked. “Yes, I have been in that house more times than you can shake a stick at.” I was shocked to say the least. Maybe she could give me some kind of info to help out in the case. “It was such a beautiful house. It’s just a shame that it’s not being kept up. I haven’t seen it in several years, but it looked bad the last time I saw it.”

I told her it looks really bad, but someone was sneaking inside and was leaving Kenzie and me messages. “Well, that old house has so many rooms and little cubby holes that it would be easy for someone to hide inside for weeks,” she said. My eyes widened when she said that. I had never thought someone could be living in there. I mean, was this for real? Was she serious? This just made me want to get inside more than anything else in the whole world.

Chapter 7 Mom said Miss Lula Mae was exaggerating and really didn’t mean someone could live there for weeks. But, what if she’s right? What if someone is secretly living in that old house? I know it sounds crazy, but as Aunt Bea always says, the world is filled with crazy things. Oh well, the rest of the week was quiet—with the house at least. There weren’t any new messages. It was probably because the entire town was getting ready for the festival. Mom had to work on Friday, so I went home with Kenzie after school and we hit the festival when it opened at five. Her mom treated us to lots of rides, face painting, and more food than you can imagine. I’m talking hot dogs, corn on the cob, kettle corn, caramel apples and funnel cakes. And yes, we ate it all! We had so much fun and rode all the rides. When we finally got back to her house we crashed on the couch and didn’t wake up until almost ten o’clock the next morning. 36

Mom picked us up at four and we spent the rest of the afternoon at the festival with more rides, games, and food. The night ended with a Christian concert down by the river. Mom brought a big blanket for us to sit on as we listened to the music, so we kicked back, sipped on Cokes, and listened to songs about Jesus—uh, awesome! The concert had just started when Adam stopped by and asked if he could join us on our blanket. Mom said he could and they sat together and talked about grown-up stuff as Kenzie and I giggled. Don’t ask what was so funny—maybe because it was almost like date for Mom or maybe because Adam is so cute...I don’t know. Anyway, it was a super-duper night. The following week, there was another surprise at the old house. Once again, I raced to the dome. Kenzie followed because she was just as curious as me and not so scared. Yeah, we still thought it was creepy, but it had been going on for weeks and we just wanted to get to the bottom of it. There was a new message on one the first floor windows. We zoomed in with our ‘spy glasses,’ which is what Aunt Bea named our binoculars and by the end of recess, the whole mystery took on a different twist. You see, if there’s one thing kids know about, it is the other kids in our class. Most of us have been together for seven years (counting preschool and kindergarten), and we know all about each other. 37

I know that Perry Palmer is the best speller in the entire fifth grade class. He has won every spelling bee that we have ever had. I know that Wendy Milan is an awesome writer. She always carries a journal with her and prefers writing to playing during recess. I also know that Stella King almost never misses a math problem. I mean, whoever said boys are better in math has never met Stella. And then there’s Misty Crow. She is the class gossip queen—if you want to know anything about anyone ...just find Misty. So, we know all about each other, even every little quirk. When we first read the message, nothing caught our eye. It simply read, ‘stay away.’ At this point, Kenzie was getting upset. She stomped her foot and said, “Who is trying to tell us what to do? They are really making me mad.” I agreed with her, but kept my eye on the message. There seemed to be something weird about it. I looked at the letters—something just wasn’t right. It was written in all lowercase and for some reason the letters looked funny. The first ‘a’ in the word, ‘away’ didn’t look the same as the second ‘a’. I zoomed in as close as I could to get a better look. The second ‘a’ was all round like a good little ‘a’ should be, but the first one did not look rounded at all. It was very peculiar. The sides looked almost straight up and down with a curved top. No one writes an ‘a’ like that, and obviously this person doesn’t do it all the time because it was the only one out of the three in the message that looked like that. It

appeared this letter started out as another letter and afterward it was changed to an ‘a’. And then it hit me. I suddenly knew who was behind the mystery messages. I gasped as I exclaimed, “Kenzie, I know who did it!” “What? How in the world do you know?” “Zoom in on the word ‘away’ and look closely at the letters.” I said. “Notice the first ‘a’—it looks different from the second ‘a.’ It looks like it started out as another letter and then was changed. It was a ‘u’ at first. The word started out ‘uway.’ We both whispered the same name at the same time. You see, there’s one person in our room who misspells that word all the time. He’s done it since we learned the word in first grade. He alway says the first sound is ‘uh’ and the letter ‘u’ makes that sound. There was no doubt ... IT WAS DEXTER! That also explained the cleaner (for the sparkly clean window) and the wasp spray. I kept my binoculars in front of me, but I slowly pulled them away from my eyes. I made it look like I was still looking in them, but I was really looking around the playground. I wanted to find Dexter and see if he was watching us. I searched until I finally found him and sure enough, his eyes were on us. I whispered to Kenzie that he was standing by the picnic table. 39

“Oh, he makes me so mad,” Kenzie replied. “I bet he has been watching us the entire time.” “Well, we should’ve known he was in on it. I mean, who else in our class would be so sneaky?” “At the count of three, let’s put our binoculars down and stare directly at him. Let’s see how he reacts to that!” Kenzie said. So, she counted and we gave him a look that would’ve made a Bulldog run in fear. We watched him as he actually stepped back and his eyes became as big as saucers. He turned around, ran to a group of kids, and tried to act as though he was in on their conversation. “Let’s go get him,” I shouted, and we climbed down out of the dome and ran straight to him. “We know what you’ve been doing,” I said, “so don’t even try to deny it.” “What are you talking about?” Dexter replied. “You know exactly what I’m talking about—the messages in the windows! We know that you are the one who’s been writing them.” He started to squirm a little, like a kid caught with their hand in the cookie jar. “Dexter, you messed up with the last message. You had to use the word, ‘away’ ...it was a dead giveaway. I saw where you changed the ‘u’ to an ‘a’, so we know that it’s you.”

He knew that we had him and he suddenly changed from someone who was caught to someone who was enjoying being a trickster. A big smirky smile spread across his face and he said, “I’ve been watching you two for weeks. I’ve been sitting over there on the picnic table laughing my head off at how scared y’all looked.” He started to shake his head and laugh. “You girls always have those crazy binoculars. I just wanted to give you something to look at, something to scare you.” Kenzie and I were fuming. He had the upper hand. I’m sure we must have looked silly to him as we were staring at the house and freaking out. “And it worked, I scared you.” he said with a smile, just as Mrs. T blew the whistle.

Chapter 8 I couldn’t stand the fact we had wasted so much time on Dexter. I couldn’t stand the thought of that smirky smile of victory on his face. I couldn’t stand being tricked. And to beat it all—the mystery writer was the most unmysterious boy in the whole school (I really don’t know if that is a word or not, but it should be. It needs to be in the dictionary with a picture of Dexter Sullivan!) So, we were back to looking for Duchess. There weren’t any clues to go on and she had been missing for weeks. Ms. T said her food was gone every morning, but she’s nowhere in sight. Our entire class was afraid that our fav cat was never going to return. Friday came, the day before our week off for fall break, and Ms. T asked us if we were going to do anything special over the break. Some kids were going to visit relatives, some 43

were going on a special trip, and a few of us had no plans. Dexter bragged that his family was going on a trip to the Smoky Mountains. He gave us a detailed list of everything that they were planning to do. Mom and I hardly ever get out of town. It’s really hard on her as a single mom—especially now that she’s in college and had to cut back on her hours at Darcy’s. She promised me we would do something special one day of my break and I was super excited about it. The fun began on Friday night when Molly, my mentor from church, came over for a girls’ night with Mom and me. You see, Molly is a college student and volunteer youth leader at our church. They pair the youth leaders with kids in the youth group—and she’s the coolest mentor ever! We get along great. I think we’re a perfect match. We decided to order a pizza and rent a couple of movies. It was going to be a great night. Molly and I stayed up late, ate lots of popcorn and slept ‘til noon. It was a ‘just right’ start to my week off. The three of us headed to the park for a picnic Saturday afternoon. The weather had been really warm for this time of year, so we packed a cooler, our little mini grill, and loaded up in ‘Old Faithful’—which is the name we gave our car. It’s a little Toyota that’s older than me. Our mechanic is on speed dial, but it keeps chugging along. We spent the entire afternoon walking around the park and then Molly and I played volleyball with some of the other kids while Mom read a romance novel. The day ended with 44

us cooking hot dogs on the grill and then we had the yummiest of all yummies ...s’mores! I must say I wasn’t expecting any excitement over the break, so I was totally shocked at what happened when Molly and I hit the diner on Monday. We had just finished our cheesy fries and were sitting there chatting and sipping on smoothies when I pulled out my binoculars. It’s never a dull moment with those things! I was just scanning the neighborhood, when I saw the old house by the school. The diner is on the other side of the street, so I saw a part of the house that I was never able to see from the playground. It looked a lot like the other side, you know what I mean, lots of windows, porches, and little curly-cue stuff everywhere. “Just looking at that house makes me mad,” I belted out to Molly. She turned around and just shook her head, “You know, Gracie, you need to just quit thinking about it. The more you think about it, the more your thoughts are consumed with Dexter.” The mention of his name made me mad. I didn’t want to keep looking at the house, but for some reason it just fascinated me. Besides, Duchess was still roaming around the neighborhood somewhere and could be in danger. “I know, but there’s just something about that house that draws me to it. Weird, I know, but true.”

We sat there for a few minutes without talking. The only noise was an occasional slurp on our strawberry-banana smoothies. I slowly zoomed in on the windows and what I saw took my breath away as I gasped and almost dropped my binoculars. “What is it?” Molly quickly asked. I couldn’t say a word. I looked again to make sure of what I saw. The strangest feeling swept over me—it felt like someone poured cold water from my head to my toes. I was speechless. There was movement on the second floor of the house. I know I saw someone or something, moving around in there. The curtains on this floor are just like the ones on the third floor—white and almost see-through. I had zoomed in closely on one of the windows and I saw someone walking around! “Gracie! What is wrong?” Molly asked again. I didn’t know what to say. I had to tell her because she knew that something was up, but it was hard to say anything. I mean, I had already been tricked by Dexter and everyone knew that. I guess I just didn’t want to sound crazy. “Molly, you’re not going to believe this,” I said as I stared at the house. My hands were literally shaking as I tried to hold my binoculars. It was just too scary for words. I knew that Dexter and his entire family were out of town —his grandmother,

Mrs. Sullivan, went with them, so there shouldn’t be anyone inside. I kept looking to see if I saw anything else. I mean, maybe my eyes were playing tricks on me. “What, what?” Molly was getting impatient. “I saw someone walk across the room on the second story.” I looked at Molly and I could tell that she didn’t believe me. She said that it was probably Mrs. Sullivan, but then I told her about the family trip. She said that maybe the window was left open and the wind blew something over. I told her that the curtain did not move. She kept telling me other things that it could be —silly things that I knew weren’t true. I zoomed back in on the house and quietly waited. Molly was still talking, trying to convince me that I didn’t see anything, but I just tuned her out and kept looking. We sat there for at least twenty more minutes and I didn’t see anything else. I kept looking, but nothing happened. I started to doubt what I saw. Maybe she was right, maybe I didn’t see anything—no, I know what I saw. Maybe it was too many cheesy fries and smoothies and it was playing a trick on me, but deep down inside ... I knew I saw someone.

Chapter 9 If you thought the messages drove me crazy—it was nothing like the scary thing moving around inside the house. I could not get it out of my mind. It was without doubt the freakiest thing that I have ever seen in my life. It was Scary with a capital ‘S’! It was all that I talked about. When I told Mom, she tried to explain it just like Molly had done, but I knew what I saw. I was too scared to sleep when I first went to bed that night, but then I realized that I hadn’t said my prayers. I talked to God about the usual stuff, and then I asked Him to help me to not be afraid—so, I went to sleep without another thought. Early Tuesday morning as we ate breakfast, Mom started again, “Gracie, you know that there has to be a logical explanation for it. Just like the mysterious message.” 49

“I’m sure there is, but I just want to find out what’s going on,” I said. We finished up the pancakes, bacon, and chocolate milk. Mom had the morning off, so we decided to go for a walk. I talked her into walking by the old house. I wanted to at least go into the yard so I could try and get a closer look, but she wouldn’t let me. “Mom, please ...with hot fudge sauce on top?” “Nope, not happening.” I knew she wasn’t going to give in, so I had to figure out a way to get inside myself. There had to be someone who would be willing to help—but I couldn’t think of anyone. It was a totally wasted walk, because that’s all we did ...we walked. We walked into town and then came back home. I was so frustrated. I knew I wouldn’t get any answers until I got inside of that house—or at least close enough so I could look inside the windows. It started raining that afternoon and rained until Thursday night! I started to feel like Noah as I sat in our apartment, gazing out our window. Now, usually rainy days aren’t that big of a deal, but when it stops me from working on a case— it’s horrible! Friday morning, Mom woke me up as she was getting ready for work. She said I could go with her, so I jumped up and got ready. It was another fun day in the observation room with Adam only a click away. It’s pretty cool to talk on those walkietalkies—even though they look like they’re from the old days. I mean, they are huge! 50

At lunch, I filled him in on the news with the old house. He said he would love to go investigating with me and asked Mom if she would let him. He invited her to go and said we could eat dinner tonight at the diner and check out the house while we ate. I was on cloud nine when Mom agreed. That evening, I could hardly eat. I kept my eye on that window while Mom and Adam talked and pigged out on the roast beef. When they finished eating, Adam took a turn with my binoculars. I hadn’t seen anything suspicious. I finished up my chicken leg as he zoomed in. He carefully watched without saying a word. He suddenly got this look on his face—his eyebrows went up, and then back down, and then the space between them got all wrinkly, like he was pushing them together really hard. He didn’t move another muscle or say anything, so we sat there frozen until he told us what was up. “Gracie, I saw someone,” he whispered. Mom and I looked at each other with big eyes and waited for him to say something else. He began to slide out of the booth and then he said, “I’m going to get a closer look.” He moved quickly out of the diner and before we knew it, he crossed the street and went to the house. “Let’s go,” I said, hoping Mom would agree. “We can go to the street, but we are not getting close to the property,” she said. Mom paid for the meal and we walked outside. She grabbed my arm and told me to wait. We watched as Adam walked around and peeked inside of the house. He slowly moved from window to window and door 51

to door, searching and trying to get a better look. Mom said we didn’t need to get any closer because she wasn’t sure what was going on in that old house. He searched around the house for about twenty minutes. He stood on the porch and looked in the front door window for a long time. Finally, he crossed the street and came back to us. “I saw someone in the binoculars, too,” he said. “I know I did. Someone walked by one of the second story windows.” “That’s where I saw them,” I said. “Gracie, you were right. I looked inside through the windows and door, but I didn’t see anything out of place. I’m going to talk to the lady that owns the house, she lives across the street.” “She’s gone on a trip, and won’t be home until Sunday,” I said. “Well then, I will head down to the police station and talk with a few of the officers. I have a good friend that works there. They need to keep an eye on that place,” Adam said. He handed me the binoculars and said goodbye. Mom and I climbed into ‘Old Faithful’ and headed home. My mouth was going one hundred miles per hour on the ride home. It had been an exciting night. I was so happy someone else saw something. Since we knew someone was in the house, the two of us tried to imagine who in the world it could be. “Maybe there’s an easy explanation—someone could have rented the house. You never know,” Mom said. 52

We stopped at the grocery store and Mom let me pick out a movie. When we pulled into our apartment complex, Adam was waiting on us. He felt really bad for running out of the restaurant and forgetting about the bill, so he tried to give Mom some money. They kinda argued a little, she said she didn’t want to take it, so he finally asked her to let him make it up. He asked if we could all three go out another night — his treat. Mom giggled as she agreed.

Chapter 10 They don’t call me a super spy for nothing! That little giggle was a clue. A big clue. A clue that had nothing to do with the old house. I have watched enough movies with Mom to know how girls act when they like someone, and that’s exactly how they act —all giggly. It was kinda a weird thought—Mom with a boyfriend ...I guess it was okay, just weird. I wasn’t real sure how to feel about that. Adam is nice and he goes to our church. Mom always said if she ever dated anyone, she wanted someone wo loved Jesus more than he loved her, so maybe he’s a good choice. Saturday was the special day Mom planned for Kenzie and me. She took us on a shopping trip to a big mall in a town about an hour away. We both had a few dollars to spend, so we hit up the stores with the best buys. We came 54

away with some really awesome stuff. We both bought new sparkly tennis shoes and a shiny jacket. She took us to our favorite pizza restaurant and then we stopped for ice cream. I had a double decker chocolate chip ice cream cone with sprinkles. It was Yummy with a capital ‘Y’! When we got back into town, we drove by the old house to see if there was anything going on. Of course, no one was there, but we noticed a police car driving around the block. “Gracie, the police are here because of you and your little investigation. I never know what you’re going to find with those binoculars of yours,” Mom said. Kenzie and I giggled as we talked about the creepyjeepy house. We asked Mom to stop for a while to let us get a closer look, but she refused. She said if something was going on, the policemen needed to be able to check it out without us in the way. We were thrilled when Mom ran into the diner for a cup of coffee. She was planning on staying up late to study for a big test on Monday and she needed the help of the ‘strongest coffee in town’ as she called it. We pulled our binoculars out and stood at the door while she waited on her order. We zoomed in on the second floor windows, because that is where everything seemed to be happening. “Let’s look at the same window at the same time, so if one of us sees something, the other one will, too” Kenzie said. “Awesome idea,” I replied. 55

We spent several minutes looking in each window with nothing going on. When we got to the last window, we saw something sitting near the window. It looked like a cat—one of those ceramic ones, because it was sitting perfectly still. “I don’t remember seeing a cat statue by the window,” I said as we kept our eyes on it. We watched the cat sit perfectly still for a few moments, and then ...his ear twitched. We gasped and looked at each other as we realized what cat we were looking at. “IT’S DUCHESS!” we yelled. The entire restaurant looked at us as we started squealing and jumping up and down. Mom ran to us and told us to be quiet because we were disrupting everyone’s dinner. We ran outside the door and looked again at the cat in the window. It was a big chubby cat. It was Duchess. Mom came out with her coffee and listened to us as we tried to tell her what we saw. She took my binoculars and looked for herself and said, “I think you girls are right. That does looks like Duchess.” I started pacing on the sidewalk, trying to think of what we could do to get the cat out of that house. “We’ve got to call Ms. T or Mr. Riverton,” I said. “Teachers don’t like to be bothered on the weekend, Gracie. We can wait until Monday morning,” Mom said. “But, she’s been missing for weeks. She has to be hungry. She could die before then!” I exclaimed.

“She is getting food from somewhere or she wouldn’t still be alive,” Mom assured us. “But Mom, we can’t just sit back and do nothing,” I blared out. In the middle of all of this excitement, one of the police cars drove by—very slowly. I started waving my arms at him and Kenzie joined in. We were acting like two crazy kids when he pulled into the parking lot. Mom just shook her head and walked with us to talk to the officer. We told him we saw the missing cat from the school sitting in the window. He wrote down a description of the cat and then we told him what I saw in the window the other day— and what Adam saw. He knew about that, of course, that was why he was in the area. “I will keep an eye on that window,” the officer said. “Thank you girls for giving me this information.” Mom thanked him for pulling over and listening to our story and then it was time to go home. “It’s baffling how that cat got into the house,” Mom said as we drove down the road. “I just wonder how she got inside.” The car became quiet as the three of us tried to imagine how in the world Duchess got trapped inside that old house. “We have searched that house from the dome for weeks—I wonder when she got in?” I said. “She must have just got inside, because we would’ve seen her, don’t you think?” Kenzie replied.

Again, total silence as the wheels in our brains turned around and around, faster than the wheels on our Toyota. “She could’ve slipped inside when Dexter was working on all of those mysterious messages,” Mom said with a smile. When she mentioned his name, I pictured his smiling face ...UGH! The thought of that boy makes me want to scream. I hit my fist against the seat. “Graceanne Faith, what is wrong with you?” Mom quickly asked. “Dexter—he just makes me want to scream!” “Well, there’s no reason to be angry—his little joke is over. You just need to forget about him and focus on Duchess,” Mom said as she patted my hand. ‘Old Faithful’ had never heard us this quiet before. Our minds were full of questions and we didn’t have any answers.

Chapter 11 The phone rang at eight o’clock on Sunday morning. Kenzie and I were still in bed— awake, but not up. We heard Mom’s side of the conversation. “Oh, hello, Adam ...really? What? You’ve got to be kidding me!” Then there was a long, long pause and she exclaimed, “Oh, my!” Okay, that’s all it took. Kenzie and I jumped out of bed and ran to the kitchen. We tried to listen, but we couldn’t understand anything Adam was saying. She was walking around talking to him and we were circling her as we tried to eavesdrop on the conversation. It wasn’t working! She kept saying more of the same kinds of things, until FINALLY-—she hung up. By this time we were jumping up and down and pulling on her to tell us what he wanted. 59

“Girls, you are not going to believe this!” she began. “WHAT? WHAT?” we yelled. “Adam’s friend, the police officer, called him early this morning and told him all about the stake-out at the house. They caught a man coming out of the house around 3:00 a.m. Apparently, he was homeless. When they investigated, they found he was living in one of the second story rooms— the one where you and Adam saw him walking around, I suppose. He would leave at night and go rummage through the dumpsters in town for food and come back before dawn.” You could’ve turned a tractor-trailer around in our mouths they were opened so wide. We could not believe our ears! It was the craziest thing we had ever heard. “How long had he been living there?” I asked. “He had only been there a few weeks. He had a good system—he would sleep most of the day so no one would see him and then prowl around in the evening and night,” Mom said. “So, Adam and I weren’t crazy, we did see someone,” I exclaimed. “Yes, Miss Graceanne Faith, once again, you were a major key in solving a mystery,” Mom said. I couldn’t hide the smile on my face. It was an awesome feeling to be a part of an investigation—a real investigation that involved the city police officers. Mom gave me a big hug, “I’m really proud of you, young lady. You never know what you are going to find with those crazy binoculars.” 60

Kenzie and I looked at each other and said, “Duchess.” We yelled at the same time, “What about Duchess?” “Duchess was hanging out with the guy. He would go get the food from the school and feed her every night, so she was eating well.” Kenzie and I laughed, because Duchess was doing what she loved best, eating and sleeping. It was a perfect life for her. “So, what is going to happen to the man?” I asked. “It will depend on Mrs. Sullivan. She could press charges against him and have him arrested. If not, he will probably move into the shelter in town. I’m sure that the police officers will see that he is taken care of,” Mom said. 61

“Why wasn’t he staying there already?” I asked. “I don’t know. We will find out more about it when we see Adam at church,” Mom said. She was right, Adam had the scoop. The man’s name was Richard and he was new to the area. He had gone to the diner to get a cup of coffee one day and he saw Dexter leaving the house in a hurry and he figured he hadn’t locked the door. He checked the house out that night and he was right—the door was unlocked. He roamed around the house and thought it would be a good place to stay. The officer asked him about the cat and sure enough Duchess was his sidekick. That’s why we never saw them from the dome, they were asleep all day. I guess Miss Lula Mae was right; someone lived in that house for weeks without anyone knowing. When Mrs. Sullivan returned, she chose not to press charges against Richard. He ended up moving into the homeless shelter in town. I talked to our pastor about him and he visited him and invited him to service. It was pretty cool when he showed up at church. Duchess is back to being the school pet. She mostly hangs out on our windowsill to nap. Every now and then she’s gone for a few days. Ms. T said during those days she hangs out with Richard. Pretty cool, huh? He’s a nice man and now has a safe place to stay. I guess you could say things are pretty much back to normal. But, how much fun is that? You know me—I always have to be working on a case. So, when Ms. T gave everyone 62

a box of candy to sell for the new school fundraiser, my mind started racing around in forty-eight different directions. Why forty-eight? Because that’s how many candy bars I have to sell. I began to plan it out. If Mom would allow Molly and me to go sell them in our neighborhood (I think she might let me go if an adult goes with me—so who better than Molly?) then, that is a potential forty-eight houses to peek inside. I could actually nose around in forty-eight different places. That is Awesome with a capital ‘A’! And the number one house I want to peek in ...? That mysterious Mr. Chapman. I could get inside for maybe ten minutes if he buys a few chocolate bars. I could get some clues as to what goes on in that apartment of his. I smiled at the thought of that as I opened the box and found my favorite brand of candy bar on top. Wow! I opened one of the candy bars and placed a big piece of chocolate in my mouth. Okay, so forty-seven different houses. I searched through the box and found three more of my favs ...so, now I may be down to forty-four. That’s still a lot of nosing around. A big smile came on my face. There were two reasons for this. Number one is all of the investigating I get to do and the second reason is chocolate yumminess that was melting in my mouth!

Angie Wilson

The Mystery in the Window

$8.95

CAD 10.92

9 781882 658527 2015 Independent Publisher of the Year www.HeadlineBooks.com

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