The Boys Return (6 page)

Nothing. Not a sound.

Then,
tap, tappity, tappity, tap-tap-tap.

“Beth!” Eddie said.

“I heard it too!” whispered Beth.

“Oh, my gosh! It's—it's coming for
me
!” cried Caroline, and she dived down under the covers.

Seven
In the Moonlight

“
Y
ou're not going anywhere without us!”

Wally stood in the doorway of his brothers' room and faced the four older boys—Jake and Josh, Steve and Tony. Behind him, Danny and Bill Benson were nodding their agreement.

“We can't
all
go over there!” Jake insisted. “There's no point in it! Tony's the only one who's going to crawl in the window.”

“So, why are
you
guys all going?” Wally demanded. “Why doesn't Tony go over there by himself?”

“Because somebody has to be the lookout, that's why,” said Josh.

“Well, if
you're
all going,
we're
going,” Bill insisted.

“There had better be lots of lookouts, one on each side of the house and a couple more to help Tony make his getaway,” Wally told them.

“All right, all right, don't have a spaz,” said Steve. “But you've got to get out of the house without Mr. and Mrs. Hatford knowing about it.”

“And don't let Peter and Doug in on it, either,” warned Jake.

“We'll be careful,” said Wally. “What time are you going over?”

Tony and Steve exchanged glances, then looked at Jake and Josh. “Oh, around one in the morning,” Tony said.

“One in the
morning
!” said Danny. “I can't stay awake that long.”

“It's okay. Just go to sleep, then. We'll tell you all about it tomorrow,” said Steve.

Wally went back into his own room with Danny and Bill. “I don't think they're going to wait till one in the morning at all,” he said. “If they did, it wouldn't be March twenty-second anymore. They're going to sneak over earlier, but they don't want us along.”

“Ha!” said Bill. “So what are we going to do?”

“We're going to turn out our light and not make a sound. They'll think we've gone to bed, but the minute we hear them sneak downstairs, we're out of here!” said Wally.

Why was he doing this? Wally wondered. He certainly couldn't use this for the school assignment. Nothing looked so inviting to him as his bed right now, and nothing good ever came of getting mixed up with the Malloys. He should know that by now. But there was something about having Bill and Danny in his
room, something about the way the older boys treated them like babies, that made him talk tough.

There was a light tap on the door, and Mrs. Hatford stuck her head inside. “Anything else you need, boys? Peter and Doug are having some popcorn and cocoa downstairs. Want to come down for a snack?”

“I think we'll just bring some popcorn up here, Mom,” Wally told her. Even his
mother
was treating them like babies.

“Okay. Help yourselves,” she said. The boys heard her tap on Jake and Josh's door too before she went downstairs, but all she asked them was whether they wanted a snack. She didn't offer them popcorn and cocoa. Naturally, they got to choose whatever they wanted!

When Wally went down to the kitchen, Peter and Doug were sitting at the table, swinging their legs and taking turns reaching into the popcorn bowl, their mouths rimmed with marshmallow.

“Hey, Wally!” said Peter. “Doug and me are gonna play Monopoly on my bed. You wanna play?”

“I don't think so,” Wally told him. “I'm pretty tired. I think Bill and Danny and I will turn in early.”

“Well,
we're
going to stay up till
midnight
!” crowed Doug.

“Yeah. We may not go to sleep all night!” said Peter.

“Good for you,” said Wally, and took a bowl of popcorn upstairs with a giant-size bottle of Mountain Dew.

Peter and Doug held out until nine-thirty. Mrs. Benson called, and Doug talked to his mother for a while. Then the two boys took a bath together and had a water fight. After Mrs. Hatford came up to calm them down, they finally went to bed, and the upstairs grew very quiet.

Wally, Danny, and Bill took turns listening at the crack in their door for any sign that the four older boys were leaving the house.

“Dad and Mom go to bed around ten. The guys will wait till they're sure they're asleep, and then they'll leave, I'll bet,” said Wally.

Ten-fifteen came, ten-thirty, ten-forty, and there was still no sign of activity from Josh and Jake's room, no light from under their door, no stirrings or rustlings.

“When do you suppose they're going to go?” Bill asked.

“Maybe they fell asleep,” said Danny.

Wally went out into the hall. He tiptoed over to his brothers' room. Not a sound. Gently he tried the handle. The door was locked. But his feet were cold, and he realized suddenly that there was a draft coming from under the door.

The window!

He hurried back to his room. “They've already left!” he said. “They climbed out their window and slid down the tree.”

Danny and Bill jumped up and pulled on their shoes.

“We've got to be really, really quiet, though,” Wally warned. “And don't step on the next-to-last stair from the bottom. It squeaks.”

Silently the boys crept out into the hall and down the stairs, careful to avoid the squeaky step. They pulled on their jackets and passed the big clock in the hall, which said 10:44, softly opened the front door, and closed it behind them.

The air was heavy and damp. Occasionally the moon peeped out from behind stormy, swirling clouds, then hid its face again. The boys made their way off the porch and down the sidewalk, where they crossed the road and went down the bank to the swinging bridge.

The boards bounced and the bridge swayed beneath their feet. As they climbed the hill on the other side to the house where the Malloys were staying, they could see no glow in the windows, no light on the porch.

Wally led his friends around the clump of lilac bushes at the edge of the yard, and suddenly,
whump.
He collided with a warm, sturdy body—a body in a nylon jacket smelling of popcorn.

“Hey!” said Wally.

“Hey!” said the jacket.

“Josh?” asked Wally.

“Wally?” asked the jacket.

The boys confronted each other. “I thought you were going to let us know when you came over here,” Wally said.

“There was too much noise going on. It took Peter and Doug forever to go to sleep, and we figured if we came through the hallway, someone would see us. So we went out the window,” Josh told him.

“Yeah, I'll bet you weren't going to tell us at all!” Bill said.

“Shhh. I'm the lookout here. I have to keep my eyes on Mr. and Mrs. Malloy's bedroom and tell Steve if their light comes on,” Josh said.

“Well, we can help!” said Danny.

“Okay, just spread out around the house and watch for a light,” Josh said. “Tony's crawling in the basement window right now, and he's going to start tapping. The minute you see a light go on anywhere in the house, give a whistle. Steve will tell Tony, Tony will crawl back out, and we'll all run like heck.”

Bill and Danny moved on to the far side of the house, but Wally went around to where Steve and Jake were crouched by the open window, ready to pull Tony to safety at the right moment.

Wally crouched down by the window too.

“What are
you
doing here?” Jake asked irritably.

“Same as you,” Wally said. From inside the basement he could hear a faint sound.
Tap… tappity… tap-tap.

Steve and Jake grinned at each other.

Tap, tap… tappity-tap…tap, tap, tap.

Steve couldn't contain a chuckle.

“Do you see any lights coming on?” Jake whispered to Wally.

Wally backed away from the house and scanned the windows. “Nope,” he said.

“Tap louder, Tony,” Steve whispered, sticking his head in the window. “Maybe no one can hear it.”

TAP…TAPPITY, TAPPITY, TAP, TAP, TAP,
went the rapping on the water pipes, louder still.

“Hey, cut it out, Wally,” muttered Jake.

“What?” said Wally.

“Leave me alone,” said Jake. “Quit bumping against me.”

“I'm not doing anything. I'm clear out here,” said Wally. He strained to see Jake in the darkness, and then they saw it. They all saw it: the cougar, sniffing around next to Jake.

“C-c-cougar!” gasped Jake, throwing up his hands and springing backward. The animal turned and sprinted across the yard, disappearing into the trees.

“Cougar!” Steve croaked through the basement window.

A moment later Tony came crawling out, Steve and Jake half dragging him the rest of the way, but he remembered to pull the window closed behind him. Then the boys were racing pell-mell down the hill to the footbridge, Bill and Danny and Wally at their heels, Josh bringing up the rear. They didn't stop till they reached the other side of the river.

“What happened? Did they see you?” Josh asked, breathless.

“No! It was the cougar! Right beside me!” Jake gasped. “I think it touched my neck with its nose!”

“Oh, you're imagining things,” said Josh.

“No! I saw it too!” said Steve.

“So did I!” said Wally.

“Man oh man oh man!” said Jake. “I've never been that close to a wild animal in my life! Do you think it was about to attack me?”

“Probably wanted to sniff you out first, see if you'd taste any good,” said Steve, trying to make a joke. But no one laughed.

Tony was upset that his little trick on the Malloys seemed to have been preempted by the cougar. “What about the girls?” he asked. “Did a light come on in Caroline's bedroom?”

“No,” said Danny. “Maybe nobody heard the tapping.”

“Great! So we —” Jake suddenly froze. “L-l-look!” he said.

The boys turned around. There on the hill, on the Malloys' side of the bridge, stood the cougar, bathed in a spot of moonlight. It was standing very, very still. Only its tail was twitching.

Eight
A Small Suspicion

“
C
aroline, just shut up and listen!” Eddie whispered. “Is it coming from inside the wall or not?”

“It—it
sounds
like it's coming from the bathroom!” Caroline said shakily.

“Maybe Annabelle likes to tap out a song while she's on the pot,” Beth suggested.

“Turn on the light!” Caroline begged.

“No!” Eddie was firm. “If Tony was right, and the ghost just comes around once a year, this is our only chance to find out what it's all about.”

Tap…tap… tappity.

Slowly Eddie got out of bed. One foot touched the floor, then the other. Nothing grabbed her feet.

“Why don't you try talking to Annabelle, Caroline?” Beth suggested. “If she's coming for you, you'd better set her straight.”

Caroline inched her way out from under the covers. Beth was right. If she could talk Annabelle out of coming back every March twenty-second—if she could talk to a ghost at
all
—she would be famous even
before
she became a great actress. She would be known far and wide as Caroline Lenore Malloy, the girl who talked to a ghost. Well, she'd be known around school, anyway.

Tappity… tappity… tap, tap… tappity.

Caroline threw off the covers suddenly and sat up.

“Annabelle?” she said, her voice shaking. “The g-girl you're looking for isn't here. I'm C-Caroline, from Ohio, and I didn't have anything to do with your drowning in the river. Your sister really,
really
tried to save you, but she just couldn't reach you in time. In fact, I hate to tell you this, Annabelle, but the truth is …well, you're dead, and you really shouldn't be walking around like this.”

Tap, tap, tap.

Eddie, Beth, and Caroline grabbed each other in the dark. Now the tapping wasn't just in the wall any longer. It was on the bedroom door!

“A-A-Annabelle?” whispered Beth.

Creeeaak!

The door swung open and there stood Mr. Malloy in his robe, holding a flashlight.

“Caroline, are you having a nightmare, or just talking to yourself?” he asked.