“I’m Louise Kubatnik,” the woman said, leading Marcus into her living room, which was full of shelves holding bobble-head dolls. Tea was ready on a tray sitting atop a coffee table. There was a large, pot-bellied man with hair combed over the top of his balding head standing there with a big smile on his red face. “This is my husband, Karl,” Louise said.
“Glad to meet you!” Karl said, giving Marcus a hearty handshake and a clap on the back.
“Likewise,” Marcus replied, looking a bit overwhelmed.
“Please, sit down,” Louise said. “Would you like some tea? Maybe lemonade for the kids?”
“That would be wonderful,” Marcus said, motioning for the kids to sit down on the flower-print couches around the table.
“I need to pee,” Theo suddenly announced.
“Theo!” his entire family objected.
“What? I need to urinate?”
“It’s just at the top of the stairs, dear,” Louise said, pointing the way. When she was satisfied that he’d rushed off in the right direction, she poured tea for Marcus.
“Sorry about that,” Marcus said. “Oh, that brew smells wonderful.”
“It’s my all-time favorite!”
“Your show is our all-time favorite!” Karl exclaimed. “We don’t get celebrities in our house every day!”
“Or protesters on our lawn,” Louise added.
“And I’m guessing that isn’t your cup of tea.” After Marcus said this, he looked at Max and Maddie. Both made faces that begged him not to say, “See what I did there?” He winked.
“You can say that again,” Louise told him, passing lemonades to the kids. “Do you think you can get rid of them?”
“Hope so. What can you tell me about the Inadas?”
“I don’t mean to be rude,” Karl said, lowering his voice a bit. “But let’s just say Julie Inada won’t be winning any mother-of-the-year awards anytime soon.”
“Why’s that?”
“We don’t like to gossip,” Louise explained, “but, well, let’s just say she’s an odd duck. And Ashland is full of odd ducks.”
“People say she was too strange for her husband,” Kirk added. “He left her about two years ago. And since then, she hardly leaves the house. It’s no wonder her kids are getting weird. At least one of them, anyway.”
“The one dating your daughter.”
“Oh, you’re good,” Kirk said. “He’s good!” But then his expression turned serious. “Our daughter was a perfectly normal kid before she met Sam Inada,’ he said, “and now she walks around looking like the living dead. We’re sure it’s just a phase, but that doesn’t mean we have to like it.”
“Ahem,” Max said.
Marcus looked at him, confused.
“A-HEM.”
Maddie sighed, but said, “It was Max who figured out that your daughter was dating Sam Inada.”
“Oh,” Marcus laughed. “True story, as my kids always say. He’s a spy.”
“Following in your father’s footsteps, I see,” Kirk said. “Well done, young man.”
“Do you think you could get me in to talk to Julie?” Marcus asked, getting back to the point. “Or maybe get me on the phone with her?”
“Not a chance,” the Kubatniks both said.
“Why’s that?”
“We’ve been calling the house,” Louise explained. “She doesn’t really talk to anyone, and she doesn’t even have a cell. She’s one of those anti-technology types.”
“Um, sorry to interrupt,” Maddie interrupted, “but I’m thinking Theo should be back by now.”
“Maybe you should go check on him,” Marcus suggested.
Maddie got up. “Good idea,” she said, heading for the steps.
That left Max alone with the adults. As a spy, he knew he should stay and see what came up, but it sounded like no one had any ideas. Thinking it might be wise to discuss things with Maddie in private while he had the chance, he said, “Uh, I’ll just go — help with the helping. That crazy kid can be a handful.” He got up and hurried after his sister.
Max found her at the top of the steps, leaning toward a door that had to be the bathroom.
“Theo?” Maddie whispered as loudly as she dared without looking too weird. “Theo!”
“Maybe he found a different one?”
“Max?” Maddie asked, looking back, surprised to see him there.
“He’s in there all right,” someone said. “I saw him go in. I knocked forever. I really have to go.”
Max and Maddie turned and saw the girl with the black-rimmed eyes. She was sticking her head out of an open door.
“You — you’re—” Max said.
“The Kubatniks’ daughter,” Maddie said. “I’m Maddie. This is my brother, Max. Our brother, Theo, seems to have fallen asleep in your bathroom. We’re very sorry.”
“You must be the Mattigans,” the girl replied. “My parents have been acting like fangirls since the moment your dad called. Totally embarrassing. No offense. My name is Ida.”
“If that’s your real name,” Max challenged her.
“Nice to meet you,” Maddie said. “Don’t mind him.”
“I can pick the lock,” Max offered, gesturing to the bathroom door. “I added some new tools to my spy kit. It’s downstairs with our stuff.”
“I have a better idea,” Maddie said. She turned around and pounded on the door as hard as she could. “THEO MATTIGAN,” she hollered, “WAKE UP!”
A moment later, the door whipped open, and there was Theo, his crazy heap of Mattigan curls all askew, his eyes sleepy-red.
“Excuse me,” Ida said, hurrying past him and closing herself in.
“That does it, Theo,” Maddie said. “What is wrong with you?”
“Nothing!”
“Nobody sleeps this much!”
“I’m just tired!” Theo whined. “Where’s the ghost?”
“Where’s the ghost? We just got here!”
“But you should have found it by now. This one’s going to be a cinch.”
“What are you talking about!”
“Catching the ghost!” Theo shouted. “What are you talking about?”
“Shhh!” Max warned.
The toilet flushed, so the kids went quiet. They exchanged worried looks as they listened to water run in the sink. Had they been too loud?
When the bathroom door opened and Ida came out looking at them strangely, the Mattigans knew they’d messed up.
“Wait a minute,” Ida said. “If you’re Marcus Mattigan’s kids, then you came to prove my boyfriend is a liar. Or that he’s telling the truth about being a liar. Which he isn’t. I don’t think. Am I right?”
“Well,” Maddie said, peeking toward the steps, “let’s just say we’re a little bit more open-minded about these things than our father.”
“We have our reasons,” Max added.
“In that case,” Ida said, grabbing Maddie by the sleeve, “follow me.”
CHAPTER SIX
Dark Stuff
Before leading the Mattigan kids into her room, Ida ran to the top of the steps and shouted, “Maaaaaa! We’re all going to hang out up here, okay?”
After a pause, her mother called back, “That’s fine with Mr. Mattigan!”
“Bingo,” Ida said. “Let’s go.”
Ida then led Max, Maddie, and Theo back down the hall and into her room. All three of them went along eagerly, but all three stopped after taking no more than two steps inside. They stood there looking around, amazed and more than a little bit creeped out.
It was like they’d stepped outside.
Into a cemetery.
This one was not a concrete graveyard like the one in New Orleans. It was much more like the ones in movies. Movies about ghosts. Ida’s walls were painted to l
ook shrouded in fog, with tombstones lined up in the distance. The floors were painted to look foggy, too, and there were what looked like actual tombstones standing around the room. Maddie reached out and hesitantly touched one. It was made of paper maché.
“Do you want to be dead or something?” Theo asked.
“Theo!” Maddie scolded. “You promised to stop with the rude blurting.”
“My bad.”
“I’m sure you think I’m a freak for doing my room this way,” Ida said. “I did Sam’s the same way.”
“I, for one,” Maddie said, “think you are incredibly talented. This all looks totally real.”
“Thanks,” Ida said, perking up. “I’m in my high school’s drama class. I want to be a set designer someday. The truth is, I’m not really into all this cemetery stuff. I did it for him. Once he got obsessed with summoning ghosts, it’s like he totally forgot I existed. We’ve barely spoken in six months! Before all this, my room was full of five-foot-tall gummy bears I made — not that this stuff made any difference to Sam. Love your hair by the way. Wild.”
“Thanks,” Maddie said. Not many people complimented her out-of-control frizzles.
“So, where’s the ghost?” Theo asked.
This time, his brother and sister didn’t scold him. After all, that was why they were there.
“Do you know why Sam’s been so obsessed with summoning a ghost?” Max asked.
“Well—”
“We won’t judge,” Maddie promised. “You can trust us.”
“It’s just that I can’t say for sure,” Ida explained. “But it all started — the black clothes, the cemetery stuff, the research — not long after the Inadas’ labra-cocker-doodle-spaniel-poodle died. But, to tell you the truth, I didn’t think Sam really liked Derpy all that much. It was his mom who loved him like he was an actual person.”
“Still,” Maddie said, looking at both her brothers, who looked at her back with suddenly serious eyes. “It’s terrible to lose any part of your family.”
“Where’s the ghost, already?” Theo demanded.
“Theo Mattigan, what is wrong with you?” Maddie demanded back.
“My bad. I’m good.”
“Ignore him,” Max said, “he’s asleep.”
“Humpf.”
“So,” Max said, getting down to business, “maybe Sam really loved his dog, but was too cool to admit it, and he wanted to bring his ghost dog back. So, he spent the last six months doing research on ghosts. Then he posted all the info he found online, but then ten seconds later, a real, actual ghost comes and takes him over and makes him delete it — and makes him forget it all, too, so he wouldn’t just go post it all over again.”
“It sounds crazy,” Ida admitted. “But I called him right after it happened, and he actually answered, which proves something changed about him. He didn’t sound like himself. At all. And his sister would never join in on any kind of prank like this.”
“What did he say when you called him?” Maddie asked.
“Just what he said on the video — that it was all a silly joke and that he was very sorry. He’s never used the word ‘silly’ in his entire life. It all really freaked me out, so I hung up and haven’t talked to him since. I want to go talk to him face-to-face, but — I’m afraid it’s not him anymore. I mean, I don’t really believe in ghosts, but—”
“Can you do that?” Maddie asked. “Talk to him face-to-face? Even though his mom won’t answer their door?”
“Actually, I can.”
“How?”
“I’ll show you.”
Ida walked over to her closet and opened the door. Then she walked all the way into it.
The Mattigans traded curious glances, then followed her inside.
The closet had clothes hanging on three sides. Ida parted the hangers along the back wall. Everyone looked through the space she’d made.
Six eyes went wide.
There was a huge hole in the back wall, big enough to climb right through.
“You stole my dad’s idea!”
“Really,” Maddie said, “ignore him.”
“Double humpf!”
“I made it last year,” Ida explained. “A few months after Sam and I started dating. My parents didn’t think anything of all the noise because I’m always hammering away in here, making stuff. I don’t think Sam’s mom even noticed. She’s always in her room.”
More clothes were hanging on the other side of the hole, which seemed to be in another closet. Ida parted them a bit so they could all see through. Yes, they were in another closet, which led into another bedroom. The door to that closet wasn’t quite closed, so they could see into it.
The other bedroom, a nearly identical graveyard, was in another house — the attached house. There was a boy sitting on his bed inside the room, crying his eyes out.
The boy was Sam Inada.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Sam Inada
Ida jumped back, letting the clothes fall between her room and Sam’s. Her face was ashen. “I — ah — I—” she spluttered.
“We have to help—” Maddie started to say, but she was interrupted.
“Idaaaa!” Mrs. Kubatnik called from downstairs.
“Uh-oh,” Ida said. “Hold on.”
The kids all ran out of the closet and back to the top of the steps, where they found Marcus and the Kubatniks all looking up at them. Karl had a video camera hanging on his shoulder.
“We’re going out for a bit, Ida,” Louise said. “You’ll be okay here without us?”
“Sure, Ma,” Ida told her. “No problem.”
“You okay?”
“Yes, Ma.”
“Do you have a plan, Dad?” Max asked, hoping to take the attention off of Ida.
“Well,” Marcus said, “we have a couple of thoughts. The first idea is to—”
“Oh, well,” Maddie interrupted while Eyeballing Max for delaying the departure, “I’m sure one of them will work out.”
“You don’t want to hear the details?” Marcus asked. “Shocked!”
“Of course,” Maddie told him, “but I’m guessing you’re in a hurry. You can tell us how you cracked the case when you get back. We’ll be fine hanging with Ida.”
“Theo’s okay? Awake?”
“I’m good!” Theo said, poking his curl-covered head into sight.
“Text us when you’re coming back, though, okay?” Maddie asked.
“Deal. Just remember—”
“We know, Dad,” Maddie promised. “Notta foot, notta fist, notta finga.”
“Oklahoma.”
“Interesting family,” Karl and Louise Kubatnik said as the grown-ups headed out.
The moment the door closed behind them, all four kids rushed back into Ida’s closet. Ida poked her head through the hole behind the clothes, then pulled it back out.
“He’s still crying,” she said. “I’ve never seen him cry before. I don’t know what it means. I’m afraid to talk to him.”
“We understand,” Maddie said. “But this might be our only chance. We’ll go in with you.”
“Any funny business,” Max said, “and we’ll Mattigan-ize him.”
“What does that mean?” Ida asked.
“I don’t know,” Max admitted.
Ida thought a moment, then said, “Okay.” She put her head back through and whispered, “Sam!” But he was crying so hard that he didn’t hear until the third time she called him. When he finally looked up, he seemed embarrassed, but he sniffed hard, wiped his sleeve across his face, and waved her into his room. The Mattigans followed her through the hole.
“Who the heck are they?” Sam yelped, jumping to his feet at the sight of three strangers coming through his secret passage.
“These are Marcus Mattigan’s kids,” Ida explain
ed.
“Marcus Mattigan? As in, Monstrous Lies with—?”
“We want the ghost,” Theo said. “Cough it up, already.”
“You want the ghost?” Sam asked. Really?”
“But you don’t believe there is a ghost, right?” Max asked.
Sam slumped back into his chair. “I want to believe.”
“Ida told us about Derpy,” Maddie said. “We’re sorry you lost your dog.”
“I’m not doing this for Derpy,” Sam said. “None of this is for me, either. I’m not really into—” He waved at all the tombstones around the room. “Any of this stuff. These clothes. None of it.”
“What?” Ida cried. “Then why the heck—?”
“It’s all for my mom.”
“Your mom?” Ida looked completely and totally confused. And mad.
“Yes,” Sam said. “What do your parents think of her, Ida?”
“Oh, well—” she said, blushing.
“It’s okay,” Sam said. “I know. Everyone thinks she’s a hermit or a shut-in or a weirdo or something. Even my dad does. Well, the truth is she’s obsessed with the paranormal — ghosts, to be exact. She’s been obsessed with proving that ghosts are real ever since she and my dad lost a baby, before it was born. He would have been our older brother. She’s so obsessed that my father couldn’t take it anymore.”
“That’s why they got divorced?” Ida asked. “Why didn’t you ever tell me?”
“She made us promise. But I can’t keep these secrets anymore because something really scary is going on. No one knows this, but she supports us by writing paranormal romance novels, books about people falling in love with ghosts. She uses a fake name. But she spends most of her non-writing time — pretty much all of it — researching ghosts and how to summon them. Only, she’s afraid to publish any of her findings. How are you supposed to know if you’re onto something if you don’t share it?”
Ghost: Mysterious Monsters (Book four) Page 3
