by Sally Rippin
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Copyright Page
It’s lunchtime and the weather is hot. Billie B Brown and her friends sit under the peppercorn tree at the edge of the playground.
Billie pulls a banana sandwich out of her lunchbox. Then she pulls out something wrapped in tissue paper.
‘What’s that?’ Mika asks.
‘Guess,’ says Billie, smiling secretively. She hands Mika the bundle of tissue paper. ‘Don’t open it, though!’
Mika closes her eyes and feels through the tissues. ‘Hmmm. It has a long thin bit,’ she says slowly. ‘And a round bit. And it’s hard.’
‘I know what it is,’ says Jack. He has already seen Billie’s new present because he lives next door. Billie showed it to him yesterday.
‘Don’t tell!’ says Billie.
‘Can I see?’ says Alex.
Mika hands him the package.
‘Give us a clue?’ asks Mika.
Billie grins. ‘It makes things bigger.’
‘A magnifying glass!’ Mika says.
‘You’re right!’ says Billie. She takes the package back from Alex and carefully unwraps it. There, glinting in the sunlight, is a brand-new magnifying glass. ‘My grandma gave it to me,’ she says proudly.
‘Cool,’ Alex and Mika say together. They touch the glass with their fingertips.
‘You can burn stuff with a magnifying glass,’ Alex says. ‘If we hold it over some dry leaves we could start a fire. I saw it on TV once.’
‘No way,’ says Jack. ‘That’s dangerous! Mr Benetto would be pretty angry if you burned the whole school down.’
Billie beckons for her friends to listen closely and lowers her voice.
‘Actually, I was thinking we could start a secret mystery club. We can use the magnifying glass to be spies and look for clues.’
‘It’s detectives who use magnifying glasses, not spies,’ Alex says.
Billie rolls her eyes. Sometimes Alex acts like he knows everything. ‘That’s what I meant,’ she says, shrugging. ‘Detectives.’
‘Aren’t they the same thing?’ Mika says.
‘No,’ says Alex. ‘Detectives are like Sherlock Holmes. Spies are like James Bond.’
‘Can I be James Bond?’ says Mika.
‘Bags being Sherlock Holmes!’ says Jack.
‘That’s not what I meant!’ says Billie, feeling frustrated that her friends are being silly. ‘We’ll be more like the Famous Five. Or the Secret Seven.’
‘But there’s only four of us!’ Jack grins. ‘Unless you want to invite Scraps?’
Alex woofs and Mika laughs.
Billie can’t help grinning a little. But she wants her friends to listen.‘Come on, I’m serious,’ she says.
‘Where are we going to find a mystery around here, Billie?’ Jack says. He swings his arms out wide.
‘Unless you want to find out the mystery of the stinky lunchbox?’ Alex jokes.
‘Or the missing pencil case?’ Mika giggles.
Billie sighs. Jack’s right, she thinks. School isn’t a very exciting place to explore. Neither are our homes. Even the park isn’t very exciting anymore, now that we are big.
Billie tries to think of a place where they might find a mystery to solve. She has to be quick. Already her friends have started talking about other things. If she doesn’t think of something soon, they won’t want to start a secret club with her at all!
Just then, Billie has an idea. A super-dooper idea! She knows the perfect place. It’s mysterious and spooky and she is sure her friends will be impressed. ‘I know somewhere,’ she says loudly. ‘A really scary place. But only super-brave kids would dare to go there.’
‘Where?’ ask the others. They turn to face her, suddenly interested again.
Billie leans back against the trunk of the tree and smiles.
She knows her friends are paying attention now. ‘The spooky house at the end of our street,’ she says.
Jack gasps. ‘The haunted house?’ Billie nods.
‘There’s no such thing as a haunted house,’ Alex scoffs. He crosses his arms against his chest.
Billie feels annoyed with Alex. Even though she is pretty sure there’s no such thing as well, she still wants to make absolutely super sure.
Besides, she really wants to start a secret mystery club and Alex is ruining everything. So she ignores him and turns to Mika and Jack, putting on her spookiest voice.
‘Sometimes when you walk past the house, you can hear sawing or grinding noises,’ she says. ‘That’s the witch in there – grinding up bones!’
‘Witches don’t live in haunted houses,’ Alex laughs. ‘That’s ghosts.’
‘There are ghosts, too,’ Billie adds. ‘They wait until a kid walks past on their own and then catch them. Then the witch grinds up their bones and eats them!’
Jack and Mika shiver.
‘No-one has ever seen anyone go in,’ Billie says in her spooky voice. ‘Or come out.’ She is having fun making up the story.
Then she announces, ‘The first mystery of the Secret Mystery Club is to find out who is living in that old house at the end of our street.
Who is brave enough to come with me?’ She holds up her magnifying glass to her eye.
Mika shoots up her hand. Alex puts up his hand, too, but he rolls his eyes like he still doesn’t believe Billie’s story.
Last of all, Jack puts up his hand, very slowly. He looks worried. Billie knows he is only putting up his hand because he doesn’t want to be left behind.
Billie feels a teensy bit bad.
She didn’t mean to scare Jack. But she really, really wants to find an exciting mystery for the Secret Mystery Club to solve.
Jack will be okay, she thinks.
She hopes she is right.
That weekend, Jack, Mika and Alex meet at Billie’s house. They all sit in a circle in Billie’s room with the door tightly closed.
Billie has written a sign to put on the door.
It says:
Billie’s little brother Noah can’t read yet, but Billie hopes her parents will get the hint.
Billie doesn’t mind playing with Noah some days, but not every day. And besides, Noah is much too young for secret mystery business.
Billie has borrowed the picnic basket from the kitchen cupboard. She hands it around the group. One by one her friends put in a packet of lollies each. They have bought them with their own pocket money.
Billie drops her packet in last, then reads out their plan from her special secret notebook, which has a real lock and key. She has written in her tiniest extra-small handwriting so that she can use her magnifying glass to read.
She squints down at the paper. ‘The Secret Mystery Club’s first mystery. What is going on in the Haunted House? Is there really a witch living there?’ she reads. ‘Plan: Two people knock on the door and pretend that they are selling lollies for school. The other two will look through a window or over the back fence. Look for any clues and report back to the S.M.C. as soon as possible.’
‘What’s the S.M.C?’ Mika asks.
‘Code for Secret Mystery Club,’ Billie says. ‘Whatever happens, nobody must know about our club. OK?’
‘OK,’ agree the other three.
‘Maybe we should have a secret call?’ Alex suggests.
‘Good idea,’ says Billie. She is happy that Alex seems to be enjoying the mystery now.‘How about a whistle? Like this.’ She puts her fingers to her mouth and whistles loudly.
Next door, Jack’s dog
Scraps starts barking. Billie giggles.
‘Too obvious,’ says Alex.
‘And I can’t whistle,’ admits Mika.
‘How about a bird call?’ says Jack.
All of them begin squawking and whistling and making all kinds of bird noises. Too-whit-to-whoo! Caw! Caw! Cheep, cheep!
Finally, Alex does a rooster crow and everyone bursts out laughing.
‘All right, a rooster crow it is!’ Billie giggles. ‘Now, this is the important decision. Who is going around the front of the spooky house and who’s going around the back?’
Everyone looks at each other.
‘I don’t really want to knock on the front door,’ Jack says.
‘Well, you’re a good climber,’ Billie says. ‘So maybe you and Alex should look over the back fence?’
Alex shrugs. ‘OK with me. Jack?’
Jack shrugs. ‘I guess so.’ He chews a fingernail nervously.
Billie grins. ‘Will you come with me then, Mika?’ she asks. ‘We’ll knock on the front door.’
Mika nods bravely.
‘If a witch comes to the front door, we’ll just run away,’ Billie explains.
‘What about us?’ Jack yelps.
‘You run, too,’ Billie says. ‘If we get separated, meet back here, OK?’
The others nod.
Billie sticks out her hand, palm facing downwards. ‘Put your hand on mine,’ she says.
Everyone puts their palms face down on Billie’s. Then she bounces their hands up and down and crows loudly like a rooster. The others join in.
‘Cock-a-doodle-dooo!’
Billie looks at Jack out of the corner of her eye.
She can see that he is trying his best to crow like a rooster.
But he is so nervous that he sounds more like a squawking hen!
I wonder if I should tell him it’s just a game, Billie thinks. But then the others would think I was tricking. And the Secret Mystery Club would have no mystery to solve!
Billie makes her way down the street with the rest of the Secret Mystery Club.
When they get close to the spooky house, they split into two groups. Alex and Jack slip around the side of the house.
Billie and Mika wait a minute, then they walk up to the front gate. This is the closest Billie has ever been to the spooky house. Usually when she and Jack walk past, they cross to the other side of the street.
She feels a buzzy mix of excitement and fear. Even though she knows that a witch probably doesn’t live there, her heart is still beating very fast.
Billie slowly pushes open the front gate. It lets out a long squeal.
A black cat scoots across the front porch and around the side of the house.
‘A witch’s cat!’ Billie whispers to Mika. ‘That is definitely a witch’s cat.’
Mika’s eyes become as round as moons. ‘Are you sure we should knock on the door?’ she says.
‘Of course!’ says Billie, but she feels her heart beat even faster.
The front garden is a tangled mess of weeds and bushes.
Billie and Mika tiptoe along the cracked path towards the pale green door. The tall grey house is faded and peeling. Big flakes of paint curl up to show the silvery boards beneath.
‘This is so a witch’s house!’ Billie hisses.
‘Stop it, Billie!’ Mika says. She stops walking and screws up her face. ‘Or I’m going home!’
Billie giggles. Even Mika believes my spooky stories now! she thinks.
‘There’s no such thing as ghosts and witches, Mika!’ she says. ‘Everyone knows that.’
Mika frowns. ‘That’s not what you said before.’
‘I know, but I was just fooling around,’ Billie says. ‘I wanted to have a mystery to solve! We’ll just knock on the door to see if anyone lives here, and then we can go home.’ She grabs Mika’s hand.
They step up to the door. Billie lifts a hand, pauses for a second, then gives the door three loud knocks.
The street is completely quiet except for the rustle of wind in the trees. In the distance, a car starts up.
‘There’s no-one here!’ Mika says after a moment. She looks relieved. ‘Come on, let’s find the others.’
‘Wait!’ says Billie. ‘I think I hear something.’ She puts her ear to the door.
From deep inside the house comes the strange noise she has heard before. A whirring machine noise, grinding and crushing.
‘That must be the witch’s kid-crushing machine!’ Billie says in a low voice to Mika.
Mika turns as pale as a ghost. ‘Billie!’ she says angrily. ‘You just said there’s no such thing as witches. Now you’re trying to scare me! I’m going back to your house. This isn’t fun anymore!’ She marches back down the garden path.
‘Wait!’ whispers Billie. ‘I think I can hear someone. Really!’
But Mika stomps through the gate and closes it behind her. Then she jogs around the side of the house to look for Alex and Jack.
Billie watches Mika go. She feels a bit bad for scaring her friends.
This house is pretty spooky. Maybe this wasn’t the best place to look for a mystery after all?
Billie listens to the noises from deep inside the house. Whirring, grinding, creaking noises.
Then a noise like footsteps. Slow, heavy footsteps on creaking floorboards. Coming closer. And closer.
Suddenly, the door is flung open. Billie looks up. And gasps.
Standing in front of her is the scariest woman Billie has ever seen. She has long white hair and is wearing a long black dress. Just like a real witch! When Billie looks at her long skinny fingers, she sees that they are spattered with red.
‘Hello?’ the woman says. Her voice is croaky like a frog. She curls back her lips to show a line of yellow teeth.
Billie drops her basket of lollies in fright. She runs down the path and through the rickety gate, her heart pounding in her ears. Then she runs all the way home.
‘She is definitely a witch!’ Billie tells the others as soon as they are all safely back in Billie’s bedroom.‘I saw her and I’m telling you, she’s definitely a witch!’
Mika narrows her eyes. ‘There’s no such thing as witches,’ she says.
Then she turns to the others. ‘Billie was just making up stories all along. She told me so.’
Alex frowns. ‘I knew it!’ he says in a know-all voice.
‘But there was a witch! A real one. I promise!’ Billie says. ‘She had long white hair and a long black dress. And she had a black cat. You saw the cat, Mika!’
Mika crosses her arms. ‘There wasn’t anyone in that house, Billie. You’re just trying to scare us.’
‘Yeah,’ Alex says. ‘Jack looked over the back fence. The garden is all overgrown. It’s just an empty house, Billie.’
‘But she came just after you left!’ Billie insists. ‘She was really creepy. And she had red stuff on her hands. I’m not saying it was blood, but…’
‘Stop it, Billie!’ Mika says. ‘I’m not playing with you if you keep trying to scare us.’
‘Me neither,’ Alex says. ‘This isn’t fun anymore. I’m going home.’
‘Me too!’ says Mika.
Billie looks at her three friends in shock. ‘But what about the club?’ she says in a little voice. ‘Our Secret Mystery Club?’
Billie looks at Jack hopefully. His cheeks turn pink and he looks away.
‘I’ll only play if you stop scaring us,’ he mumbles. ‘Nobody likes your scary stories, Billie.’
‘But…’ Billie says, then she stops herself. It’s no use. They will never believe her now.
If only I hadn’t played tricks on them! she thinks. Then they’d believe me.
‘OK,’ she says, hanging her head. ‘I won’t talk about witches anymore. I promise.’
‘Cross your heart?’ Mika says.
Billie nods. ‘And hope to die.’
The next day, Billie can’t stop thinking about the spooky woman. What if she really is a witch?
she thinks. What if she comes looking for me? A shiver passes through her.
She goes downstairs to sit in the kitchen with her family.
Being with her family always makes her feel better.
Noah is sitting at his little table, scribbling on paper with crayons.
‘Hey, Noah,’ Billie says. She pats him on his soft brown hair. He smiles and hands her his drawing.
‘Oh, that’s nice!’ says Billie. She looks down at the red and yellow scribbles across the page. ‘What is it?’
‘Giwaffe!’ says Noah proudly.
‘Oh yes, of course!’ says Billie, grinning. She turns the paper around three times but she can still only see scribble, no giraffe.
‘Hey, Billie, have you seen the picnic basket?’ her dad says. He is on a stepladder searching in the top cupboards.
‘Oh!’ says Billie. She suddenly remembers. ‘Um, why?’
‘Well, we thought we’d go for a picnic this afternoon because it’s such a nice day,’ Billie’s mum says.
‘But we can’t find the picnic basket anywhere. You haven’t been playing with it, have you, Billie?’
