Philip and the Haunted House (9781619500020) (5 page)

“
I don’t think we could spend so much
money. Thousands and thousands of dollars.”

Pronouncing such a vast amount silenced the
boys as they contemplated the wonder of it.

“
Do we have to give it back?” Emery
asked. “If we know it’s stolen money and we keep it, can’t we go to
jail?”

“
You always make problems,” Philip
grumped. But he didn’t have an answer. “I’ll ask my dad. Even if we
have to give it back, we’ll probably get a reward. A big
reward.”

“
Can’t we
tell
the police where the money is and let them
get it?”

“
They won’t believe us, and
suppose
they
get the reward
then. And besides we won’t know where it is unless we go in and
find it. It could be upstairs, downstairs, in the basement. Let’s
find it first, and we can decide what to do second.”

Emery started across the street.

“
Where are you going?” Philip
asked.

“
Aren’t we going to look for the
money?”

“
Are you crazy? Not now. We can’t let
anyone see us go in there. We’ll get chased or somebody’ll follow
us in, and
they’ll
find the
money instead of us. We have to pick a right time.”

“
I like now,” said Emery. “It’s light
out and there’s lots of people around.”

“
But we don’t know if they robbed any
place last night. If they did, they might be in there hiding
more
money.”

“
Oh. Maybe.” Emery examined the house.
“I don’t see anyone.”

“
Of course you don’t see anyone,”
Philip cried in exasperation. “You think they sit at the windows
and wave hello to people?”

“
How can we know when to go
in?”

“
It has to be after a day when they
didn’t commit a robbery.”

“
It could be today,” Emery
said.

“
But we’re not sure. Look, let’s both
listen to the radio before we go to school tomorrow. If there’s
another robbery around here, it will on the radio. Remember, as
soon as you wake up, turn on the radio, and if there was no
robbery, we’ll sneak around back tomorrow after school and see if
we can find a way in.”

Both boys felt a chill as they thought of
what they planned to do.

“
Let’s get out of here,” said Philip.
“We’ll look suspicious if we stand around much longer.” He and
Emery turned and, filled with thoughts of what tomorrow might
bring, walked the rest of the way home.

Chapter Nine

“
Dad, were there any more robberies?”
Philip tried to sound casual as he asked the question.

“
Robberies?”

“
You know. Like the two in the
neighborhood, the pizza store and the sandwich store.”

“
Oh. No, not since Saturday
night.”

Philip thought a minute. “Did they catch the
bad guys yet?”

“
I don’t think so.” Philip’s father sat
reading the newspaper. The family had finished dinner, and his
mother had gone down to Mrs. Moriarty’s house.

“
What’s the newspaper say?”

“
Nothing about any more robberies.” His
father folded the newspaper onto his lap. “What’s up?”

“
Do you know if there’s a reward? You
know, if someone found the money and gave it back.”

“
I don’t know, but it’s likely the
stores would show their gratitude. Why? You got a lead in the
case?”

Philip stomach jumped. He looked at his
father, but saw he was only kidding.

“
Suppose someone found the money and
kept it?”

“
I think they could land in lots of
trouble if they did.”

“
Would they go to jail?”

“
It’s possible.”

Philip didn’t like the sound of that. He and
Emery would have to be satisfied with the reward. Philip’s father
opened up his newspaper again, and Philip made his way up to his
room. There was nothing to do now but to listen to the radio
tomorrow morning.

“
This is WIBG in beautiful Brunton,
Pennsylvania. The temperature is a seasonable 46 degrees. At the
tone the time will be 8 o’clock.
beep
And now the news.”

Philip listened to stories about Washington,
President Obama, the Middle East and something about wrangling over
debt.

“
And now your local news.”

Philip sat up and gave the radio every ounce
of his attention. The Mayor did this. Somebody else did that.
Something about school taxes. A story about a lady whose cat got
stuck in a tree for two whole days. Philip knew when they got to
the cat story the serious news was over. He sighed with relief. He
dashed back to his room and stuck his flashlight into his book bag.
They’d need it if they had to go down into the haunted house
basement.

Philip racked his brain, but couldn’t come up
with anything else they might need. He’d told his mother he’d be at
Emery’s house after school, but he knew as soon as he and Emery
dropped off their book bags, their adventure would begin.

“
How long do you think this’ll take?”
Emery asked as he and Philip huddled together in a bush behind the
haunted house.

“
I don’t know. Why?”

“
I don’t want to be in there when it
gets dark.”

“
No, no. Me either,” Philip admitted.
He looked at his watch. “It won’t take that long. We have plenty of
time.”

“
You sure?”

“
Yeah.”

“
How do we get in?”

“
How do I know?”

“
Kind of important.”

“
Yeah, real. Look, if the front windows
went up and down, maybe the back windows go up and down,
too.”

“
Maybe the back door’s even unlocked,”
Emery said hopefully.

Both boys eyed the house carefully.

“
We know we can’t go in the front way.
Somebody might see us,” Philip said.

“
Somebody could see us go in the back
way, too.”

“
We have to go in some way,” Philip
said impatiently. “We can’t go down the chimney.”

Emery looked up. “There’s a chimney?”

“
No, there’s no chimney!” Philip
barked.

“
Shhhh,” Emery warned, his finger to
his lips.

“
Shhh yourself. Don’t talk. Think.” The
two boys studied the back of the house again.

A cement backyard filled the space between
the bushes where they hid and the back door. The back door had a
block of four small windows in it, and the back wall of the house
had two sets of bigger windows.

“
What’ll we do if everything’s locked
up?” Emery whispered.

Philip ignored the grim question and
whispered back, “Come on. You try one window and I’ll try the
other.” Philip bent over as far as he could and still keep his
balance and ran to the window on the left. He pushed against it,
but it wouldn’t move. He noticed Emery standing by the back door.
Emery waved him over.

“
Broken window,” said Emery.

Philip looked and saw a hole in the window
nearest the doorknob. He watched Emery reach his hand inside the
broken window. “I saw,” Emery said as he wiggled his arm around,
“my father...do this...where is it...here...when he locked
everybody out once.” Emery carefully removed his arm from the
broken window as the back door swung slightly open.

“
You opened it,” said Philip in
amazement. “Quick; in!” He pushed Emery ahead of him and pushed the
door closed. Both boys stood statue-still. They were
inside
the haunted house.

Chapter Ten

“
At least it’s bright in here,” said
Emery. The afternoon light filled up the kitchen, and through the
kitchen entryway they could see the dining room.

“
They probably wouldn’t hide the money
in a place everybody could see,” Philip said.

“‘
Loot’,” corrected Emery. “I read
stolen money is called ‘loot.’”

‘
Loot’. Philip liked the sound. He
regretted not using the word. “Well,” he whispered, “the loot is
probably in a dark place. Come on; and stay away from the windows.”
He bent way over and tiptoed out of the kitchen into the dining
room. He pointed to a door. “Basement. The loot’s probably down
there.”

Emery took a deep breath. “Can we turn the
basement light on? Will anybody outside see it?”

Philip scrunched his forehead together. “I
don’t remember if there’s any window to the basement. Do you?”

Emery scrunched his eyes closed. “I don’t
remember.”

“
All right. Let’s go down the basement
and see if there are any windows. If there aren’t, we can come back
up and turn on the lights.”

“
Good idea. Go ahead.”

“
You go first.”

“
No, you. You have the
flashlight.”

Philip remembered the heavy object in his
right hand. He’d reminded himself over and over to let to Emery
carry it, but in all of the excitement, he forgot to hand it over.
Now he was stuck.

Philip waved his left hand to Emery in
exasperation as he moved in the lead and put his hand on the
doorknob. “Ready?”

“
I guess.” Emery pointed to kitchen and
the back door. “Are you gonna yell and then we run or should I yell
and then we run?”

“
Who cares who yells?”

“
Well, last time you wanted
to…”

“
Never mind last time. Just run if
something goes wrong.”

“
Shouldn’t we yell, too?”

“
So yell, if you want.”

“
Should we yell first and then run, or
run first and then yell?”

“
Yell whenever you want to yell! Just
be quiet now, okay?”

“
Sheesh. Don’t get mad.”

“
You ready? Here I go,” Philip
whispered. He took his hand off the doorknob and wiped his palm.
“Shall I throw it open fast or open it really slow?”

Emery thought a moment. “Fast,” he whispered.
“If anything is there, it’ll be surprised and make a noise and
we’ll hear it and run. And yell. If you open it slow, it won’t hear
us and we’ll walk right into it.”

“
Don’t say ‘it.’”

“
Whatever will hear us
then.”

“
Don’t say whatever.”

“
Some nice polite robber will be
waiting for us. How’s that? Better?”

Philip rolled his eyes and reached out for
the doorknob again. He looked at Emery. “Ready?” he whispered in
his quietest voice yet.

“
I’m ready. I’m ready.”

Without speaking, Philip mouthed the numbers,
“One, two...” He swallowed, took a deep breath, and yanked open the
door.

Both boys screamed. Something awful did wait
on the other side of the door! Something legless and headless! They
froze to the spot, their hearts pounding, waiting for their
stomachs to bounce back up from the floor.

“
Oh!” Emery cried in relief. “It’s an
old raincoat. You picked a closet door. What’d you pick a closet
door for?”

Philip closed the door and caught his breath.
He felt like he’d run around the block with a maniac chasing him.
“You didn’t tell me not to, did you?” He waved his hand at Emery
again. “Come on.”

They found another door off the living room.
This time Philip opened the door slowly. A black tunnel descended
before him.

“
This is no closet,” Philip whispered
over his shoulder. He could see halfway down the stairs, the lower
half lost in the black of the basement. He looked at Emery and
pointed down, telling Emery to go ahead. Emery shook his head and
pointed at the flashlight in Philip’s hand.

Philip kicked himself again and snapped on
the flashlight, which made a dim, wide, yellow circle on the
distant basement floor. In single file, the two boys moved down the
stairs until they stood at the bottom.

“
Shine the light around and see if
there’s a window,” said Emery.

Philip played the light over the walls, but
this basement, like his and Emery’s basements, had no windows.

“
Go up and turn on the lights,” said
Philip.

A moment later,
light.
Beautiful light. Emery ran down the
stairs. The boys looked at each other and smiled. Now they could
take their time and search the basement in this beautiful, safe
light.

“
Let’s start looking,” said
Philip.

“
Let’s look together,” said Emery,
afraid Philip might say, “You start here and I’ll start
there.”

“
Yeah, together—same way we mowed the
grass. It’s our lucky way of working.”

“
Good idea,” said Emery.

Philip waved Emery forward. “Let’s start
there and...” A dull noise stopped them in their tracks. They
peeked at each other, afraid to turn around. Something made a
clear, louder noise behind them.

It came again. Louder.

They slowly turned and saw a man tucked in
under the stairway they’d come down. He sat on a thin mattress,
rubbing his eyes as if he’d just woke up. He had a messy gray beard
and messy, long gray hair. He had on a pair of jeans torn at both
knees, and his T-shirt had a faded picture of Winnie-the-Pooh on
it. He lowered his hands and looked at the boys in amazement.