Stacey And The Mystery Of Stoneybrook (7 page)

When Claudia arrived, Chewy — the Per-kinses' big black Labrador retriever — was running around in circles. Myriah was holding his favorite toy, a disgusting, ancient well-chewed tennis ball. She wouldn't throw it for him, and it was driving him nuts. He barked as he ran, begging her to throw it.

"Claudee Kishi!" yelled Gabbie. "Hi, Clau-dee Kishi! Toshe me up!" Gabbie always calls us by our full names, and "toshe me up" is an expression she invented and uses all the time. Basically, it means, "Pick me up and give me a big hug." Claud was glad to oblige, since Gabbie is an extremely huggable girl.

"I have a great idea, guys," said Claud. "How about if we go to the library for Story Hour? Today they're going to read a couple of your favorite books. Guess which ones.
Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel
and
The Little House.
And then, after they read the books,

everybody gets to help make a mural of the town in
The Little House."

Claud had found out about Story Hour from her mom. Mrs. Kishi is the head librarian, so she knows about all the stuff that goes on there. Claud had thought she'd check out Story Hour to see if it was a good way to spend some time with the kids we were sitting for.

"Yea!" yelled Gabbie. "What's a mural?"

"It's a big, giant picture, Gabbers," said Myriah. "Can Chewy come, Claudia? Oh, boy, I can't wait!"

They do love those two books. Have you ever read
The Little House?
It's about this house that was once in the country, and then slowly a big city gets built up around it. I won't spoil the ending, but trust me, it's a great book.

Claud had another motive for going to the library. She couldn't stop thinking about the old house being on the site of a burial ground. Maybe, she thought, she could find out more by browsing through the local history section. Claud must have been
obsessed
with that house: It's not like her to do much voluntary reading (besides Nancy Drew, of course).

She piled Gabbie and Myriah into the Perkinses' big red wagon — she'd vetoed the idea of Chewy coming along — and set off for the

library. The girls were excited about going, since the library is one of their favorite places. They go every week to check out books and this would be like a bonus visit for them.

"Can we take out a book today, Claudee Kishi?" asked Gabbie.

"I want to take out
five
books," said Myriah. "This many," she added, holding up all five fingers on her right hand. "Because I'm five years old. Five and a half, really. Right, Claudia?"

"That's right, Myriah. And you can both take out as many books as you like today," said Claudia. "Did you know that my mommy is the boss of the whole library?" she added.

"Does she
live
there?" asked Myriah. "I always wanted to sleep overnight at the library. I bet she gets to whenever she wants."

Claudia's mom had told us once that kids really do think she lives at the library. After all, she's always there! When they see her somewhere else in town, like at the supermarket, sometimes they just stop and stare at her. They can't believe she's just like a regular person. She's the "liberrian."

Claud cleared up Myriah's confusion, and the girls settled into the trip.

"The sun'll come out tomorrow,"
sang Gabbie.

"Bet your bottom dollar there'll be sun,",
chimed in Myriah.

Claudia smiled as she pulled them along. Gabbie and Myriah seem to know all the words to a million songs, and they love to sing them all the way through. After they finished "Tomorrow," they ran through "You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile." They must have seen
Annie
a couple of hundred times.

"I know you, I danced with you once upon a dream,"
sang Myriah. They'd started to act out their favorite scenes from
Sleeping Beauty.
Myriah was playing the part of the prince.

"Oh! I have to go now!" said Gabbie, dramatically. She was Sleeping Beauty. She was very convincing in the role.

When they got to the library, Claud stopped into the office to see her mom. The girls followed her quietly. They know how to behave in the library, especially when the big boss is looking right at them.

Claudia then settled the girls in the children's room. Story Hour was just about to start. They were right on time. Then she headed back into the main room. She'd forgotten where the local history books were kept, even though we've looked at them before. But there was no way she was going to

ask her mom. It was embarrassing to be the head librarian's daughter and not even know her way around the library. Fortunately this guy we know, Brace Schermerhorn, is working there as a page, shelving the books that people return. Claud asked him where the books were, and he helped her find the ones she wanted.

She took them to a chair where she could be comfortable and also keep an eye on Gabbie and Myriah. They seemed to be having a good time listening to the stories.

The first two volumes Claudia looked at were hard to get through. They were the kind of dry historical books that are absolutely no fun to read. But Claud did her best. It wasn't easy for her, trying to plow through that material. Still, she stuck with it. Finally she realized that she wasn't getting anywhere.

She picked up one of the other books and took a look at it. It seemed to be full of old records of the town of Stoneybrook. There were birth records and death records and property-tax records and even a map. This stuff looked even more boring than what she'd looked at before. Claud gritted her teeth and kept looking. She was determined to get
something
out of this visit to the library.

She picked up a second book of old town

records and worked her way through it until her eyes lit on a couple of paragraphs that looked as though they had something to do with "our" house. From what she'd read so far, it
did
seem as though the town was built on ancient burial grounds. And the house
was,
she thought, on a sacred spot. The people who had written down the records didn't seem to be too concerned about it, but Claud was getting chills up and down her spine. How could anyone think that such a thing didn't matter? What about the spirits of the dead who had been buried there? How could they ever be at rest with houses and banks and Burger Kings on top of them?

Claud got a grip on herself. Before she totally flew off the handle, she knew she should keep looking to see if she could find out who owned the house. Property tax records should be just the ticket, she thought. She kept poring over the musty old book. And then she found it! The owner's name. Ronald Hennessey. It was right there in black and white.

Claud felt like cheering. This was a major discovery. But what good did a name do unless she could find out more about who Ronald Hennessey was? Was he still alive? Where did he live now? He sure didn't live in the house he owned, and he hadn't for years.

Claud sat for a moment and thought. Where could she look next? She glanced into the children's room. All the Story Hour kids were working on a big messy mural full of apartment buildings and highways. There seemed to be dinosaurs roaming the streets, too. The Little House stood forlornly in the middle of the picture. Story Hour was almost over.

Finally, Claud went over to her mom's desk. "Mom, where would you look to see if someone who used to live in Stoneybrook still
does
live in Stoneybrook?"

Mrs. Kishi looked up at Claudia, surprised. She must have wondered what Claud was up to, but she didn't ask. She just smiled a little and said, "Well, I guess I'd try the phone book."

Claudia told me later that she wished there was a trapdoor she could fall into right then. How dumb she'd been! She'd gotten so wrapped up in her complicated historical research that she'd never even thought of using a regular old phone book.

She went to the reference desk, where they keep all the phone books for the whole country. She found the local one and opened it right up to the exact page that Ronald Hennessey was on. Guess what. He was in there. It was as easy as that.

Claud looked at the address listed. Stoneybrook Manor. That was a nursing home. Of course, Mr. Hennessey must be pretty old by now, she realized. She copied down the address and went off to collect Gabbie and Myriah.

Story Hour was just ending, but Claud had to hang around for awhile as the girls picked out some books to take home. Gabbie just kind of grabbed randomly, but Myriah seemed to have definite ideas about which ones she liked and which ones were "ucky." While she waited, Claud strolled over to look at the finished mural. There was a lot going on in that picture, a lot that the illustrator of
The Little House
wouldn't recognize. Besides the dinosaurs, there were soldiers with amazing weaponry, witches holding brooms, ballerinas, and a Candy Land-like area where lollipops grew. It was a great mural.

Finally, the girls had all the books they wanted. They went to the desk to check them out.

"What's your name?" asked the lady at the desk.

"Gabbie," said Gabbie. "What's yours?"

Claudia laughed and went over to help. "These are the Perkins girls," she said. "Gabbie and Myriah." The clerk must have been

new, or else she'd have recognized them. She looked up their cards and checked out the books. It had turned out to be a pretty big stack, so Claud helped carry them out to the -wagon.

The girls piled in with their books and spent the trip home telling each other and Claudia the story of Mike Mulligan. They decided that Mike should have lived
in
the Little House.

Claud got them home just as Mrs. Perkins returned from the doctor's office. Dr. Dellenkamp had given her a prescription for Laura and said that she'd be fine in no time.

By then it was almost time for the Babysitters Club meeting, so Claud ran home as soon as she'd said her good-byes to the girls and to Mrs. Perkins. She was excited about what she'd found out and proud of herself for sticking with the research. She was dying to tell us all about Mr. Ronald Hennessey.

Chapter 10.

While Claudia was doing her research at the library, Charlotte and I were doing some research of our own.

It was Monday afternoon. I'd gotten home from school to find Charlotte feeling "all well," as she had put it. My mom, who had spent the day with Charlotte, headed out to do some errands.

"There's a snack set out for you on the table, honey," she said. Sometimes she still treats me like a fourth-grader, which isn't such a terrible thing. It's nice to feel taken care of.

I sat down with Charlotte and ate my fruit and crackers while she told me about her day. Since she'd been home all day, her story wasn't that exciting: She'd watched TV, read, and taught my mom how to play War. But it was nice to come home to find my "little sister" waiting for me. I'd really been enjoying Charlotte's company, probably even more

than if she really
were
my little sister. Real sisters do things like fight and tease each other, and we never do that. We just have a good time together.

After I'd eaten, Charlotte followed me upstairs. I wanted to change out of my school clothes, since I'd worn a new outfit that day and I wanted to keep it nice. I'd gotten this pink polka-dotted short skirt with suspender straps and had worn it with an oversized white T-shirt. I had on my pink high-top sneakers, folded down to show their striped lining. I'd also worn these great earrings Claud had given me for my last birthday. They had all these little pink plastic hearts dangling down from one bigger heart. In case you haven't noticed, I do like the color pink!

By the time I'd finished changing, Charlotte and. I had decided to take a walk. Charlotte was feeling great — she'd be able to go to school the next day, for sure — and she wanted to get outside. Guess where we went. That's right. There was something about that old house. We just couldn't stay away from it.

When we got there, the workmen were packing up their tools and getting ready to leave. It was early again, not even four o'clock yet, but .they seemed to be in a hurry. Charlotte and I stayed out of their way until they had driven off.

We decided to walk around the house again, just as we had the last time we were there. It didn't look all that different. The workmen must have still been taking things out from the inside. A couple of windows had been pulled from the walls and they were leaning against the house. The bushes around the sides looked a little beaten down where the workers had been walking. And the railing on the back porch had come loose and was hanging at a crazy angle.

"You know, Charlotte," I said, "I think all those noises we heard last time were just in our imaginations."

She looked at me. Maybe she could tell by my tone of voice that I was really just trying to convince myself — and her — that there was nothing to be scared of. "But what about the things we
saw,
Stacey?" she asked. "What about the flies, and that face at the window?"

"I'm sure there's an explanation for everything," I said. "Maybe those flies were actually termites." The face I wasn't so sure about. Maybe I'd just imagined that. After all, I'd been the only one to see it. That must be it. My imagination had just run away with me last Friday.

'Tire! Fire!" yelled Charlotte all of a sudden. She sounded terrified.