Because the kids had helped rewrite the final script, they already knew the story. It didn’t take them long to go over their parts. Benny helped Gwen sort through her sound tapes. After they had set aside all the tapes they would need during the broadcast, Gwen took out a blank tape. Then she and Benny recorded one more sound effect they would need for the show.
“Perfect,” Benny said to Gwen. “Now we have everything we need to catch the ghost.”
Gwen placed the tape to one side of the cassette player. She looked up at Henry, Jessie, and Violet and nodded. Everything for their plan was set.
At last it was show time.
“Ready, everyone?” Frances called. The kids nodded. “Places, everyone! One, two, three! You’re on the air!”
The red ON AIR light blinked on.
Frances read the introduction. “In part three,” she said into Jessie’s mike, “our characters were trapped in the old mine. Will the mysterious dog help them again? We’ll find out today in the final episode of ‘The Ghost Dog.’”
Violet had the first line. “Don’t move, anyone, or the rocks will come down!”
“My leg is stuck,” said Henry with a groan. “I can’t get it free.”
“Oh, no!” cried Jessie. “Watch out —!”
Gwen shook a metal box with a few pebbles inside. It sounded just like rocks falling down the mine shaft.
Moments into the broadcast, the lights went out. The soundstage was completely dark. This time the kids didn’t click on their flashlights. They had memorized their parts so they wouldn’t need them.
Screeeeeeeeeeeeee! A horrible, loud screeching filled the radio station.
The Aldens continued to recite their lines, pretending the screaming was part of the show.
In the darkness, Gwen picked up the cassette she and Benny had made earlier and slid it into the cassette player.
“Is that the ghost dog?” Violet said loud enough to be heard over the screeching.
Gwen pushed the PLAY button on the cassette player. The howls of a dog — Benny’s character of the ghost dog — competed with the screaming.
“Go, Benny!” Gwen whispered to him.
“Wish me luck!” he whispered back, then crept around the back of the soundstage.
The plan relied on him. He couldn’t fail.
The ON AIR light cast an eerie glow as Benny edged out the door of the soundstage. He waited a few seconds for his eyes to adjust to the dim red light.
Holding on to the wall, Benny shuffled down the hall that connected the soundstage to the rest of the studio. He could hear Grandfather and Jocelyn coming out of the breakroom.
“What’s going on?” Jocelyn yelled. “Somebody stop that noise!”
“We have to get the lights back on!” Grandfather told her.
The fuse box was near the side door, Benny knew. They would head in that direction.
Then Benny saw a dark shape ahead of him.
Taking the flashlight out of his pocket, Benny clicked the button to the ON position and aimed the beam straight at the “ghost.”
“Stop right there,” Benny said.
CHAPTER 10
Benny Catches a Ghost
With one hand, Avery Drake shielded his eyes from the glare of Benny’s flashlight.
“Benny!” he said, tightening his grip on the duffel bag with his other hand. “You’re supposed to be in the soundstage with the others.”
“And you’re supposed to be in the control booth,” Benny said. “But instead you’re playing ghost.”
At that moment, the overhead lights flickered back on. Grandfather, Jocelyn, and Earl rushed down the hall.
“Where is that tape playing from?” Jocelyn asked, as the screaming echoed throughout the station. “We’ve got to find it.”
Gwen burst through the soundstage door.
“I know where it is!” she said. She dashed into the control booth. Jocelyn and Benny followed.
“What are you doing?” Avery asked, setting his duffel bag inside the cubby instead of its usual corner.
Gwen pushed aside Avery’s box of half-eaten doughnuts, which was sitting on the console. A tiny cassette player, no bigger than a sandwich, was wedged between the box and the wall. Gwen hit the STOP button and the screaming ended. Now, only the voices of Henry, Violet, and Jessie came clearly over the speakers.
“Where did that come from?” Avery asked, sounding surprised.
“I’ve got to finish the show,” Gwen said. “Don’t let him leave!” She ran back to the soundstage.
Frances’s voice told the listening audience she hoped they had enjoyed the program.
Gwen’s music signaled the show was over.
“Excuse me,” Avery said, reaching past Jocelyn to press buttons. “I have to cue up the commercial.”
“Put on a prerecorded program next,” Jocelyn told him. “We need to talk.”
Avery searched through his CDs, then popped one into the CD player. An interview with a television star blasted through the speakers. Flipping a switch, Avery muted the sound in the studio.
When he looked up, Jessie, Henry, Benny, Violet, and Gwen were standing in the doorway, watching him.
“Well, Avery,” Jocelyn began, “would you like to explain why you are ‘haunting’ the radio station?”
“That’s ridiculous!” Avery said defensively. “I work here — why would I do anything to ruin my job?”
Frances leaned against the wall. “You tell us.”
Avery crossed his arms and said nothing.
“When I saw you running last night,” Gwen told Avery, “I remembered something.” She walked over to the cubby and pushed back the curtain. Two empty hangers hung on the pole. The duffel bag sat on the floor.
“That’s where you hang your clothes when you go running,” Violet said. “You bring your running clothes and shoes in the duffel bag to the station every day.”
“I change my clothes at the station after I run,” Avery said. “What’s so unusual about that?”
“When we saw you wearing your running clothes, you were also carrying the duffel bag,” Henry said. “If your work clothes were here at the station, what were you carrying out of the station in the duffel bag?”
A short silence followed Henry’s words.
“You use the duffel bag to take stuff out of the station,” Benny concluded. “The stuff you were stealing.”
Gwen spoke up. “And I bet it’s also where you keep your ghostly sound effects tapes.”
“You used the bag to smuggle out the microphone, which you took apart,” Henry said to Avery. “The bag is big enough to hold that turntable, too. You put the turntable in the Dumpster outside, then went back later to get it.”
“And you were in the station the other night to mess up Gwen’s sound effects,” Benny added. “We saw your flashlight through the windows. You switched the labels on her tapes. And yesterday, you stole Frances’s script. That’s what you were carrying in the duffel bag when we saw you running last night.”
Avery was silent.
“Will you open your duffel bag?” Henry asked.
Avery hesitated, then retrieved his bag from the cubby. He unzipped it. Inside, under his running clothes, were several cassette tapes and the extra set of headphones.
Jessie stepped forward to read the labels on the cassettes. “SCREAMING. GHOSTLY MOANING. Pretty strange music.”
Jocelyn took one of the tapes and popped it into the microcassette player. Loud moaning quavered through the speakers throughout the station. She pushed the STOP button. Then she found a thin wire. “I suppose this goes to the speakers.”
“Those are very good explanations,” Avery said levelly. “But you’ve forgotten one thing — why would I do it? What’s my motive?”
“To be a star,” Violet said.
Avery laughed. “A star! Where did you get that crazy idea?”
“From the man you’ve been meeting in the Route 11 Diner,” Jessie said. “He promised
to make you a star DJ if you forced Jocelyn to sell the station. He wants to buy it.”
Now Avery didn’t look so confident. His shoulders sagged with defeat.
“Is this true?” Jocelyn demanded.
“Yes,” he confessed. “The kids are right. A representative from MegaHits Corporation contacted me a few months ago. They still want to buy WCXZ.”
“And turn it into an all-hits, all-the-time station?” Jocelyn guessed.
Avery nodded. “This guy wasn’t the same man who tried to buy the station from Luther. But it’s the same company. If I helped them, they promised me a DJ job at their big station in the city. Do you know how many people would hear me then? Millions!”
“A lot more than in Deer Crossing,” Jocelyn said wryly.” So you sold out. But why did you have to steal from me?”
“Because you wouldn’t give up the station, Gran,” Gwen explained. “Avery’s only hope was that, if you had to keep replacing expensive equipment, you’d eventually have to sell.”
“But why pretend a ghost is doing it?” Frances asked. “Why not just come into the station and steal stuff at night?”
“I could have,” Avery said. “But I always liked that old story about Daphne Owens. I decided to make it look like she had come back. I never realized the mystery program cast would get so spooked they’d quit! When that happened, I thought I might be close to my goal … until the Aldens stepped in.”
“So you also never realized that the real Daphne Owens was a member of the cast,” Henry said.
“What?” Avery looked shocked. So did Frances and Jocelyn.
“Daphne Owens got married and became DeeDee Rhoads,” Violet explained. “She moved back to Deer Crossing, but kept her old identity a secret.”
“I can’t believe it!” Jocelyn said. “DeeDee is Daphne Owens!”
“DeeDee helped us,” Jessie added. “She told us about the man that Avery met in the diner.”
“You’re not going to sell the station, are you, Gran?” Gwen asked.
“Of course not.” Jocelyn turned to Avery. “You’re fired. I ought to press charges, but I won’t because Luther liked you. Pay me back for the equipment you stole and get out.”
“I’m sorry,” said Avery. “You and Luther have been so nice to me. But I got carried away with my dream. I’ll be out by the end of the day. But who will run the station?”
“I will,” said Jocelyn. “I’ll be the DJ. I’m going to add some programs. Gwen will help me.”
“I’d like to sponsor the morning show, too,” Earl offered. “If that’s okay.”
“Of course you can help, Earl. What about you?” Jocelyn asked Frances. “Are you staying with us?”
Frances shook her head. “Now that I have a really great script idea, I think it’s time for me to start my movie-writing career. Plus, I really like writing for kids. I’d like to write a kids’ movie, too. But I’m sure DeeDee Rhoads will jump at the chance to be the writer. She’ll bring the cast back, too.”
Jocelyn smiled at the Aldens. “Your grandfather was right. You are great detectives!”
Jessie smiled. “We couldn’t have done it without Gwen!”
“I liked being a detective for a little while,” said Gwen, “but I like working in Gran’s station even better. I want to be a DJ.”
“If you change your mind, you can join us,” said Benny. “We’ll be detectives forever!”
About the Author
GERTRUDE CHANDLER WARNER discovered when she was teaching that many readers who like an exciting story could find no books that were both easy and fun to read. She decided to try to meet this need, and her first book, The Boxcar Children, quickly proved she had succeeded.
Miss Warner drew on her own experiences to write the mystery. As a child she spent hours watching trains go by on the tracks opposite her family home. She often dreamed about what it would be like to set up housekeeping in a caboose or freight car — the situation the Alden children find themselves in.
When Miss Warner received requests for more adventures involving Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny Alden, she began additional stories. In each, she chose a special setting and introduced unusual or eccentric characters who liked the unpredictable.
While the mystery element is central to each of Miss Warner’s books, she never thought of them as strictly juvenile mysteries. She liked to stress the Aldens’ independence and resourcefulness and their solid New England devotion to using up and making do. The Aldens go about most of their adventures with as little adult supervision as possible — something else that delights young readers.
Miss Warner lived in Putnam, Connecticut, until her death in 1979. During her lifetime, she received hundreds of letters from girls and boys telling her how much they liked her books.
The Boxcar Children Mysteries
THE BOXCAR CHILDREN
SURPRISE ISLAND
THE YELLOW HOUSE MYSTERY
MYSTERY RANCH
MIKE’S MYSTERY
BLUE BAY MYSTERY
THE WOODSHED MYSTERY
THE LIGHTHOUSE MYSTERY
MOUNTAIN TOP MYSTERY
SCHOOLHOUSE MYSTERY
CABOOSE MYSTERY
HOUSEBOAT MYSTERY
SNOWBOUND MYSTERY
TREE HOUSE MYSTERY
BICYCLE MYSTERY
MYSTERY IN THE SAND
MYSTERY BEHIND THE WALL
BUS STATION MYSTERY
BENNY UNCOVERS A MYSTERY
THE HAUNTED CABIN MYSTERY
THE DESERTED LIBRARY MYSTERY
THE ANIMAL SHELTER MYSTERY
THE OLD MOTEL MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY OF THE HIDDEN PAINTING
THE AMUSEMENT PARK MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY OF THE MIXED-UP ZOO
THE CAMP-OUT MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY GIRL
THE MYSTERY CRUISE
THE DISAPPEARING FRIEND MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY OF THE SINGING GHOST
MYSTERY IN THE SNOW
THE PIZZA MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY HORSE
THE MYSTERY AT THE DOG SHOW
THE CASTLE MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY OF THE LOST VILLAGE
THE MYSTERY ON THE ICE
THE MYSTERY OF THE PURPLE POOL
THE GHOST SHIP MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY IN WASHINGTON, DC
THE CANOE TRIP MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY OF THE HIDDEN BEACH
THE MYSTERY OF THE MISSING CAT
THE MYSTERY AT SNOWFLAKE INN
THE MYSTERY ON STAGE
THE DINOSAUR MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY OF THE STOLEN MUSIC
THE MYSTERY AT THE BALL PARK
THE CHOCOLATE SUNDAE MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY OF THE HOT AIR BALLOON
THE MYSTERY BOOKSTORE
THE PILGRIM VILLAGE MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY OF THE STOLEN BOXCAR
THE MYSTERY IN THE CAVE
THE MYSTERY ON THE TRAIN
THE MYSTERY AT THE FAIR
THE MYSTERY OF THE LOST MINE
THE GUIDE DOG MYSTERY
THE HURRICANE MYSTERY
THE PET SHOP MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY OF THE SECRET MESSAGE
THE FIREHOUSE MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY IN SAN FRANCISCO
THE NIAGARA FALLS MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY AT THE ALAMO
THE OUTER SPACE MYSTERY
THE SOCCER MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY IN THE OLD ATTIC
THE GROWLING BEAR MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY OF THE LAKE MONSTER
THE MYSTERY AT PEACOCK HALL
THE WINDY CITY MYSTERY
THE BLACK PEARL MYSTERY
THE CEREAL BOX MYSTERY
THE PANTHER MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY OF THE QUEEN’S JEWELS
THE STOLEN SWORD MYSTERY
THE BASKETBALL MYSTERY
THE MOVIE STAR MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY OF THE PIRATE’S MAP
THE GHOST TOWN MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY OF THE BLACK RAVEN
THE MYSTERY IN THE MALL
THE MYSTERY IN NEW YORK
THE GYMNASTICS MYSTERY
THE POISON FROG MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY OF THE EMPTY SAFE
THE HOME RUN MYSTERY
THE GREAT BICYCLE RACE MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY OF THE WILD PONIES
THE MYSTERY IN THE COMPUTER GAME
THE MYSTERY AT THE CROOKED HOUSE
THE HOCKEY MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY OF THE MIDNIGHT DOG
THE MYSTERY OF THE SCREECH OWL
THE SUMMER CAMP MYSTERY
THE COPYCAT MYSTERY
THE HAUNTED CLOCK TOWER MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY OF THE TIGER’S EYE
THE DISAPPEARING STAIRCASE MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY ON BLIZZARD MOUNTAIN
THE MYSTERY OF THE SPIDER’S CLUE
THE CANDY FACTORY MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY OF THE MUMMY’S CURSE
THE MYSTERY OF THE STAR RUBY
THE STUFFED BEAR MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY OF ALLIGATOR SWAMP
THE MYSTERY AT SKELETON POINT
THE TATTLETALE MYSTERY
THE COMIC BOOK MYSTERY
THE GREAT SHARK MYSTERY
THE ICE CREAM MYSTERY
THE MIDNIGHT MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY IN THE FORTUNE COOKIE
THE BLACK WIDOW SPIDER MYSTERY
THE RADIO MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY OF THE RUNAWAY GHOST
THE FINDERS KEEPERS MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY OF THE HAUNTED BOXCAR
THE CLUE IN THE CORN MAZE
THE GHOST OF THE CHATTERING BONES
THE SWORD OF THE SILVER KNIGHT
THE GAME STORE MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY OF THE ORPHAN TRAIN
THE VANISHING PASSENGER
THE GIANT YO-YO MYSTERY
THE CREATURE IN OGOPOGO LAKE
THE ROCK ’N’ ROLL MYSTERY
THE SECRET OF THE MASK
THE SEATTLE PUZZLE
THE GHOST IN THE FIRST ROW
THE BOX THAT WATCH FOUND
A HORSE NAMED DRAGON
THE GREAT DETECTIVE RACE
THE GHOST AT THE DRIVE-IN MOVIE
THE MYSTERY OF THE TRAVELING TOMATOES
THE SPY GAME
THE DOG-GONE MYSTERY
THE VAMPIRE MYSTERY
SUPERSTAR WATCH
THE SPY IN THE BLEACHERS
THE AMAZING MYSTERY SHOW