Read Online The Final Nightmare by Rodman Philbrick - Free Book Online Page B

The lid opened and the worn-out old bear climbed up inside, pulling the lid down after it.
    But what about the secret? What was I supposed to do now?
    I heard the click of a lock.
    The attic door swung open and light streamed into the little room from the stairway. It was morning already!
    Forget about the teddy bear and its stupid secret—all I wanted to do was get out of there. I was almost out the door when a small creaking noise stopped me.
    I looked over my shoulder. The lid of the toy box stood open.
    The smart thing would be to keep going, down the stairs.
    Instead I walked over and looked into the toy box. Empty. I swallowed a pang of surprise and disappointment. I hadn’t learned anything new. How could I save me and Sally—and Bobby—if I couldn’t figure out the mystery?
    Had all this been to get me out of the way? To keep me away from Sally?
    But as I dashed for the door the toy box lid slammed down twice. Like it was trying to get my attention. Reluctantly, I went back and peered inside.
    There was something there!

28
    More newspaper.
    I was excited but disappointed too. All the newspaper stories I’d found had been confusing, full of things I knew couldn’t be true.
    The old newspapers had told me who Bobby was and when he died but they all said he died falling from the cherry tree and I knew that couldn’t be true. I’d heard Bobby falling from the top of the stairs, many times.
    Well, I didn’t want to read anything up here. Sticking the yellowed paper under my arm, I hurried down the attic stairs.
    Morning sunlight streamed through the hallway. From downstairs came the sounds and smells of breakfast. I heard Sally giggling as Mom playfully teased her.
    Suddenly I was hungry enough to eat a horse. Something about fighting ghosts gave me a huge appetite.
    But before I could go down to breakfast I had to put the old newspapers away. I hurried into my bedroom, started to whip open the closet door—and stared in disbelief.
    The hatchet.
    It was buried deep in the closet door. Right in the spot where I’d thrown it through the haunted mirror.
    Good thing Mom hadn’t been in here to see that!
    I sat down on my bed to calm my racing heart and figured I might as well look through the bits of newspaper from the toy box.
    Good thing I did. Because in the old papers was a clue. And the clue gave me an idea that changed everything.
    â€œJason, slow down, you’ll make yourself sick.”
    I looked up from my second plate of strawberry waffles. “I’m just hungry.”
    â€œFine,” said Mom. “But what’s the hurry?”
    I opened my mouth to tell her, and then thought better of it. She’d heard enough ghost stuff.
    After breakfast I called up Steve and Lucy.
    â€œGet your butts over here,” I whispered into the phone. “I think I’ve solved the haunting.”
    My two buds hurried right over. Steve was grinning from ear to ear as he bounced up the porch steps. But Lucy looked more serious. “What happened?” she asked. “What did you find out?”
    â€œFollow me,” I said, leading them upstairs to my bedroom.
    Once we were inside I shut the door and showed them the latest batch of old newspapers.
    â€œListen to this,” I said, and read from the article that had caught my attention.
    The search for the Wood family’s missing ruby veered in a new direction yesterday as police questioned the bewildered nanny, Alice Everett, about its disappearance. A thorough search was made of the house. However, no progress was made, police admitted last night .
    Miss Everett was too distraught to make any comment. The grief-stricken young woman was the only one present when the Woods’ only child, Robert, was killed in a fall from a cherry tree .
    Mrs. Wood, mother of the dead boy, said she was very upset that the nanny was a suspect in the matter of the missing ruby .
    Mr. and Mrs. Wood are leaving the