Read Online The Mystery of the Uninvited Ghost by Julie Campbell - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Julie Campbell
Ads: Link
up pretty early tomorrow so we can finish our picking before it gets too hot.”
The next morning, the bushes were moist with dew when Brian, Mart, Hallie, and Trixie set to work. “Just call us the ‘Early Kids/ ” Hallie quipped.
Mart laughed. Trixie turned to stare at this cousin who looked like a teen-age model and worked like a field hand. The fight seemed to have gone out of their relationship this morning, but Trixie wasn’t in tune with Hallie’s brand of humor. Not yet. Hallie herself was as warily polite with Trixie as Trixie was with her. Only with the boys was Hallie completely at ease.
Trixie sighed. If only she looked like Hallie.... What she wouldn’t give to be long-legged, slim, and darkly beautiful!
She heard Mart grumbling about suckers sprouting several feet from the raspberry stalks. Hallie countered that the pickers might be the “suckers” for having left their beds so early. Brian’s long hands moved swiftly. It was in Belden blood to love the land, but only Mart planned to make farming his life’s work. He was picking berries because he enjoyed being close to the soil. Brian was there to serve the family. Trixie was there because her mother had given an order.
Why, Trixie wondered, was Hallie there? Looking like the Scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz in Cap Beldens camp grubbies, she worked steadily. Each time she took her rack of cartons to the cooler, Mart and Brian were right there beside her, their cartons heaped high with berries. If Trixie happened to have hers full, she went with them. If she didn’t, she just enjoyed the cool morning till the three came back to the job.
A robin decided that pickings were easy in her carton, and he helped himself. She muttered, “Thief,” but let him feed. Suddenly she burst out with, “Early! Kids! Those were the words on the crumpled paper in Di’s fireplace!”
Brian raised his dark head to grin at her. “I wondered how long it would take you to get that.”
Trixie threw a fat berry toward him. Brian caught it and stuck it in his mouth. He said, “I think we all agree that those words are a direct order from the boss man to his crew.”
Trixie’s sandy curls bobbed as she nodded. “Sergeant Molinson agrees, too, or he wouldn’t have talked to a reporter about it. The order came from the country club. I saw the same kind of note pad by the telephone there. So the boss was an employee, or a board member, or a guest—”
“—or a tradesman, or a salesman, or a deliveryman,” Mart took up the chant.
“Thieves don’t have bosses. They want to do it themselves,” Hallie objected.
Brian told her, “Some of them couldn’t work without direction.”
“You mean they’re stupid,” Trixie said.
“Why else would they be thieves?” Brian countered. “Well, they did drop the wad of paper that practically left their boss’s forwarding address,” Trixie said. “If I were that boss, I think I’d get out of there fast.” Her eyes grew round. “Maybe—he—did! Mr. Lynch said that comic with the funny name quit!”
“Ill wager—” As his round blue eyes opened wider, Mart looked so much like Trixie that both Brian and Hallie laughed. “Cease the hilarity!” he ordered. “I have a theory to propound!”
“I’ve pounded it first!” Trixie shouted. “That man was right there where he could get the names and addresses of all those people whose houses were crammed with stuff he could resell! I’m going to call Sergeant Molinson!” Leaving her berries, Trixie raced to the house. She returned within minutes. “Detective Belden scored again!” Mart whooped. “No!” Trixie snapped. “I was scooped.”
“Molinson beat you to it?” Brian asked.
“It’s in the morning paper. Dad was sitting on the steps reading all about it. The police are sure Oliver Tolliver was involved in the robberies, but he’s disappeared. It seems he’s been under suspicion for some time. He always works country clubs. He studies the
The next morning, the bushes were moist with dew when Brian, Mart, Hallie, and Trixie set to work. “Just call us the ‘Early Kids/ ” Hallie quipped.
Mart laughed. Trixie turned to stare at this cousin who looked like a teen-age model and worked like a field hand. The fight seemed to have gone out of their relationship this morning, but Trixie wasn’t in tune with Hallie’s brand of humor. Not yet. Hallie herself was as warily polite with Trixie as Trixie was with her. Only with the boys was Hallie completely at ease.
Trixie sighed. If only she looked like Hallie.... What she wouldn’t give to be long-legged, slim, and darkly beautiful!
She heard Mart grumbling about suckers sprouting several feet from the raspberry stalks. Hallie countered that the pickers might be the “suckers” for having left their beds so early. Brian’s long hands moved swiftly. It was in Belden blood to love the land, but only Mart planned to make farming his life’s work. He was picking berries because he enjoyed being close to the soil. Brian was there to serve the family. Trixie was there because her mother had given an order.
Why, Trixie wondered, was Hallie there? Looking like the Scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz in Cap Beldens camp grubbies, she worked steadily. Each time she took her rack of cartons to the cooler, Mart and Brian were right there beside her, their cartons heaped high with berries. If Trixie happened to have hers full, she went with them. If she didn’t, she just enjoyed the cool morning till the three came back to the job.
A robin decided that pickings were easy in her carton, and he helped himself. She muttered, “Thief,” but let him feed. Suddenly she burst out with, “Early! Kids! Those were the words on the crumpled paper in Di’s fireplace!”
Brian raised his dark head to grin at her. “I wondered how long it would take you to get that.”
Trixie threw a fat berry toward him. Brian caught it and stuck it in his mouth. He said, “I think we all agree that those words are a direct order from the boss man to his crew.”
Trixie’s sandy curls bobbed as she nodded. “Sergeant Molinson agrees, too, or he wouldn’t have talked to a reporter about it. The order came from the country club. I saw the same kind of note pad by the telephone there. So the boss was an employee, or a board member, or a guest—”
“—or a tradesman, or a salesman, or a deliveryman,” Mart took up the chant.
“Thieves don’t have bosses. They want to do it themselves,” Hallie objected.
Brian told her, “Some of them couldn’t work without direction.”
“You mean they’re stupid,” Trixie said.
“Why else would they be thieves?” Brian countered. “Well, they did drop the wad of paper that practically left their boss’s forwarding address,” Trixie said. “If I were that boss, I think I’d get out of there fast.” Her eyes grew round. “Maybe—he—did! Mr. Lynch said that comic with the funny name quit!”
“Ill wager—” As his round blue eyes opened wider, Mart looked so much like Trixie that both Brian and Hallie laughed. “Cease the hilarity!” he ordered. “I have a theory to propound!”
“I’ve pounded it first!” Trixie shouted. “That man was right there where he could get the names and addresses of all those people whose houses were crammed with stuff he could resell! I’m going to call Sergeant Molinson!” Leaving her berries, Trixie raced to the house. She returned within minutes. “Detective Belden scored again!” Mart whooped. “No!” Trixie snapped. “I was scooped.”
“Molinson beat you to it?” Brian asked.
“It’s in the morning paper. Dad was sitting on the steps reading all about it. The police are sure Oliver Tolliver was involved in the robberies, but he’s disappeared. It seems he’s been under suspicion for some time. He always works country clubs. He studies the
Similar Books
