Read Online The Stone Child by Dan Poblocki - Free Book Online Page B

kept secret as the investigation is ongoing. However, an anonymous source has exclusively revealed that this secret evidence has itself mysteriously disappeared.’”
    “That is weird!” said Eddie. “What do you think was in the box?”
    Harris shook his head. “Listen to this,” he said as he continued to read. “‘The disappearance of the evidence was understandable to one eyewitness, who wished to remain unidentified. According to the witness, as the lake was being dredged, a pack of vicious dogs chased the search party from the area. “In all the confusion,” said the witness, “anything we found might have been lost. We barely escaped with the seats of our pants intact. It was like something from one of poor Nathaniel’s books.”’” Harris stopped reading and turned to look at Eddie.
    At the same time, both boys opened their mouths and said, “
The Rumor of the Haunted Nunnery!
”
    “I was thinking the same thing when we were up in the woods,” Eddie added.
    Harris leapt from his chair and ran to the bookcase next to his bed. Eddie could see Harris’s alphabetized collection of Nathaniel Olmstead books filling the top row. Harris pulled out a book and flipped through it until he found what he was looking for. Eddie couldn’t see the book’s cover, but he knew exactly what Harris had found.
    “‘Reflected in the water, some of the stars had already changed color, from white to red,’” Harris read aloud. “‘As he watched, they all turned, then began to move. In an instant, they divided into hundreds of pairs of red eyes that watched him from under the lake’s surface.’” When he finished, he looked up at Eddie. “The monster lake-dogs.”
    “Do you actually think that’s what we saw?”
    “It sure looked like it.”
    “In the book, the dogs came out of the lake and chased Ronald after he accidentally touched the water,” said Eddie.
    Harris was quiet for a moment. Then he said, “The water turned black after you threw the pebble at it. Remember? Then we saw those stars. They turned red. Then that thing started to come up onshore … just like in Nathaniel Olmstead’s book. …”
    “Right,” Eddie whispered.
    “The group of people from this article touched the water, too, when they were searching the bottom of the lake,” said Harris, closing the book and putting it back on the shelf. “Maybe that’s why the dogs chased after them?”
    “Maybe,” said Eddie. “But I have a different question.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “How does a pack of dogs live underneath a lake?” he said, swiveling toward Harris. “Unless the Olmstead Curse is real?”
    Harris blinked at him.
    “There has to be some connection between what happened to us in the woods and everything else you told me today,” Eddie continued. “The symbol carved into the statue is the same as on the front page of the book my parents found at the antiques fair. The dogs appeared in the lake, just the way Nathaniel Olmstead wrote about them in
The Rumor of the Haunted Nunnery
. And what about the legend of the ghost in the woods—the Woman from the graffiti? Maybe she’s …”
    “What? She’s real too?” Harris said into his hands.
    Despite what he’d seen in the woods, Eddie felt foolish for thinking something so crazy. He bit at the inside of his mouth and tried not to blush. “It’s just a thought.”
    “If we could read the stupid code, we could sort out what the connection might actually be,” said Harris, lifting his face from his hands.
    “Totally,” said Eddie. “We’re on the verge of something really big. But there is something else. …”
    “What’s that?”
    “The curse … Remember how you said some people in Gatesweed think that the monsters in Nathaniel Olmstead’s books are real?”
    Harris nodded skeptically.
    “Those people don’t seem so crazy anymore, do they?” Eddie continued. He thought about the scaredy cop and the tow truck driver, Sam. And Mrs. Singh, the