"Martin, Ann M - Baby-sitters Club 009 - The Ghost at Dawn's House" - читать интересную книгу автора (Martin Ann M)

"And," added Claudia, who'd read a lot more mysteries than I had, "you have to feel around for springs or catches. And shine a flashlight over the walls. It might show up a secret opening you wouldn't notice otherwise." Claudia's eyes were sparkling. "How old is this house again, Dawn?" she asked.
I told her.
"Wow. I'd say we have a pretty good chance of finding something."
The storm that had been brewing finally let loose then with a terrific crash of thunder that banged the shutters and rattled the windows.
Stacey let out a little gasp. Then she giggled. "We're creeping ourselves out, you know. This is just a silly storm."
"I know," said Mary Anne, "but it's fun to creep ourselves out. We should take advantage of this super-creepy weather."
"Right!" I said. I couldn't wait to start!
"How do we begin?" asked Stacey.
"Let's split up," I suggested.
"Split up?!" cried Mary Anne. "I'm not going anywhere alone!"
I could see her point. The house was dark and quiet. Outside, the rain was falling hard and the wind was howling. I happened to look out my window just in time to see a bolt of lightning crackle across the gray sky in a jagged streak.
I shivered.
"Well, we don't have to go alone," I said. "We can split up into teams, one with two people and the other with three."
Everyone agreed that that seemed safe.
"Kristy, why don't you and Stacey and Claudia take the first floor," I suggested, "and Mary Anne and I will look around up here."
"What about the basement and the attic?" asked Claudia.
We froze. They were bad enough on a nice, sunshiny day, but today . . .
"Maybe the five of us should search them together. Um, later," said Stacey.
"Or Ч or maybe not at all," I added.
"Why not?" asked Claudia. "Those would be great places for a secret passage."
"I know," I replied. "But, well, in this story
I read Ч it was called Things Unseen' Ч this man moves into a really old house Ч "
"As old as this one?" whispered Mary Anne. A gust of wind blew the curtains against her face and she shrieked.
"Just about," I said, closing the window. "And he hears all these spooky noises coming from the basement, and it turns out that years ago, a crazy lady buried her Ч "
"Aughh! Stop!" cried Mary Anne. "I don't want to hear the end of this."
"I do," said Kristy. "Leave the room for a minute, Mary Anne."
"I'm not leaving the room. Not by myself!"
Stacey shuddered. "I'll go with you."
They went out into the hall while I finished the story. When our screaming died down, they returned.
"Listen," said Kristy, "why don't you two scaredy-cats be a team, and Claudia and Dawn and I will be the other team?"
Stacey took offense. "Scaredy-cats?"
"And you can search downstairs," Kristy continued. "Jeff is there and the TV is on. It won't seem so spooky."
"I think that's a good idea," said Mary Anne hastily. "Come on. Let's go before they change their minds.
They clattered down the stairs.
"Let's search room by room/' I suggested. "I can tap walls. Claudia, you feel around for hidden springs and buttons and stuff. Kristy, you shine my flashlight everywhere to see if, like, the outline of a door or something shows up."
Kristy raised her eyebrows. She was used to being in charge. But this was my house and my search, so I thought I was entitled to give out a few instructions.
We set to work. We searched Jeff's room first.
"Boy," said Kristy. "My brothers would kill me if I ever searched their rooms."
"Well, Jeff might kill me, too, if he knew what we were doing," I replied. "But it's not as if we're searching his stuff. We're just looking at his walls."
"Oh, hey!" cried Claudia. "We should be checking the floors for trapdoors, too."
"On the second floor?" asked Kristy.
"You never know," Claud said.
Tap, tap, tap. I tapped and rapped every inch of Jeff's walls, but they all sounded pretty much the same.
Claudia followed me around, poking and feeling along the walls.
And Kristy crawled everywhere with her flashlight. She found two Space Creatures comics under Jeff's bed, but no trapdoor. We worked without speaking for a long time, and the only sounds we heard were our rappings and tappings, the pounding rain, and an occasional ominous rumble of thunder.
We didn't really find anything. There was an area near Jeff's bureau where the molding looked different than on the other walls, but no matter how much we poked and prodded, we couldn't find anything suspicious.
"Let's look in my room next," I said.
We started over again. I rapped, Claudia poked, and Kristy shined the flashlight.
"Nothing here!" said Kristy.
"Wait, I'm not finished," I said. "I've only done three walls."