#1 The Case of the Ghostly Granny

About The Case of the Ghostly Granny

Status: Second draft completed. Undergoing a copy edit by Bobbi Beatty of Silver Scroll Services

Emily and Zoe are two young detectives that solve difficult problems for their friends. In this, their first case, their client Lily believes that her grandmother has turned into a ghost. The last time Lily saw her grandmother was outside the house when her grandmother gave her a bouquet of flowers.

Two bad boys are loitering around at the time and they overhear Lily’s grandmother tell her that she had hidden a treasure chest of gold coins that she wants to give to Lily for her birthday. The two bad boys sneak into Grandma’s house and search for the treasure. Grandma surprises them, so they lock Grandma up in a closet in the basement.

Emily and Zoe search grandma’s house. Zoe uses her dad’s black light and they notice that the furniture has been moved around because it shows marks on the floor. After a while, they realize that someone is in the house and decide to lock each room after they have completed their search. When they lock the door to the basement where the two boys are hiding, they trap the boys.

Emily and Zoe call the police who come, arrest the boys and rescue Lily’s grandmother. The treasure is revealed and the mystery of the ghost is solved.


Sample

“It’s my Grandma, she’s turned into a ghost!” Lily blurted out and started
to cry. “Please, you have to help me.”

Zoe quickly wrote on her notepad ‘Lily’s grandmother has turned
into a ghost’ as Emily sat down on the bean bag beside Lily and put her
arm around her.

“It’s okay, Lily, Zoe and I will help you,” Emily said. “Tell us about
the last time you saw your grandmother.”

“I always visit my Grandma on Sunday afternoon. Sometimes my
dad makes dinner on Saturday night, like lasagna or a chili and there’s
usually lots left over. I like to take some with me in a container for my
Grandma’s dinner.”

“What did you take to your grandmother’s the last time?” Zoe asked.

“Huh? I…I don’t know, I think it was a meat pie…yes, it was a meat
pie. Now I remember, because instead of my dad making one big pie, he
made a lot of little ones. He made them in those foil pie plates so I
wouldn’t have to remember to bring the plate back.” Lily said.

“So…when you gave your grandma the pie, did she put it in the re-
frigerator?” asked Emily.

“Yes, I think so. Yes, she did because I walked with her to the kitchen
and told her that she had to take the pie out of the foil plate if she
warmed it up in the microwave. My dad told me to tell her that,” Lily
explained.

“Do you remember. . . ” Emily started to ask.

“My grandma laughed and told me not to worry. She said she didn’t
have a microwave, she would warm it up in the oven,” Lily said.

“But today is Monday. Was it just yesterday that you took a pie to
your grandmother’s place?” asked Emily.

“Yes! It was yesterday,” Lily said.

“But you only visit your grandmother on Sunday. How do you know
she turned into a ghost?” Zoe asked.

“She told me to come and visit her today as she had something special
to give me,” Lily said as tears started to form in her eyes.

“Something special?” Zoe echoed.

“Yes. When I was leaving my Grandma’s house on Sunday, y’know
yesterday, she walked with me to the front gate to pick some flowers
for me to take home for my Mom. My Grandma has a big garden in the
front of her house that is full of beautiful flowers.”

“Go on,” said Emily.

“Well, she had a pair of scissors and was cutting some flowers to
make a bouquet for me,” Lily said.

“And she handed you the flowers?” Zoe asked.

“Not right away. She wrapped the stalks in old sheets of newspaper
then put the wrapped stalks in a plastic bag. She put a bit of water from
the garden tap into the plastic bag.”

“Why did she do that?” Zoe asked
.
“She told me it would keep them fresh until I got home, but as soon
as I was home, I had to put them in a vase of water.”

“But you said that she told you she was going to give you something
special. Was it the flowers?” Emily prompted.

“No, she told me what it was just after she gave me the flowers,” Lily said.

“What did she say?” Emily asked.

“I don’t remember exactly, but she said something like ‘I have a special
and very valuable gift for you. I’ve been saving them up for a long
time and I have them hidden in a secret place.’ I didn’t know what she
was talking about,” Lily explained.

“Did she tell you what it was?” Zoe asked Lily as she sat down beside
her on the bean bag.

“Oh, yes. She told me she had a treasure chest full of gold coins.”

“Gold coins?” Emily asked in amazement.

“Yes, that’s what she said. She told me she had them hidden in a
secret place that no one knew about, and then she winked at me and
gave me a smile.”

“Wow!” Zoe exclaimed.

“And you went home then?” Emily asked.

“Not right away because there were these two big boys on the side-
walk in front of Grandma’s house. They were staring at us and I was
frightened to go out the front gate,” Lily told Emily.

“Two big boys? Did you know them?” Emily asked.

“No. They were scary. They were wearing leather jackets with chains
and things hanging from them and they had, like, pirate stuff on the
jackets.”

“Pirate stuff? What do you mean?” Zoe asked her.

“Skulls and bones and things. And they were both wearing red scarves
around their neck.”

“What happened then?” Emily asked.

“They just hung around outside my Grandma’s front gate and wouldn’t
leave until my Grandma got angry with them.”

“What did she say?” Emily asked.

“I don’t really remember but she told them that they better get going
if they knew what was good for them. Something like that.”

“Oh. . . ” Zoe murmured.

“And I went home,” Lily concluded.

“What happened when you went to your Grandma’s house today?”
Emily gently asked Lily.

“I rang the door bell but she didn’t come. I rang it and rang it.”

“Did you hear anything?” Zoe asked.

“No, so I opened the door and. . . ”

“The door was unlocked?” Emily asked.

“Yes. I opened it and went inside, calling out to my Grandma.”

“You didn’t see her?” Zoe asked.

“No. . . I don’t know what happened to her. . . ” Lily started to sob.

“But why do you think she’s a ghost?” Emily asked.

“Because. . . because. . . when I went into my Grandma’s bedroom, the
closet door creaked open and. . . and. . . and I saw my Grandma in her
nightgown inside the closet. . . Her clothes were glowing but her face
was all vague. She was a ghost,” Lily told them.

She was crying so much that both Emily and Zoe put their arms
around her and comforted her. After a while, Lily stopped crying, gave
a big sigh, then a sob, and dried her tears on the hem of her dress.

“We’re so sorry, Lily. Please don’t worry too much. Zoe and I will
visit your Grandma’s house this afternoon and we’ll find out what has
happened, don’t you worry,” Emily assured her.

“Let me walk you to front door and please, take some of these cookies
with you. You probably don’t feel like eating anything now, but you can
eat them later,” Zoe said.

After Zoe had left the room to escort Lily, Emily made some comments
on her notepad, then leaned back against the wall and started thinking
about their first case. It was a tough problem and she didn’t have any
ideas but one thing was for certain. She and Zoe would search Lily’s
grandmother’s house very carefully for clues.

© 2024 Peter Freeman | website by Christina Heinemann Design