The Halloween Hoax Read online

  “I brought a compass,” George told Nancy. She held up a round device that looked like a watch. “I looked up ghost hunting on the computer.” Nancy nodded. George knew more about finding information on the computer than anyone else Nancy knew. “The needle will spin out of control if there’s a ghost in the room . . . not that I believe in ghosts,” George added.

  “I brought stuff too,” Nancy said. She opened her small backpack. “My plastic clue bag as usual. And this. . . .”

  Nancy pulled out a writing pad. The first page had a line drawn down the middle to form two columns. Over the first column Nancy wrote Ghosts. Over the second, No Ghosts.

  “Every time we find a clue we will put it into one of these two columns. The column with the most clues will win,” Nancy explained. “And I have a feeling which one that will be.”

  Mrs. Fayne dropped the girls off in front of the WRIV-TV building. While she delivered platters to a store down the street, the girls filed into the station.

  “Remember,” George whispered, “we’re here to see Dudley. He’s the one who thinks his studio is haunted.”

  Bess pulled off her ghost goggles as they walked across the lobby. A guard sitting behind a desk looked up and smiled. Nancy read the nameplate on the desk: BEATRICE ARMSTRONG

  “May we see Dudley, please?” Nancy said.

  “Dudley doesn’t work here on weekends,” Beatrice replied.

  The girls stepped away from the desk.

  “We have to get into Dudley’s studio,” Nancy whispered. “But how will we do that without Dudley?”

  A young man stepped into the lobby. He looked around and said, “Okay! Who’s here for a tour of the TV station?”

  A few people stepped forward.

  “We are!” George blurted.

  “We are?” Bess asked.

  George raised an eyebrow at Bess. Soon the girls were following the tour all the way down the hall.

  “My name is Brad,” said the man. “Our first stop will be the newsroom, where you’ll all meet Sy the Weather Guy!”

  Nancy recognized a door with creepy crawlies painted all over it. “This is the place,” she said in a whisper.

  The girls slipped away from the tour and inside Dudley’s studio. The set looked just like it had the day before. Except the bat house was gone, and the test tubes on the counter were filled with colorful liquids.

  Bess put on her ghost goggles and looked around. She pointed to the floor. “Ghost footprints!” she exclaimed.

  Nancy looked down. She didn’t need Bess’s goggles to see two green footprints on the floor-and they seemed to be glowing!

  George held up her compass. The needle was spinning around wildly. “There are ghosts in this studio!” she said.

  Nancy groaned under her breath. Now George was starting to believe in ghosts too!

  “There’s got to be a reason for everything,” Nancy told her friends.

  “While you look for reasons,” said Bess, “I’ll look for more ghost footprints in the back.”

  She walked to the back of the studio. Nancy and George inspected the counter. Next to the test tubes they found a small piece of paper.

  George picked up the paper and studied it. “These words are pretty long,” she said. “It must be the formula for some science experiment.”

  “Maybe Dudley wrote it,” Nancy guessed.

  George held the formula next to her autographed sneaker. “The handwriting on the note doesn’t match Dudley’s signature,” she said. “So it can’t be his.”

  Nancy pointed to a blue fingerprint on the paper. “Whose fingerprint is that?” she asked. “What do you think, Bess?”

  No answer.

  “Bess?” Nancy called. She turned and looked around. Bess was nowhere in sight!

  Chapter Three

  A Secret Room

  Nancy and George darted around the studio looking for Bess. They searched under tables, around cameras, even behind a life-size cardboard cutout of Dudley.

  “Maybe the ghosts got her,” George said.

  “Stop it, George!” Nancy hissed. She felt her heart pound as she leaned against the back wall. “She couldn’t have just disappeared like—”

  She gasped as the wall behind her began to swing back. She grabbed George’s arm, and the two spun around with the wall.

  “Whoooooaaaaaaa!” Nancy and George cried.

  The wall stopped spinning. Nancy and George stumbled forward into a small room. It was jam-packed with cardboard boxes and racks of clothes.

  “How did we end up here?” asked George.

  Nancy was dizzy but not worried. “A trick wall! The wall was probably part of Dudley’s set,” she said. “Strange things happen on TV all the time.”

  “Then what happened to Bess?” George wondered.

  “I don’t know,” Nancy said, looking around nervously. Suddenly they heard a noise.

  CLUNK . . . CLUNK . . . CLUNK . . .

  Nancy and George froze as the sound got louder and louder. It sounded like heavy footsteps. Suddenly Bess popped out from behind a clothing rack.

  “Bess!” Nancy said, smiling with relief.

  “How do you like this secret room?” said Bess. “And check out this groovy stuff!” She wore a floppy hat on her head and clunky platform shoes on her feet.

  “Groovy?” Nancy asked.

  “It means cool,” Bess said. “My mom uses that word sometimes.”

  Nancy scanned the room, reached into a box near her foot, and pulled out a poster. On it was a yellow smiley face and the words “Have a Nice Day!”

  Next she flipped through a rack of clothes. She found bell-bottom pants, colorful minidresses, and faded jeans with patches sewn all over. One satin jacket had RIVER HEIGHTS HIGH, CLASS OF ’78 across the back.

  “This stuff is from the 1970s,” said Nancy.

  “That’s ancient history!” Bess cried.

  George held up two black discs, each with a hole in the middle. “These are called records,” she explained. “My mom and dad still have a few.”

  “Do your parents have these, too?” Bess gulped. She had picked up two jars. One was filled with pairs of fangs. The other was packed to the rim with rubber eyeballs.

  “Creepy!” Nancy said. As she hung up the satin jacket, something else fell off the rack. It was an orange-colored lab coat. Written across the back was “Dr. Funk-n-Stine.”

  “Who is Dr. Funk-n-Stine?” Nancy asked. Suddenly the girls heard a loud noise.

  BOOM! FIZZZZZ!

  They all jumped.

  “What was that?” George whispered.

  “It’s coming from behind the wall,” Nancy murmured.

  The girls ran to the trick wall. They pushed on it, and the wall spun around. Soon they stumbled back into Dudley’s studio.

  Nancy gasped when she saw the test tubes on the counter. The colorful liquids they’d seen before were now bubbling and fizzing over the rims. “They weren’t doing that when we came in,” she said.

  “Maybe the ghost did it,” Bess suggested. “The same ghost who left the green footprints.”

  The girls jumped as the studio door swung open. Brad the tour guide was leading his group into the studio.

  “This is where we tape Dudley the Science Dude,” Brad said. He stopped when he saw the out-of-control test tubes. “Cheese and crackers—what’s up with that?”

  Bess kicked off the platform shoes. “We were just leaving,” she said. She shoved the floppy hat into Brad’s hands. Then Nancy, Bess, and George raced out of the studio.

  “What happened?” Mrs. Fayne asked as the girls jumped into the van. “You girls look like you saw a ghost!”

  “Just his footprints, Mom,” George told her.

  Bess turned to Nancy. “Write all the stuff we saw today in your Ghosts column, Nancy,” she said.

  “Don’t forget about this,” said George. She held up a piece of paper. “I grabbed that science formula on the way out.”

  “Are you
sure it’s the formula?” Nancy asked.

  “Sure I’m sure,” George answered. But when she glanced down at the paper, her eyes popped wide open.

  “What’s the matter, George?” asked Nancy.

  “The blue fingerprint is still there,” George replied. “But the whole science formula has disappeared!”

  Chapter Four

  Funk-n-Stine Online

  “How could a whole science formula vanish?” Nancy wondered as she paced across the purple rug in her bedroom. “Think hard.”

  “I’m thinking so hard my brain hurts,” Bess said.

  It was Sunday morning. The Clue Crew was working on the case in Nancy’s bedroom. Her room was also their Clue Crew headquarters, with a special drawer in Nancy’s desk for their clues and a computer for research.

  “They sell trick pens with disappearing ink,” George said. “I saw some in a joke shop once.”

  “But what about all the other stuff we found in the back room?” asked Nancy. “And who was Dr. Funk-n-Stine?”

  “Let’s find out,” George said, turning to the computer. She went online and searched for Dr. Funk-n-Stine. A colorful website soon appeared on the screen.

  “What does it say?” Bess asked.

  “‘This site is dedicated to Dr. Funk-n-Stine,’” George read aloud. “‘And his groovy show.’”

  George clicked on a picture of a TV set. A photo of a bunch of kids appeared. They were dancing in bell-bottom pants and platform shoes.

  “Those are the clothes we saw in the secret room!” Nancy pointed out.

  “It looks like they’re in some haunted lab,” said George. “Check out the cobwebs and jars filled with creepy stuff. Just like the jars we found yesterday.”

  A man in the picture wore an orange lab coat and clunky-looking boots. His hair stuck out wildly like a dandelion puff.

  “That must be Dr. Funk-n-Stine,” Nancy said. “He must have been a scientist like Dudley.”

  “You mean a mad scientist,” George joked.

  The girls giggled as a tune began to play: “Get up, get grooooovy! With Dr. Funk-n-Stine!”

  Nancy, Bess, and George read as much as they could about Dr. Funk-n-Stine. He used to have his own science show on TV. The name of the show was Dr. Funk-n-Stine’s Groovy Mad Lab. It always had lots of commercials for Baxter’s Licorice Gum. The show ran from 1975 to 1979.

  “It says Dr. Funk-n-Stine was very sad when his show ended,” George said. “As he left the TV station, he promised he’d be back someday.”

  “What happened to him?” said Bess.

  George leaned forward to read on. “It says he went to the Great Beyond,” she told the others.

  “What’s the Great Beyond?” Nancy asked.

  “I think it’s a nice way of saying he died,” George explained.

  The girls were silent. Until Bess shouted, “That’s it! That’s it! Dudley’s studio is being haunted by the ghost of Dr. Funk-n-Stine!”

  “What?” cried Nancy.

  Bess ran to her pink backpack on Nancy’s bed. She pulled out a gadget that looked like two cups attached to a headband. “We have to go back to the studio so I can try out my new Spirit Sounds,” she declared. “Maybe I’ll hear the ghost of Dr. Funk-n-Stine.”

  Nancy didn’t think the studio was haunted by Dr. Funk-n-Stine—or any ghost. But she did want to find the real reason for Dudley’s goofed experiments once and for all!

  “Okay,” she said. “But how will we get into the studio this time?”

  George pointed to Nancy’s dragon costume hanging behind her door. “We can pretend we’re trick-or-treating!”

  “Halloween isn’t until Tuesday,” Nancy pointed out.

  “We’ll say we want to get a head start!” said George.

  “What do you think, Nancy?” Bess asked.

  Nancy smiled. She couldn’t wait to wear her dragon costume again—even with the yucky green stain!

  “I still don’t think we’ll find any ghosts,” Nancy admitted. “But a head start on Halloween is pretty cool!”

  Bess and George ran home to put on their costumes. When they returned to Nancy’s house, Mr. Drew drove the girls to the TV station.

  “Remember,” Mr. Drew told them. “No eating tons of candy before Halloween.”

  “We’re not going for candy, Daddy,” said Nancy. “We’re going for clues.”

  Mr. Drew parked in front of WRIV-TV. As the girls climbed out of the car, he said, “I’ll be in the hardware store down the block. Wait for me in front of the station in twenty minutes.”

  Each girl held her own trick-or-treat bag. Bess secretly carried her Spirit Sounds inside hers. They filed into the TV station and shouted, “Trick or treat!”

  A different guard sat behind the desk that day. Her nameplate read ROSALIE VITALE.

  “You’re a bit early, girls,” Rosalie said.

  “We want to get a head start,” Bess blurted out. “Before the best treats are gone!”

  “Good idea.” Rosalie chuckled. “I see we have a dragon, a ballerina, and the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz.”

  “I’m actually a robot,” said George.

  Rosalie pointed to a glass jar on her desk. “Help yourselves to some candy, kids,” she said. “Don’t be shy.”

  The girls stared at the candy jar. They needed to get inside the TV station.

  “Um,” Nancy said slowly, “do you have a . . . candy machine in the back?”

  “We only eat granola bars,” Bess added. “Maybe there’s some in your candy machine—”

  “In the back,” George put in.

  “Picky, picky, picky.” Rosalie sighed.

  A boy with blond hair ran past the desk and down the hall. It was Kirby Kessler!

  “Kirby, wait up!” Nancy called.

  Kirby stopped and turned around. “What?” he asked.

  “Um—can you sign my sneaker?” George asked quickly.

  “You want my autograph?” gasped Kirby. He whipped out a pen and smiled. “Sure—come on over!”

  “Go ahead.” Rosalie waved them through.

  The girls ran straight to Kirby. George stuck out her foot and said, “You can make it out to George, please.”

  “Isn’t George a boy’s name?” Kirby asked.

  “It’s really Georgia,” Bess said, smiling. “But she hates being called by her full name.”

  George nudged Bess with her elbow.

  “When I have my own TV show, I’m going to sign a ton of autographs,” Kirby told the girls as he signed George’s sneaker.

  Nancy nodded. Kirby was funny enough to have his own show someday. But then she noticed something else about Kirby: His face was covered with gray smudges.

  “What happened to your face, Kirby?” Nancy asked.

  Kirby’s hand flew up to his cheek. “Uh . . . I’m going trick-or-treating too,” he said. “As a chimney sweep!”

  Kirby dropped the pen into his pocket. Then he ran down the hall and around the corner.

  “At least we got into the station,” George said.

  Nancy, Bess, and George hurried toward Dudley’s studio. People in the hall stopped to smile at their costumes. One woman dropped wrapped candies into their bags.

  When no one was watching, the girls slipped into Dudley’s studio. There was nobody inside. But something wasn’t right. . . .

  “Are we in the right place?” asked George.

  Nancy looked around. They were in a science lab. But this one was covered with cobwebs. Its shelves were stocked with glass jars filled with eyeballs, snakes, and vampire fangs. There was even a skull with glowing red eyes!

  “This doesn’t look like Dudley’s set,” exclaimed Bess.

  “No,” Nancy said with a gulp. “It looks like Dr. Funk-n-Stine’s Groovy Mad Lab!”

  Chapter Five

  Fright in the Night

  Nancy jumped as a fake spider dropped onto her shoulder. She still didn’t believe in ghosts . . . not really.

 
George’s tin cans clanked as she walked around the studio. “What’s that?” she asked, pointing to a tall, oval-shaped case. A face on the lid was painted in gold.

  “I think it’s a sar-co-pha-gus,” Nancy said, pronouncing the word carefully. “They built them in ancient Egypt to hold mummies.”

  “How do you know?” asked Bess.

  “I saw one in a museum once,” Nancy replied.

  “I smell licorice,” George said, wrinkling her nose.

  “Baxter’s Licorice Gum!” Bess gasped. “Those were the commercials on Dr. Funk-n-Stine’s old TV show!”

  “Smells are a sign of ghosts,” George said. “I read that on the computer too.”

  Bess pulled her Spirit Sounds from her trick-or-treat bag and slipped them over her ears. “I think I hear music,” she said.

  Nancy and George heard it too.

  “Get up . . . get grooovy! With Dr. Funk-n-Stine!”

  “It’s the Dr. Funk-n-Stine show tune!” Bess cried. “Let’s get out of here!”

  Bess stuffed her Spirit Sounds back into her trick-or-treat bag. Then the girls charged toward the door. Nancy stopped running when she heard footsteps out in the hall.

  “Someone’s coming!” she hissed. “Hide!”

  The girls scurried around the studio looking for a place to hide. George raced to the sarcophagus and yanked open the lid. She shrieked as a mummy wrapped in bandages tumbled on top of her.

  “I want my mummy—I mean mommy!” George screamed as she pushed the mummy off.

  The girls burst out of the studio. They ran past Valerie, Dudley’s producer, standing outside the door.

  “What were you doing in there?” Valerie demanded.

  “Trick or treat!” Bess shouted as they kept running.

  The girls clutched their trick-or-treat bags as they raced outside.

  “Not only did Dr. Funk-n-Stine come back,” George said, catching her breath, “he brought his whole show, too!”

  “Now do you believe in ghosts, Nancy?” Bess asked.

  Nancy didn’t answer. As they waited for Mr. Drew to pick them up, she filled in her Ghosts column with the latest clues. Her No Ghosts column was totally blank.