Hunter Moran Hangs Out Read Online Free PDF Page B

half,” Zack puts in.
    Linny sinks to the ground, getting more purple by the second. “I knew it. You have the brains of mentally challenged fleas.”
    I shake my head. What am I missing here?
    â€œIt’s a ransom note, all right!” Linny screams. “But I’m the one. Me. Not Steadman. I’m going to be kidnapped any minute.”
    Zack holds up his hand. “What did the note say?” He’s calm. Intelligent. Right to the point.
    We lean forward. Linny runs her pretzel-thin hands over her face. “Some of it was ripped up already.”
    Zack and I look at each other, remembering the bees.
    â€œI couldn’t stand reading the rest of it,” she says. “Once I saw
one million dollars
and
ransom
. . .” Her lips quiver. “Once I saw
Lin
. . . 
Mor
. . .”
    She sinks down on her knees. “Linny Moran. My name. I’m the kidnappee.”
    I swallow. The kidnapper thinks Linny is worth a million bucks? Amazing. “Are you sure you didn’t see Steadman’s name?”
    She takes a ragged breath. “Piles of paper are still floating around. They probably want him, too.”
    Poor Pop. Where will he get a million dollars to pay the ransom?
    And Linny, bent over, moans: “I should have listened to Sarah Yulefski.”

Chapter 10
    Linny is part of this family, I tell myself. What would Mom do without her? Somehow we’ll have to save her, and Pop’s money.
    â€œSarah told me the kidnapper wants to keep a kid in a cage. A kid who never shuts up. A kid who’ll fit . . .” Linny holds out her arms, skinny as strings. “That’s me. Linny Moran.”
    She looks furious. “But my conversations are right on. Dynamic. Even Sister Appolonia said so.”
    I cut in. “How much did you pay Yulefski for her information?”
    â€œWhat are you talking about?” she says. “Nothing.”
    Great. And we paid a fortune for the same thing.
    Linny looks around. “What will I do?”
    â€œYou could hide in the basement while we figure things out,” Zack says.
    She shudders. “There might be an alli—” She breaks off. “Not the basement. No way.”
    â€œThe attic,” I tell her, hoping she won’t remember the colony of dive-bombing flies and hanging wasps’ nest up there.
    Linny glares at me.
    â€œHow about the bottom kitchen drawer?” Zack’s getting impatient. “Pull out the pots and pans and slide right in.”
    I wiggle my fingers, trying to remind him about the worm farm with the apple cores for their treat.
    But I’m getting impatient, too. There hasn’t been a sound out of Fred all this time, a lifetime achievement for him, not a somersault, a backflip, or a walk on two back legs. I almost miss him.
    And poor Steadman, who loves to talk, might be gagged and blindfolded, just like the kid on
Terror in the Night
, Wednesday afternoons, one o’clock.
    â€œLinny, dear,” Nana calls from the kitchen.
    Linny looks toward the house, head tilted. “I’m locking all the doors and windows. Then I’m hanging out with Nana until Mom and Pop get home with Peaches.”
    Peaches? What is she talking about?
    Zack knows. “K.G.,” he mutters.
    I nod at Linny. “Nana’s your best bet with those fat grandmother arms. Great for protection.”
    We watch as Linny dives around the side of the houseand slams herself inside. Then we take another minute to gather up the scraps of the ransom letter. Later, we’ll put them together like a jigsaw puzzle.
    â€œNow what?” Zack asks.
    â€œThe lookout tower,” I say. “Steadman has to be somewhere. We’ll keep an eye out all over town.” This is the worst. The kidnapper might be after our whole family.
    We dash across the street, then hesitate. A van is parked in the driveway of the used-to-be-empty house. The van is the worst