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say anything and we didn’t stick around.’
    ‘Hmmm, there’s something afoot I fear,’ Brian muttered. ‘I also found this beside the Rock,’ he added, producing a brass bullet casing.
    ‘That looks very old,’ Eoin said, turning it in his hand. ‘It must have been there for a long time.’
    ‘I don’t think so,’ said Brian. ‘It’s still got its shine and I would have noticed it before. You hang on to it, Eoin. You might find out something about it.’
    ‘We’d better be getting back,’ said Dylan, clearly unnerved by the ghostly encounter.
    ‘Alright, well if you hear anything you know where I’ll be, Eoin,’ said Brian. ‘I don’t have an awful lot else to do …’

Chapter 11
    . . . . . . . . .
    I T was a big Champions’ League soccer night and most of the year was watching the match in the common room. Dylan still hadn’t made up with Rory so they sat on opposite sides of the room.
    Richie Duffy strolled in with his buddies and immediately noticed the strained seating arrangements.
    ‘Heh, heh,’ he sneered. ‘So Baby Ror-ror and Baby Dyl-dyl are having a bit of a tiff … Hey Dylan, did you take away his soother – or was it something else?’
    Dylan growled, but didn’t rise to Duffy’s jibes. Rory just looked away and pretended to concentrate totally on the football.
    ‘Let’s get out of here, Dyl,’ said Eoin, who was tired and wanted to get back to the dorm. ‘Don’t mind that Duffy,’ he continued as they left the room together, ‘He’s all wind. But were you a bit rattled by Brian earlier on?’
    ‘Well … yeah …’ said Dylan. ‘But what really surprised me was that you seemed to know him well. What was that about?’
    ‘Sorry, Dyl, I had to keep that from nearly everybody – you’d have thought I was mad. Brian has been around for a couple of years and has been a great help to me. He was the one that tipped off Alan about the kidnap at the Aviva last year – and saved me and Caoimhe.’
    ‘Oh! … I always wondered about that,’ Dylan admitted. ‘I couldn’t work out what Alan was doing in the car park so that he heard Caoimhe in the back. Still, I suppose I’d better thank Brian next time I see him.’
    When they got back to their dorm, Eoin sat down on his bed and reached across to his locker. He slipped the key into the lock and turned it, reaching in behind the pile of books to where he had hidden his mobile.
    But it wasn’t there.
    ‘Ah, no!’ he said. ‘My phone’s gone! It was here just before we went out for the jog. And the door was locked!’
    Dylan looked at him, and his face darkened. ‘That’s brutal, Eoin, but at least Rory can’t blame me for stealing it.’
    Eoin shrugged his shoulders, more concerned with losing the precious gift that Dixie had given him the year before.
    Alan and Rory arrived at the door, and Dylan filled them in: ‘Eoin’s phone has been nicked. We locked thedoor and went out for a jog – together – and when we came back it was gone. So it can’t have been me…’
    He slipped past the others and walked off down the corridor.
    ‘I told you it couldn’t have been him,’ said Eoin. ‘He’s a good guy and doesn’t need you to be at him about his dad. Even if you don’t say it, he knows where you’re coming from.’
    Rory shrugged and wandered off in the opposite direction to Dylan.
    ‘We should go to see Mr McCaffrey,’ Alan said to Eoin.
    The Castlerock headmaster was in his office when the boys knocked at the door.
    ‘Come in. Ah, Madden and Handy, how can I help you?’
    Eoin explained what had happened, and how he was concerned that Dylan would be blamed for the missing phones.
    ‘I was with him all the time when mine was stolen, and I’m sure he wouldn’t have taken the other ones, sir. But Rory has jumped to conclusions and I’m afraid it could get around the school.’
    Mr McCaffrey sat back in his chair and tapped his pencil off the desk.
    ‘Well, of course we will do our best to ensure