The Pinstripe Ghost Read Online Free PDF Page A

tried to steady himself, but his right arm knocked into his half-full bottle of PowerPunch. The bottle wobbled. It tipped over. The red liquid spilled into the vent, leaving a large puddle.
    “Oh no!” Kate said. “Nice job, Mr. Clean!”
    Mike turned as red as the PowerPunch. He could be really clumsy sometimes.
    Kate sighed. “Stand here and hold the cover open. I’ll look for something to mop it up with,” she said.
    She hopped off the chair and scanned the room. There was nothing except the empty shelves and Mr. Williams’s books.

    Suddenly, the kids heard a loud crash outside the door.
    “Hurry up, Kate!” Mike whispered.
    Kate looked at the small pool of PowerPunch. “It won’t hurt anything to leave it,” she whispered back. “There’s not that much. It will dry up in a day or two. Quick, grab the bottle and help me close this.”
    Ten seconds later, Mike and Kate had the vent cover back on. They peeked out of the door into the service hallway.
    “There’s no one here. That noise must have just been someone throwing a bag of trash into the cart,” Kate said. “Let’s get out of here before anyone else comes.”

The Troublemakers
    Kate and Mike hurried down the service hallway and back to the main corridor.
    “Hey, kids!”
    Someone had seen them leaving the storeroom!
    “Over here!”
    They turned around. It was Bud, waving them over to his hot dog stand.
    “I’m glad I caught you,” he said. “I just thought of something. What do you say when you meet a ghost?”
    Before either one of them could answer, Bud pounded the counter. “How do you
boo
?” he said. “Get it? How do you
boo
?”
    Kate rolled her eyes. “Thanks, Bud,” she said. “That’s good. Have you heard the ghost lately?”
    “No,” Bud said. “But I just remembered I have a message for you. From the ghost.”
    Kate raised her eyebrows. “You do?” she asked. “From the ghost?”
    “Well, no, not really. But it is from the ghost
expert,”
Bud replied. “Mr. Williams stopped by. He knew you two were looking around earlier. He wanted me to tell you that ghost hunting isn’t for kids. But if you stop by his autograph table, he’ll have something special for you.”
    Mike tugged on Kate’s sleeve. “Thanks for the message, Bud. Maybe we’ll see you later,” he said.
    “Okay,” Bud said. “Come back after the game if you want a hot dog!”
    “Mr. Williams must have seen us sneaking into the room,” Mike said when they were out of earshot of Bud. “What should we do?”
    “No, he didn’t,” Kate said, shaking her head. “He’s talking about when I bumped into him before the game. I’ll bet he’s just trying to scare us off the trail.”
    “You mean scare us off
his
trail,” Mike said. “He was in the storeroom just before we heard the ghost. Maybe he put something in that vent to make noise or blow cold air. Nobody would suspect him because he’s storing his books back there.”
    Kate nodded. “We should stake out that storeroom tomorrow and see if it happens again.”
    Kate and Mike were soon back in theirseats near third base. It was the top of the ninth inning. There were no outs yet. Seattle had just scored two runs, but the Yankees were still ahead, five to two.
    With his first swing, one of Seattle’s best batters hit a high foul ball down the first-base line. On the next pitch, he hit another highflying foul ball. This one soared back toward Mike’s and Kate’s seats.
    Mike jumped up. “I’ve got it! I’ve got it!” he yelled. He stretched to catch the ball.
    The ball sailed right over him.
    “Bummer,” Mike said.
    In the next section over, a little boy in a Yankees uniform tried to catch the ball in his small glove. A redheaded teenager snagged the ball instead. He held the ball up. The fans around him clapped and whistled.
    Then the redhead turned and gave thelittle boy the baseball he had caught. The boy waved the baseball around just like the teenager had. The nearby fans all