Hunter Moran Hangs Out by Patricia Reilly Giff

Author:Patricia Reilly Giff
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Holiday House
Published: 2013-10-15T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

We go straight to the back of the used-to-be-empty house and peer down the cellar stairs. We know what we’re doing now. We avoid the mouse corpse and peer in the window.

Yes, there’s the table and the saw hanging next to it.

Zack turns the handle. The door swings open.

“That’s trespassing,” I say. “We can’t go all the way in.”

Zack nods. “It’s kind of a surprise, though. If we can get in, why can’t the victims get out?”

“They might be handcuffed,” I say. “Or foot-cuffed.”

I shield my eyes against the cellar darkness. What do I see? Boxes. Shelves with books and papers piled high.

I lean in a little farther. I don’t see the step in front of me until it’s too late. Oof! I’m down on the cement floor, setting off a gong that’s so loud my ears ring.

I sprawl there, frozen, trespassing. Next to me, Zack is frozen, too. The whole neighborhood probably heard that.

“A bell,” Zack whispers from the steps. “Just a bell. A huge bell. Nothing to be afraid of.”

I’m afraid. I’m definitely afraid.

We hear a creak upstairs, over our heads. And then there’s another.

“Someone’s up there,” Zack says. “Get up. We have to get out.”

I peer at the narrow stairs leading to the killer’s lair. It’s a repeat of Nest of Aliens, Wednesday afternoon, four o’clock.

The door opens and here comes the kidnapper.

I’m stuck. Why can’t I move?

My T-shirt is caught in the door, my ankle in the bell rope. I kick my leg free and grab the edge of the shirt, pulling it almost free. A huge chunk of it is still imprisoned inside.

The kidnapper clumps down the stairs.

Poor Mom. Zack and I will be gone forever. And there’re still Steadman and Linny to worry about.

Zack pulls me, yanks me by the hair, the neck, wherever he can reach.

I’m scrambling backward. I see the dangerous accomplice looking down.

He yells. I yell. And then I’m free. Zack and I race down the weedy driveway as I hold what’s left of my T-shirt together. We don’t stop until we’ve gone all the way to the end of the street.

We sink down in the alleyway between the library and Vinny’s Vegetables and Much More. Next door, Yulefski is bent over backward, heading up the library steps. She’s holding a pile of books that go from under her chin to her knees. No wonder Sister Appolonia thinks she’s a star.

“Wasn’t there a book we read a long time ago?” I snap my fingers. “Maybe we could use that for a report. You know, it was about three animals who got lost. One was a dog, one was a tiger, maybe. Or was it an antelope? Something like that.”

“A cat,” Zack says. “And we saw it in a play. The whole school saw it. Sister Appolonia loved it.”

I raise my shoulders in the air. We’ll really have to read.

“No more than seventy pages,” Zack says.

“Fifty,” I say, and we haul ourselves up the stone steps and into the library.

Mrs. Wu is at the desk, talking to someone about old cars.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.