Ann Martin - Claudia And The Phantom Phone Calls

"Where'd you find him?" I asked.

"Behind the rhododendron bush at the side of the house," replied the other policeman. "By the way, I'm Officer Stanton."

"Hi," said Kristy, Rob, Rosie, Brenda, and I.

"Can I wear your hat?" Jamie asked Officer Drew.

Officer Drew smiled and handed his hat to

Jamie. "Could we come in for a minute? I think we have a few things to discuss."

I glanced at Kristy. She was fuming. Her eyes probably could have burned holes right through Alan. "Sure," I said.

Kristy made a face at me.

"Well, I have to let them in. They're the police," I whispered to her, as Jamie and the Feldmans stepped aside to make room for the others.

We all sat down in the living room. "Hey, you guys," I said to our baby-sitting charges, "if you go back in the kitchen now and finish your supper quietly, I'll let you have Cookie Surprises for dessert."

"What are Cookie Surprises?" asked Rob suspiciously.

"If I tell you, they won't be surprises. But you'll find out if you finish your dinner — and stay in the kitchen," I added.

The kids ran back to the kitchen.

Alan, the policemen, Kristy, and I looked at each other.

Officer Drew was about to say something when Kristy let her mouth take over.

"Okay, Alan, spill it," she said. "Was that you at the front window?"

I saw a mischievous glint in Alan's eye,

indicating that he was about to say no. Then he glanced up and found Officer Drew and Officer Stanton glaring ferociously at him.

"Yes," he admitted.

"Did you call here three times this afternoon and hang up when Kristy or I answered the phone?" I asked.

Alan dropped his eyes. "Yes."

"You wouldn't, by any chance, have called me once when I was baby-sitting over on McLelland, would you have?" (That was Watson's house.)

"Yes," he mumbled.

"And a few times here on other days, and maybe once or twice when I was sitting on Rosedale Road?"

"Yes." Alan was whispering by then.

"But how did you know I was going to be at all those places?"

"And why were you harassing this young lady?" said Officer Drew in a tone so stern I practically saluted him. I think he was just trying to frighten Alan a little.

"Well . . . um . . . which question should I answer first?" Alan cautiously asked the policemen.

"Mine," said Kristy.

Officer Stanton raised an eyebrow.

I kicked Kristy on the ankle.

"Okay." Alan licked his lips. "You — you made it easy for me," he said.

"I did?" replied Kristy. "How?"

"Well, it was all right there in that notebook of yours."

"What notebo— You mean, our club record book?"

"I guess so. That thing you started bringing to school every day. I checked it each morning. It had all sorts of information in it. Times, addresses — "

Kristy slapped the heel of her hand against her forehead. " — and phone numbers," she finished for Alan.

He nodded.

"Alan, you are a rat!" she exploded.

(The vague rustlings and eating sounds from the kitchen stopped suddenly.)

"A huge, gigantic, smelly — "

"All right, simmer down, young lady," said Officer Drew. He turned to Alan. "How did you get hold of the book every morning?"

"I would . . . borrow it. From Kristy's desk when she wasn't looking. I mean, the book was so neat and easy to read."

(Thanks to Mary Anne.)

"Do you know that that was an invasion of privacy?" asked the officer.

"Well. ..."

"Okay, okay, okay," said Kristy. "So you looked in the book. How come you wanted to scare me?"

"Well," said Alan again, "I didn't. I wanted to — to ask you something, but I just couldn't. ... I didn't have the nerve. And I couldn't ask you in school."

"But you had the nerve to steal our book and spy on me, not to mention pull my hair, trip me, take my lunch, and make up stories about me to tell Mr. Peters."

"Son," said Officer Stanton in a more kindly voice, "what did you want to ask her?"

Alan mumbled something that nobody could understand.

"Louder!" shouted Rob from the kitchen.

"Finish your sandwich!" I yelled back.

"What, Alan?" asked Kristy, sounding nearly civil.

"I wanted to know if you'd go to the Hal-loween Hop with me."

If I were Kristy, my eyeballs would have fallen out of my head along about then. But Kristy just said, "Oh, gosh, is that all? Of course I'll go with you. . . . Thanks."

And at that moment, the Feldmans and the Newtons returned. They were home early.

Chapter 14.

Needless to say, the grown-ups were pretty surprised to walk into the living room and find their baby-sitters talking with two policemen and a strange boy.

Mrs. Newton gasped and Officer Drew jumped up and helped her into a chair. "It's all right, ma'am," he said. "The girls had a little problem, but they handled it well. The children are fine."

"Thank goodness."

"They're in the kitchen eating dinner," I added.

Officer Drew was eyeing Mrs. Newton's round belly warily. "Are you sure you're okay, ma'am?" he asked her.

"Just fine," she said breathlessly, "but Clau-dia, Kristy, what happened here?"

I looked at Kristy, hoping she'd want to explain. "He's your boyfriend," I whispered.

"You were the one who called the police."

I took a slow breath. Mrs. Feldman had gone into the kitchen to check on the kids, but Mr. and Mrs. Newton and Mr. Feldman were all ears. "Well," I began, "we got three strange phone calls after you left. We'd pick up the phone and the caller wouldn't say anything. And that was what happened to the Goldmans before they were robbed last night. Then, during dinner, we heard noises outside and when we went into the living room, someone was at the window. So I called the police."

"You did the right thing," said Mrs. Newton. "That was very responsible of you."

"Except that the prowler turned out to be him," I jerked my head toward Alan, "spying on Kristy."

"Well, you didn't know that," said Mr. Newton.

"I guess we'd better go now," Officer Drew said, standing up. "Let me just get my hat." At that moment, Jamie ran into the living room and handed it to him. "Thank you, young man. And you" — the officer turned to Alan — "are coming with us."

Alan turned pale. He swallowed noisily. "I am?"

"Is he in trouble?" asked Kristy.

"No, we're just going to give him a lift home. On the way, we'll have a chat about privacy

and the proper use of the telephone. He can consider this a warning."

"Yes, sir," said Alan. As he followed the policemen out the front door, he glanced over his shoulder. "See you in school tomorrow, Kristy. 'Bye, Claudia."

" 'Bye," we said.

"Was he a bad boy, Kristy?" asked Jamie as soon as the door had closed.

"Just a little bit bad," replied Kristy.

"Hey, do we get Cookie Surprises or what?" Rob called to me from the kitchen.

"You certainly do. You were very good, all of you."

Kristy and I fixed the kids the dessert I had promised — chocolate-chip cookies with little scoops of ice cream on them. Then it was time to leave. Since it was dark out, Mr. Newton offered to drive us, but we live so close by that we said we'd walk. Besides, I wanted to talk to Kristy.

"So?" I said, when we reached the sidewalk.

"What?"

"Are you out of your mind? For years, you've hated Alan Gray. Hated his guts. You said so just a few weeks ago. And all we've been hearing since school started last month is how Alan's sitting in back of you is about as unfortunate as ... as. ..."

"As when they moved The Love Boat to ten A.M. so we couldn't watch the reruns anymore?"

"Yeah."

"I know. Well, it's just that Alan finally proved something my mother's been telling me for years. Only I didn't believe her until now."

"What's that?"

"That boys tease you because they like you. I have to admit that sometimes I still think Alan is kind of a jerk, and I wouldn't have minded if he'd gotten in a little trouble tonight. I mean, hanging around the window and frightening us with those phone calls. . . . He deserves to sweat, just like we did. However — Claudia, a boy likes me." Kristy paused, then, looking mystified, went on, "Besides, he is sort of cute. And I guess some of the things he's done were funny ... if you look at them a certain way."