THE HALLOWEEN MAN by Tim Houlihan

Caroline and Sinead were sitting scrunched up in the cupboard under the stairs. A lighted candle, wobbling on a box, threw more shadows than light around them. On the outside of the door a notice said: WALLACE AND REILLY: DETECTIVES. STAY AWAY. But Catherine leaned against the door, listening to the muffled voices inside. "What's the use of being detectives if we have nothing to detect," grumbled Sinead. She felt that a week was long enough to be a detective without cases. Caroline sat frowning, thinking it over. "Well," she decided at last, "if people won't bring cases to us to solve, we'll have to go out and find them ourselves." There was another long silence and Catherine grew so tired of waiting that she leaned too heavily against the door and it creaked. "Go away, Catherine!" called Caroline crossly. Catherine stepped back a bit and waited. The voices started up again and she leaned closer. "I heard Mammy talking about that house outside town you know, the one where no one lives - " Caroline was saying. "What about it?" asked Sinead, shifting to try to make herself more comfortable and almost knocking the candle off the box. The shadows leaped around the cupboard. Caroline grabbed the candle and hot wax splashed from it. She yelped and flapped her burning hand. "Can't you be more careful? What do you want to go jumping around for?" "There's no room," grumbled Sinead. "I've got pins and needles all over me from sitting like this. This is an awful place for an office." "Can you get a better place?" Sinead sighed and rubbed her leg. "What was your mother saying about the house?" "She says someone told her that the house is haunted. Someone says they saw something there." "What sort of something?" "I don't know what sort," said Caroline vaguely, "but they saw a thing!" Sinead shivered. "I thought we were detectives, not ghostbusters." "It's all the same." "Is it?" asked Sinead doubtfully. "Of course it is. We've got to find out what's haunting it." Sinead stared at the candle flame to keep her mind off the shadows quivering about them on the walls of the cupboard. "And what'll we do when we find out?" This problem hadn't occurred to Caroline, but she wasn't going to be without an answer. "We tell it to go away," she said firmly. "Ummmmm!" said Sinead. "We'll start now!" declared Caroline energetically Sinead looked uneasy. "But it's getting dark." "Best time for ghosts," Caroline assured her. "You wouldn't expect to see ghosts in the daytime, would you?" The door creaked again and this time Sinead did upset the candle. "Catherine!" yelled Caroline in a fury. "I'm coming out after you." But when she crawled out, Catherine was nowhere to be seen. Caroline didn't waste time searching for her. The grey of the sky was getting darker all the time. "Come on," she said to Sinead. "Before she comes back." They went out and hurried off down the street, looking behind them. When they turned the corner, they ran. At that moment, Catherine popped her head up from behind the garden wall and ran down to the corner after them. But when she arrived and peered cautiously around it, they were gone. She walked a little along the road, but she soon stopped. She wasn't exactly sure where the house was and night was not the best time to get lost. I'll wait here for them and follow them back, she decided. So she sat down and took out her notebook and biro. Under the heading, Catherine's Report, she began to write down all she had heard them say. Meanwhile Caroline and Sinead were coming near to the old house. They had left the last lights of town behind and the shadows on the open road appeared not only darker but colder. "It looks like rain," murmured Sinead. "Just around this corner," said Caroline encouragingly. "Look, here it is - " They both stopped suddenly and clutched each other. "T-there's a light," breathed Sinead. In one of the windows of the house was a pale yellow glow. As they watched, it flickered. Caroline laughed in relief and put ghosts firmly behind her. "It's a candle." "But that means there's someone there," said Sinead. "Let's come back tomorrow. We can find clues better in the daytime." Caroline was strongly tempted, but having come so far, she felt it would be tame to turn back now. "Let's just take one look," she whispered. "If we're quiet, whoever it is won't even know we're there. Maybe we can solve the mystery tonight." Sinead nodded. Perhaps it would be better to get it over with right away. Slowly, they crept up to the house, so silently that their breathing sounded loud. Halfway there they stopped as the shape of the light became suddenly clearer. Now they saw that there were four lights in all, two glowing eyes, a glowing nose and a glowing mouth, all on their own in the dark with no head to be seen. "It's a g-ghost!" squealed Sinead. Caroline thought so, too, but she had lost her voice. They stood there, frozen still for what seemed like an hour. Gradually they could make out the face, which was a little lighter than the darkness. They turned to each other at the same moment. "It's a pumpkin!" "A pumpkin lantern!" Caroline tried to pretend she had known it all along. "Come on," she whispered and this time they crept right up to the wall of the house. They put their backs against it and edged their way along towards the window. Caroline ducked down and crawled to the other side. While she was doing it, Sinead edged nearer and risked a quick peep. She saw a man, seated at a table, with a candle in front of him. His back was towards her, so she looked longer the next time. And now Caroline, on the other side, looked, too The man was eating. He had. fat square sandwiches in front of him and a tin mug, out of which he drank greasy tea with a loud noise. They couldn't see his face, but he seemed to have a beard for bits of it stuck out on either side of his head. Still, it was difficult to be sure about this, for his black, rough hair was thick and tangled. After watching for a while, Caroline crawled back under the window and beckoned Sinead away. They dared not say a word until the house was out of sight and well behind them, and then they only spoke in whispers that gradually got louder. "It's only a tramp," said Sinead, glad to be away and hoping she wouldn't have to go back. Caroline's eyes were gleaming with excitement. "Yes, but why did he have a pumpkin-lantern on the window?" "I suppose he wants to keep people away and he thinks it will scare them," ventured Sinead. "And it does. Everyone but us thinks the place is haunted." "But why should he want to keep people away?" Sinead shrugged, a little irritated. Here was Caroline determined to make something out of it! "I suppose he just doesn't like people." "I think he's a villain and he's up to something," said Caroline grimly. "Well, he does look like a villain," admitted Sinead. "But so do other people. Look at our geography teacher."

CONTINUE

TALESetc.com and associated sites at: http://pages.zoom.co.uk/talewagger/index.htm http://pages.zoom.co.uk/talespinners/index.htm http://pages.zoom.co.uk/short-stories/index.htm http://pages.zoom.co.uk/stories/index.htm