Luckily, I got home just minutes before Mum and Dad arrived.
‘Sorry we’re late, Milo,’ said Mum. ‘We met your nice Miss Lee in the supermarket and we went for coffee.’
‘She says you’re a great kid,’ said Dad.
‘No need to sound so surprised, Dad,’ I muttered.
‘Surprised? No,’ he said, straight-faced. ‘Just shocked.’
I wondered how really shocked he’d be if I told him I’d been at the castle talking to a couple of ghosts. I should have said ‘no’ to Mr Lewis. And now he’d gone away thinking I would meet him the next night. I was so worried I stayed up as late as possible. I even offered to make sandwiches for Mum and Dad to stretch out the time, but they just fell about laughing and sent me to bed.
‘You might be sorry’ was my parting shot. As I went upstairs, I imagined them sniffling into their hankies and being totally woebegone when me and my bike disappeared. That would teach them a lesson – except I wouldn’t be around to say ‘I told you so’. I’d be floating about on cold moonlit nights.
When Dad arrived in my room later with a mug of hot chocolate, I was still sifting through all the scariest stuff you could imagine.
‘I thought you were looking a bit peaky, son,’ he said, sitting on the bed and feeling my forehead. ‘Everything OK?’
‘No, Dad,’ I sighed. ‘I’ve kinda promised to help someone and now I don’t want to.’
‘Well,’ he said, ‘do what I do when I don’t want to face up to a big guy with a squashed face and a hammer who’s running out of a shop with wads of cash.’
‘You run away,’ I said eagerly. ‘That’s the right thing to do, isn’t it? Save yourself.’
‘No, lad.’ Dad was shaking his head. ‘I do what a cop is supposed to do. I nab him because I’ve sworn to do that. And that’s how it is. If you’ve promised help, then it’s only right to go through with it. You want to talk about it?’
‘No thanks, Dad,’ I whispered, so that my voice wouldn’t come out as a scream. If I told him the truth, my dad would laugh and pat my head before sending me to a shrink, who’d be even scarier than any of the dead people I’ve come up against.
‘OK,’ said Dad, getting up. ‘You’ll be glad when you’ve helped. You’re an honourable kid, Milo,’ he went on as he plumped my pillow. ‘Now, get that hot choc inside you and get some sleep. You’ll laugh at yourself in the morning.’
‘Yeah, Dad, I’m laughing already,’ I groaned.