IT WAS JUST past nine o’clock when JJ made his way to the secret room and found it dark. They had agreed to meet at nine, right?

“Hello?” His voice sounded extra loud in the deserted room. There was a shadow—there, in the corner of the room. Was it a ghost?

“Hey!” Emma jumped out from behind one of the chairs.

JJ stepped back. “You scared me.” His heart was pounding. This girl was always a little . . . strange. Sometimes she was nowhere to be found, and other times she’d just show up out of nowhere. Emma certainly was like no other kid JJ knew. Maybe it was all this time at the hotel by herself.

Emma smiled. “Scaring you was the point.” She planted her hands on her hips, looking fake mad. “You are late, mister.”

“I was trapped in the elevator with Penny,” JJ said. “We think someone did that to us on purpose.”

Emma’s face dropped. “Are you okay?”

JJ nodded. “I’m fine.”

“Hey, guys, sorry I’m late.” It was Penny.

“You missed me scaring JJ,” Emma said with a grin.

“Get Penny next time,” JJ added.

“No thanks,” Penny said. “Did you talk to your mom, JJ?”

JJ hesitated, but he wasn’t a good liar. “She was here that morning. And Mr. Barclay threatened to take back the money he’d invested in PB&JJ, so I guess that gives her motive as well. But I know she didn’t do it!”

“Of course not. She’s your mom.” Penny opened her notebook to write things down. “So, I tried to find Ms. Chelsea, but she must be hiding in her room.” Penny couldn’t really blame Ms. Chelsea. If Penny was a suspect in a murder, she might want to hide too.

“Bummer,” JJ said. “We really need to figure out her motive.”

Emma’s face lit up. “Ms. Chelsea is the librarian, right? I remember hearing Mr. Barclay talking about giving a grant to a library once. But it was a while ago. I wonder if something happened to the grant recently.”

“That would be a strong motive,” JJ said. “Ms. Chelsea loves her job.”

Penny asked Emma, “Did you get anywhere with Fiona Fleming?”

“She has a motive—she wrote a murder mystery script for the hotel, but Mr. Barclay decided not to buy it. And she was here the morning he died.”

JJ felt relieved. His mom wasn’t the only one with motive and opportunity.

Penny said, “Now we just need to know about the cowboy. I couldn’t find him either. This hotel is enormous.”

Emma walked around the room. “I wish we had one of those whiteboards, the kind they have on police TV shows.”

“Maybe tomorrow we can chase one down.” JJ fake yawned. “I think I’m going to get some sleep.”

Emma studied him, like she didn’t believe what he was saying. And Penny did too. Clearly JJ was a bad liar . . .

But then Penny closed her notebook. “Okay, I guess. Some people have early bedtimes.”

“Exactly.” JJ let out a small sigh of relief that no one questioned him and walked toward the door. JJ was fibbing, of course, but he had good reason to want to wrap things up quickly.

“I just hope we get to close the case,” Emma said behind him. “Your mom said you guys are leaving in the morning, remember?”

JJ did remember that now. But he wasn’t sure he was cut out for this police work. All he wanted to do was roam around the Barclay Hotel and catch a ghost, instead of a criminal.

“We’re only just getting started on our investigation,” Penny mused as she opened her notebook again. “Maybe we can start early?”

“Sure,” JJ said. He really did want to clear his mom’s name.

But there was the other reason he was here at the Barclay Hotel.

So even though JJ felt a pull, the call of the case, so to speak, he decided to put it all in the back of his mind for that night.

It was ghost hunting time.