EMMA JUMPED OUT of nowhere, causing JJ to fall back and land on his rear end. Penny yelped and her glasses flew off. She held on to the EMF detector for dear life, but it was completely dead at this point. Not a single light.

Emma doubled over in loud laughter, which the other two found very annoying. “You should’ve seen your faces!”

JJ was mad now. “We’re working here, you know,” he said sternly as he stood back up. “We were gathering evidence, and you just ruined it.” He sounded a lot like his dad did that time the dog accidentally knocked his Colosseum puzzle off the coffee table.

“Emma!” Penny picked up her glasses and rubbed the lenses on her shirt. “You scared the bejeebies out of me.”

“Well, I managed to get JJ earlier, so it’s only fair that I scare you too.” Emma’s face turned more serious. “What are you two doing? Are you ghost hunting or something?”

JJ didn’t feel like answering her. Plus, his heart was still going a gazillion beats a minute.

“Yes, we were.” Penny smiled. “It’s kind of fun.” This whole ghost hunting thing was growing on her.

Emma said, looking around the library, “I practically live here, and I’ve never seen any ghosts.” Emma knew she was fibbing a little. But she didn’t want all this ghost hunting to distract them from the murder mystery.

JJ held his voice recorder. “I’m trying to get evidence.”

“You know, we should really work on getting evidence that is related to the murder,” Emma said.

She had a point.

“But what if the ghosts know who killed Mr. Barclay?” JJ argued.

“Then they would just tell us,” Emma said, rolling her eyes.

“She’s right,” Penny said. “And I think this thing is out of juice anyway.” She handed JJ back his EMF detector.

He wanted to argue, but he knew Emma was right. His mom was being accused of murder, and until they found proof of her innocence, she was still a suspect. “Okay,” JJ said. He clicked off his voice recorder. “Back to the murder investigation. So, what’s next?”

Suddenly, there was a huge ruckus coming from the south end of the hotel. The kids heard a lot of yelling and wondered what it was about.

Emma started walking down the library stairs. “That sounds like a fight.” She seemed entirely too excited about that.

The three kids headed in the direction of the yelling.

They ended up down the hall from the reception desk, where a set of double doors were wide open.

Emma stopped. “Hey, guys,” she said, looking uncomfortable. “I’m not allowed to go inside Mr. Barclay’s office.”

“Why not?” Penny asked. The yelling continued, and she was dying to see what the fuss was all about.

“I’m just not allowed.” Emma stepped back. “My uncle said so. I’ll just meet up with you guys later, okay?”

And she took off.

JJ and Penny looked at each other and frowned. “She’s weird,” JJ said.

“But nice,” Penny added. She felt like she was a little weird herself sometimes. Penny liked the idea she wasn’t the only one who was different. “Let’s see what’s going on.”

Mr. Clark stood in the doorway, hands on his hips. “Well, well, look at this.”

JJ and Penny had to crane their necks to see what Mr. Clark was well-well-ing about. Inside the office, standing on either side of the big mahogany desk, were Ms. Chelsea and Buck. Both were waving flashlights. And both were (suspiciously, JJ thought) wearing sneakers, when the cowboy had been wearing boots earlier, and Ms. Chelsea loafers.

“I caught him trying to steal a map!” Ms. Chelsea yelled. She was pointing her flashlight at Buck, nearly blinding him because it was aimed straight at his face.

“Talk about the pot calling the kettle black,” Buck countered. “You were here before me, Ms. Chelsea, rifling through the papers on Mr. Barclay’s desk.”

JJ’s mom came up behind him, wearing her pajamas with an oversize PB&JJ: Because everything is better with peanut butter! sweatshirt over them. “What’s going on? I could hear them yelling all the way in my room.”

“They caught each other breaking into Mr. Barclay’s office,” JJ whispered. He wasn’t sure why he was whispering. Probably because the librarian was there. It was a force of habit.

“Yes, both of them did indeed break in,” Mr. Clark said loudly. “Now that we are all up to speed on the day’s events—”

“Why?” JJ and Penny asked at the same time.

“Excuse me, I’ll be the one asking the questions here,” Mr. Clark interjected. He turned back to Ms. Chelsea and Buck. “Now, please explain why you broke in.”

Everyone looked at the two burglars, waiting for an answer. There was silence while Ms. Chelsea and Buck tried to come up with a reason.

Breaking the silence, Ms. Chelsea and Buck both spoke at once.

“Well, he—”

“No, she—”

“Stop!” Mr. Clark yelled. “One at a time. You first, Ms. Chelsea.”

She hesitated, then said, “I admit I broke into Mr. Barclay’s office. But it was only to find something that was mine, I swear!”

“What was it?” JJ’s mom asked for everyone.

Ms. Chelsea sighed, and turned off her flashlight. “Mr. Barclay had promised to renew the library grant, but the funding never came through. I came to find proof that he had approved the grant.” Her eyes were welling up with tears now. Forget the crazy plan for a slide and an arcade. “The library depends on that money. Without it . . .” Her voice trailed off. “As of Monday, I’m out of a job,” she whispered.

Everyone was silent.

Mr. Clark said, “Surely Mr. Barclay would have approved funding. He has every year.”

“That’s what I thought!” Ms. Chelsea said. “But then . . .” Her voice trailed off again.

“What?” JJ asked.

“When I called on the phone early last Friday morning, I was told that the grant had been canceled.” When Ms. Chelsea looked up, the tears were streaming down her face.

“Who told you this?” Mr. Clark asked.

Ms. Chelsea looked confused. “You did, Mr. Clark.”