Crack the Case by Colby Paulson {Inklings Book Contest 2021 Finalist}

 Today we are featuring Inklings Book Contest 2021 finalist Colby Paulson! Colby finished 4th grade this past school year. We hope you enjoy Colby’s mystery-suspense story!

CRACK THE CASE: A JAKE JOHNSON MYSTERY
by Colby Paulson

Jake Johnson was liking his new life, no more bullies or people who straight up just didn’t like him. It had been two months since he had cracked the case of the robbers who caused havoc in his small town of Oakville, New York. 

He was now sixteen and just got a super nice black Rubicon Jeep, one of the newest cars in town. Whenever he walked in the door anywhere in town everyone got excited and came to greet him. Jake was considered a hometown hero. 

Tonight, Jake was at the movies. After the movie, a teenage girl came up to him. She told him the town was in danger of a ghost. At first Jake laughed, but she looked really worried so he stopped. 

She went on, ”I live on the edge of town in Laughly Manors. A ghost has been reported on my street there. He looks like the town founder. Remember the fire that burned down the mansion a little while ago? Well, this ghost was seen around that house not long before the fire.”

A shiver went up Jake’s spine and he replied, “Is it ok if I come to your house tomorrow? It’s probably better talking there than in a parking lot. Also, it’s where everything is happening. It’ll be better to see the place.” 

“Ok,” said the girl handing a piece of paper to Jake with her address on it. “And before you go one last thing, the reason I’m really afraid is because my house stands where his old manor was.” And with that, the girl walked away. 

Jake’s thoughts were racing. When he got home, he was thinking about things like what might happen to the girl’s house if the ghost decided he wanted the family off his land. And what will happen if he can’t crack the case again. But instead of worrying even more, Jake got cozy in his bed and fell asleep. 

The next morning was Saturday. Jake woke up and ate a quick breakfast. Then said goodbye to his dad. 

Once he got in his jeep and was driving up the road only a few minutes away from the girl’s house he noticed something. It was strange, the shops that he passed were closed due to a “Ghost Attack.” So he sped up and drove quickly to the girl’s house where there was an older woman, an older man and . . . the girl. 

Jake pulled over and quickly hopped out of his jeep. He ran to the people and asked, “What happened?” 

The girl who spoke to him last night was on the verge of tears. She said, “My brother, he’s six. He was being attacked by the ghost on his bike. He ran inside screaming. My mother,” she said as she gestured to the older woman, “called the cops.” The girl then gestured to the cop cars. She continued, “My dad went upstairs. He was yelling and came downstairs with cuts.” She pointed toward the older man who was near a paramedic that was bandaging the cuts. “We all ran, but that was twelve minutes ago. We tried to go back in after my brother, but someone locked up the house and my brother’s stuck inside!” She began sobbing. 

Jake was reassuring her everything would be fine and the cops would handle it. More neighbors were gathering around and news trucks arrived. While the S.W.A.T. team was preparing to enter, Jake took action. He grabbed a rock and threw it through the window. He jumped in with S.W.A.T following after him. 

Some neighbors screamed, news teams wanting footage chased in after S.W.A.T. Those gathered outside sat in silence trying to find the people inside through the windows. 

The house lit up, windows opened and doors unlocked. This happened simultaneously to every house up and down the entire street. People were terrified. They began screaming, running, and crying.

Everyone who went in the house came running back out. Everyone was fine except Jake. Jake was covered with cuts and had bruises on him. Everybody gasped. Paramedics ran to him.

At one of the news vans, a camerawoman began airing footage of what she had filmed inside the house. Everyone gathered on the street was watching. The screen showed the police running in. S.W.A.T following after stealthily. What they saw next amazed them all . . . Jake was fighting the ghost. The ghost was invisible, but you could tell someone was fighting Jake and he was fighting back. 

All the windows and doors opened just as everyone outside had seen. The closet door opened and revealed a young boy. Jake ran in and grabbed the boy and ran out. Jake gave the boy to the cops. And then the footage showed everyone running out of the house. Once again, Jake was a hero, but the case was far from over. 

After an overnight stay in the hospital, Jake was fine, but he had more flowers than he knew what to do with! He made plans to meet the girl at a cafe where they properly introduced each other. The girl’s name was Olivia Hudson. She already knew who Jake Johnson was of course.

They chatted about yesterday’s events and all their theories and the facts they knew about the ghost. First, they figured the ghost must have been hiding out in the woods at the edge of town since Laughly Manors where the attacks were occurring was located there. Second, Olivia said the ghost looked like the town founder, his original house was located in Laughly Manors. So they concluded the ghost must be hiding out in the woods. The next morning, they decided to head to the forest to start the investigation.

When they entered the forest, they had to turn on their flashlights since the trees blocked out all natural light. Jake and Olivia decided to mark the path with a trail of neon stickers so they would find their way back. Olivia then saw something strange, a clump of smoke coming out of a tree. 

She told Jake and they pushed through the light-colored flowers and bushes to the tree. When they approached the tree, they noticed an outline of a door. They were going to enter when Jake’s phone rang. To make sure they weren’t overheard, they ran out of the woods. Then Jake answered. 

“I’ve been waiting,” said the voice on the other end of the phone.  

“Who are you? Where did you get this number?” said Jake. 

The voice answered, ”Well you got too close to where I’m storing my inventory.”

“Mind if we come in?” said Olivia. 

“What type of inventory?” said Jake. 

The voice laughed and it sounded like the Joker’s laugh. 

Click, the call ended.

Olivia pulled her hair into a ponytail, grabbed a book from her backpack, and said, “Let’s go back to the tree.” 

“Not yet, we should get back up. Know anyone?” Jake asked.

Olivia responded, “Parker, you know him right?” 

“Fine,” mumbled Jake. He hated Parker. Parker was a jerk. Olivia called Parker and Parker said he would bring baseball bats. 

Parker arrived with bats about five minutes later. Jake thought Parker was trying too hard to look cool. Parker was wearing a jean jacket, his long blond hair sticking out from under a hat. Since Parker had a huge crush on Olivia, he asked a lot of questions about Jake. Why were they hanging out? Did Jake like Olivia? Not just as friends, but like like Olivia. Jake ignored Parker’s ongoing questions while his eyes were locked on the smoking tree. 

Olivia wanted to open the door hidden in the tree. Jake figured it was booby-trapped. So Jake pushed Parker through the tree door first. The ground opened up and swallowed Parker. 

Olivia turned to Jake and said, “Meh, I like it better when he’s gone. He’s kinda annoying.” 

Jake just giggled. 

Just then, Olivia threw her bat at the door. It opened and so did the ground. Jake grabbed her hand. His other hand clenched the bat, then he jumped. They made it over the trap door and got inside the tree as the secret door was closing. What they found wasn’t legal. The room was filled with TV screens and computer equipment. Each screen showed a different house in Laughly Manors. It appeared someone had placed security cameras in every house in Laughly Manors. Whoever placed the cameras also had remote access to control the power and had rigged doors and windows to open on command. 

“Well, that explains the so-called haunting,” Olivia said. “This ghost is becoming a little less ghostly.”

“Yeah,” responded Jake. 

Then they heard Parker crying, “Mommy, I was a good boy help me! I can make you cookies!” 

Jake and Olivia laughed. They followed Parker’s voice to a small room to the left. Parker was tied up. When Parker noticed them he pretended to try to cut the rope with his teeth. 

Olivia shook her head. “Do you want me to call your mommy?” 

Parker looked up sheepishly and said, “I need your help.” 

As Jake untied Parker he asked, “How did you get tied up like this?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t see who did this. I must have been knocked out by the fall,” Parker answered.

Jake thought that seemed unlikely but shrugged and said, “We need a plan to explore this place. We need to see what or who is here.”  

“Good idea, I guess,” Parker replied, acting once again his arrogant self. 

Olivia brought a notebook with her. She began to draw a map in it. Jake, Olivia, and Parker knew the tree was much bigger on the inside than the outside. They deduced they must have ventured under the forest. Olivia’s map so far was made up of mazes of pathways. 

As they ventured further down the hallway they saw a room. They went in. There was a high-tech suit that looked like an astronaut suit. They knew the ghost must have been using the suit to make him seem invisible. Then they noticed another suit. Someone was planning to have two ghosts, but why? 

They kept exploring, then found a room across the hall. Looking into it, they could see it was dark and small. The room had a screen with cameras and controls to Jake’s house! Whoever this was, they were planning on stopping Jake from investigating. It seemed from notes on the wall that their plan was to kidnap him and maybe even his dad. 

Parker pointed to another door. Tiptoeing, they slowly made their way to it. They opened it to find a basement of a house. They walked across the basement, opening up another door. This door led out of the basement into a backyard. The three kids recognized the house. It was a home twenty minutes out of town at the base of the Catskill Mountains. The person who owned the home mainly lived in New York City. This was their vacation home. Could someone have broken in and been using it? Or was it Gigi Quartez, the owner of the house?

When they left the backyard, they hid behind some wildflowers. Jake immediately called his dad. 

“Hey, Jake. What’s up?” answered Jake’s dad. 

“Dad, listen. You have to get out of the house now! Drive to 1463 Catskill Lane. No questions! Go there now. Don’t hang up,” demanded Jake. 

“Whoa. Slow down there,” said Jake’s dad. 

Then Jake heard a growling voice yell, “Get in the van now!” 

Olivia grabbed the phone and hung up. 

“Olivia!” Jake said angrily. 

“We can’t let him track our location through the phone or it puts all of us at stake,” answered Olivia. 

“Fine,” groaned Jake. 

“Well, now we need to get the police. Your dad was kidnapped!” said Parker. 

“NO!” Jake and Olivia replied in unison. 

“The cops already know about the haunting. They are already on the case,” said Jake. 

“C’mon let’s check the news to see if anything happened,” said Parker. 

Jake got out his phone and tapped the news app. Indeed something was happening. The ghost was now haunting Jake’s house and police confirmed Jake and his dad were missing. 

“Perfect!” Olivia said happily.

“How is this perfect?” Jake and Parker both asked.

“Ugh, they think we’re missing, they don’t know we’re still fine,” explained Olivia. 

“But…” Parker was cut off. 

Olivia continued, ”My family declared me missing half an hour ago. I kept tabs on the news. So, we just need Parker to be declared missing too,” said Olivia, proud of her plan. 

“How do we get food? Where are we going to sleep?” whined Parker. 

“Tomorrow night, there is a Masquerade Ball being held here. The ghost will likely strike then. And Parker, there will be food. Plus, we will have to wear masks so no one will know who we are,” said Olivia. 

“Smart,” said Parker and Jake. 

“So, how are we going to get those costumes?” asked Parker.

“Isn’t it obvious?” said Olivia and Jake. 

“I’ll let you explain,” said Olivia and Jake in unison. They laughed. 

Olivia went on, ”We will break into the dress and tux shop.”

“Isn’t that illegal?” questioned Parker. 

“Well, we are going to use the ghost suits,” Olivia replied.

“There are two, but there was a ghost at Jake’s house when there were still two here,” explained Jake. 

“That means there were three in all,” said Parker catching on. 

“Good,” said Olivia and Jake at the same time, laughing. 

“We will wait until dark and sneak back into the house and hopefully borrow all three ghost suits so we can sneak into town unnoticed,” Olivia finished.

That night once it got dark, the three teens snuck back into the house quietly. Luckily no one was around and they were able to take the three ghost suits. They made their way downtown unnoticed since they put the suits in ghost mode, making the suits invisible. They went into an alley. Jake threw a rock at a window while mumbling sorry under his breath. The window broke and alarms sounded. Each teen hastily grabbed suits, a gown, and shoes, and then ran back out of the store.  

Jake got a suit with diamonds lining the outside and diamond-covered shoes. Olivia got a matching white and diamond gown with diamond high heels. Parker got a checkered black and white suit. Parker’s shoe box included one white and one black shoe.  

The three teens returned the ghost suits and headed back out into the forest. Then, Jake started checking news updates for ghost attacks or news on his dad. Olivia searched online to see if anyone had suspected they weren’t actually missing. And Parker looked up the latest science discoveries on invisibility to see how the suits worked. Parker also looked to see if he could trace how the suits were made or purchased. 

Around 2 A.M., the kids decided to sneak back into the basement since there were no lights on at the house and no one seemed to have entered. Once inside, Olivia led the way up the stairs into a bedroom with two pairs of bunk beds. They each picked a bunk and fell fast asleep. They were startled awake by the sound of a garage door opening. 

They became still and listened as they heard six-inch heels cross the wood floor. Gigi Quartez must be home. They knew they had to get back outside. They waited for Gigi to enter an upstairs bedroom. They heard running water and knew they could make a run for it.  

When they were all in the backyard, Parker said breathlessly, “Why didn’t we go and ask her questions?” 

“Because how are we going to explain what we were doing in her house? We can talk to her at the party tomorrow,” said Olivia. 

“Plus we will be disguised at the party,” said Jake. 

“Oh, and she would’ve been drinking,” said Parker. Olivia and Jake gave him confused looks. 

After a moment of awkward silence, Olivia finally said, “Let’s do this.”

“Do what?” asked Parker. 

“I don’t know, I was planning on breaking the silence in a non-awkward way,” responded Olivia. 

“Well, that didn’t happen,” said Jake. 

Again, they all looked at each other in silence. 

“I’m sorry,” said Parker. 

“Huh?” said Jake and Olivia at the same time. 

“I’m truly sorry,” said Parker intensely. “You called the wrong back-up.”  

“Run!” yelled Jake. 

“Smart,” said Parker pulling out rope and a taser. 

“Parker!” cried Olivia dumbfounded. “I…I trusted you,” she stuttered. “I’ve known you forever.” Olivia started to shake with fear and anger. Then she nodded at Jake slyly. 

“Lights out baby!” Jake shouted as he swiped Parker’s feet out from under him. 

As Parker fell, the wind got knocked out of him and Jake grabbed the rope. Olivia helped grab Parker and they tied him up. 

“Yeah, now what do we do with him?” said Jake. 

“How about we put him in the bush?” said Olivia. 

“Sure, but he knows our plans,” said Jake. 

“Oh, yeah,” Olivia responded. “But, what do we do?” 

“Parker was employed by someone. They know our plans most likely. So they have to be coming for us,” Jake said.

“I guess so, they also know our costumes,” said Olivia with butterflies in her stomach. 

“It can’t be Gigi,” said Jake pointing to the house. 

“She is too nice to have done something like this. And, she’s famous. So what’s her motive?” Olivia thought aloud. 

“We have to get to the party,” said Jake. “We need to talk to Gigi. Her house seems to be the headquarters because it is connected to the underground tunnels and rooms in the tree. She has to know something. Plus, I am worried about an attack. All those people at the party could be in danger,” said Jake. 

“Why don’t we keep the costumes and ditch the masks since they already know it’s us?” asked Olivia. 

“What?” Jake raised his eyebrows in surprise. 

“It works out. Everyone will come to you. That is the distraction you need. You’re the town hero. People will follow you. When they follow you, I will get close to Gigi and ask some questions,” explained Olivia. 

“Ok,” Jake replied. “But, be careful.” 

Olivia looked down at her phone, “The party starts in an hour. Let’s sneak back into the basement and get into our costumes,” she said. 

“Sounds like a plan,” said Jake. 

About an hour later they could hear the sounds of a party wafting down the staircase. They hugged. Then Jake headed outside to go and enter the party through the front door. And Olivia started up the stairs to sneak into the house that way.

The party was filled with people in feathers, diamonds, and old-fashioned masks. They wore tuxes and gowns and were waltzing around Gigi’s home. Jake walked in and many people took off their masks gasping at his appearance. Once he knew he had been noticed, he ran back out the front door. Many guests followed him. 

Olivia had managed to get Gigi to the balcony. Olivia was wearing her white diamond-studded gown, her diamond high heels, and her blond hair was swept into a bun. She looked much older than sixteen. 

Turning to Gigi, she said, “Hello Mrs. Quartez, it’s been a while. I’m just here for a few questions, no need to freak.” 

“Oh, well I’m not planning on freaking,” said Gigi sharply. “I’m planning on freaking you,” she smiled menacingly. 

“What does that mean?” asked Olivia. 

“Oh my gosh, I thought a detective was a good thinker,” Gigi sneered as she led Olivia closer to the edge of the balcony. 

Jake had snuck onto the balcony while Gigi and Olivia were talking. Jake was about to grab Gigi when Gigi sprang and grabbed Olivia pulling her closer to the edge of the balcony. 

“So predictable,” said Gigi laughing with the same Joker’s laugh they had heard over the phone. 

“It was you over the phone!” said Jake walking towards Gigi. 

“Ah, ah, ah. Not a step closer or your little girlfriend takes a fall,” said Gigi. 

“Stop! I’ll do anything!” cried Jake. 

“Oh, anything? Jump off the balcony!” Gigi taunted. 

“Don’t do it!” Olivia screamed. 

“I’m not doing that,” said Jake.

“No, I don’t think so,” said Parker, grabbing Jake and restraining him. 

Quietly, Henry, Olivia’s little brother, had crept onto the balcony. Just then he accidentally stepped on Parker’s foot causing Parker to step back. Parker lost his hold on Jake. Jake told Henry to run and get the cops as he launched into action. He grabbed Parker and threw him into the wall knocking him out. When Parker fell, Jake turned and faced Gigi. 

Just then a police helicopter turned its light on illuminating the house. Sirens sounded as police cars pulled in front of the house. Gigi was about to let go of Olivia when a police officer told her to release the girl and started to descend onto the balcony from the helicopter. 

Landing on the balcony, he tackled Gigi placing her in handcuffs. Olivia ran and hugged Jake. More police arrived, escorting Gigi into custody. Some of the officers helped Jake and Olivia back inside. 

They were each questioned by the officers. Jake and Olivia told their sides of the story. Jake was reunited with his dad. Then Olivia was reunited with her family. 

All of New York State’s news was reporting on the events in Oakville. Olivia and Jake had been interviewed by every station. Even the President wanted to meet them!

It was one week after the final interviews when Jake stopped having nightmares about the case. The next morning, he called Olivia. They made plans to meet the next day at a restaurant called Oakville Cafe. Jake got dressed in a button-up shirt and jeans. Olivia wore a white dress with black heel boots. Olivia pulled up in a new Corvette, and Jake pulled up in his black Jeep. They felt so happy to be together, even though it hadn’t even been two days since the last time they saw each other. They were really enjoying themselves when they heard a scream. They both knew Oakville needed heroes and apparently, that time was now.