Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls Read Free Page B

Mary Anne.
    â€œâ€˜Depressed Trucker Drives Self Crazy’?” asked Stacey.
    â€œNo!”
    â€œWhat
is
it, Mary Anne? Just tell us,” I shouted. “You’re driving
us
crazy.”
    Mary Anne had calmed down a little. She took the paper back and read: “‘Phantom Caller on Rampage in Mercer.’” She cleared her throat and glanced at us. Then she began to read again. “‘The thief, whom police have nicknamed the Phantom Caller, struck again in Mercer on Tuesday night. Following the pattern of his previous burglaries, he began making phone calls, this time to thehome of Thornton and Sophia Granville of 236 Witmer Court, shortly after four P.M. He never spoke, simply hanging up the phone when someone answered. The Granvilles left their home at seven-thirty to attend a meeting of the school board. When they returned at ten-fifteen, they found all of Mrs. Granville’s jewelry missing. Nothing else had been taken, despite the fact that a considerable amount of silver, as well as Thornton Granville’s famous and very valuable coin collection, were in the house.
    â€œâ€˜This is the sixth home the Phantom Caller has robbed in the past two weeks and the second home in Mercer. The first four robberies occurred in New Hope.’” Mary Anne stopped reading.
    â€œSo what is so scary about that?” asked Stacey. “You should hear what goes on in New York City every day.”
    â€œBut don’t you see?” asked Mary Anne. “He’s getting closer and closer to Stoneybrook—to
us.
First New Hope, then Mercer. Stoneybrook is the nearest town to Mercer.”
    â€œWell, it’s still twenty miles away,” I said. “Does he always steal jewelry?”
    â€œYes,” replied Mary Anne. “Just jewelry. It says in the next paragraph that he really knows what he’s looking for. Now here’s the scary part: Hemakes those phone calls to find out whether anyone’s home. But
some
times if the people don’t go out he robs them anyway, and they don’t know it until they realize the jewelry’s missing. He’s
in
the house while they are. He’s never hurt anyone, but what do you think he’d do if he met someone face-to-face in the middle of a burglary? Now think about
this,”
she went on. “We don’t know what kind of jewelry the people we baby-sit for have.”
    â€œOh,” said Stacey, “no one around here is as rich as those Granvilles sound.”
    â€œBut maybe it doesn’t matter,” said Kristy. “And what if the Phantom Caller was watching the house or something and saw the parents go out. He might go ahead and rob it if he thought just a baby-sitter and a couple of little kids were there.”
    â€œI still don’t know,” said Stacey. “I think you guys are worrying about nothing.”
    Suddenly, I clapped my hand to my mouth. “Oh, my gosh!” I cried.
    â€œWhat?” the others shouted.
    â€œWhen I baby-sat for the Marshalls on Wednesday, the phone rang twice, and each time I answered it, the caller hung up without saying a word!”
    â€œOh, no!”
    â€œYou’re kidding!”
    â€œI think,” said Kristy seriously, “that we should hold an emergency meeting of the Baby-sitters Club—
right now.”

The members of the Baby-sitters Club gathered numbly in my bedroom.
    â€œThis is
terrible,”
moaned Kristy. “How can we baby-sit under these conditions?”
    Nobody said a word. To ease the tension, I took a gigantic chocolate bar out of my notebook, carefully peeled back the wrapper, and offered pieces to Kristy and Mary Anne. I didn’t even bother to feel bad that Stacey couldn’t eat any. The three of us chewed in silence.
    â€œLook,” said Stacey after a while, “I think we’re worrying about nothing. The Phantom Caller hasn’t even robbed anybody in Stoneybrook, so he’s