Alex raced from the alley to Tobias' storesmack into Christopher!

"Whoa," Christopher said. "Alex? I almost didn't recognize you."

Alex had to grin. He'd have to hang on to this jogging disguise. "Where's Tobias?" Alex asked.

Christopher's smile faded and he pointed inside.

The green parakeet zoomed to Alex's head as he walked into the shop. Alex saw Tobias shaking hands with a man in a brown suit.

"You won't regret this, Tobias," the man said, shaking Tobias' hand again. "My buyer will pay top dollar for a location like this. Give me an hour and we'll both be back for a closer look." The man glanced all around the store, then headed out the door, brushing past Alex without a word.

"Who was that?" Alex asked, a sickening feeling coming over him.

"That was the real estate agent," Tobias said. Alex thought the old man looked about 10 years older than he had the day before.

Alex started to protest, but Tobias cut him off. "Please, Alex," Tobias said. "It's been a long day."

"Tobias," Christopher called, motioning with his head for Tobias to join him outside. "Let's do that thing now. Remember? The thing I want to show you?" Christopher forced a nervous smile at Alex.

"Alex," said Tobias, "Christopher and I were just heading out to my van to look at his photographs."

"Tobias!" Christopher said, giving Alex a suspicious glance.

"Alex is helping me too, Christopher," Tobias said. "I think you boys should work together. You know, Alex, Christopher has found out some things about those counterfeiters."

"What?" Alex asked, wishing he had more to tell.

"Not that much really," Christo pher said. "Sheriff Marshall wouldn't tell me anything. He thinks it's just a rumor. But Deputy Grimaldi said the two men on the wanted poster are said to have counterfeit plates hidden in the area."

"So that's why phoney money keeps showing up around here," Alex said.

"Come along with us, Alex," Tobias said. "Christopher says he has something to show me."

Alex, the parakeet resting on his shoulder, followed Tobias and Christopher outside to a green van. One wheel was on the sidewalk, and the van hogged two parking spots. "Somebody must have parked in a hurry," Alex said.

"Or not," Christopher said, laughing. "You haven't ridden with Tobias yet, or you'd understand."

Tobias opened the back door and motioned for Alex to climb in. The inside of the van, behind the front seats, held a table. On it sat three big pans filled with water or something. Curtains covered the back windows.

Christopher clicked on the ceiling light. A red glow spread through the back of the van. A strin g ran the length of the roof with photos clothespinned to it.

"Wow!" Alex said. "It's a darkroom for developing your pictures, isn't it?" Alex had never been in a room like it, but he kind of remembered a darkroom he'd seen in a movie.

"Yes, Tobias lets me use his van," Chris-topher explained, "until I can get a better place. But it's a lot of work to take everything down when he wants to drive somewhere."

"A better place will come," said Tobias. "Until then, show us what you've got." < p>Christopher pulled two more photos from one of the pans and hung them up. "Okay. These," he said, pointing to a row of pictures, "I took Monday."

Looking at the photographs, Alex felt sad. There was Tobias' Ark the way it used to be, with cats and fish and hamsters. He reached up and petted the parakeet, glad all the animals hadn't run away.

"These are the pictures I took today." Christopher straightened the photos of Tobias' Ark after the break-in. "This is what I wanted you to see, Tobias."

"Yes?" Tobias said, staring at the pictures. Alex and Christopher pressed in on either side. "Well? What am I looking for, Chris-topher?" asked Tobias.

"Look at this shelf here." Christopher pointed to a shelf in the lower right corner of one of the before photos. Boxes of rabbit and hamster food nearly covered the shelf. Then Christopher pointed to the same shelf, on a side wall, in a second photo taken after the break-in.

"Most of the boxes have been knocked off the shelf?" Tobias tried.

Alex didn't see anything more than Tobias. A full shelf. An empty shelf. He shrugged.

"Just look at the shelf, not the stuff on it," Christopher urged.

"Hmmm," Alex said, studying the photos again. When he tried to block out the boxes of pet food and just see the shelf, something was funny. The shelf was in a different spot. "You mean it's in a different place? Like the wall moved?" Alex offered.

"That's it!" Christopher said.

"But, Christopher," Tobias said, "couldn't it just be your camera angle?"

"That's what I thought," Christopher said. "Then I looked up the pictures I took of your curiosity shop, Tobias, before and after the sprinklers ruined it." Christopher leaned over the front seat and grabbed two more photos.

"Check these out," he said, holding them up to the light. "Before the sprinklers, the shelf is straight and even and next to the wall. After, it's moved. See?"

Alex studied the pictures. It did look like the shelf had been moved. "Did you try to move the shelf yourself?" he asked.

Christopher looked disappointed. "Yeah. It didn't budge." He perked up again. "But I knocked on that wall and it sounds funnyhollow or something. I still think "

Right then Tobias jumped. "There they are!" he said, parting the van curtains and staring out the window. He fumbled with the door. "It's the real estate agent with the buyer. I have to go."

"Tobias," Christopher said, "you can't sell your store."

"What store?" Tobias said gently. He di d not turn around, but he stopped, leaning on the half-opened van door. "I wasn't doing that well with the curiosity shop or the pet store. You know that, Christopher. Maybe maybe selling the store is the best thing."

Tobias stepped onto the street, turned, and threw Alex a large key ring. "Alex," he said, "make sure that parakeet gets back inside the shop when you're finished here. Will you lock things up for me when you're through?"

"Sure," Alex called after Tobias, though he wasn't crazy ab out going into that store again. Weird things happened there. Maybe he could get Christopher to do it.

Alex stayed in the van for a long time, watching Christopher develop film and enlarge his pictures. Alex didn't want to have to go into Tobias' store after dark. "Chris-topher," Alex said, "do you want to help me lock "

But Christopher didn't seem to hear Alex. He mumbled, as if to himself more than to Alex, "I think I'll blow up each of these photos again. Maybe I'll find something new." < p>"Sure," Alex said. "I guess I'll go lock up for Tobias unless you'd like to come "

But Christopher already was pouring things from bottles into his developing trays. Alex slipped out the back of the van, surprised by the darkness.

The sun had set while they were inside the van. Now skinny elms cast crooked shadows on the street. Alex swallowed hard. "Looks like it's just you and me, bird," he said to the parakeet, who still perched on his shoulder.

"Braawk! You and me, baby," it said.

Alex walked past the alley and couldn't help looking to see if Korina was there. She wasn't. How had she disappeared? It was as if she were a ghost.

Ghost? That wasn't the first time Alex had thought about ghosts. Hadn't Sheriff Marshall told Christopher that the only way those sprinklers could have been set off on purpose was if a ghost had done it?

Alex pushed open Tobias' front door. The hinges creaked. A cage scooted along the floor with a screech as the door pushed open.

The pa rakeet darted from Alex's shoulder into the darkness of the shop. Alex could see a little fading light hidden by the drawn blinds on Tobias' front window.

"Bird?" Alex called, his voice cracking, then echoing in the deserted shop. He wanted to make sure the parakeet had a place to sleep.

"Come on, parakeet," Alex said, making his way to the back of the store.

Thud! Above Alex came a noise like the roof was caving in. Thump, thump!

"That was no bird!" Alex whispered. He froze in the d arkness. Above him, smaller creaks, like footsteps, sounded.

Alex turned and ran toward the door. That parakeet would have to take care of himself. Right now, Alex had to get out as fast as he could!

Alex stumbled over cages and boxes, scrambling to get outside. He groped blindly for the door. Finally, he felt the wall, then the doorknob. He jerked open the door and slammed it behind him. Then he stuck in the key and locked it tight.

Alex didn't know if that would hold whatever was inside that store. What he did know was this. Tobias' shop was haunted. Only one thing could have turned on the sprinklers without leaving footprints. Only one thing could have moved that wall shelf. And only one thing could be inside Tobias' building right now, thumping and banging away. Ghosts!