Free Hauntings and Heists by Dan Poblocki

printing the picture of the winner and the beast side by side, right on the front page.”
    “We have to win!” said Sylvester.
“This
is what we do!”
    “Does anyone have a camera?” asked Rosie.
    Woodrow nodded. “My dad got me a great one for my birthday last year. It has a megazoom lens.”
    “Cool,” said Viola. “What are you guys doing this afternoon?”
    After lunch, the group followed the road down the hill, past the train tracks, and to the edge of the Hudson River, armed with Woodrow’s camera and Viola’s notebook. Rosie had brought several empty glass vials with cork stoppers in case she needed to collect water specimens. And Sylvester carried a leftover loaf of bread from his family’s diner for bait.
    They spent the day watching the waves and complaining to one another how unfair it was that they didn’t have a boat. Rosie reasoned that all of the activity in the water would frighten any animal away—especially an ultra-secretive,mysterious beast-type thing. Still, Sylvester continued to break off pieces of bread and toss them toward the shoals at the water’s edge, while Woodrow sat with his camera, ever-ready, snapping pictures of everything that moved. Most of the shots turned out to be of garbage floating by in the current—paper cups, a soda can, a bag of chips—all blown off the boats by the wind.
    By the time the sun began to set, their disappointment had grown. Before they said good-bye for the night, Viola reminded them that they still had another day before returning to school. But Sunday went even quicker than Saturday, and they were just as unsuccessful.
    On Monday after school, Viola learned from her mom that the newspaper had awarded someone the prize. Dr. Helmut Blunt, a professor of biology and a colleague of her father’s at Moon Hollow College, was fishing off the Grand Street Dock when he hooked what he thought was a large pike. The fish was so heavy, the old man claimed, that his reel had bent at a sharp angle. He struggled for a short time, when suddenly the line broke and he flew backward, landing next to his gear. He heard splashing sounds under the dock, and when he peeked over the edge, he saw something he’d never imagined seeing. Aware of the contest, he’d brought his camera,so he quickly snapped several pictures. When Mrs. Hart showed them to Viola, she gasped in horror.
    “Whoa,” said Rosie, passing the paper to Woodrow. “That is a really bizarre-looking creature. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
    “He’s so ugly!” Woodrow said, squinting at the grainy image. In the photograph, a reptilian snout with a gaping mouth came up out of the water toward the camera, its teeth filled with the flesh of its stolen prey, its wide eyes seeming to glow.
    “Who?” answered Sylvester. “Dr. Blunt or the beast?”
    “Don’t be mean,” said Viola, taking back her copy of the newspaper. “The man won fair and square.”
    Several days had passed since the Question Marks had learned that they’d lost the contest. That morning, the Herald released Dr. Blunt’s photo as well as the name he had invented for the creature:
The Hudson River Oftrem Snake.
After school, they’d met behind their houses once again, this time not as detectives, but merely as friends.
    “What kind of name is
that?”
said Sylvester.**“I would have called him Moonie the Monster or something that actually makes sense.”
    “Moonie the Monster
makes sense?” Woodrow teased.
    “In the article,” Rosie interrupted, “Dr. Blunt explains that he developed the name from the genus and species names of some river snakes.”
    “Is the word
oftrem
Latin?” Viola asked.
    “Not that I could find,” said Rosie. “I searched for it on the Internet. In fact, I don’t even think the word
oftrem
exists. I’m pretty sure he made it up.” She paused, reaching for the newspaper once again. Glancing at it, she said, “Hmm, I wonder if that means he made up the photo too.”
    “But it looks