Free Halloween Party by R.L. Stine

touched a small knob and she turned it. The back of the closet swung open, revealing another, larger closet.
    Niki gasped in surprise.
    This hidden closet was jammed with clothing—but clothing very different from the everyday clothes she had seen. At first she thought they might be very old clothes left by the people who had lived in the Cameron mansion before.
    But when she took a few off the hangers, she saw that they were new, many of them with labels from expensive designers and famous department stores in New York, San Francisco, and Paris.
    There were beautiful woolen suits, shiny satin cocktail dresses, colorful skirts and jackets in sophisticated styles that no one she knew would wear. A chromerack on the floor held dozens of beautiful high-heeled shoes in every type of leather and every color of the rainbow.
    The back of the closet revealed three beautiful full-length formal gowns and two fur coats, one mink and one fox.
    Niki couldn’t believe her eyes. This was the most beautiful wardrobe she had ever seen. Were all these clothes Justine’s? But when would she wear them? And why were they hidden away like this?
    Maybe, she decided, they were Justine’s mother’s clothes. But nobody really knew if Justine had a mother or not. Maybe there was another, older woman who lived here—Philip’s girlfriend or wife, maybe? But in that case, why did Justine have so few clothes of her own?
    It’s a real mystery, Niki thought. She loved mysteries.
    A small bureau stood against one side of the closet and Niki opened its drawers to reveal pastel negligees, nightgowns, and silk underwear. In the bottom drawer was a carefully wrapped package. She opened it, not even considering that someone might catch her snooping, and was shocked to see a framed photo of Justine and a man with their arms around each other, gazing lovingly into each other’s eyes. But the man was much older—from the streaks of gray in his hair, at least forty.
    Was Justine having an affair with an older man? Was that why she never went out with the boys from school or never went to any of the games?
    Niki carefully put everything back just the way she had found it, then closed the secret door. She wasabout to leave Justine’s room when her eye caught the bathroom door.
    She went in and, with only a small pang of conscience, opened the medicine chest. It was filled with typical medicine-cabinet things: toothpaste, mouthwash, several bottles of nail polish and other cosmetics, aspirin, and a box of Band-Aids.
    There were three prescription bottles on the top shelf. Niki took them down one by one. She didn’t recognize the names of any of the medications, except a sleeping pill her mother sometimes used. But all three prescriptions were made out to “Enid Cameron.”
    Enid? Niki thought. Who’s Enid? Philip’s wife?
    But no matter how many explanations she considered, the one that kept popping into her mind was that Justine was somehow leading a double life.
    During the day she went to school like any other teenager. But at night and on weekends she had a whole other life that no one else knew anything about.
    But why? And why keep it all such a secret?
    Maybe, Niki thought, she was just letting her imagination run away from her. Maybe there was a logical explanation for everything she had seen. She needed to talk to Terry, she realized. If anyone could figure this puzzle out, it was him.
    Now all she had to do was find him, somewhere in the mansion.
    T erry was really enjoying the treasure hunt. So far, in addition to the tarantula, he’d found three of the items on the list: a polished monkey skull that had been hidden inside a laundry hamper, a crystal ball,and his latest acquisition, an ivory pendant in the shape of a dagger.
    He found the pendant when he had opened a cupboard and was scared out of his wits by what appeared to be a bloody, disembodied head—but turned out, on closer