Free The Ghost of Cutler Creek by Cynthia DeFelice

brush until they could see the Cutler place. There was no sign of the gray pick up. Allie and Dub exchanged glances of relief. Unless Mr. Cutler had parked the truck in the barn, the coast appeared to be clear.
    Allie hitched up her backpack. It contained the bag of dog biscuits, which was supposed to be their excuse for coming back. Suddenly, though, their plan didn’t seem like such a great idea. What if Mrs. Cutler was the one who was out in the truck, and Mr. Cutler was home, after all? What if L.J. and his mother were both gone, and she and Dub were about to come face-to-face with Mr. Cutler, with no one at all around to protect them? She told herself she was being silly. As if L.J. would protect them. As if he could protect them against a man like his father, even if he wanted to.
    Allie told herself to stop thinking. It wasn’t getting them anywhere. The reality was that, based on a dream journey led by a ghost dog, she and Dub were barging in where they weren’t wanted, hoping to get some information, although they had no idea what that information might be. It was a pretty lame plan, but it was all they had. She supposed they might as well get on with it.
    â€œLet’s go,” she whispered to Dub. “We’ll knock, like we did before, and if L.J. doesn’t answer, we’ll look out back where he was last time. If nobody’s around, we can check out the barn.”
    â€œOkay,” Dub whispered back, then added, “Why are we whispering?”
    Allie giggled and Dub grinned. It made her feel braver.
    They left the shelter of the bushes and started across the open, swampy ground. Rich odors rose from the wet earth as Allie and Dub squished through the mud, and Allie recognized the smells from her dream, though they were much less intense now than they’d been to her canine nose.
    â€œMan,” said Dub, lifting a dripping, muddy sneaker and examining it. “What is this, the Black Lagoon?”
    â€œKeep going,” Allie urged him. “If we stop, we might sink in this stuff and never be seen again.”
    At the Cutlers’ yard, the ground was higher and dryer, and they walked among the scattered pieces of junk, trying to scrape some of the mud from their shoes on the browned grass. There was no scream of a saw this time, no sound at all, it seemed. It was almost spookily quiet. Allie was telling herself there was no way anyone was around when a low voice came from the house, nearly scaring her to death.
    â€œI’m about to die laughing watching you two. Just what do you think you’re doing?”
    Allie gasped and came close to tripping over the pink bicycle, which was still lying in the grass. Dub, too, let out a shout of surprise. Allie looked in the direction the voice had come from, but it took a moment before she saw him.
    L.J. was slouched in a shredded lawn chair set back in the shady corner of the porch, with his feet stretched straight out and his arms folded across his chest, just as he had sat next to Allie in school. He was shaking his head and grinning. It wasn’t a friendly grin, but a mocking one.
    It made Allie furious. “What about you , hiding in the dark and spying on people?”
    L.J. laughed. “I ain’t hiding or spying. I live here, remember? You’re the ones sneaking around in the bushes. You come to rob me?” He sneered, lifted his arm, and gestured around the yard. “Help yourselves. Take whatever you want.” He sat without moving, watching them, his eyebrows lifted sardonically.
    Allie thought she had never met anyone so irritating in all of her life. She was struggling to get control of herself and come up with something to say or do next when Dub said mildly, “Actually, we came to bring you something.”
    Allie took a deep breath and tried to settle down. Dub had the right approach. She couldn’t let L.J. bother her. She had to get a grip and be cool, as Dub was doing.
    She