Chapter One:
Accusation

"Look, I know I saw you at the school basketball game last night," Alex insisted angrily.

"And I'm telling you again that I wasn't there," Rob argued back.

It was about ten minutes before the first bell at Hurston Middle school was supposed to ring. Alex had found Rob in one of the school's hallways before he had even been to his locker.

Rob heard another voice, and turned to see his friend Jamal looking at him and Alex. "Whoa, what's going on here?" the dark-skinned boy asked, looking surprised.

Alex scoffed, and pointed to Rob. "Mr. I-don't-like-sports said that he wasn't going to go to the basketball game between Hurston and Dayton, but I saw him in the bleachers, about ten feet away or something, and he still says that he wasn't there." He crossed his arms. "And I also saw him again after the game in the hallway."

"For tenth time, that wasn't me," Rob said, frowning. Seriously, why would Alex not believe him already? The Latino boy must have mistaken someone else for him, possibly even someone from Dayton Middle School. "You probably just weren't looking closely enough."

Jamal's face remained calm. "Okay, instead of arguing, let's try to figure this out," he suggested. He turned to Rob. "So, where were you last night?"

Rob resisted rolling his eyes. "At my house," he responded, a bit irritated.

"Doing what?" Alex asked.

Rob frowned again at both the disbelief and accusation in his friend's voice. "Writing," he answered.

He did not want to say what he was writing. Actually, he had not shown any of his new friends anything that he had written. Sometimes his friends had asked, but he had always declined. The only time that he had really shown something to someone was a couple of stories to his older brother, Jason- but he did not want to show him everything he wrote. Plus, Jason was attending a school for the deaf all the way in Washington D.C. and would not be home again for about a month.

"Can anyone else back that up?" Alex asked, scowling.

Rob could not believe that Alex was so worked up over something like this. Maybe the competitive sports spirit had his friend going a little crazy. He wondered if Hurston lost the game, and that was part of the reason why that Alex was so angry.

"Both my parents were there," he irritably responded.

Jamal nodded. "Okay, so Rob was at his house," he said. He turned to Alex. "So you saw the guy that you said looked like Rob in the bleachers first, right? Who was he with?"

"I don't know," Alex said. "But they looked like some guys from Dayton. They were wearing blue and red sports jackets."

Rob frowned again. "That just proves that it wasn't me," he said. "Why would I be with people from Dayton? I don't even know anyone there."

Jamal held up one hand. "When did you see him?" he asked Alex.

"Near the middle of the first half," Alex replied. "I heard someone screaming about something, and I looked at it and happened to see him some seats up and to the left. Later, someone ran up to him- no sports jacket this time- and he and the two guys he was with went to the other side of the bleachers, and I didn't see him again until after the game."

"Did anyone else see him?"

Alex shrugged. "I don't know. He was gone by the time I finally got Jorge to look."

"The bleachers were pretty crowded, right?" Jamal asked.

Alex rolled his eyes. "Duh. It was a basketball game," he said. "The bleachers are always full."

Jamal nodded again. "Okay, I think that it was so it was possible, with so many people there, that you probably saw someone else, both on the bleachers and in the hallway." Alex started to protest, but Jamal continued. "For another thing, Rob says he was at his house, and I believe him. He's our friend, and he's also on the team. I don't think that he would lie about it. And maybe there isn't someone that goes to Dayton that kind of looks like Rob, but maybe there is. You never know."

Alex sighed, then slowly nodded. "Yeah, I guess you're right," he said. He turned to Rob. "Sorry I blew up on you like that."

"It's fine," Rob said, shrugging. "Did Hurston lose the game?"

Alex stared, incredulous. "You really weren't there, were you?" he asked. "We won by twenty points!" His face turned excited. "Man, it was awesome. It was the beginning of the second half, and we were five points ahead. David Rodriguez practically got shoved by this tall guy against the wall. The referee didn't even say anything.

"So anyway, he got up and grabbed the ball from the point guard, and made a basket right there. You should've seen the looks on their faces. And then later, after Dennis and Corey and the rest of the team had gotten a lot more points, including an awesome three-pointer, David got tripped by a different guy and he went skidding across the floor. But then he got up, and what do you know, grabbed the ball again and landed another three-pointer, all in the last seven seconds."

Jamal laughed. "Sounds like Hurston had a really good game," he answered, smiling. "I wish I could have been there instead of going with my family to a restaurant, since my sister Danitra's in town from college for a bit. I sure wouldn't want to be at Dayton right now."

"No kidding," Alex responded. "After the game, the guys on both teams were good and all, but there was a real commotion in the bleachers. There was this group that got into a really big fight before some teachers broke it up."

"Some people can get pretty crazy," Jamal said, grinning.

Rob laughed, trying and failing to not look at Alex.

Alex just rolled his eyes. "Tell me about it," he said, shaking his head.

"Hey, what's going on?" a friendly voice asked from behind them.

Rob turned around to see Lenni, another one of his friends. Like Jamal, she had apparently gone to her locker since she was also carrying her books for class.

Alex spoke up. "Did you see the game last night?" he asked.

Lenni nodded. "I went there with my dad," she answered. "He said that he wanted to see a game for a change."

Rob was glad that Alex was being friendly towards him again, but he could not stay and talk for forever. "I've got to get to my locker," he said.

Alex nodded. "Yeah, me too," he added. "See you later."

Rob waved to his friends and headed down the hall. He smiled, glad that he actually had friends at this school. After moving around to different military bases his whole life, having the Ghostwriter team was something that he had never would have guessed that he would be lucky enough to have.

"So how many times has the toy store been robbed?" Gaby asked.

She, along with Tina, were with the other members of the Ghostwriter team at Lenni's house above Alex and Gaby's family store. Gaby and Tina were younger than the rest and went to elementary school, but Rob had noted that did not make them less capable of helping the team.

Lenni had a small green binder filled with unlined white paper open on her lap from the middle of the right side of the corner couch. She tapped the end of her uncapped pen as she spoke. "Three, including this afternoon," she answered.

"And I saw some people going out of the store right after they stole stuff," Alex said. "They were going so fast- and they ran to that big white station wagon and drove off. Boy, were they speeding."

"Did you see what was on it?" Tina asked. "Like something that Ghostwriter could find?"

Alex shook his head regretfully. "Nah," he said. "There wasn't anything like bumper stickers on it, and I didn't get to see the license plate."

Jamal spoke up. "Some other places have been robbed, too," he said. "Like the department store near one of the library branches."

"And also a library branch," Lenni chimed in, quickly jotting down the places. She looked up. "And all of those places are very close to each other."

"Is there anything that could be a clue?" Gaby asked. "Was there the same description of the person, or something?"

"We could check the newspapers," Lenni suggested, standing up. "My dad keeps them for a week, and all of the robberies have happened with the past four days."

Jamal nodded. "Clue time, here we come."

The phone then rang, and Lenni quickly set down notebook on the couch and ran to the small end table nearby to pick up the receiver.

"Hello, Frazier residence," she said. She listened for a little bit, then replied, "Yes, he's here," glancing at Rob.

Alex raised his eyebrows, and Rob shrugged. He was not sure what the call was about. It was Lenni's house, after all, though he had left a note on the counter at his own house. Maybe it was one of the rare days that his mom was home early- unless something else had happened.

"Yes, he's here, too," Lenni said after a long pause. There was another pause. "Okay, I'll tell them," Lenni said, and hung up the phone.

She then turned toward the team. "Rob, Mrs. Jenkins says that your mom wants you home, and Jamal, your mom wants you home, too," she relayed. "She said something about Jamal helping with supper with Danitra since she was going to have to run some errands."

"What about Rob?" Gaby asked. "Why does he have to leave?"

Lenni shook her head, looking concerned. "She didn't say why, but just that it was urgent. She had said that Rob's mom sounded kind of worried."

Gaby made a face. "Uh-oh. That doesn't sound good."

Rob silently agreed. He had never been contacted to go to his house before, even when moving around various air force bases all across the country.

"Could we still work on things here with you two gone?" Tina asked from beside Gaby.

"Sounds fine to me," Jamal said, shrugging. "Just don't catch any robbers without us, right?"

Lenni smiled and nodded. "We'll be sure to tell you once we figure out something," she assured him.

"All right," Jamal answered, grinning.

He stood from the couch and headed toward the door. Rob followed suit, grabbing his skateboard that was leaning against the nearby color tiled counter as they passed it. The team voiced their good-byes to them before they headed out the door and down the steep steps to the sidewalk.

Rob hopped on his skateboard and sped off. "Hey, wait up, Rob," Jamal called out. Rob slowed a bit, and turned to see Jamal running toward him.

"I was told to hurry up," Rob said matter-of-factly once Jamal caught up to him.

Jamal shrugged. "Well, I just wanted to find out if things are going all right at your house. You know that mine is just a block away. I can always hurry back to it real quick."

Rob also shrugged some. "If you say so, but I want to get there fast," he responded.

"So I can see if I can beat a skateboard," Jamal said. "I get to practice running fast, and it can get me faster to my house, too."

"Okay," Rob replied. He rather doubted that Jamal would beat him, and hoped that his friend would not get in trouble for not going home first.

He pushed off with one foot several times and whizzed down the sidewalk, Jamal behind him. After about two more blocks, he could not hear his friend's running footsteps anymore. Another block later, he rounded the final corner and started down toward his house- a small maroon brick one story that he had often wished was larger. At least he knew that this time, the home was permanent.

Suddenly, he frowned. There was his mom's small blue car in the driveway, but parked by the curb right next to it, there was a police car. What was that about?

He zoomed to right by where his family front lawn started on the left side, about three feet from the police car, a bit hesitant to go in his house. There were footsteps behind him, and he turned around to see Jamal panting a little bit as he ran even faster toward him.

"Why are the police here?" Jamal asked, in between breaths.

Rob shrugged. "I don't know," he said, attempting to hide his concern.

He moved toward the house, a bit more slowly this time, with Jamal following him. Rob opened the door. He heard his mom, and turned toward her- and an older male police officer with graying hair- sitting on the couch near the entryway. The police officer instantly stood and started walking toward Rob and Jamal, as well as his mom.

"Rob, thank you for coming home quickly," his mom said.

Rob looked from his mom to the police officer. "What happened?" he asked. "Did the house get robbed," -he saw his mom flinch ever so slightly, but he continued anyway- "or something happen to Dad?"

Rob's mom shook her head. "No, neither of those," she said, looking a bit strained.

The police officer spoke up. Rob did not like his unfriendly eyes, nor his scrutinizing cold gaze that seemed to mean that he had found something that he had wanted. "We're just here to ask you a few questions," he said.

"Yes, sir," Rob responded, automatically adding the 'sir' by habit and repeated lessons of military etiquette from both many teachers in the military bases, and especially from his father.

He wondered what had happened. The thought of any brush with any sort of authority for doing something wrong had always been rather unsettling throughout his whole life. Even though now anything that he did would not cause his father to lose his job, he still never wanted to be on the wrong side of the law. He had not done anything for the police to come now, though.

Rob's mom turned to Jamal. "Look, you better go now so we can talk to Officer Gwerson," she said.

Jamal nodded, looking worried. "Right," he replied. He turned to Rob. "I hope everything goes okay here."

Rob also nodded. "Yeah," he responded.

His friend left and Rob regretfully closed the door behind him, then turned to his mom and Officer Gwerson.

"We can talk over there," his mom said, gesturing to the open living room.

Officer Gwerson nodded. "Right, ma'am," he responded briskly.

Rob followed his mom to the couch, while the officer sat near them in his father's tan chair.

"Right, I'll be frank," Officer Gwerson started, clasping his fingers together. "There have been several stores lately that have been robbed, and one of them actually caught one of the robbers squarely on camera. My granddaughter identified you- she goes to the same school, and is in the same grade, even- and I have to tell you, you definitely look exactly like that kid in the department store."

Rob's mom spoke before he could object. "But like I told you, about the timing- it couldn't have been Rob," she quickly said. "He would have been in school."

The officer turned toward him, and he tried not to flinch at the piercing gaze. "Were you at school at eleven am yesterday?" he asked.

"Yes, sir," Rob responded, feeling quite unsettled as the officer eyes continued to bore down on him.

Officer Gwerson did not seem convinced, and he turned toward his mom.

"We're going to be checking into that," he said. "We can't rule out any evidence here."

He unclasped his hands. "Well, I'm certain that you have told me all that you can- or will, for now," he said. "I'll only leave you" –he looked at Rob with another suspicious gaze- "with a warning this time, but next time there will be a penalty."

"But I didn't-" Rob started.

The officer held up a hand. "I told you already, I saw that video," he interrupted. "Now, there may be someone that looks exactly like you in this city, but I doubt it," he said.

Rob's eyes widened for a split second, suddenly remembering what Alex had told him in the morning, but did not particularly feel like relating the story to the mistrustful officer. He already did not believe him about being in school when the robbery at one of the stores had occurred.

"I'll leave you two now to get back to my business," Officer Gwerson announced, standing up. "Good afternoon," he said curtly.

His mom also stood. "I'll get the door for you," she said, hurrying to the entryway.

Rob turned around to watch the officer leave. His mom closed the door, then turned to Rob. "I'm sorry that you had to go through that," she said, looking worried.

Rob frowned. "I didn't do anything, though," he replied.

His mom nodded. "I know," she said, coming around the couch and sitting down next to him. "It's not even like you to do such a thing." She sighed. "We can only hope that the authorities will find the actual thief."

"Yeah," Rob replied, nodding. He looked toward the window, where the curtains and blinds were partially open and saw the still sunny weather. "Could I go back to Lenni's?" he asked.

To his disappointment, his mom shook her head. "Sorry, Rob, but I would rather that you stay home for the rest of the day," she replied. "I know that you didn't do anything, but I just want there to not be any possibility of you coming into trouble somehow, especially with that officer. Do you understand?"

Rob sighed. "Yes," he answered.

For a brief moment, he was glad that his mom had insisted on not saying 'ma'am' when addressing her. His father had disapproved, but his mom had stated that it too strange for her sons to do that, even when some other military kids did with their own moms. Even so, even she had been a bit strict about reminding him about following the many rules on the air force bases.

"I'll just be in my room," he said, glancing down briefly at the pen hanging on its cord around his neck that his friends had given him a few months ago.

It was his Ghostwriter pen, one for writing to the ghost that only he and his friends could see, and the words that he wrote. Rob could tell Ghostwriter about the whole incident with the police officer right now, and wait until tomorrow to tell his friends, though, especially since the officer had only given him a warning.

His mom nodded. "All right," she said. "I'll be starting supper soon. The prices for lettuce were ridiculous, though," she added, shaking her head. "And the tomatoes."

Rob also nodded, resisting the urge to grin widely at yet another mention of "overpriced items" from the grocery stores. Some of the prices still even baffled him sometimes, even for something small, such as a bag of potato chips. After living on air force bases for about twenty years, his mom was once again getting used to everything being much more expensive at civilian stores than at the commissaries on different bases.

Rob picked up his skateboard from where it was leaning against the couch and went into his room. He could not believe that Alex had actually seen someone that looked like him, assuming the officer- and his granddaughter; he wish he knew who she was- were telling the truth.

He sure also hoped that his dad would not be too mad, though he definitely would not be happy, at any rate. Hopefully the actual culprit would be caught soon, and Rob would find out why he looked so much like him.

Thanks to Starsoarer.