Chapter V

Kat woke up the next morning, which was Saturday, to the sound of someone banging furiously on the front door. She grabbed up the clock and held it up to her face. It was just after six in the morning. She felt like she was about to cry - that Mayor was going to pay for this!

She rolled out of bed and, after yanking on a pair of jeans and some sneakers, grabbed up her ice hockey stick. She stormed downstairs and flung open the door.

"Hi Kat," said Wendy, out of breath.

"Wendy?" asked Kat in surprise, lowering the hockey stick. "What are you doing here...now?"

"I came to warn you." Wendy squeezed past the groggy Kat to stand in her rollerblades in the huge front room. "Can I come in?" she asked retroactively.

Kat was confused. "Warn? About what?"

"That," answered Wendy, pointing past Kat out the open door at the huge mob of angry people storming up the hill towards Whipstaff. Several of the people were carrying crudely-made picket signs saying things like "No More Ghosts" and "Get Out Harvey". A newsvan with the Channel 8 logo emblazoned on the side was weaving its way through the picketers, obviously intent on reaching the house first. The people at the front of the procession saw that the mansion's front door was open and began barrelling towards it, waving their signs and bellowing like Vikings storming the beach. Kat hurriedly slammed the door shut and bolted it.

"What happened?" she cried.

Wendy looked back at her friend and shrugged. "You got a TV?" she asked.

James and Casper came downstairs to find Kat and Wendy glued to the television set in the sitting-room, watching a live newscast on Channel 8.

James frowned at the girl he'd never seen before. "Wendy?"

Wendy nodded. "Yeah," she said. "Hi."

"Shh!" interrupted Kat, pointing at the screen.

On the news, a hyper-looking reporter with flyaway hair was indicating a huge mansion behind himself (it was definitely Whipstaff) with his thumb. "And here," he was saying, "is where Dr. James Harvey has been residing ever since late October of this year. Although it was known that he is a so-called 'therapist to the dead', he has been an unobtrusive member of the community - until last night, when nearly every citizen of Friendship phoned into the police station with frantic reports of...ghosts?"

The Harveys gaped at the TV.

"It was horrible," whimpered an elderly lady when a microphone was thrust into her face. "They broke all my Delftware and put my cat in the dryer."

The reporter hastily transferred the microphone from the old lady to a big burly man, who was carrying a rather splotchy sign which read, "I Hates Gosts". "It's all dat Harvey's fault," growled the man. "I say we run dat ghost-lovin' freak outta our fair city."

The crowd cheered.

"Casper," James said, turning to the small ghost at his side, "do you know anything about this?"

"No sir."

"Well I bet I know who does." Kat retrieved her hockey stick from the coffee table and ran with it to the couch. She climbed up on the couch and banged on the wall with the stick.

"Kat, what are you doing?" demanded Wendy in confusion.

Kat didn't answer. "Come on," she mumbled to herself, "Wake up." She paused in her efforts to pull aside the curtain and peek out. On the news, the camera zoomed in on her face as the reporter cried, "That, ladies and gentlemen, is Kathleen Harvey, reputed by several sources to be a sadist and worshipper of both death and evil in general!"

Kat released the curtain.

The Ghostly Trio sunk slowly through the ceiling. They looked exhausted.

"What the hell is goin' on down here, a monster truck rally?" Stretch snapped, rubbing his eyes.

"Naw, those are on Sundays," mumbled Fatso.

Kat sprang off of the couch and confronted all three of the ghosts, brandishing the hockey stick dangerously before herself. "What did you guys do last night?" she demanded.

Fatso frowned, trying hard to remember. "Uh," he said, looking at Stinkie. "What did we do last night?"

Stinkie couldn't remember either. "Was I supposed to take notes?"

"Who cares what we did last night?" broke in Stretch, irritated, and nearly fully awake now.

"We do," answered Kat, waving her hockey stick in the general direction of the television set. "We're on the news. Everyone in town says they were haunted last night."

The Trio blinked at the TV. On it was the reporter, interviewing three boys Kat's age.

"So," said the reporter, "when did you first suspect Kathleen Harvey of sacrificing live human infants to various unnamable demons?"

"We never did," protested one of the two dark-haired boys, who was none other than Nicky Steubing.

"No way," agreed his brother Andreas.

"Kat's really pretty cool," added Vic, leaning on his bike. "She's kinda quiet at school, but - " here he shrugged - "we really like her."

"Yeah," said the twins.

Kat smiled at the TV.

"And so the mysterious hauntings last night go unexplained," went on the disappointed reporter, moving away from the boys, who tried to protest. "Is Dr. James Harvey, 'Ghost Therapist', really responsible for the rampant runnings of otherworldly spirits in Friendship, Maine? The general consensus seems to be: 'You bet your life he is.' I'm Jerry Gerard, Channel 8 News."

The Harveys, Casper, and Wendy all glared at the Trio.

"You think we did that?" said Stretch, pointing to the TV. "No chance. We weren't even anywhere near this 'berg."

"Yeah?" said Kat, planting her hands on her hips. "Prove it."

The Trio stared at eachother in silence for a minute, then Fatso punched Stinkie on the shoulder saying, "I told you we shoulda gotten one-a them souvenir mugs!"

Just then there was an insistant knocking on the side door, which connected directly with the sitting-room. Wendy rollerbladed to it and peeked through the peephole. "It's Vic and the Steubing twins," she announced.

"Oh, great," said Casper.

"Wait." Kat went to the door and opened it a crack.

"Hiya Kat," Vic greeted her, trying to be casual. The twins, behind him, waved.

"That was really nice, what you said to that reporter," said Kat, trying to fill as much of the crack she had opened with her body as possible. "Look, you guys gotta leave - "

A shout of "There's a door on the side!" followed by the sound of hundreds of stampeding feet, cut short their conversation. Seeing no other alternative, Kat grabbed Vic and yanked him inside, and did the same with the twins. She shut and bolted the door just in time as the mob reached it.

"Thanks Kat," breathed Andreas, then all three boys froze in shock at the sight of some of the other occupants of the sitting-room.

" - You guys, this is my dad," said Kat in an attempt to relieve some of the tension. "Dad, this is Vic, Nicky, and Andreas."

James couldn't bring himself to smile at this point. "Good morning, boys," he said flatly.

The boys nodded back mutely.

" - And this is Casper...and you know Wendy - "

"Hi," said Casper and Wendy together.

"And - " Kat turned to the Trio and was startled to silence by the looks of fury on their semi-transparent faces. They were even more angry now than they had been the previous night.

"You dare to pin that news thing on us," Stretch stated rather than asked, looking around at everybody accusingly.

"Now guys, calm down," began James, attempting to gain control of the situation. "You're getting much too worked up - "

"What's the matter, Doc?" snarled Stinkie. "We too infra dignitatem for you?"

"What?" said Casper.

"Dad!" gasped Kat. "Did you say that to them?"

James frowned. "Well, I did write - " Then he froze. "Have you been reading my journal?" he demanded, beginning to lose his temper himself.

"Yeah," sneered Fatso. "What's it to you?"

"That's private!"

"You should have thought of that before you left the lousy thing in your lousy desk!" retorted Stretch.

"Don't forget," said Stinkie, "that it's really our lousy desk."

"Yeah," Stretch said, remembering, "it is. And when the fleshies get kicked out, it will all be ours again."

"Dad, the police are here," said Kat, daring to peek outside again.

"They're probably here to kick the doc out early," mused Fatso.

"Yeah..." pondered Stinkie. "Hey - maybe we did haunt the town last night." He winked at the other two.

"Ohhh," said Stretch and Fatso. "Maybe we did."

"We shoulda thought of this before," concluded Stinkie proudly.

Kat was furious. "You know what your guys' problem is?" she demanded, marching up to the Trio.

"No," they chorused nastily.

"You're so...inhuman."

"When," growled Stretch to the girl, "are you gonna get it through that organic head of yours that we don't give a damn about bein' human! We're glad we're not human! Come on, guys," he said to his companions, "let's blow this place."

"Where we goin'?" whispered Stinkie.

"...To that gal Viola's," Stretch whispered back. "She understands us."

And with a loud whoosh, the three flew off through the back wall.

"Good riddance!" yelled Kat, just before the police pounded on the front door.

Having no other choice, James unbolted and opened the door. On the porch stood the Mayor and his two bodyguards, in addition to a woman in a smart pants suit, and a male police officer carrying a pair of handcuffs.

"Dr. James - " the woman in the suit began, then interrupted herself as the girls peeked around the therapist. " - Wendy!" she exclaimed instead. "Is this where you disappeared to?"

Wendy nodded silently, then whispered to Kat, "It's my aunt Wynona. She's the Chief of Police."

"Ah," said Kat, who really wasn't all that surprised.

"...Dr. James Harvey," Chief Wainwright resumed, returning her attention to the matter at hand, "you are under arrest for disturbing the peace."

"Hey!" yelled Kat. James shushed her quickly.

"This is what all people who deviate from Form 12 deserve," said the first bodyguard. The second bodyguard nodded in agreement. They both prodded the Mayor.

"Can we go sky-diving after this?" asked the Mayor eagerly.

"Dr. Harvey, I assure you this is more for your own protection than anything else," said Chief Wainwright. "The handcuffs are to appease the crowd. We don't want them getting any more hostile than they already are."

"That's for sure," said Wendy.

James frowned. "But are you really arresting me?"

Chief Wainwright shook her head. "Not exactly. You are being taken into custody, however. You will remain in my office at the station until it is declared safe for you to return to your home."

"By that time it won't be our home anymore. What about me?"

"You," Chief Wainwright told Kat, "have been appointed a temporary legal guardian. I must ask you to allow Officer Stevenson to cuff you now, Dr. Harvey."

James complied, and he (being led by Officer Stevenson) and Kat followed Chief Wainwright to the squad car car parked in the driveway. The crowd booed the Harveys' passing, but cheered when they got in the car.

When the Mayor and his bodyguards had entered the car, and the crowd had dispersed, Wendy and the boys - Casper included - huddled on the porch.

"This reeks," said Nicky. "Kat's dad didn't do anything."

"My aunt is really fair," Wendy reassured the others. "She'll take care of everything. I'd better go home though - I kinda snuck out this morning, and I'm probably in trouble."

Vic shrugged. "I can't go home," he said. "I snuck out too."

Andreas smiled. "So did we," he added. "We're probably in big trouble. Our parents were really freaked out about those ghosts in our pantry last night."

"Oh, and you weren't," Vic sneered.

"Nah."

Wendy sighed. "Well, I'm sure I'm not in that much trouble...You guys wanna come hang out at my house?"

Vic and the twins boggled. "Your house?" exclaimed Andreas. There were all kinds of rumors floating around school about the mysterious Wainwright estate. Nothing compared to Whipstaff, of course, but bad enough.

"Hey, her house is pretty cool," interjected Casper, not really believing that he was in the midst of four kids who didn't scream in fear at the sight of him. Wendy smiled at the small ghost.

"...All right."

"Okay."

"Sure."