John went inside Mrs. Beasly's house, but he didn't join the other detectives in the living room. After closing the front door, he stayed in the hall and listened through the mail slot instead. He’d noticed a greedy expression on Jerry's face when the twenty dollar bill was mentioned. He was hoping that Jerry would be interested. He wasn't disappointed. Jerry was very interested.
"Did you hear that?" Jerry said to his brother when they were alone. "Beasly's going to leave twenty bucks out on the table. We could crook it easy!"
"You think we should?" said Gus. "Somebody might see us."
"See us?" said Jerry. "No way, didn't you hear? The ghost detectives are going to Paris and Beasly's going to be staying away too. The house'll be empty."
"Except for the mummy," said Gus.
"So?” said Jerry. “ I’m not afraid of some dumb mummy - there's twenty bucks we can grab!"
When John walked over to the living room he had a big smile on his face.
"The operation's on," he announced to the other detectives and then he turned to Mrs. Beasly. "Your ghost is as good as caught right now!" he told her.
The Kids From B.A.D. had to work for most of the afternoon to get their trap ready for Jerry and Gus. The first thing they did was to pull all the curtains on the first floor. Then they took some blankets into the dining room and covered the windows so the room was dark. Next they unplugged all the lamps and plugged in night-lights instead. Strips of tin foil were taped in front of the night-lights to make shadows appear on the walls and ceiling. A couple of fans were placed in strategic locations. When the fans were on the tin foil strips made eerie shadows that moved and flickered. The effect was suitably spooky in the living room. It was absolutely scary in the dining room.
"Are you sure this is the right way to do this?" asked Mrs. Beasly as she helped the detectives rearrange the house. "We are trying to get rid of this ghost aren't we?"
"Don't you worry Mrs. Beasly," said John. "When the ghost sees what's in store for him here he'll fall all over himself trying to get out the door."
Mrs. Beasly looked around the dining room. "Well I'm sure you're right," she said. "But just between you, me and the wall, if I were the ghost I wouldn't want to leave at all. I'd call up all my friends instead and start a ghost hotel."
At three-fifteen Mrs. Beasly went upstairs to get ready to leave for her friend's house. It was time for the detectives to get ready as well. Sally and Jessica went off to the washroom to get into their costumes. John and Mike took Ben into the kitchen and helped him into his. Ben was the mummy. It took a while to wrap him up.
"Don't cover my mouth!" he protested. "How’ll I breathe?"
"It's only just a bunch of gauze," said Mike. "You can breathe right through It."
John and Mike continued to wind the bandages around Ben's body. When the gauze ran out they stepped back to admire their work. Actually, Ben didn't look half bad. on a dark night without a moon he might have passed for the real thing if you happened to be wearing sunglasses.
"How do I look?" he asked.
"It’s hard to really describe it," Mike told him.
"It’s pretty amazing,” John agreed. “Except that your underwear shows in the back."
"I feel stupid," Ben complained as he tugged at the rolls of gauze.
"Don't worry," said John. "When we dump on this flour you’ll really look weird."
John and Mike opened a bag of flour and pored some onto the costume. John was right. When they were done, Ben definitely looked pretty weird all right.
"Are you sure they're going to fall for this?," he said when he looked in the mirror.
"Sure they are," Mike told him. "See the way the flour puffs out when you walk around!"
"And it's going to be dark," John explained. "They'll never really get a good look."
"It would look way better if I had more stuff," said Ben. “Like a weredog. Where's Bently?"
"Under the table," said Mike.
Bently was there all right but he didn't look much like a weredog. He was fast asleep on his back and his legs were sticking up in the air.
"Weredogs don't snore," John pointed out. "They howl."
"Maybe if we could wake him up," said Ben.
"Maybe If you plugged his tall into the wall," said Mike.
"I'm not so sure that'd wake him up," observed John.
"Yoohoo! Where are you?" called Mrs. Beasly.
"Ben, you wait here. I don't think we can explain you right now." said John and he and Mike went into the dining room.
"I'm going," Mrs. Beasly told them. "I'll be back by six."
"Don't worry about a thing," John told her. "When you get back the ghost'll be gone."
"That'll be nice," said Mrs. Beasly and she looked at the twenty dollar bill John was using as bait. "Just be sure he doesn't take my money when he goes."
John and Mike walked Mrs. Beasly to the front door. They met Sally and Jessica coming out of the washroom. The girls were dressed completely in black and their faces were powdered white. Jessica’s hair stuck straight out to the sides above each ear, half to the left and half to the right. All of Sally's stuck straight up on top. Neither had skimped on make-up. Lips, fingernails, cheeks and eyes had all been highlighted with various types of red and purple. Both girls were barefoot and their toenails were coloured an interesting shade of green. They were also carrying chains.
"Oh that's very good," said Mrs. Beasly. "You're being punks, aren't you?"
"Witches," said Jessica.
"Banshee witches," said Sally.
"The Banshee Witches," said Mrs. Beasly and she thought for a minute. "No, I haven't heard of that group. Are they anything like the Twisted Sisters?"
