Mayne Island Skeletons

By Amber Harvey

Mayne Island Skeletons is the third book in the thrilling Magda Mystery Series by Amber Harvey about Magda, the pre-teen sleuth, and her pal Brent. The whole family will enjoy this exciting adventure. With sightings of ghosts, criminals, runaways, and unsolved murders from the distant past, it will have readers of all ages at the edge of their seats. This is also a story about the importance of friendship. Magda, the young heroine, stands by her friend, while others believe he's guilty. In the end, her kindness, loyalty and courage pay off.

The story is set on Mayne Island; quiet and rural. Magda, a courageous and adventurous girl, has a summer job at a local farm, but in her spare time, is an eager detective. One of her closest friends is Brent, whose mother can no longer care for him. Together, the two friends discover a derelict house that they speculate is haunted by the ghosts of a family murdered long ago.

At first, Magda, Brent and their friends have fun teasing their younger neighbors with stories of ghosts in the haunted house. However, their fun and games come to a sudden stop when Brent is suspected of stealing valuable First Nations artefacts and is at risk of going into foster care, or worse still, sent to the juvenile detention center. The police want to question him, but he disappears. Magda now has two mysteries to solve: the ancient mystery of the haunted house, and the very topical issue of how to prove Brent's innocence and stop him from being sent off the island.

Magda works for a farmer, Polly Prudholme, a taciturn woman who has never encouraged or praised Magda. Her neighbour, Hortense Warwick, is an interfering, bad-natured woman who knows about skeletons - the kind in people's closets. Shauna, Magda’s best friend, has a Great-Aunt that Magda believe can help in their research. She travels to Victoria to meet her. These and other characters people Magda's world.

During her investigation to find the real thieves, Magda overhears a conversation that leads to the conclusion of the case. She discovers the criminals responsible for the theft of art treasures and brings them to justice. Brent's suffering has ended. He finds a permanent, safe and happy home on the island. And with the help of Sport, a neighbor's friendly dog, Magda finally solves the mystery of the haunted house.
Mayne Island Skeletons is a readable story that will appeal to pre-teens and their families. Harvey's writing is clear and engaging, with sympathetic, believable characters, and
evocative settings. Magda is a very memorable heroine that children can relate to. Magda struggles, as we all do sometimes, between obeying the rules and following her curiosity. In the end her instincts prove right.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Amber Harvey
• Release date: Oct 2, 2011
• ISBN: 9780981241425

Amber Harvey

I’ve always been a scribbler. One hot prairie summer I filled my fountain pen with red ink, grabbed an empty notebook, and wrote the adventures of Emily. She was 11, like me. Four decades later, I studied with Julie Lawson, who encouraged me to write a novel. I started but never finished it.In 2005 I moved to Mayne. I published Magda’s Mayne Island Mystery in 2007. Mayne Island Aliens followed two years later. Mayne Island Skeletons came out in 2011. In 2014 Magda's Mysterious Stranger was completed and published. I'm currently working on a fifth in the Magda of Mayne series. Its working title is Mayne Island Ghost.Self-publishing means you can read my books now. I’ll go on managing my own books about Magda and her pal Brent who ruin nefarious schemes and solve impenetrable mysteries on Mayne Island. You can read my published articles, short stories and poems at www.authorsden.com/amberharvey or at my website, www.treewithroots.ca

Book preview

Mayne Island Skeletons

Amber Harvey

Published by Amber Harvey at Smashwords

Copyright 2011 Amber Harvey

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Disclaimer:

Every character and event in this book is entirely fictitious and no reference whatever is intended to any person or event.

Chapter 1:Hauntings

Dear Shauna,

Last night was awesome! You know that old haunted house where your Great-uncle Julian used to live? Well, yesterday afternoon, Brent, Jo, Rowan, and I stashed some old sheets and white plastic cups there. You’ll never guess what we did next.

We played the best trick on Tara and Logan and the twins, Jacob and Joshua. You haven’t met the twin boys yet. They’re Tara’s cousins who just moved here! They have reddish blond curly hair, and bright blue eyes. They're identical.

We were all over at Tara’s place yesterday morning, just hanging out in the back yard, kicking a ball around, and I for some reason I started telling them the stories I'd heard about the haunted house, how people said it's haunted by the ghosts of murdered people, and that’s why nobody ever lives there now. Then silly Brent chimed in and claimed he had seen them, lots of times, and Jo and Rowan bragged that they had, as well, though it was a lie.

Soon Tara was jumping around like a monkey, repeating, I want to look for ghosts. I want to look for ghosts. Can we? Can we? So we finally all made a plan to meet that night at the corner near the haunted house and all keep watch together.

So yesterday afternoon the four of us (Brent, Jo, Rowan and I) went and hid the stuff, like I said.

Then last night when it was almost dark, seven of us met on the road where it passes right near the haunted house. We waited for Rowan, but he never showed up. That was part of our secret plan, our excuse to leave the little kids alone while we went back to the haunted house.

So one by one, Jo, Brent and I said we were going to look for Rowan, and told the younger kids to wait right there on the road, and promise not to leave, no matter what happened. We said we’d be right back. We knew they’d sneak a look at the house without us. Their curiosity would get the better of them. Brent, Jo and I circled back and snuck into the bushes around the haunted house, where Rowan was waiting.

We put the sheets over our heads, lit the flashlights under them, and as soon as we could see the kids on the road, we rose up, wailing and groaning. They all took off running and screaming! We laughed like crazy, then quickly put the stuff away and went to find our terrified friends.

We pretended we were mad at them. Why didn’t you stay put like you had agreed to? we accused them. But no, you had to go ahead and sneak a look at the house from the road, we continued to blame them. We were so busy looking for Rowan that we missed it all.

Tara was wide-eyed as a lemur. She could hardly breathe she was talking so fast. Logan kept saying, We had to run! Honest, we’re not lying! We saw the ghosts! We saw them, over and over again. Logan and Tara jumped around for a while, laughing and telling us we missed it. The twins just looked scared. I felt sorry for the two of them, because they hadn't played any tricks on us, like the others had. But there wasn't really anything wrong with what we did. We just scared them a bit and I think it was exciting for them.

Brent, Jo, Rowan and I sulked for a while, pretended we were mad that they left and we missed the whole thing.

What a joke! You should have been here, Shauna! You would have loved the chance to get back at them for the trick they played on us. When we passed around those cookies at the Volunteer Tea, and all the parents spat out the cookies we had made because those little brats had snuck into the cooking room and filled them with cayenne, I was mortified! Everybody laughed at us that day and we didn't know what we'd done, until Tara and Logan confessed and then we all laughed. I've been itching to get back at them for that trick, ever since!

I hope you get this letter soon. I can’t believe you’re looking at polar bears on ice floes right now. It must be so exciting to be up north with all the icebergs, northern lights and everything. You will have such an amazing summer.

Just take lots of pictures and hurry back.

Miss you.

Magda

Magda sealed the letter into an envelope and addressed it to a Post Office Box in Iqaluit, capital of Nunavut, where it would wait for Shauna until the mail was collected and distributed to the crew and passengers on the icebreaker Majesty.

Magda placed her letter on the table near the front door so she would be sure to see it later when she went out to get their mail.

After she had done her morning chores of making her bed, washing the dishes and sweeping the kitchen floor, Magda rode over to Polly Prudholme’s farm. This was Magda's summer job. She was saving up for a new bike. The blue mountain bike she was riding had belonged to her brother Tom. It was a great bike, but Magda was getting too tall for it and would soon need a new one.

Polly always found a lot of work for her to do and Magda took pride in her ability to work hard. She knew Polly was pleased with her work, even though she didn’t say much. She just shrugged after inspecting whatever task Magda had completed, and sniffed if it was good. If it wasn’t good, Magda heard about it right away. There were a lot more sniffs than complaints, though, so Magda was satisfied, and so, apparently, was Polly.

Today Polly was wearing her big straw hat and rubber boots, with a long denim skirt and baggy sweater. She greeted Magda with, Chickens. Feed them. Eggs. Collect them, wash them off if they need it, put them in cartons and into the fridge. Tell me when you’re finished.

Magda went straight to work. This was one of her favourite jobs. The chicken pens were fresh-smelling and clean. Most of the greens Polly had fed them that morning were already eaten. The speckled hens strutted about clucking contentedly as they pecked at the pellets Magda added to their feeders.

The younger chickens had a pen of their own. Polly had explained, No manners. Got to segregate them awhile before they can mix with the older hens. These young chickens went wild, pushing each other out of the way to get the feed, and pecking one another on the head. Magda remembered what she’d read about pecking order. Each bird has some birds she can peck, and some who can peck her. Only the bird at the top has nobody who can peck her, and only the ones at the bottom have nobody to peck.

Magda watched this frantic feeding for a while, laughing at them, but then thinking about herself and her friends. In a way, they had a pecking order, too. But it was always changing. One day she would play a trick on Tara or Logan, for example, but the next day one of them might trick her.

A red combed rooster crowed protectively and began grooming the feathers of one of the speckled hens. Magda watched them all, thinking again how like people they were, and then collected the eggs from each of the nesting boxes and gently placed them in a lined wicker basket. She noticed that some boxes held two or three eggs, while some had none. Polly had explained this to her. Togetherness. They like to snuggle close to each other when they lay.

Magda took the eggs into the shed where she looked at each one. They were mostly clean because they were collected at least twice a day. She rinsed them with warm water if she spied an unwanted speck. She placed them carefully into egg cartons and from there she put them straight into a fridge. Magda discovered one cracked egg, which she put aside to be used for animal feed later that day.

Magda washed her hands and awaited Polly’s inspection. She came in, looked, sniffed, then said, Time to scoop the poop.

Magda got out the scraper and started in on the dirty job. She thought back to the time when she first got to know Polly Prudholme. She recalled wondering why Polly always wore rubber boots. Now I get it, she thought, grinning to herself.

Magda scraped the shelf Polly called a dropping pit, which was right under the roosts the chickens used at night. She scraped the chicken poop into plastic bags which she knotted and placed on the floor. Neighbours came by to purchase these bags of manure for a dollar apiece. Nothing on the farm was ever wasted. Magda then added a powdering of lime and a