Mystery Mansion

By Steve Hooper and Dewey Kellogg

This is an adventure story of two young kids and a dog, who stumble on to the search for stolen bank robbery money in the spooky, empty, haunted Simpson Manor. Read along as these young detectives get caught up in their unexpected adventure and the history surrounding the old Mansion. Get caught up in the amazing mishap that allows them to uncover clues that have been hidden for years. See how this mishap is used to save they're lives when the three of them are cornered, trapped and chased in an adventure that will keep you reading and refuse to put the book down.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Nov 7, 2005
• ISBN: 9780595811236

Steve Hooper

Steve Hooper was born in Kansas and then moved to California where he joined the Navy in 1969. He is married and has two grown children and one Grand child. Dewey Kellogg grew up on a cattle ranch in northern Nebraska. He attended Colorado State University and then begins, exploring life. He is an actor, writer and director. Dewey has six other books of action and adventure and many of them reflect some of the experiences of his life.

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Copyright © 2005 by Stephen Hooper and Dewey Kellogg

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

iUniverse

2021 Pine Lake Road, Suite 100

Lincoln, NE 68512

www.iuniverse.com

1-800-Authors (1-800-288-4677)

ISBN-13: 978-0-595-36700-9 (sc)

ISBN-13: 978-0-595-81123-6 (ebk)

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Dedicated to my grandson, Gavin Isaac Hooper

Chapter 1

Darryl, an eleven year old boy, dressed in jeans, a T-shirt and tennis shoes, small but very active is riding his bike and his dog Spike, is running along beside him. Spike is a Jack Russell Terrier. He has short hair, spiked ears and a short tail that wags at full speed when he’s with Darryl..

Darryl stops in front of the Old Simpson Mansion that has been boarded up for years. Darryl sees from around the corner a gang of boy’s a little older than he is. They are in the age bracket of 14 and 15 years old. They spot Darryl looking at them and let out a loud yell and start chasing him.

Peddling his bike as hard and fast as he can, Darryl turns into a street and is almost hit by a car. He crosses the street and goes down an alley as the older boys are catching up with him. Spike is running hard and is right behind Darryl as he comes out onto another street and is almost hit by a delivery truck that is turning into the alley.

Darryl turns and starts riding down the sidewalk, dodging people as they come out of the storefronts. Darryl glances back over his shoulder and sees the boy’s right on his tail. He is getting tired and also running out of breath. He passes a house in the residential area that he has just entered, where his school friend Mandy, is playing in the front yard.

Mandy is sitting on the ground and as she sees Darryl speed by, she stands up and watches her friend, on his bike and his dog fly by, with the gang right on his tail. She runs out of her yard to follow on foot.

Darryl looks up to see his backyard across a small, but deep gully, right in front of him. A small stream runs in the bottom of the gully below his back yard. Again, he glances back over his shoulder to see how close the gang is. As he turns back, he hits a group of trash cans, sitting on the edge of the sidewalk, waiting to be emptied. The front wheel of the bike snaps around, the back wheel comes off the ground, and Darryl and the bike go head over heels, rolling down the hill. As he rolls down the hill his head, smacks a rock and knocks him out. He continues to roll down the hill and comes to a stop, by the creek, one hand resting in the water.

Spike comes sliding to a stop beside him. He looks down at Darryl and licks his face. He hears voices from the top of the hill. Spike turns, looks up, and growls.

The gang is made up of six boys. Their leader is Chris, the largest, strongest and meanest of the gang. The others are Wally, Rick, Terry, Jimmy and Ronny. These five look up to Chris. For them being in a gang gives them a reputation that they are not to be messed with. They stop their bikes and look down the hill. They start to get off to go down. Spike continues to look up the hill and growl, his eyes glaring at the gang. He’ll do whatever it takes to protect his master.

Ronny turns to Chris, Chris, look!

Chris looks down the street to see a police car turning onto the street. Chris slowly gets back on his bike and in a cool, unnerving voice speaks to the other members of the gang. Come on let’s get out of here!

The rest of the gang members get on their bikes and follow Chris as he goes down the street to the corner and then turns on another street. The police car slowly drives by, unaware of Darryl down in the canyon.

There is a small jerk of Darryl’s hand as it moves while laying in the water. He starts to regain consciousness but his eyes have not opened yet. He hears a voice talking to him. Darryl, are you all right?

Darryl slowly rolls on his back and then slowly sits up. He starts to open his eyes but everything is very blurry.

Again he hears the voice. Darryl, are you all right?

Darryl puts his hands to his head and grits his teeth as he mumbles, Ooohhh! My head!

Spike starts licking Darryl’s face again. Darryl sits there and then reaches up and rubs his eyes and very lightly shakes his head to try and focus. As he shakes his head the voice again comes into his mind. The boys that were chasing us are gone!

Slowly Darryl rolls over on his hands and knees. He now slowly stands up and then starts to brush himself off. As he does this he looks around and sees no one.

Hey, asks Darryl, who said that?

The voice again speaks out. I did...I guess?

Darryl slowly turns in a circle looking all around. He is confused and so he shakes his head again to try and clear it up.

I who? he asks, speaking to no one in particular.

Just then Mandy comes sliding down the hill and comes to a stop behind Darryl. Darryl, are you okay? she asks.

Darryl quickly turns around and looks at Mandy. Oh, Hi Mandy, says Darryl. He again shakes his head and continues. That must have been you that I heard.

Mandy is dressed in a red dress and is wearing her black shoes. She is blonde, small and has big blue eyes. Did you get hurt? asks Mandy. Here, let me look at your head and she proceeds to touch his head with the tip of her fingers.

OUCH, yells Darryl as he jerks his head away from Mandy’s fingers.

Oh, I’m sorry. Boy, you sure do have a big goose egg up there. She looks Darryl right in the eyes and asks, hey, why were those boys chasing you?

Darryl shakes his head again and looks back at Mandy. Well.. I’m not really sure why. I was riding home and saw them coming around the back corner of the old Simpson house.

You mean, asks Mandy, that spooky old mansion over on Fourth Street? Yeah, says Darryl, that’s the one. I saw them before they saw me. They were talking about something.but I couldn’t hear what they were saying. When they looked up and saw me watching them, they started chasing me. I almost made it home.

Yeah, says Mandy, before you became Evel Knievel.

They look into each others eyes and then the both of them start laughing. Darryl still laughing tries to talk. Oh...stop making me laugh Mandy, it makes my head hurt.

Slowly Darryl bends over and picks up his bike and pushes it back and forth to see if everything is still working. There is a very steep and small trail that leads up the hill to the gate of his back yard. Mandy walks with him and helps push the bike up the hill. Spike follows the two of them with his tail wagging at full speed.

As they reach the gate and Darryl opens it, Mandy looks very hard at him. What were they doing at that spooky, creepy old place anyway?

I don’t know, replies Darryl but they sure didn’t like the idea of someone watching them.

Whatever it was, says Mandy, they sure didn’t like having anyone seeing them there.

I’ll agree to that, replies Darryl.

Mandy looks at Darryl and becomes very stern and a very somber look appears on her face. They are going to be after you, you know that, says Mandy. She doesn’t wait for him to answer but continues on.

You saw them doing something that they didn’t want anyone else to see. You saw them at the old Simpson place, so that must means that they are up too something there; and that’s why they started chasing you.

Darryl stares at Mandy and then speaks in a very stern voice. "Yeah, well I