'What is his problem?' Liam rubbed his shoulder and glared after Grubbs, who was lumbering along the corridor, deliberately colliding with everyone in his path.

'He's just a nob,' replied Conor.

The brothers watched as the school bully made a bee-line for the weird goth girl in Liam's computer class. He was just about to barge into her when a box on top of one of the lockers suddenly toppled over, showering Grubbs with old text books.

Everybody laughed.

Everybody but the girl, who was observing the chaotic scene without a hint of emotion on her face.

Liam shuddered as her kohl rimmed eyes looked up and met his. 'That girl gives me the creeps.'

'Hello cousins of mine.' Becky arrived beside them. 'I'm glad I bumped into you. It looks like we've got ourselves a new case.'

Conor yawned. 'What is it this time, spooky banging noises caused by air in the pipes?'

'The stench of rotting corpses?' Liam chuckled. 'Caused by yet another farting dog.'

'No, I think this one is a genuine haunting.' Becky paused until the school bell stopped ringing. 'I have science club after school, but I'll call into yours on my way home. We can talk about it then.'

'Hiya handsome.'

Conor smiled as his girlfriend approached.

'My cue to leave,' muttered Becky.

The girls exchanged hostile glances and Becky headed into the science lab.

Lucy frowned. 'Why do you guys insist on hanging around with that geek?'

Liam narrowed his eyes. 'She's our cousin.'

'Grubbs is my cousin, but I wouldn't dream of spending time with him.' Lucy fluttered her eyelashes at Conor. 'I'd much rather be with you. What are we doing after school today? There's a great film on at the cinema.'

'Sorry Luce, I'm busy tonight.'

'We have a new case,' added Liam.

Lucy rolled her eyes. 'Another pointless ghost hunting mission?'

Liam frowned at her. 'Becks thinks this one might be the real thing.'

'Fine. Choose Techy Becky over me.' She pouted. 'I'll ask Nigel to take me to the cinema.'

'Oh, come on Luce. We can go out at the weekend.'

'At the weekend? It's only Tuesday. You expect me to wait all week?' Her eyes flashed angrily. 'I'm going to Maths now, but if you want to continue being my boyfriend, you'll meet me outside the cinema at six thirty precisely.'

Conor was about to chase after her, but Liam grabbed his arm. 'Better let her calm down, bro.'

'So, what's the new case, Becks?' Liam shoved a forkful of pasta into his mouth.

Becky eyed the sauce as it trickled down his chin. 'Sounds like it could be a poltergeist. Stuff has been going missing and turning up in odd places. Lights going on and off. That sort of thing. Nothing nasty yet, but it's escalating'

Conor grabbed the pepper grinder. 'What makes you think this one is genuine?'

'It's happening at Mrs Tinker's house.'

Liam stopped chewing. 'The music teacher?'

'Yes, but we can't tell anyone that she's our client. She doesn't want it getting out. She's always been very vocal in claiming that ghosts don't exist.'

'Well, maybe she could try telling that to the ghost.'

'She's spooked, Conor. It took a lot for her to come to me. Are we going to help her or not?'

Liam nodded. 'I'm in.'

Conor glanced up at the clock. It was just after 6pm.

'Fine.' He sighed. 'Let's do it.'

'What is all this stuff?' Mrs Tinker set the tea tray down on the coffee table.

'Those things are sensors. If anything moves in here or in the hall or kitchen, it'll trigger the cameras and they'll start recording.' Becky pointed at the equipment on the table. 'That contraption there is a ghost box. It's a kind of scanner that can detect non-corporeal entities.'

'Oh, I thought you'd brought that to listen to music. It looks like a radio.'

'This is an EVP recorder.' Liam held up the instrument in his hand.

'I thought that was a Dictaphone.'

'Yes, Miss, but this one records electronic voice phenomena. We may not be able to hear them with our own ears, but spirits can use this in order to communicate with us.'

'I don't want to communicate with it, I just want it gone.'

'Yes, but talking to a spirit is generally the easiest way to help it to pass over.' Becky sounded like a pro, even though they'd never managed to  speak to a genuine ghost using the EVP before.

Mrs Tinker didn't look convinced. 'What about the gadget Conor is walking around the house with, what does that do?'

'It's an electro-magnetic field meter,' replied Liam. 'He's just checking for spirits in areas we haven't covered with the sensors and cameras.'

'Heavens. That's a lot of technology. It all sounds very expensive.'

'Not really. You made most of it, didn't you Becks?'

'Well, yes, I suppose so. With help from the others in science club.'

Liam nodded. 'That's right. The nerd brigade mucked in too.'

'I wish you wouldn't call them that.'

Conor appeared in the doorway. 'Not a single bar has registered on the meter.'

'That means that there's no trace of any ghosts,' explained Liam.

Mrs Tinker looked relieved. She offered round a plate of biscuits. 'Well I've made everyone a cup of tea. Why don't we all sit down?'

'So, when did it all start, Miss?' Liam crammed a whole Jammie Dodger into his mouth.

Conor sat on the sofa beside him and opened his notebook.

'Well, I suppose it was just after my husband died.' Mrs Tinker took a sip of tea. 'That was towards the end of last summer. It was only little things at first. Keys going missing and turning up in the most peculiar places, that sort of thing. But this past few weeks, cupboard doors have been opening by themselves and lights keep turning on and off. That usually happens around 7.30pm, just as I'm settling down to watch the telly. George never did like Emmerdale.'

Becky glanced at her watch. 'It's almost that time now. Shall we turn on the television and see what happens?'

Mrs Tinker tapped the remote control and the TV screen lit up.

Just as the program's theme tune started, all the lights went off. Everyone's faces looked eerily blue, illuminated by the light from the television.

Conor leapt to his feet and aimed the EMF meter in the direction of the light switch. 'It's not registering anything.'

Becky grabbed the remote control off the table and lowered the volume on the telly. Then she tilted her head on one side. 'Can anyone else hear that?'

Liam nodded.

'Creaking noises,' whispered Conor.

The boys headed into the hallway and Liam peered up the dark staircase.

'It's coming from the kitchen,' hissed Conor, shining his phone light towards the open doorway.

The noises grew louder as they crept closer.

Liam reached in and felt around the wall for the light switch.

'Hurry up,' urged his brother. His phone light had started flickering.

'Got it,' announced Liam, as the room lit up. 'What the hell?'

The boys gazed around the kitchen, open mouthed. Every single cupboard door was wide open.

'Were they like this when you did a sweep with the meter?'

'No.' Conor tapped his mobile phone and took a photo of all the open doors. 'They definitely were not.'

'Is there anybody here?' Liam stepped further into the room, holding up the EVP recorder. 'Do you want to speak to us?'

He waited a few moments, but nothing registered on the instrument.

'OK.' Conor was slowly circling the kitchen island, his eyes fixed on the EMF meter. 'Logical explanations first. How about the cupboards have dodgy door hinges?'

'What, all of them?' Liam gazed around all the open doors. 'Even if that was the case, what do you think caused the lights to go off?'

'An electrical surge? She said it happens at the same time every night. Maybe everyone is tuning into Emmerdale at the same time and that makes the power drop out momentarily.'

'Can't be that. The telly stayed on.'

'Faulty wiring then.'

'The sensors in here have been triggered.' Liam put the EVP recorder down on the granite worktop. 'Maybe we caught something on the ghost-cam.'

Conor put his finger to his mouth, held up his phone and pressed record.

Liam slowly turned around. 'Woah, the fridge door is opening, all by itself.'

'There's no need for the voice-over,' growled Conor. 'It's not a David Attenborough show.'

'Everything alright?' Becky's sudden entrance made the boys jump. She stared around the room. 'What happened here? Did you get hungry?'

'Very funny, Becks.' Conor noticed that Liam was still staring at the fridge. 'What is it, bro? Can you see something?'

'Yes.' Liam breathed. 'Pepperoni pizza.'

'Idiot!'

'What really happened here?' persisted Becky.

'We need to go home and analyse the ghost-cam footage to be sure.' Conor grinned. 'But we might have just captured our first real evidence of the paranormal.'

'I felt bad leaving her there on her own.'

'We couldn't stay all night, Becks. We've got school in the morning. Well you two have, I'm not in until lunchtime.' A smug look spread across Conor's face. 'Gotta love the sixth form.'

'Anyway, we left all our gear running and we gave her our mobile numbers. If she needs us urgently, we can be there in five minutes.' Liam screwed up his crisp packet and tossed it into the bin.

Becky relented. 'I suppose she did say she could sleep at her sister's place if anything else happened.'

'And she told us to go home,' added Conor. 'She knows it's a school night. She is a teacher after all.'

'OK, but we're going back after school tomorrow, right?'

Conor pushed the ghost-cam's memory card into the slot on his computer and started forwarding through the footage from the kitchen. 'Try keeping us away.'

'I bet Lucy will try,' muttered Liam.

Becky rolled her eyes.

'Did you see that?' Using his mouse, Conor dragged the play-bar backwards along the video time-line and set it away again.

'Are those orbs?' Liam pointed at the shiny bubble like shapes that were floating across the screen.

'Looks like.' Becky sounded excited. 'Aren't they sometimes a precursor to a manifestation?'

Conor paused the footage and stared at the screen. 'Are you seeing what I'm seeing?'

'Oh my god!' Becky sat down on the edge of his bed.

A translucent figure had just floated past the lens of the camera. Conor rewound and paused it. The flickering image was very faint, but it was definitely there.

'Logical explanations?' Conor looked at the others. 'A smudge on the lens?'

'Then why was it moving?' Liam leaned in to get a better look. 'It's shaped like a person. I can't see its face, it's too blurred, but it looks like a man to me.'

'Me too,' agreed Becky. She indicated the darker areas of the figure. 'Is he wearing some sort of suit?'

'Reckon it's Mrs T's husband?'

'Let's not get too carried away,' warned Conor.

'Well, whoever it is, or was, it looks like we've got ourselves a real ghost.'

'It certainly does.' Becky grinned.

Conor pulled out his notepad. 'We need to eliminate all non-paranormal possibilities before we jump to any conclusions.'

'You do that, bro.' Liam grabbed his jacket. 'Come on Becks, it's dark out there. I'll walk you home.'

'But it's Friday,' wailed Lucy. 'You said we'd go out at the weekend.'

'I heard you've already seen the film,' sniped Liam.

'Oh shut up, you loser. What's it got to do with you anyway?'

'Look Luce, things have been getting worse at the house each day, so we promised we'd stay there tonight to see if we can get rid of the spirit once and for all.' Conor paused. 'You can come with us if you like.'

Liam gave him a sharp jab in the ribs. 'Can I have a word?'

'No you can't,' snarled Lucy. 'This is between us. Why are you always hanging around like a bad smell?'

'Don't forget our client's terms.' Liam glowered at his brother.

'Who is this client anyway?'

'Sorry, Luce, I can't tell you that.'

'If you can't even tell me who it is, how am I meant to come with you?'

Liam sniffed. 'Exactly!'

'Ah.' Conor's expression changed. 'Yes, maybe that's not such a good idea after all.'

'It's a terrible idea.'

'Will you tell your brother to get lost, please?'

'I'm going.' Liam strolled away. 'Hey Lucy, please give my regards to Nigel.'

'What was that all about?' Becky caught him up at the school gate. 'She looked like she was about to explode.'

'Truth hurts I guess. I can't believe he asked her to come with us tonight.'

'What? She can't. We need to keep Mrs Tinker's identity a secret. What's he going to do, blindfold Lucy?'

'Maybe he could gag her too.' Liam chuckled. 'Don't worry, he's changed his mind. He wasn't thinking clearly. He never does where she's concerned.'

'I heard she went out with Nigel the other night.'

'Yeah, maybe she should change her surname to Lastic.'

'Lucy Lastic.' Becky giggled.

'Anyway, she denies it. He believes her. What can we do? Hopefully he'll see through her one of these days.'

'Talking of seeing through people, the images on the ghost-cam were much clearer last night. That was definitely Mr Tinker on the footage.' Becky hoisted her rucksack onto her shoulder. 'He seems to be getting more powerful too. Do you think we're making things worse? Does paying attention to a spirit make it stronger somehow?'

'Mrs Tinker definitely doesn't want to hear his voice. She made me turn off the EVP again last night. I don't know how she expects us to persuade him to move on if we can't speak to him.'

'Maybe we should go into a separate room to communicate with him?'

'I already suggested that, Becks. She said she didn't want us to do that either. She seemed really scared.'

'What could he have done to her to scare her so much?'

'Well, he is haunting her. That's pretty scary.'

Becky snapped her fingers. 'I've got it. What if we tell her we're not going to communicate with him and then go and do it anyway?'

'Lie to her?'

'We'd be doing her a favour. She wants him gone, so it's up to us to get him to move on. I'm convinced that talking to him will be the best way to do it.'

'I suppose it's worth a try. Come on, let's get our sleeping bags and sandwiches, we've got a heavy night ahead.'

'7.30pm, on the dot,' muttered Conor, standing up to turn the lights back on.

Becky turned down the Emmerdale theme tune on the television, so they could all listen to the cupboard doors creaking open in the kitchen.

'Cue photo.' Liam looked over at the sideboard and the framed wedding photo tipped onto its front, just as it'd done the last two evenings.

'That's new.' Conor stared out into the darkened hallway. 'There's toilet paper zigzagged everywhere out there.'

'That's impossible,' protested Mrs Tinker, 'I was in the hall less than a minute ago.'

'Maybe it got stuck to your shoe?' Liam peered out into the hallway. 'Woah! It's all over the place. It's even wrapped around the lampshade.'

'Is that the microwave I can hear?' Mrs Tinker looked between them. 'Is someone heating something up?'

Everyone shook their heads.

'You stay here with Mrs T, Conor. We'll go and check.' Liam and Becky fought their way through the swathes of toilet paper and skidded into the kitchen to see sparks flying around inside the microwave oven. Liam switched on the light and Becky ran over and pressed the stop button.

Then she pulled open the door and peered inside. 'There's a metal bowl in there. Who puts a metal bowl in a microwave?'

'Ghosts, it seems.'

'But why?'

'Attention seeking.'

'It could've started a fire or even exploded.' She paused. 'We have got to speak to this ghost to find out why it's doing all this.'

'No!' Mrs Tinker had arrived in the doorway. 'Can't you just perform an exorcism or something?'

'Just perform an exorcism?' Becky was aghast.

'We're not Catholic priests, Miss.'

'Our approach is more scientific,' agreed Conor, entering the room.

'Well it's clearly not working. Things have got worse since you arrived, not better. He's never tried to set fire to the house before.'

'The question is, why would he do that?' Becky looked the teacher in the eye.

Before Mrs Tinker had a chance to respond, the EVP crackled to life.

'Murder.'

'George?' Mrs Tinker glanced fearfully around the room. 'Is that you?'

The kitchen telephone receiver fell off its hook and the keypad started dialling a number by itself.

'George?'

'Murderer.'

'No, darling, it was an accident.'

A family portrait flew off the wall in the hallway, hit the staircase and smashed to pieces.

'Murderer,' bellowed the voice.

Mrs Tinker lunged at Liam and grappled for the EVP. 'Switch that thing off.'

'I don't think that'll make any difference, Miss. It's not coming through the EVP anymore.'

'You murdered me!' The booming voice was so loud that the whole house vibrated.

'I didn't mean for you to die, George. I really didn't. But what you did, you and my sister, I was so angry with you both. I wanted revenge, but I only meant to make you ill for a while. That stuff I put in your food was stronger than I thought. I must have used too much and...'

'Murderer!'

The children looked at each other in shock. Meek and mild Mrs Tinker, a murderer?

'I'm sorry, George. I really am.'

'Is this true, Miss?' Liam looked perplexed. 'Because if it is, this is way above our paygrade.'

'This is all your fault!' The teacher snatched a huge knife off the magnetic strip on the wall and waved it around dangerously. 'You and your stupid equipment.'

'Be careful, Miss.' Conor held up his hands. 'You don't want to hurt anyone else.'

'I already have,' she growled.

'My god,' whispered Becky, 'she's completely deranged.'

Blue lights were flashing in through the frosted glass at the front door and somebody started banging on its wooden surface.

'Thank you, children.' The disembodied voice was quieter now, the anger had abated.

'You're welcome.' Conor looked along the hallway, the latch on the front door had started to rattle. Then it slowly turned clockwise.

'Help Susan,' the voice faded to nothing.

The door swung open and two bemused police officers stared around at all the toilet paper, then they charged through it and swiftly disarmed Mrs Tinker.

The female officer picked up the phone receiver and placed it back on the hook. 'That was quick thinking kids, dialling 999. We traced the call to here and all calls to our control room are recorded, so we caught her confession on tape.'

'She said she's hurt somebody else.' Becky was still in shock. 'You might want to check on her sister. I think she's called Susan.'

'It's all over the school.' Lucy skipped towards them. She was clearly delighted. 'You're a hero.'

'Thanks,' grunted Liam.

'I wasn't talking to you.' She threw him a dirty look and them beamed up at Conor. 'Apparently the police recording didn't have any voices on it apart from yours, Liam's and Mrs Tinker's. Are you sure the ghost wasn't just in your imagination?'

'What?' Becky folded her arms defensively. 'We all imagined exactly the same thing?'

'Ever heard of mass hysteria?'

'We didn't imagine it, Luce.'

'Anyway, Becks is the real hero.' Liam smiled at his cousin. 'She sent the police around to check on Mrs Tinker's sister.'

'The poor woman was so sick that she couldn't get out of bed.' Becky grimaced. 'Poisoned by the same stuff as Mr T apparently, except in smaller doses.'

'She'd kept her prisoner for months and months and was telling everyone she was looking after her because she was ill.' Conor sighed. 'What a whack job.'

Lucy shrugged. 'Well maybe Mrs Tinker's sister and husband shouldn't have had an affair?'

'That reminds me.' Liam grinned. 'How is Nigel?'

'Get lost!'

'At least we were able to help Mr Tinker to pass over,' Becky sighed. 'Poor man.'

'I hear there's an article about it in the local paper,' announced Lucy, her eyes shining with glee. 'They called you the Teen Spectre Detectors.'

'Catchy,' Liam sniggered.

'So much for client confidentiality,' muttered Conor.

'It's not our fault,' retorted Becky. 'None of us has said anything. It was Mrs Tinker's neighbours who called the press.'

'And we did decline to comment,' agreed Liam.

'Anyway, it looks like it's been good for business.' Becky held up her phone. 'It seems we've got ourselves another case.'