Or maybe it was because he thought it was ridiculous.

Cody sighs heavily. “I didn’t see a face up there, did you?” Aubrey and I shake our heads. “It was probably just a reflection. Or maybe something random floating up there, like a plastic bag. Remember when the dove got caught in our old soundstage? It could have been something like that.”

“And it is weird we haven’t heard about these ghost stories before,” I agree. “You’d think a ghost at Silver Screen Studios would make headlines.”

Then, I have an idea. I grab my iPad and type in Silver Screen Studios Ghost into a search engine, just to make sure I didn’t miss something.

Results pop up quickly. I scan the options. “Okay, there’s a site called Haunted LA that has a list of all the ghost sightings around Hollywood.”

My friends crowd around as I click the link. Aubrey points out an article about Silver Screen Studios, and I select it. “This is from 1967,” I say, and read, “Several actors on a popular TV show shot at Silver Screen Studios report seeing an unknown man walking around the soundstage. When asked what the figure wanted, he vanished.”

“A man?” Cody frowns. “I thought Betty was a girl.”

“Is that the only report?” Aubrey asks.

I click back to the main Haunted LA page. “There’s a little mention of Silver Studios here, but just as a ‘potential ghost hot spot.’ No more details. Nothing about Betty.” I tap the keyboard some more. “In fact, I don’t see any stories about a starlet named Betty falling off a staircase on Stage Five.” I try a few more searches for tragedies on movie sets. Nothing.

“See? There’s no proof the story’s even real,” Cody says.

“Maybe, maybe not,” I say. “There are a lot of spooky things that happen on sets that producers keep quiet. They don’t want there to be negative press about the movie. It happens all the time.”

Suddenly, Aubrey hops up and hurries to a chest of drawers my dad hauled up here for all of my art supplies. Inside the bottom drawer are a bunch of board games. She pulls out a spirit board and rattles the box. “Maybe we can talk to Betty this way.”

“No thanks.” Cody crosses his arms. “Those things are fake.”

“C’mon.” Aubrey removes the lid, pulls out the spirit board, and places it on the steamer trunk that serves as a coffee table. Then, she places the glass-topped planchette device in the middle of the board, touches it with the tips of her fingers, and closes her eyes.

“Oh, spirits,” she says in a spooky voice. “We’re trying to reach Betty, the dancer who tragically died at Silver Screen Studios sixty years ago. Are you there, Betty? Can you hear us?”

The planchette jerks to the left. My heart jumps. Is someone there?