I breathe out. She’s right. If I’d never heard of a ghost, I probably would have thought the flickering lights were just a weird electrical problem.

“Thanks, Vee,” I tell her, feeling a lot calmer.

I settle back into my chair. The lights don’t flicker anymore. I have no sensations that a ghost is about to poke me in the cheek. There is something I’m worried about, though. If I’d gotten that scared just because of some flickering lights, it means other people might too. And then the rumor will build and build until everyone thinks there’s a ghost, and people might start leaving the show.

I think about something Vee said too. You’re scared because someone put the idea in your head. You’re seeing what you want to see. It gives me an idea.

Is it possible that a person is making those lights flicker? That someone is pretending to be a ghost…and putting the ideas in our heads? But who would do that? And why?

I know what I have to do.

I need to solve this mystery.

Chapter Eight

Thankfully, the rest of the day proceeds smoothly. We shoot the very first scene of the show, where Aubrey, Cody, and I rush to the library and speak to the head librarian, who reports the book stolen. We shoot another scene where we ask cranky Mrs. Archer, the librarian on duty the day of the theft, if she has security footage from the rare books room, where the ancient book of recipes was stored, but she says that the footage was damaged.

We shoot a scene where I question Giovanni the pizza maker about why, exactly, his pizza is so tasty—is it because he’s been using magic spells from the book all along? Giovanni swears up and down that he’s never seen the book in his life. That scene is a good one. I get to eat lots of pizza.

By the time the afternoon rolls around, I feel better. The show is proceeding. No one seems on edge. But I haven’t stopped thinking about my new theory. That someone is making us think there’s a ghost.

But why?

During lunch break, I ask Austin, one of the production assistants, to take me for a spin around the back lot in one of the studio’s golf carts.

The back lot is the part of the movie lot where we shoot all our outdoor scenes. It has a maze of streets containing any sort of building you can imagine: regular houses, city brownstones, cafés, shops, churches, schools, courthouses, and more. Most of the time, the interiors of these structures aren’t decorated. Sometimes, they aren’t even split into rooms. That’s because usually only the outside of the shot matters, not the inside. That’s what the sets in our soundstage are for.