The Trail of the Screaming Teenager Read Free Page A

teenagers certainly were messy.
    Only one place was left. Inside the picnic basket . . . in with the lunch.
    She opened the lid. It was crammed with half-eaten sandwiches and two apple cores.

    Yucks.
    She picked up a sandwich to look underneath.
    Just then she heard shouting. The voices were angry.
    “What’s that kid doing? Stop, thief!”
    She looked up.
    Maybe someone had solved the crime ahead of her.
    Long Hair and Chicken Head were coming down the boardwalk steps.
    They were pointing . . . pointing at her . . . racing toward her.
    She dropped the sandwich back in the basket.
    She slammed the lid.
    Then she scrambled up. “Noni, save me,” she yelled.
    She looked around.
    Noni was way down at the end of the beach.
    Jason and Jill were nowhere in sight.
    “When I get my hands on you . . .” Long Hair yelled.
    Dawn started to run.
    She darted around a green beach blanket, circled a litter basket, and headed for the water.
    She could hardly catch her breath.
    She looked back over her shoulder.
    Chicken Head had stopped at the blanket. He was checking out the picnic basket.
    Long Hair was still after her.
    And he was closer. Much closer.
    Dawn put on a burst of speed. She ran along the water’s edge.
    Waves lapped against her feet.
    “Noni,” she yelled again.
    Noni’s hat bobbed along. She was still a long way away.
    “Someone help me,” Dawn yelled.
    No one even paid attention.
    She looked back once more . . . and fell.
    Her nose and cheeks scratched against the sand.
    A big hand grabbed her shoulder.

CHAPTER SIX
    D AWN SCRAMBLED UP. She had sand in her eyes and in her mouth.
    It tasted gritty against her teeth.
    She tried to talk. “I didn’t take anything,” she said at last.
    She kept her eyes closed and rubbed at them with two fingers.
    “You’re a thief,” said a voice.
    She opened one eye. She could see long brown hair.
    She could see something else too.

    Chicken Head had come down toward the water. He was hopping up and down, listening to the radio on his shoulder.
    He was jerking his head back and forth.
    He was making cluck, cluck noises with his teeth.
    Dawn drew herself up as tall as she could. She watched for Noni with one eye. “I am the Polka Dot Private Eye,” she said.
    Chicken Head stopped clucking. “Then I am Princess Di,” he said.
    He began to laugh at his joke, slapping his knee.
    The girl with the freckles was coming toward them. “Did you hurt yourself?” she asked.
    Dawn felt like crying.
    She didn’t, though.
    Detectives never cry.
    She shook her head. “No.”
    Sand flew all over the place.
    “We caught the thief,” said Long Hair.
    “Cluckity-cluck,” said Chicken Head.
    “Ridiculous,” said the girl. She wiped sand off Dawn’s forehead. “You didn’t take the necklace, did you?”
    “Of course not,” said Dawn. “I solve crimes.”
    She wanted to ask if the girl had taken the necklace.
    She’d probably hurt her feelings, though.
    Too bad. She had to do it.
    Right was right. That’s what Noni always said.
    She opened her mouth.
    She could see Jason and Jill coming toward her.
    Jason was carrying a drippy ice cream cone in each hand.
    Jill had chocolate ice cream all over her mouth.
    They were running as fast as they could.
    They were weaving around blankets and litter baskets.
    The kindergarten kid threw a pail at them.
    His mother didn’t even look up.
    “We’re coming to save you,” Jason yelled. “Don’t worry.”
    “Hold on,” yelled Jill. Her last bow sailed off her head.
    Dawn looked at the teenage girl. “Did you take—”
    At the same time the girl shook her finger at the other teenagers. “This little girl never took our almost-diamond necklace. Look how sweet she is.”
    “Our almost-diamond necklace?” Dawn said slowly.
    The girl waved her hand. “We gave it to Gladys . . . I mean Mindy . . . for her birthday.”
    “Cluckity-cluck,” said Chicken Head, bobbing with the music.
    Long Hair pushed his hair out of his eyes. “Had