I never liked going in that closet anyway so it’s fine with me. Plus Tana’s letting us sit on her bed. She’s even letting Polly hug her pillow. On the front of the newspaper Tana opened up between our knees it says Mini Mart Suspect Found.
The murderer was hiding at the beach, he was hiding at his cousin’s house. Now his cousin’s in trouble too because it’s against the law to hide a murderer in your garage.
“I don’t think that’s him,” I say when Tana pushes the paper closer so we can see the picture.
Tana says he cut his hair so the police wouldn’t recognize him but that’s him for sure. “Look at his chin.”
“He’s even scarier without a ponytail,” Polly says.
Tana’s nails weren’t all the way dry so now there’s green nail polish on the paper. She licks her finger and rubs at the green but that just makes it worse. Now there’s a green cloud where the murderer’s fat chin used to be. Without his chin and ponytail he kind of looks like Uncle Patrick but I don’t say anything because I don’t feel like hearing Tana say, He does not.
Wait. That means we were at the beach at the same time as the murderer! “Maybe he was one of the dots! On the beach!” I’m covered in a million goose bumps because I think I might have seen him. He was wearing a tan baseball hat. He walked right by us when we were watching for Dad.
Tana says there’s no way he was one of the dots, but how would she know, she wasn’t even looking.
“I saw him! He walked right by us!”
“No way,” Tana says. “Why would a murderer just hang out on the beach where the police could see him?”
“I don’t know, why don’t you ask him?”
“Oooh,” Tana says. “Look who’s getting an attitude!”
I don’t know what’s so funny about it and I wish Tana would stop smiling at me because I don’t want to smile, I want to be mad.
“First he followed us to the Mini Mart,” Tana whispers in her super creepy voice.
Polly’s already crawling on my lap, saying, “Stop! Stop it, Tana!”
“Then he followed us to the beach—”
“Then he followed us all the way home,” Tana whispers, and puts her arms up so we know we’re going to get grabbed as soon as she says the next part. Polly’s like a koala bear wrapped around me.
“And now,” Tana whispers.
“He’s,” she whispers, and wiggles her fingers.
“Following you up your armpits!” she yells, and Polly and I are screaming the screams that make Mom think our arms got cut off because the murderer is totally tickling us to death!