Free The Trail of the Screaming Teenager by Blanche Sims Page A

looked under her bed.
    She looked behind the curtains . . . and then in the closet.
    There it was.
    She yanked it out from behind her dollhouse.
    It was a long pole with a box on one end.
    MARVELOUS METAL FINDER , it said.
    It was Noni’s old one.
    Noni said she was sick of looking for marvelous metal things.
    She said she’d rather do her crossword puzzle.
    Dawn grabbed the finder. It was perfect for finding pirate coins. Money too.
    It was perfect for solving a mystery.

CHAPTER TWO
    “L OOK AT THAT WATER,” Dawn said from the boardwalk.
    “Look at that sand,” said Jason.
    “It’s a good thing this beach isn’t big,” said Noni. “I can’t walk far in these sandals.”
    They plodded down the boardwalk steps.
    Jason carried a doughnut tube over one arm.
    Jill pulled the Marvelous Metal Finder.
    Dawn dragged her detective box behind her.
    Last came Noni. She tried to keep her straw hat on with one hand.
    They looked for a space for their blanket.
    The beach was crowded.
    Radios were blaring.
    People were getting suntans.
    “Not too far from the boardwalk,” Noni said. “I like to listen to the merry-go-round music.”
    She spread out their blanket near some teenagers. She plunked down the picnic basket.
    One of the teenagers smiled at Dawn.
    She had short dark hair and a million freckles.
    Dawn smiled back. Then she kicked off her flip-flops. “Last one in the water is a french-fried frog,” she yelled.
    Jill hopped on the sand. She yanked off one sneaker and tossed it back on the blanket.
    She threw off the other one.
    “Let me at that water,” she yelled.
    Jason was blowing up his doughnut tube.
    His cheeks looked like purple balloons.
    Dawn didn’t wait. She ran on tiptoes.
    The sand was hot.
    Boiling.
    “Oooch. Ouch,” she yelled.
    Noni was yelling too. “You forgot your sunscreen,” she said. “Come back.”
    Dawn stopped on one foot.
    “Put it on,” said Noni. “You’ll be a wrinkled prune by the time you’re sixteen.”
    Dawn ran back to the blanket. She opened her Polka Dot Private Eye box.
    She pulled out the fat plastic jar and unscrewed the top.
    Then she reached in with four fingers for a big dab of No Sunburn, No Kidding.
    At the same time she watched the teenagers on the next blanket.
    There were four of them. Two boys, two girls.
    In the middle was the freckled-faced girl.
    Next to her was a boy with a radio on his shoulder. He was jerking his head back and forth to the music.
    Jason stopped blowing up the doughnut. “He looks like a chicken, doesn’t he?”
    “Look at the other boy,” said Dawn. “The one with hair down to his shoulders.”
    “Hmpf,” said Noni. She liked boys with short hair.
    “The blond girl looks cool,” said Jason. “Just like a movie star.”
    Dawn nodded. The girl was wearing a gorgeous silver bathing suit. She had on a sparkly diamond necklace.
    She was putting oil on her face, not sunscreen.
    Too bad, thought Dawn. She’d be a wrinkled prune any day now.
    The blond girl picked up some sand.
    She tossed a little on the boy’s long hair.
    Then she started to run.
    “Yeow,” she yelled as her feet hit the sand.
    Long Hair chased after her.
    “Yeow,” he yelled too.
    He grabbed for the girl as she reached Dawn’s blanket.
    She twisted away from him.
    She landed on top of Dawn.
    “Oof,” she said.
    “Oof,” Dawn said too.
    Sand sprayed up in the air.
    Noni’s hat flew off her head.

    The No Sunburn jar dropped back into the detective box.
    The girl scrambled up. “Sorry,” she yelled.
    She hopped across the sand toward a little boy. A kindergarten boy, Dawn thought.
    About forty-nine toys were piled up on his blanket.
    His mother was scrunched up in the middle. She was reading a book.
    The boy was building a sand hill.
    It was almost as big as he was.
    The girl’s foot smashed into it.
    The boy began to roar. He picked up his shovel and threw it at her.
    The girl leapt away from him.
    On the next blanket a man was sitting behind his