Monsters and Mischief by Dan Poblocki Page A

have to go. But we’ll catch up with you guys later this evening.”
    “Sylvester and I will see who we can chat with about the thefts,” said Woodrow. “Have fun at rehearsal!”
    That night, it was Rosie’s turn to host the Question Marks. After the Smithers family dinner, the group of four gathered at the big table in the dining room.
    Woodrow took a scrap of paper from his coat pocket and spread it on the table. “Sylvester andI made some progress this afternoon,” he said. “The list of names I have here are all the people who claim that Tall Ted has stolen something from them. As I understand it, only the four members of the ‘Question Troop’ had their homes burglarized, giving them a reason to form their group. Plus, Paul Gomez’s wallet was taken from his bag in the dressing rooms under the stage, right after Evan Gleeson claimed to have seen the monster. The rest of the listed victims had their things stolen out of their lockers at school. Some of those targets had the big dents in the doors that everyone is talking about, but most of the lockers seemed to have been opened by someone with the locker combinations.”
    “That’s bizarre,” said Rosie. “How exactly would the thief get access to everyone’s locker combinations?”
    “Suppose Tall Ted isn’t fake after all,” said Sylvester, excitedly. “What if he has some sort of secret-psychic-locker-combo power?”
    Woodrow nodded and smiled. “How about we keep that theory in your pocket and come back to it later?”
    Sylvester scowled.
    “Viola and I heard something during rehearsal this afternoon that might provide some insight into the thefts,” said Rosie. “Actually, I think
this
story is scarier than anything I’ve heard about Tall Ted. Everyone was talking about a man whosupposedly escaped from a prison upstate and has recently been seen lurking about in the Moon Hollow Hills.”
    “No way,” said Woodrow. “My mom would have said something to me about that. She works up in those woods every day!”
    “Maybe she didn’t want to scare you,” said Sylvester.
    “It’s possible that this convict is the one who’s been burglarizing people’s homes,” said Rosie. “Could he have come into the school too?”
    “That’s a creepy thought,” said Viola. “I’ll ask my mom to look into other crime reports in the area to see if they have anything in common. Maybe we’ve got our culprit.”
    “Gosh,” said Woodrow. “Now, not only do we have to deal with monsters, but we might have a dangerous criminal on our hands as well? Maybe we should just give up now. Let Clea’s Troop claim the crown.”
    “Clea isn’t any closer to an answer than we are,” said Viola. “I gathered that much at rehearsal today. Anyway, the point of our contest isn’t to catch a criminal … it’s to solve the mystery. We’ll leave the bounty-hunting to the proper authorities, thank you very much.”
    “Besides,” said Rosie, “if we let Clea win, that means Viola and I have to drop out of the play. Mrs. Glick would never let us audition again.”
    “Then I guess it’s settled,” said Sylvester. “This shall be a battle to the finish.”
    On Friday afternoon, after Mrs. Glick assigned the
Villain
cast to their official dressing rooms, Viola and Rosie took some time to clean up and organize their spaces. The two girls even taped magazine cutouts of their favorite actresses onto their mirrors. They were happy that Clea had been placed a couple doors down from them.
    They were practicing their lines, waiting for Mrs. Glick to call “places,” when from down the hallway, they heard a familiar sound — one that still sent chills through their bones. It was the same growl that they’d heard a couple weeks earlier, and it was once again coming from the boiler room.
    Quickly, the two peeked out the dressing room door and into the empty hallway. The sound came again, this time louder. “What do we do?” asked Rosie. All color had drained from