only five minutes. Just to check. No information goes to anyone about anything. The only person you can talk to is me.”
Dani has two messages from Gordy:
“Want to run tomorrow?”
“Hey, you’re not in school. Are you all right?”
She has twelve messages from Shelley:
“Can you believe what’s going on?
Where are you? I need to talk to you. Call me right away, okay? Meghan and I are at Icey’s. I don’t believe it could be you.
I can’t believe it.”
She hands Beth the phone.
“Good girl,” Beth says.
45
“Still no word,” Shelley tells Meghan. “What should I do?
I’m sure Dani can explain all these suspicions.”
“You’re in denial,” Meghan says. She frowns and rests her chin on her hands. “I know it’s tough accepting something like this.”
“I guess you’re right,” Shelley says, “but this is practically the first time since we were little that I haven’t talked to Dani. I wonder if I should stop at her house or something. I feel like I’m losing my best friend.” She twists a straw wrapper until it breaks.
Meghan touches Shelley’s fingertips. “I can be your new best friend,” she says.
46
The Dogghouse
Sniffing Out That Babysitter
Your blog host: Sheepdogg
Rumors circling around about the identity of the Babysitter. One is that she’s a deformed outcast who wanders around upscale neighborhoods carrying a butcher knife in a knapsack, peeking in the windows for children to kill. Another is that she cruises the supermarket parking lots for mothers with toddlers so she can ask if they need help with the stroller. Another is that she always wears a sweatshirt because the shirt underneath is blood-stained. Another is that once the parents leave she shows the kiddies a gun and says she’ll kill them if they don’t behave. Then she makes them sit for hours without moving or talking, and if they make even a peep she puts the barrel of the gun next to their head and pulls the trigger. Sort of like the Russian roulette scene in The Deer Hunter.
Well, none of those rumors are true. The babysitter is not an outcast: She is popular. She is also T H E B A B Y S I T T E R M U R D E R S
pretty. (Sheepdogg has seen her.) She’s never killed anyone before. And it’s definitely a knife, not a gun.
Who knows all this? Sheepdogg knows.
149
47
Saturday morning Dani sleeps late. Beth is working till two, and she’s taken Dani’s phone. In pajama pants and a tank top, Dani eats cereal and looks at the MyFace pages of her friends who have normal lives. She doesn’t post anything or answer e-mails. She watches music videos until she hears someone at the front door.
She peers through the curtains and sees Gordy knocking. He’s bare-chested, with his T-shirt tied around his waist. Beth said no phone, no e-mail, and no leaving the house, Dani reminds herself.
She never said anything about visitors.
“Hey,” Dani says, giving Gordy a peck on the cheek. “Quick.
Come in.”
“I hope you don’t mind,” Gordy says, pulling on his red T-shirt as he enters the hall. “I called you a few times about joining me, but I didn’t hear back.”
“That’s because I’m grounded,” Dani says.
“No phone, either?”
“That’s right.”
“Should I ask why?”
“Because I talk too much. I said a bunch of stuff I shouldn’t have said. Keep calling, though. I can’t call out, but I can still check messages.”
“That sounds medieval.”
T H E B A B Y S I T T E R M U R D E R S
“It’s fair under the circumstances.”
“My dad knows your mom a little. He says she’s a nice lady.”
“She is. And we’re really close. But anyway, under the circumstances it’s best if you only stay a short time. I’m glad for the company, though.”
“It’s great outside. I was going to invite you to my house. We could sit in papasan chairs and eat Indian food and watch the ocean. Maybe when you’re ungrounded. We need to practice.
Should we get right to it?”
They run through two songs. Then they mimic Nathan Brandifield—his singing, his instrument imitations, and the way he walks—until they feel bad about it. Dani serves microwave burritos and Vitaminwater.
“I want you to know that I’ve heard weird stuff at school,”
Gordy says while they’re clearing the dishes, “and I don’t believe any of it.”
“I don’t want to talk about that,” Dani says. She was having so much fun until this second. Now this morning, too, is tainted.
“Anyway I think it’s far more likely that Nathan Brandifield is the babysitter.”
Dani pretends to be