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shouted.
    Dawn listened hard. Jason was running around the side of the school.
    She could hear him.
    She could always hear Jason. He was loud.
    “Ten. Twenty. Thirty. Here I come,” Dawn yelled. “Ready or not.”
    She opened her eyes.
    The ground was white.
    So were the tops of the swings.
    The sky was dark, though. It was almost time to go home.
    Dawn looked around.
    Jason’s footprints were gone.
    She ran toward the school.
    The wind blew hard. It pulled at her scarf.
    It was a great scarf.
    The best in the class.
    Noni had made it for her.
    Dawn ran around the side of the school.
    Jason was gone.
    She waited. She listened.
    It was hard to hear in the snow and the wind.
    She had to hear him.
    She had to find him.
    They were playing detective.
    Jason was a thief. He had taken a million dollars.
    She was the detective.
    Jason should be easy to catch. She had caught him before.
    She’d put him in jail again.
    Jail was under the picnic table.
    She took a few steps.
    It was really dark in back of the school.
    She turned around. Everyone else had gone.
    She took one more step.
    Her heart thumped.
    What if a real thief were there?
    What if he jumped out at her?
    What if . . .
    She took a step backward.
    She heard something.
    Someone was behind her.
    Maybe a killer.
    Before she could turn, something grabbed her.
    “Yeow,” she yelled. “Noni.”
    “Some detective you are,” Jason said. “Have to call your grandmother.”
    “I was not,” Dawn said. “I was singing.”
    She opened her mouth. “No-ni-la-la,” she sang.
    She liked the way it sounded.
    Noni always told her to sing. “Bellissimo,” she’d say.
    That meant “gorgeous.”
    Dawn sang a little louder.
    Jason put his hands over his ears. “Yeow,” he said.
    Jim came over.
    He was the man who cleaned the school.
    “Playing hide-and-seek?”
    “Sort of,” Dawn said.
    “It’s getting dark,” said Jim.
    “My turn,” Jason said.
    “No one’s turn,” said Jim. “I have to close the gates.”
    Dawn dusted the snow off her scarf.
    They started for the gate.
    Then she remembered.
    “My mittens.”
    “What about them?” Jason asked.
    “I left them on the swing. Remember? They were soaking wet.”
    Jason looked back. “It’s too late to get them.”
    Dawn put her lip out. “It is not. They have hearts on the fingers. They have flowers on the backs. Noni made them.”
    Dawn ran fast. She sang, “Ni-la-la-ni.”
    What if Jim closed the gates?

    It would be cold in the schoolyard tonight.
    Freezing.
    She was hungry too. Her mother was making Friday-night meatballs.
    She ran fast.
    She scooped up her mittens.
    They were a mess. It looked as if the hearts were melting.
    Then she saw something. Something red and shiny.
    It was somebody’s purse.
    “Hurry,” Jason yelled.
    She thought about Jim closing the gates.
    She grabbed the purse.
    She put it in her pocket. She started to run.

CHAPTER 3
    I T WAS S UNDAY AFTERNOON.
    Dawn took her last bite of cake.
    Then she slapped her head.
    “What’s the matter?” her mother asked.
    “Dawn’s slapping a bug,” her brother Chris said.
    “There aren’t any bugs in the winter,” said Dawn.
    Chris started to laugh. He pointed at her. “You’re the bug.”
    Dawn crossed her eyes at him. Then she looked at her mother. “I just remembered something. I have to go to Jason’s.”
    She ran up to her room.
    She put on her coat and her polka dot hat.
    The hat fell down over her eyes.
    Dawn took a sock.
    She put it in the hat.
    Just right. She could see.
    She dragged her detective box downstairs.
    Noni was watching basketball on TV.
    She smiled at Dawn.
    Noni went to the closet. She brought back her grey scarf.
    “What is that for?” Dawn asked.
    “It’s freezing out,” Noni said.
    Noni put the scarf around Dawn’s head. She kissed her cheeks. “You’ll be nice and warm.”
    Dawn went outside.
    She hoped no one would see the scarf.
    It made her look like a hippopotamus. A fat grey one.
    It kept her