The next day, I met Casey outside my house again. He had a depressed look on his face and I frowned and hugged him tightly.

                “What’s wrong?” I asked in concern. He sighed sadly and ran a hand through his hair. “My cat got killed last night. It was the animal killer.” My eyes widened. “That’s terrible,” I whispered and hugged him again.

                He pulled away and looked me in the eyes. “I want to catch whoever is doing this Shay. Will you help me?” He sounded so desperate. His eyes were pleading. I nodded. “Of course I’ll help you Casey!”

                Casey gave me a weak smile. “Thank you so much Shay!” he cried and pulled me in for another hug. I laughed and hugged him back before pulling him inside.

                “Who do you think is doing it?” I asked as we entered my bedroom. He sat down on my bed and shook his head. “I don’t know,” he whispered sadly. “I wish I knew.”

                I got thoughtful. “Do you have a guess?” He bit his lip nervously. “I do. But I don’t really have too much to back it up with right now.” He glanced at me.

                “Fuller.”

                My eyes widened. “You really think he’s capable of killing animals like that? I mean, look at him with Skeet Skeet.” Casey nervously bit his lip again. “I know. But think about it. Fuller doesn’t care about anyone or anything except Skeet Skeet. And, well, I did call him cruel last night.”

                “But what about Charlie? Would he really want to upset his little brother like that?” I asked, sitting down next to him. Casey shrugged.

                “What if that’s why Fuller is so mean to Charlie about it?” He sighed. “I don’t know Shay. I told you I didn’t have much to back it up with. I barely have anything.” I grinned. “I’m babysitting Charlie tonight. If Fuller isn’t home, I’ll do a little snooping.”

                He gave me a serious look. “Don’t get caught Shay. The police are worried that whoever is killing the animals may move on to people.” That freaked me out a lot. If Fuller really was the killer and he was in a house with Charlie every night…

                No, no, no. We had no proof that Fuller was the killer.

                Later that night, mom dropped me off at the Polivka’s house and Mrs. Polivka let me in. “Charlie’s excited to hang out with you,” she said with a bright smile. “Is he okay now?” I asked. She sighed. “He’s doing a lot better. His father and I sat down with him and talked about it.”

                I nodded. “Shay!” Charlie’s voice cried happily. I spun around as he flung himself into my arms. I laughed and smiled. “Hey Charlie!” He smiled up at me.

                “Why not?!”

                The angry voice exploded from upstairs. “Because I said so!” Mr. Polivka’s voice screamed. He came storming down the stairs, a furious look in his eyes.

                “Dad, that’s not fair!” Fuller argued, hurrying down behind his father. “Fuller, do not argue with me,” Mr. Polivka growled dangerously. “Dad you’re not being fair!” Fuller cried in frustration. “Fuller I said no! And if I find out you’ve snuck out of this house I swear to god you’ll be grounded until you’re 30!” Mr. Polivka snapped.

                He began to put his shoes on. “You don’t even have a reason why I can’t go!” Fuller said angrily. “You want to know my reason? My reason is that I’m your father and you’re going to listen to me!” Fuller crossed his arms. “Wanna bet?” he snapped.

                Mr. Polivka grabbed his arm roughly and dragged him towards the stairs. “Stop being a brat Fuller!” he screamed as he began to drag him upstairs.

                “I’m sorry you had to see that,” Mrs. Polivka said, giving me a sympathetic look. “He wants to go over to his friend’s house. He was giving his father attitude all day though so we said no. Fuller doesn’t like to be told no.” She shook her head and knelt down in front of Charlie.

                “Bye Charlie. Be a good boy and keep an eye on your brother. Let me know if he leaves the house,” she said and hugged Charlie. She kissed his forehead before standing up again.

                “I can’t believe that boy,” Mr. Polivka grumbled as he came downstairs. “Please, just drop it. If he leaves, we’ll ground him,” Mrs. Polivka said quietly. “Grounding him obviously isn’t working!” Mr. Polivka snapped as he stormed out the front door.

                Mrs. Polivka sighed before following him.

                “Fuller is being bad,” Charlie said. “I noticed,” I said and grabbed his hand. He led me into the living room and pulled out a board game. He smiled at me as he set it up. I sat down with him and laughed. Monopoly.

                We began to play. About a half hour later, a pissed off Fuller came downstairs with a Monster in hand. He walked into the living room and grabbed a DVD. He put it in the DVD player and dropped onto the couch. He pressed play and I watched curiously.

                “Um…Fuller? Why are you watching Halloween?” I asked curiously. “Because I like this movie,” he grumbled. Hm…a movie about a killer…No! Bad Shay! I liked the movie too. That didn’t make me a killer.

                Charlie was watching curiously. “What’s going on Fuller?” he asked in confusion as we watched Michael’s hand pull the knife out of the drawer. “He’s getting a knife,” Fuller said in annoyance.

                He glanced at us. “Cover his eyes at the part with Judith,” he said, nodding at Charlie. I hurried to cover Charlie’s eyes just as Michael entered Judith’s room and began to stab her. I waited until he had left the room before pulling my hands away.

                “I wanna watch!” Charlie whined. “No. It’ll scare you and then you’ll come into my room every night,” Fuller said. Charlie pouted. “Let’s keep playing Charlie,” I said, nodding at the game with a smile.

                Charlie and I played as Fuller continued to watch the movie. The house phone rang and Fuller picked it up. “Hello?” his annoyed voice asked. “Obviously I’m home!” he snapped, the anger rising in his eyes quickly.

                “Shut up dad! I’m home!” he cried angrily. He hung up and threw the phone across the room. I shifted very slightly to make sure I could jump up to protect Charlie if Fuller’s temper got the best of him.

                He angrily stormed upstairs, leaving the movie on as Michael tried to break into the closet. I quickly shut the movie off as I saw it catching Charlie’s attention.

                A thought suddenly struck me. “Charlie…does Fuller always get this angry?” I asked slowly. Charlie nodded. “Daddy says he has anger problems,” he said.

                My mind was working rapidly now. If Fuller had anger issues like that…Maybe he needed to take out his problems on someone. But instead of a person, maybe he went after animals. But if that was right, then what Casey told me could also be right. If Fuller was the killer, he could move from animals to people if he got too angry.

                And now I knew there was a strong possibility Fuller was the one killing the animals. And if that was right, Charlie, and even me, could be in danger.