Gracie's Game: Sudden Anger, Accidentally on Purpose (43 page)

"And Emily's car just happened to be parked across the row. That was pure luck. Everyone knows they're friends, who'd want to make them mad at each other?" Shawna asked.

"We all gave Emily a hard time about getting the poison ivy from making out in the bushes, but that's not the kind of thing she does," Gracie said. "Although it does seem weird that she'd get it this time of year." She stared off into the distance with a thoughtful look on her face.

"You got an idea?" Cheryl asked.

Gracie shook her head. "It just seems like there's something I should be able to remember that somehow is connected." She shrugged and smiled. "It'll come."

"Those desks are old," Cheryl said. "Who knows if a bolt is missing or not? Serene dropped her bag down pretty hard, maybe it was hanging together by a thread and that was just too much."

"Well, at least nobody's been really hurt," Shawna said, trying to see the bright side.

"A broken arm
hurts
," Gracie said. "Trust me. I saw Travis right after it happened and he was in pain."

"You know, I could sort of see someone trying to get back at the popular girls," Cheryl said slowly, as if thinking out her point. "But why would anyone want to hurt a geek like Travis?"

"Have you heard from your cop friend lately?" Shawna asked. "Has he figured out what happened to Mrs. Lane?"

"Haven't heard a word since he talked to us on Tuesday," Gracie replied. "Why? Are you thinking that was just an accident too?"

"He said it could've been," Shawna said. "There's no evidence of foul play, as they say on TV."

"He
did
tell us Jake screwed her Friday afternoon, but half the school knows she survived that!" Cheryl joked.

"I saw him leave the party," Gracie reminded them. "Ken said he'd checked with Jake's parents and is pretty sure he was at home when she died."

"You also said Maggie was flirting with all the jocks that night," Cheryl said. "You think that made him jealous?"

"And
what
, he slipped out of the house and pushed her down the stairs when she refused to stop flirting?" Shawna asked.

"How hard is it to crawl out a window?" Cheryl asked rhetorically. "My cousin does it all the time. His mother's usually so drunk she never knows."

"But Jake's mother isn't known for drinking," Gracie said. "Though I guess that doesn't mean he hasn't figured how to get out without her hearing it."

"Maybe
she
got jealous of all his girlfriends," Shawna suggested.

"So he killed her to get her to shut up about it?" Cheryl asked ironically. "Wouldn't it have been easier just to drop her? He's not even in her class, so it's not like he'd be worried about his grade!"

"Jake could take his pick of almost any girl in school, but that doesn't mean he's sleeping with any of them. Maybe that's why he wanted to keep a, um,
relationship
with Mrs. Lane," Shawna said.

"Oh come on!" Cheryl sounded exasperated with Shawna's naïveté. "Do you really think some of them aren't putting out?"

"But none of that is a really good reason to kill someone," Gracie interceded before her friends' feelings got hurt. "Not cold-blooded murder, anyway. Maybe they got into a fight and she fell, but I can't see Jake killing someone."

Cheryl sighed. "You're right, Gracie. I can't see it either. But drunks are usually so relaxed they don't get hurt when they fall down. They survive car wrecks! I'm just not buying that Maggie fell down all by herself; something must've happened to make her fall."

"Maybe we're looking at it from the wrong angle!" Shawna suggested. "It was all Jake's girlfriends who ganged up on Mrs. Lane and asked her to leave him alone." She giggled at such a silly idea.

"Like some kind of intervention?" Cheryl asked. "'Why don't you pick on someone your own age', that kind of thing?"

"They wouldn't be able to keep quiet about it," Gracie said. "Especially after they found out Maggie had ended up dead."

"Gracie's right," Cheryl said. "Although it does make for a great picture; I'd have liked to see that confrontation. But someone would get scared and talk, and it's been nearly a week already."

Shawna grinned to show she wasn't taking it personally. "Yeah, Emily would bust if she couldn't reenact the scene; or Meaghan would confess to her priest or something."

"Meaghan's a Baptist; they have preachers, not priests," Cheryl put in.

"Close enough," Shawna retorted.

Gracie had a thoughtful look on her face. "But Meaghan and Jake
were
having some kind of serious conversation out on the patio that night," she said. "Kelly and I thought maybe they were breaking up, but what if she was mad about him flirting with Maggie?"

"Was that before or after the queso incident?" Cheryl inquired.

Gracie frowned, trying to remember. "After, I think; but I'm not sure."

"Meaghan's such a prude, I could see her getting all high and mighty and telling Maggie to leave Jake alone," Cheryl said.

"I can, too," Shawna agreed. "But I can't see her pushing Maggie off the steps, or running off without calling the police. She's the kind who'd own up to the whole thing because it was the right thing to do."

"I still think someone was there that night," Gracie said. "Whether it was murder or manslaughter someone made Maggie fall off those steps."

"Me, too. But did you hear that?" Cheryl inquired, grinning. "Shawna just called her 'Maggie'!"

Chapter 37

Cheryl read the directions to her classmates. "Only use half of what you've got. Put down a layer of noodles first, then the Ricotta stuff, the cheese, and then pour on the meat sauce." This was her 3rd hour class, Home Ec.; today they were making a quick and easy lasagna. Cheryl watched as the other three girls in her cooking group put the dish together. Personally she thought there didn't seem to be anything quick
or
easy about this lasagna; so much easier to nuke a Stouffer's and be done with it.

"Now do it all over again," she directed. "Then put it in the oven and we can pretend to listen to the teacher while it cooks." Her mother had insisted she take this class and she'd hated it from the first. So far they'd just done simple things and she'd thought maybe this would be different – something she actually might like to eat. The class was right before lunch with the idea being they could all stay and eat what they'd cooked but she'd rather hang out with Gracie, Shawna, and Kelly. Even the cafeteria food was better than what they'd been making in class!

She helped the other girls clean up and then took her seat with them. The teacher began droning on about how all the different flavors and textures combined in the lasagna but Cheryl wasn't interested and besides, the ticking of all the timers bothered her. She felt like they were ticking away her life second by second while she was stuck in this class.

She began looking around at the other students; mostly girls but there were a couple of guys in the class. They got a lot of flack about that, but Cheryl didn't see anything wrong with it; her uncle was a damn fine cook. Of course he had to be since his wife preferred to hit the sauce instead of cook it. Besides the TV shows had lots of male chefs, like Emeril or that British guy Gordon what's-his-name. Her gaze lit on a backpack sitting partway in the aisle between her table and the next. Sticking halfway out of the front pocket was a big plastic pill bottle, the amber plastic coated with the dust from all the pills rattling around so that she couldn't see how many might be left.

She glanced over to see that the backpack belonged to Amy, who was studiously writing down something the teacher had said. Having just thought of her aunt's substance abuse problem Cheryl couldn't help but wonder why Amy had such a big bottle of pills. She hadn't said anything about being sick lately. Cheryl twisted in her chair and stretched her long legs out, 'accidentally' kicking the bag. The bottle obligingly popped out of the pocket and rolled along the floor in her direction, stopping with the label up.

Amy looked up from her notes as Cheryl stared down at the label. The prescription was for Anne Jones, presumably Amy's mother; the drug name of Tramadol meant nothing to Cheryl, but she could look it up on the web later. Amy leaned over and grabbed the bottle before Cheryl could offer to pick it up and hand it to her. Was Amy taking prescription drugs that weren't hers?

A sudden bee-bee-bee-
beep
rang out loud and clear. Cheryl looked up, startled, with the feeling she'd been caught doing something wrong. It was only one of the kitchen timers going off and another began a slightly different cadence. Cheryl put her hand to her chest in relief; she'd thought sure it was some kind of alarm, but that was just her guilty conscience nagging her about snooping. She jumped up with the rest of the class and went to rescue the lasagna.

"Just give me a little," she asked the girl serving the food. Everyone was required to at least taste what they'd made. She took her paper plate and plastic fork back to the table as other students did the same. Cautiously she held a forkful to her mouth, blowing on the lasagna to cool it before putting it in her mouth. "Hey, this is
good
!" she cried, carving up a second, larger, bite.

"It's terrific, isn't it!" Andrea said from the next table over. An orange smear on her plate indicated she'd already eaten half of her serving, and she had more left than Cheryl had taken. "You sound surprised, Cheryl. Haven't you ever eaten lasagna before?"

"Well, yeah, I have. I guess I just didn't expect anything I had to cook myself to be worth eating," Cheryl said, shoveling another bite into her mouth.

"I don't think it's all
that
great," Bonnie commented. "But then I'm not crazy about all the carbs in the pasta."

"I'm not that impressed, either," Amy said. She eyed her plate doubtfully, stirring the layers into a mess and finally taking a tiny bite.

Cheryl scooped up the last bite and said, "I'm gonna get some more. I might even learn to
like
cooking!"

"Me, too," Andrea said. "Anyone else want more? 'Cause if you don't, I'll take the rest."

No one at her table challenged her, so she brought the dish back to the table. "Easier this way," she commented as she dug in.

Cheryl ate her second serving a little more slowly, savoring the taste and wondering if she'd just found a new hobby. Across the aisle Amy was still picking at her food; did she just not like lasagna, or had the pills ruined her appetite?

Kelly had taken Gracie and Shawna to a drive-in for lunch; Cheryl hadn't shown up so they'd left without her. "You think that'll hold you until dinner?" he asked Gracie.

She patted her tummy and nodded her head. "In fact, I'm so full I feel like walking around a little before I go back to class; otherwise I might just fall asleep."

"We've got a little time left," Shawna said. "I'm not in any hurry to get back to school, anyway."

Kelly found a parking spot fairly easily since the lunch hour wasn't over yet. "We'll have to remember this, and head back a few minutes before everyone else. This is the closest spot I've found all week!"

"And yet we're deliberately taking the long way in," Shawna said mockingly.

"My fault," said Gracie.

They got out, locked the doors, and stood there looking at each other. "Which way?" Gracie asked.

"There's a big crowd over that way," Kelly said. "Let's go see what's going on."

They started walking at a sedate pace. Gracie might have wanted to walk off some of her lunch but the very fact that she was full kept her from moving too fast. It had rained earlier in the day but though there were still ugly gray clouds in the sky the cool air felt nicely brisk. "I hope it doesn't rain more tonight," she commented.

"It probably will," Shawna said. "There's a game tonight. Maybe it'll wait 'til the game's over, but since it's an away-game I doubt it. It'll probably pour as we're driving to it."

"I can see somebody's hood up," Kelly said. "Engine trouble, I guess; trunk's open so hopefully they've got some basic tools."

"Whose car is it, do you know?" Shawna asked.

"It's little and blue, does that help?" he asked wryly. "Is that Jake under the hood?"

"I think so," Gracie agreed. "I didn't know he knew anything about cars. There's sure a lot of people standing around. Looks like Shaun and Tyler and you can't miss Allison's red hair!"

"I can't tell who else is there," Shawna said. "Bobby Summers would be in his element here. I'm with you, I wouldn't think Jake would know which end of a car is which."

Suddenly they heard the sound of an engine starting and the crowd cheered loudly. Meaghan got out of the driver's side and threw her arms around Jake.

"What was wrong?" Kelly asked as they walked up.

"It wouldn't start," Meaghan said. Her eyes were red like she'd been crying, but with Jake's arm around her waist she seemed happy and relieved now. The car was purring beside her and everything seemed right in her world.

Jake pointed to the trunk. "The battery cable was loose; I just tightened it up a little," he said proudly.

"I
told
you he didn't know which end of the car to fix – that's the
trunk
!" Shawna exclaimed.

Jake turned his devastating grin on her. "Yes it is; and it just happens that the battery is in the trunk in a Miata."

Tyler put a hand perpendicular to his face with its back facing Shawna as if it would shield his words from everyone else. "I had to tell him where it was," he said in a stage whisper.

"Better go wash your hands," Kelly advised. "You might've gotten acid on them."

Meaghan squeaked and pulled away from Jake, brushing at her jacket where his hand had been resting. "I'll shut it off and we can go on in."

Someone handed Jake a paper napkin and he began wiping his hands. "No, let it run a few more minutes," he told her. "The battery needs to charge some." He shut the trunk and swiped at it with the napkin.

Kelly stepped closer to lift the hood enough to remove the prop-rod and put it back in the clips that held it in place. He let the hood drop with a clang, then tested it to make sure it had latched firmly. "Miata, huh?" he said. "It must be a lot of fun to drive."

Meaghan tilted her head in a so-so gesture. "It's cool in warm weather, when I can leave the top down."

"That sounds like a lot of fun," Gracie said. "The sun shining down, the wind in your hair…"

"Screaming around curves like a race-car driver," Kelly finished the verbal picture.

Meaghan shuddered. "I don't like to drive fast, or take chances. In fact, I'm thinking of selling it and getting something else."

"Why?" Shawna asked incredulously. "It's such a pretty color, and I bet it gets good mileage."

"My uncle sold it to us," Meaghan said. "He says it's 'French Blue'; it
is
a pretty color but it scares me a little, I always feel like I'm wasting its potential. And I'd like to have a car with a little more room."

"Sell it to me!" Tyler said, only half joking. "
I'd
use its potential."

"You'd look good driving around in that convertible," Allison told him. "But I'm not riding with you, your driving scares me as it is."

"Maybe I will," Meaghan said. "If you're serious, come talk to my dad this weekend. Sunday afternoon, maybe; he shouldn't be at the office then."

"Your dad sure spends a lot of time working," Allison remarked. "You'd think he was a doctor or something."

"He's a lawyer," Meaghan told her. "That's almost as bad, I think. He's always got some important case to work on, or has to meet people who can't get there during normal hours, and you ought to see the piles of papers he brings home."

"Reminds me of my dad," Gracie said a bit wistfully. "He liked his job and really liked that he made a lot of money at it. Of course, that doesn't always leave a lot of time to spend with his family."

"Aww, Gracie, I'm sorry I reminded you," Meaghan said sincerely. She heaved a sigh and said, "You
do
know what it's like, though. I'll tell Dad you're interested, Tyler."

"Get the battery cable fixed first!" Tyler said.

"You going to the game?" Brittney called out as she walked past.

"You bet!" Gracie replied. "I'll look for you there."

"It's a big stadium," Kelly said. "We may not be able to find everyone." They'd just reached his locker and he was trying to figure out which books he'd need for the weekend, moving them from backpack to locker or vice versa.

"C'mon, hurry up, Kelly," she said. "I wanna get my homework done this afternoon so I can have the weekend free. And don't forget, Mom's gonna make dinner for us before we have to leave for the game."

Kelly stood there holding his math book, looking at it with indecision. "I could whip this out at lunch on Monday, then I wouldn't have to carry it home and back."

From down the row of lockers someone yelled "Owww!"

They turned to see Shaun standing in front of an open locker; the door he was holding was still vibrating.