Who Killed the Homecoming Queen? (10 page)

Jeremy hadn't said a word. He'd just walked halfway across the parking lot and then stopped, as if he couldn't decide what to do or where to go.

The longer Tania stays missing, the more worried he gets, Eva thought. And telling him about the phone call didn't help. If only I could figure out what's going on!

“So what did the police say?” Keith asked, interrupting Eva's thoughts.

“I told you. They didn't believe me.” Eva scowled. “They still think the whole thing is a joke.”

“Some joke,” Keith muttered. “I can't believe they aren't taking it seriously.”

Eva nodded. It doesn't make sense, she thought.

None of this makes sense.

“Well, listen. I have to go,” Keith told her,
zipping up his black leather jacket. “Uh-oh,” he murmured. “Here comes trouble.”

Eva turned and saw Leslie striding toward them, her long brown hair blowing in the wind. “Keith!” Leslie called out. “I need to talk to you!”

Keith sighed.

“What's the problem?” Eva whispered to him.

“She wants to be a star, that's the problem,” he murmured. “She won't get out of my face.”

Leslie hurried up to them. “I've been trying to call you, Keith,” she told him accusingly.

“Yeah. Well, I've been kind of busy.”

“And kind of worried,” Eva added. “About Tania, remember?”

Leslie scowled, insulted. “Of course I remember.” She pulled a strand of hair out of her eyes and turned to Keith again. “That's one of the reasons I want to talk to you.”

Keith's eyes lit up. “You know something about her?”

“No. How should I?” Leslie asked impatiently. “Anyway, I know you need someone to play the Homecoming Queen in your video. So I've decided to forget how you dumped me from the part. I'll do it.”

“Um …” Keith shifted his weight and glanced around.

“What's the problem?” Leslie asked. “You
do
need an actress, right?”

“Well … no. Sorry,” Keith told her. “But I've dropped the Homecoming Queen idea.”

Eva stared at him in surprise. He hadn't told her. She knew how much that video meant to him, but she felt glad anyway. With Tania gone, it wouldn't be the same.

“But you have to have
some
thing to show the film schools,” Leslie insisted. “You're not giving up, are you?”

“No way,” Keith replied. “I'm working on another video now. With Sandy.”

“Oh?” Leslie's eyes gleamed with interest. “What's it about? Is there a part for me?”

Keith shook his head. “Sorry,” he repeated. “It's kind of a secret project.”

Leslie scowled at him. “And you're doing it with Sandy. And there's nothing in it for me.”

“Right.”

Leslie tossed her hair back and glared at him.

Keith shrugged. “Sorry,” he told her for the third time.

“Oh, stop saying that!” Leslie snapped. “You're not sorry at all!”

Keith shrugged again. “Whatever.”

Eva turned away, thinking she'd go over and try to cheer Jeremy up.

But Jeremy had left. Instead, Eva saw Sandy walking toward them.

Leslie spotted him, too. She sucked in her breath and stalked away, giving Sandy a disgusted glance as she passed him.

“What's her problem?” Sandy asked as he shuffled slowly up to them. “Never mind. I don't want
to hear it. I was halfway home when I realized I forgot all my books. I must be losing my mind.”

Eva stared at him. “You look terrible,” she told him.

“I feel terrible.” Sandy blinked his red-rimmed eyes. “I haven't slept. I can't. I can't stop thinking about Tania.”

“Nobody can,” Eva murmured. “We're all worried out of our minds.”

“Yeah.” Keith punched Sandy lightly on the arm. “Go home, man. At least try to sleep. You look like the walking dead.”

Sandy nodded and headed into the school.

“You want a ride home?” Keith asked Eva.

“No, thanks. I think I'll see if Jeremy's still around somewhere.” Eva nodded good-bye to Keith, then crossed the parking lot.

She glanced around, thinking Jeremy might have just moved down the row of cars. But she didn't see him. He wasn't on the sidewalk or the hill that led toward the football field, either.

He must have gone home, Eva decided. She began to leave the parking lot, then realized she'd forgotten her backpack. Sandy's not the only one who's too upset to remember things, she thought.

Eva ran across the windy lot and into the school. As she passed the auditorium, she heard voices coming from inside. Were they practicing for the homecoming ceremony, without Tania?

She couldn't stand to know. She hurried past the doors and trotted up to the second floor. She heard
a locker slam somewhere in the distance. Then she heard footsteps echoing loudly in the empty hall.

Rounding the corner, Eva saw Leslie rushing toward her.

She saw Leslie's frightened expression.

Then she saw the dark stain on Leslie's yellow sweater.

“Leslie!” Eva cried. “What is all that blood?”

chapter 20
 

L
eslie stopped quickly and flung her hair out of her face.

Eva sucked in her breath, shocked and frightened. She stared hard at Leslie. At the bloodstain on the front of her sweater.

Then she raised her eyes to Leslie's face—and gasped.

A streak of blood washed across one of Leslie's cheeks and dripped slowly down, onto her neck. Beads of bright red glistened on her eyelashes and scattered across her cheeks.

Her hands looked as if she'd dipped them into a bucket of blood.

“Leslie, you're hurt!” Eva cried.

“I'm okay, I think.” Leslie raised a bloody hand
and pushed her hair away again. “It's kind of embarrassing, actually.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I was so furious, Eva, I lost my temper.” Leslie's lips quivered. “I just blew up! And I … I slammed my locker door against the wall”

“Your locker …” Eva's words caught in her throat.

Leslie took a deep breath. “I keep a mirror hanging inside the locker,” she explained. Her voice shook and her gaze kept skipping around the hall. She wiped her hands on her jeans. As she did, she winced. “When I opened the locker, I slammed the door back really hard. The mirror broke. And I cut myself.”

“Where?” Eva asked.

“The mirror just shattered!” Leslie cried. “Pieces of glass sprayed all over me.” A drop of blood spilled from Leslie's eyelashes and rolled toward her mouth. She wiped it away.

Eva put an arm around her shoulders. “Come on. Let's go into the bathroom. I'll help you clean up.”

“I just want to get out of here,” Leslie declared.

“You can't walk around with that blood all over you,” Eva insisted, pulling her toward the bathroom across the hall. “You'll give people a heart attack. You almost gave me one.”

In the bathroom, Leslie leaned against the tile wall and closed her eyes. Eva wadded up a bunch of paper towels and dampened them in cool water.
Then she gently wiped Leslie's face and hands and neck, getting as much blood off as she could.

“That's good enough.” Leslie pushed herself away from the wall. “Thanks, Eva, but I need to get away from here.”

“Want to borrow my jacket to cover up?” Eva asked, tossing the towels into the wastepaper basket. “It's in my locker.”

Leslie shook her head, her face pale. “No. I just want to go home.” She checked herself in the mirror, then pulled open the door. “Thanks for helping, Eva,” she called back over her shoulder.

Eva washed her hands and left the bathroom. All I want to do is go home, too, she thought as she walked down the hall. Go home, crawl under the covers, and go to sleep. Maybe when I wake up, this awful feeling will be gone.

But she knew it wouldn't.

Eva turned another corner and hurried toward her locker. As she drew closer, she saw a dark stain on the floor in front of it.

No, not a stain. A dark puddle.

Sidestepping it, Eva spun the combination lock and yanked open the door.

“Huh?” She let out a startled cry as a boy tumbled out of the locker.

Eva stared in horror at the thick, brownish-blond hair and the good-looking face of Sandy Bishop.

Sandy's eyes were closed.

His lips were drawn back from his teeth, as if he were screaming.

His body slid slowly from the locker. His shoulders, his chest, his legs. He twisted as he fell, and then his face slammed into the puddle of blood on the floor.

Blood, Eva thought as her heart thundered loudly. Sandy's blood!

She reached toward him, her hand shaking.

Then she saw the knife.

A thick-handled knife, stuck halfway to the hilt in Sandy's back.

Feeling dizzy, Eva jerked her hand away and straight up. As she did, she caught sight of the words on the inside of her locker door.

The words scrawled in blood.

Sandy's blood.

Your Turn Next

Eva's own blood pounded in her ears. She wanted to run, but she couldn't move.

She couldn't take her eyes off Sandy. Somebody killed him, she thought. Stabbed him in the back.

And I'm next.

Terrified, she raised her hands to her hair and began to scream.

chapter 21
 

“I
still can't believe it!” Cherise cried. “Sandy—dead! It's like a nightmare!”

Cherise sat on one end of the couch in Eva's living room. Leslie sat at the other end. Keith paced the floor, stopping every once in a while to glance out the front window. Jeremy sat tensely on the low stone ledge in front of the fireplace, clutching a can of soda and staring at the rug.

Eva sat in a soft, fat armchair and listened as the others discussed Sandy's murder.

I'm so exhausted, she thought. It must be from the shock.

It had been three hours since she'd discovered Sandy's body. The police came. And after they talked to Eva, they rounded up Sandy's friends and
questioned them. Afterward, they all gathered at Eva's house.

Nobody wants to go home yet, Eva thought, glancing around. We're all so upset.

And so frightened.

What is going on?

“I mean, what is going on?” Cherise wailed, echoing Eva's thought. “This is totally unbelievable!”

“You already said that a zillion times,” Keith groaned.

“Well, excuse me,” Cherise snapped. “I suppose you think it's normal to have dead bodies falling out of lockers!”

Eva shuddered and curled her legs underneath her.

“Sorry, Eva,” Cherise said. She sighed and twisted a strand of hair around her finger. “Sorry, everybody. I guess I'm a little freaked.”

“We all are.” Jeremy's voice sounded hollow.

Keith peered out the window for a moment, then began pacing again. As he did, he held up the fingers of one hand. “Tania's gone.” He bent a finger down. “Eva and Cherise get a threatening phone call. Sandy is murdered. And Eva finds a threatening message.”

Keith bent the last finger and clenched his fist. “What does it all mean?”

Eva shuddered again, remembering those bloody words.

Your Turn Next.

She knew what
that
meant.

But did someone really plan to kill her?

“I keep trying to figure out what's coming,” Keith went on. “You know, like I'm watching a movie or something. Trying to guess what's going to happen.”

Jeremy raised his head. “It's not a movie plot, Keith. Unfortunately, it's real.”

“Well, it doesn't hurt to try to figure things out,” Cherise told him. “Maybe if we do, this awful nightmare will be over.” Tears welled up in her eyes, and she plucked a tissue from the box on the end table.

“Somebody's trying to kill us. That's what's happening,” Keith declared.