Who Killed the Homecoming Queen? (13 page)

Eva couldn't take her eyes off Jeremy. He wanted to kill me, she thought in horror. The guy I have a crush on wanted to kill me!

This can't be happening. It can't be!

Cherise clutched Eva's arm again. “We have to call the police!”

“No.” Tania wiped her eyes. “I mean, he's my brother! And besides …”

“We have to!” Cherise insisted. “Haven't you been listening to me? He killed Sandy and he tried to kill me and Eva!”

Tania sat back. “It just doesn't make any sense,” she murmured, staring at Jeremy. “How can he be a killer?”

The room felt warm, but Eva began to shiver. Cherise's words raced through her mind. Jeremy's crazy. Jeremy sawed the railing.

He wanted to get rid of you.

He's a killer.

Is he? Eva wondered desperately. Is it really true?

“The sooner we call the police, the sooner we'll all be safe,” Cherise declared. “Keith, would you …” She stopped suddenly as a low moan echoed in the room.

Jeremy.

He groaned a second time. His fingers twitched. One of his feet wiggled. But his eyes stayed closed.

“Call the police!” Cherise whispered urgently. “Hurry—before he wakes up!”

Jeremy moaned again, louder this time. His hands curled into fists and his eyelids fluttered. “Get away,” he mumbled. “Got to …”

Cherise's fingers dug into Eva's arm. “Please—”

Jeremy's eyes snapped open. Rolling to his side, he raised himself on one arm and stared at Cherise.

Cherise slid to the edge of the couch.

“No!” Jeremy shouted suddenly.

Cherise began to stand, but her feet got tangled with Eva's, and she fell back onto the cushion with a gasp.

“Stop her!” Jeremy yelled. “Don't let her get away!”

He scrambled up, swaying a little. Then he pointed across the room at Cherise. “She killed Sandy!”

chapter 27
 

“H
e's crazy!” Cherise cried.

“She killed Sandy,” Jeremy repeated, rubbing the side of his head. “She did it!”

Tania stared at him in shock.

Keith backed toward the door, carrying the camcorder.

Eva stood up slowly. Her gaze skipped back and forth between Jeremy and Cherise.

Cherise stayed on the couch, her face flushed.

An angry red bruise had appeared on the side of Jeremy's forehead. But his eyes were clear and they never left Cherise's face.

“He's crazy!” Cherise repeated. Her voice shook with fear. “Don't listen to him! He didn't say a word to me. He just broke into my house, carrying
a knife. This knife! I tried to talk to him, to ask him what he was doing, but he didn't say anything. He just kept coming at me!”

Jeremy started to speak, but Cherise wouldn't let him. “He stormed in here like some kind of monster,” she said. “Then he suddenly yelled, 'This is for Tania!' And he tried to stab me.”

“That's a total lie!” Jeremy shouted. “That knife isn't mine—it's hers!”

“That's not true!” Cherise screamed. “Tania, please, call the police!”

“Go ahead, Tania,” Jeremy agreed. “Call them.”

Tania stared at him as if he
were
crazy.

“Don't worry,” Jeremy assured her. “I'll tell them exactly what happened. I'll tell all of you. Don't you want to know the truth?”

“Don't listen to him,” Cherise pleaded. “Please, we have to get him out of here. I'm afraid!”

“Afraid of what?” Jeremy asked. “You have the knife.”

“And I'm not letting go of it, either,” Cherise cried. “Not while you're here.”

Jeremy turned to Eva and the others. “Cherise called me and asked me to come over to her house,” he told them. “A few seconds after I got here, she saw you guys piling out of Keith's van. And then she screamed.”

“Because you were going to kill me,” Cherise insisted angrily.

Jeremy ignored her. “I didn't know what was going on,” he continued. “Then she screamed
again and grabbed that knife off the coffee table. I was practically paralyzed.”

Cherise tossed her head in frustration. “It's not true. It's not! What are you waiting for, Tania? Do you want us all to die?”

“Don't you want to know what happened next?” Jeremy asked. “She threw herself down on the floor and screamed again. She was posing with that knife, acting terrified. But I was clear across the room! Don't you get it? She was trying to make it look as if I tried to kill her!”

Jeremy raked a hand through his hair, wincing as his arm hit the bruise on his forehead. “That's when I finally unfroze and started to run. I didn't see you guys at first, but when I did, all I wanted was for you to get away.”

“That's a lie! A lie!” Cherise stepped backward, bumped against the coffee table and sat down hard. “Please! You can't believe him. It's a lie!”

As Cherise began to stand, Eva edged farther away from her. “No. Wait.”

Cherise snapped her head toward Eva, her blue eyes startled. “Jeremy is telling the truth,” Eva declared. “Cherise, I know you're lying.”

chapter 28
 

C
herise stood up, shaking her head violently. “No! Why are you saying that, Eva? It's his word against mine. How can you …”

She paused. “Wait a second. Is this another one of your stupid psychic flashes?”

“They're not stupid,” Tania declared. “That's what made us come over here in the first place. Eva knew something was wrong. She felt it, and she was right.”

Cherise rolled her eyes. “Oh, please! I don't believe in that garbage. And nobody else will, either.”

“It doesn't matter,” Eva said. “I don't need to be psychic to know you're lying, Cherise.”

Cherise's eyes narrowed. “What's that supposed to mean?”

“Tania already told us that it was Jeremy's idea for her to pretend to be dead,” Eva explained. “That was his plan for Tania to get revenge—by playing a cruel joke on us.”

“So?” Cherise asked.

“So Jeremy wouldn't murder Sandy,” Eva went on. “He knew that Tania was already getting her revenge.”

“Hey, that's right,” Keith remarked. “Sandy was a total wreck, worrying about Tania.”

Cherise bit her lip. “But—if it was Jeremy's idea, then why did he break in here and try to kill me?”

“I didn't,” Jeremy insisted.

Eva nodded. “That's right—he didn't.”

“How do you know that?” Cherise demanded.

“You say Jeremy didn't say a word to you? He just burst into the house and attacked you?” Eva asked.

“Yes!” Cherise cried. “That's the truth.”

Eva stared hard at her. “But before, you told us that he said he would kill me, too. And how did you know about the bleacher railing?” she asked. “You just said you were sorry about the railing breaking. But how did you know about it?”

“What?” Cherise's face went blank for a moment. Then a deep flush spread across it. “The … the railing?” she stammered.

“What railing?” Jeremy asked, confused.

“See?” Eva said to Cherise. “Jeremy doesn't even know about the railing breaking off. So the only way
you
could know is if you sawed that railing yourself!”

“Whoa,” Keith murmured.

Eva kept staring at Cherise. “You did it, didn't you?” she asked. “You sawed the railing and you made everything else up!”

Cherise started to say something, then stopped.

“Admit it, Cherise,” Eva insisted.

“Yes, admit it,” Tania agreed. “Stop accusing my brother of trying to kill you!”

“Okay, okay!” Cherise cried. “I sawed the railing.” She sat down on the coffee table again, holding the knife in her lap. “Feel better now, Eva?” she asked bitterly.

“Why? Why did you do it?” Eva shrieked.

“Oh, please—drop the innocent act!” Cherise tossed her head, glaring around the room. “I hate you all! You think you're so smart! Hey, let's keep a secret from poor, dumb Cherise. Won't that be a kick? The way you were laughing at me behind my back. Don't think I didn't catch on!”

“Catch on to what?” Jeremy asked.

“Keith's other video project—the candid video project, as if you didn't know,” Cherise sneered.

“Huh?” Tania cried. “What video project?”

“You all knew that Sandy
pretended
to like me—just for the candid video,” Cherise went on. “You all humiliated me, laughed at me—just for a stupid videotape!”

“What candid video?” Jeremy demanded.

Eva turned to Keith, totally confused. “Keith? What is she talking about?”

Keith adjusted his camcorder, not meeting their eyes. “Cherise is right,” he admitted finally. “Sandy and I were secretly making another tape.”

“And everybody knew about it but me!” Cherise cried.

“Wrong,” Keith told her. “Only Sandy and I knew about it. I had the camcorder hidden. Sandy was pretending to like Cherise. But it wasn't real. It was all for the video.”

Cherise burst into tears.

Keith turned away, ashamed.

“I thought Sandy really cared about me,” Cherise sobbed. “I thought he really loved me. But it was all an act. All for a stupid video!”

Eva felt awful for Cherise. “You killed Sandy, didn't you?” she asked softly.

Cherise nodded, still crying. “I was so humiliated. So furious! Yes, I killed Sandy. I murdered him!”

Tania gasped. Jeremy put an arm around his sister's shoulder.

Eva let out a shaky sigh. At least we know, she thought. At least it's over.

Cherise took a deep breath and wiped the tears off her face. “Then, after I killed him, I decided to go after the rest of you. I'd make you sorry for laughing at me. For ruining my life. I'd pay you back, one by one. You were next, Eva. When Keith
said you'd be up in the bleachers today, I sawed the railing.”

Eva shuddered, remembering that terrifying moment when she was hanging by her fingertips.

“Next would be Leslie. Or maybe Keith. I hadn't decided,” Cherise went on. “But I figured I could pin the blame on Jeremy by saying that he tried to kill me, too.”

She laughed bitterly. “I didn't know that Jeremy and Tania had cooked up her disappearance. I didn't know that Tania already told you guys that Jeremy was in on the joke.”

No one spoke for a minute.

Then Eva turned to the others. “Let's call the police,” she said softly.

“What good will that do?” Cherise asked. She'd stopped crying and her eyes had turned cold. “You don't have any proof that I killed Sandy.”

“Are you kidding?” Jeremy asked. “You just told us.”

“So? Why should anyone believe you instead of me?” Cherise demanded. “Especially when you don't have a single way to prove it. I'll deny it all. And it's my word against yours.”

Keith cleared his throat. “I'm afraid you're wrong, Cherise.”

Eva turned to him, surprised.

“Oh?” Cherise asked coldly. “Exactly how am I wrong, Keith?”

Without a word, Keith held the camcorder up and tapped it with a fingernail.

Cherise's face drained of color.

“Yeah, you get the picture now, don't you?” Keith asked her. “I've had the camcorder turned on the whole time. I have your whole confession on tape.”

Tania sighed with relief. “Thank goodness!”

Cherise jumped to her feet, scattering a stack of magazines onto the floor. “Give me that camcorder, Keith!”

“Sorry, Cherise. No way.” Keith began backing toward the door.

Cherise raced ahead and beat him to it, blocking his path. “Give it to me!” she shouted.

Eva took a step toward her.

Cherise slashed the air between them with the knife.

Eva stopped, terrified.

Cherise swung back toward Keith. “Give it to me, Keith.” She advanced on him, raising the knife. “You're not leaving the house with it. I swear you're not!”