Who Killed the Homecoming Queen? (8 page)

chapter 15
 

“W
hoa! Back off—
now!”
the policewoman shouted. She and her partner grabbed Jeremy and pulled him off Sandy. “Ease up!”

“Let me go!” Jeremy cried. “He killed her. He killed Tania!”

“Jeremy, stop!” Eva begged. “Please!”

Keith and Leslie shouted at him, too, but Jeremy ignored everyone.

He's so furious he wants to kill Sandy, Eva thought in horror. But it won't help Tania. It won't help anything!

Finally, the police wrestled Jeremy over to one of the bleacher seats.

Sandy staggered backward, holding his throat and gasping.

“Sandy!” Leslie cried. “Are you all right?” She ran to him and put her arms around him, holding him close. “Can you breathe okay? Can you talk?”

Sandy cleared his throat. “I'm okay,” he rasped.

Eva glanced at Jeremy. He had stopped resisting the police. But he stood tensely, breathing hard, clenching and unclenching his hands.

“Jeremy, we understand you're upset,” the officer told him. “But you have to get ahold of yourself and listen.” He put his hand on Jeremy's shoulder and pushed firmly.

Jeremy sat down, still looking tense.

“We think your sister walked away,” the officer declared. “We don't think she's dead.”

“What?” Jeremy shook his head. “I don't believe it. You didn't see her lying there. Besides, didn't you hear what Sandy said? He isn't sure if she was breathing!”

“We heard it all,” the policewoman assured him. “Now listen—bodies don't just disappear. This whole thing started out as a joke, remember?”

Jeremy nodded.

“And that's probably what this disappearance is,” the policewoman went on. “Some kind of joke.”

“But what if it's not?” Keith asked.

“If it's not, we'll get to the bottom of it,” the policewoman assured him. “But we think it is.”

Can she be right? Eva wondered.

The policewoman patted Jeremy's back. “When a prank gets out of hand like this, people get
upset,” she told him. “The important thing is for everyone to stay calm.”

Eva raised her eyes to look at Sandy. He stood with Leslie. She had her arm through his and was murmuring softly to him. But Sandy didn't seem to notice. He kept rubbing his throat, a stunned expression in his eyes.

Eva walked over to Jeremy. He sat with his shoulders slumped, staring at his feet.

Poor Jeremy, Eva thought. He was so happy a couple of days ago, talking about how he finally got a family.

And now he may have lost Tania.

Eva took Jeremy's hand and gave it a squeeze.

“All right, I think we're finished here,” the policewoman announced. She patted Jeremy on the back again. “Why don't we give you a ride home?” she suggested. “Your sister is probably there right now, enjoying a good laugh.”

Can that be true? Eva wondered again as she and Jeremy stood up. Is Tania really okay?

Fifteen minutes later, the police car dropped Eva off at her house. Eva thanked the driver, then raced up the walk and hurried inside.

No one home.

Eva dropped her book bag on the floor and pulled off her muddy sneakers. Then she crossed the hall and ran upstairs to her bedroom.

The police had dropped her off before taking
Jeremy home. She was desperate to call the Darmans' house and see if Tania really was there.

Wouldn't it be great if Tania were at home, laughing it up? she thought as she snatched up the bedside phone. Of course, I'll be totally furious with her. But I'll be so happy.

Eva quickly punched in the numbers and waited.

A steady
beep-beep-beep
sounded in her ear.

Busy.

Eva cut the connection, then dialed again.

Still busy.

What does that mean? she wondered. Is Tania trying to call me to let me know she's okay?

Hoping the phone would ring if she left it alone, Eva changed into dry jeans and a thick cotton sweater.

The phone stayed silent.

She brushed out her thick dark hair, then twisted it into a single braid that hung down her back.

Still no call from Tania.

Frustrated and impatient, she grabbed the phone and dialed again. Still busy.

What's going on? What
went
on? Did Tania play a joke or did she really disappear?

Did she really die?

As Eva paced her bedroom, she pictured Tania lying so still in front of the camera.

“The camera!” Eva gasped. Maybe the camcorder had stayed on the whole time. Keith left it on the tripod when we all ran off. Did he leave it running?

If he did, the whole thing would be on the video. We might be able to see what happened to Tania's body!

Eva grabbed the phone again and called Keith's house. He picked up on the first ring. “Jeremy?” he asked eagerly.

“No, it's Eva,” she told him. “I haven't heard from Jeremy, either. Or Tania. But listen, I had an idea. You know when you went to call the police, and I went running after Jeremy? Did you leave the camcorder on?”

“Hey, I had the exact same idea!” Keith cried. “I was just about to check the tape. Why don't you come over? I'll wait and we can watch it together.”

Eva hung up and raced downstairs. Please let the video show something, she thought as she drove to Keith's. Let it show Tania hopping to her feet and making a funny face at the camera.

Or someone coming and taking Tania's body away.

Anything! As long as we can find out what happened to her.

She pulled into Keith's driveway, and saw him standing in the open front door, waiting for her. She slammed the car door and hurried up to the house.

“Let's take a look,” Keith said. He turned and led her down the hall into a small room filled with video equipment and metal shelves stacked with tapes.

An overstuffed couch covered with throw pillows
stood in the middle of the room. Across from it was a huge television monitor.

Eva sat down while Keith fed the tape into the VCR. He punched the
PLAY
button, then joined her on the couch.

“Here goes,” he murmured.

Eva leaned forward tensely, eyes glued to the monitor.

What will it show? she wondered.

What happened to Tania?

chapter 16
 

W
hite dots danced on a black background as snow filled the television screen.

A loud crackling sound came from the speakers.

“What's wrong?” Eva asked.

“Nothing. It'll clear in a second,” Keith assured her. “It
think.”

They sat, watching the snowy screen and listening to the crackling sound. “Come on!” Keith urged. “Come on!”

The static remained.

“Fast forward it,” Eva told him.

“Yeah. Right.” Keith punched the control, but the screen didn't clear. He ejected the tape and checked it out. “Great,” he muttered, rolling his eyes. “Just great.”

“What is it?”

“The camcorder. It was jammed again, and I didn't know it.” Keith raked his hair in frustration. “We got nothing!”

Eva sighed in disappointment. “I thought for sure it would tell us what happened.”

“Me, too.” Keith flopped down on the couch beside her. “What do
you
think, Eva? Where's Tania?”

Eva shook her head. “I just don't know. I hope the police were right about it being a joke. But I have such a bad feeling about this whole thing. Anyway, if it
was
a joke, why hasn't she called me?”

“I'll try her house,” Keith said. He fumbled under a couch pillow and pulled out a cordless phone.

Eva could hear the busy signal the second he punched the last number. “Maybe it's Tania, trying to call here.”

“I wish.” Blushing, Keith punched the phone off and stood up. “I mean, I wish she was calling
some
body, not just me.”

Eva smiled. “It's okay, Keith. I know you've got a crush on her.”

“Everyone knows,” he said. “That's my problem.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, Tania is missing, maybe dead,” Keith said. “I'm … I was … crazy about her, and I feel
awful about what happened.” He shoved his hands in his pockets. “But I still have a video to do.”

“Oh.” Eva nodded. “The show must go on, huh? You have to get someone else to play Tania's part.”

“I can't help it,” he told her. “I feel terrible, but I
have
to finish the video. If I don't, I won't have anything to send to the film schools. It's really important.”

“So was Tania,” Eva declared.

“I know that!” Keith exclaimed. “That's why I'm so upset.”

Before Eva could reply, the door to the room opened and Jeremy burst in.

“Jeremy?” Eva jumped up, her heart pounding. “Where's Tania? Is she okay?”

“Was she at home like the cops thought?” Keith asked.

Jeremy shook his head. “She wasn't there. Her room looks the same as it did this morning. Tania hasn't been home at all!”

Eva's knees shook. She sat down quickly.

Tania is dead, she thought. She didn't go home. It wasn't a joke.

She's dead.

“I've been on the phone since I got back. I called everybody I could think of, all the numbers in her phone book.” Jeremy paced the room, his brown eyes frantic. “Nobody has seen her. Nobody knows where she is!”

“What about the cops?” Keith asked. “What did they say when they saw she wasn't at home?”

“The cops—ha!” Jeremy slammed a fist into his palm. “They still think the whole thing's a big joke!”

“They
can't”
Eva cried.

“Yeah, well, they do,” Jeremy insisted. “Or if it's not a joke, they think she ran away or something.”

“Ran away from home?” Eva shook her head. “Tania wouldn't do that.”

“That's what I told them,” Jeremy agreed. “All they say is sit tight, Jeremy. She'll show up. Like I can really sit around twiddling my thumbs while my sister's missing!”

Still pacing, Jeremy bumped into one of the metal shelves. The shelf wobbled. A pile of tapes slid off and clattered to the floor.

“Hey, careful,” Keith warned him, crossing the room to pick up the tapes. “Why don't you sit down and try to cool off?”

“You sound like the police,” Jeremy snapped. But he helped Keith gather the tapes and stack them back on the shelf.

Eva stayed on the couch, staring at the floor. She couldn't stop shivering even though the little room was warm and stuffy.

Something is so wrong. I can feel it.

She wished she could ignore it, but she'd had these feelings too many times before. She hated them, but she trusted them.

Somebody was lying earlier today, she thought. That's all I know.

“Come on, sit down,” Keith urged Jeremy after
they finished with the tapes. “Crashing around the room won't help anything. Let's talk. Maybe we can make some sense out of this whole thing.”

Jeremy shook his head. “I don't need to talk. I already know what happened. Sandy is a murderer.”

Eva stared at him. How could he possibly think that?

“What are you talking about?” Keith asked, shocked. “He's not a murderer. Sure, he can be a pain in the neck. But he's not a killer. I've known him my whole life.”

“You're wrong,” Jeremy insisted fiercely. “I
know
Sandy really killed Tania. You want to know how, right? Okay, I'll tell you. I'll tell you something I didn't tell the police.”

“What?” Eva cried. “What didn't you tell the police?”

chapter 17