Who Killed the Homecoming Queen? Page 5

  Hearing footsteps behind her, Eva opened her eyes and turned around.

  Two police officers strode toward them, tense expressions on their faces. “We got a call about an accidental death,” the policewoman said grimly. “The ambulance is on its way.”

  She peered around. “You want to show us the body?”

  Eva swallowed. “We can’t,” she murmured, her voice shaking. “It’s … I mean, she’s not here.”

  The second officer frowned. “Maybe you better explain that,” he told her.

  “We can’t,” Eva repeated.

  The policeman’s frown deepened. “Is this some kind of prank?”

  “No!” Eva exclaimed. “How can you say that? Tania is dead!” She pointed. “We set her down. Right there. Then Keith went to call you, and Sandy went with him. Jeremy ran off, and I …”

  “Whoa, slow down,” the woman officer said. Turning to her partner, she told him to call off the ambulance, then go have a look around.

  The officer began climbing down from the bleachers, using a cellular phone to make the call.

  Sandy and Jeremy followed him. Down on the field, the three of them went in different directions, searching for Tania’s body.

  The first officer turned back to Eva and Keith. “Tell me what happened,” she ordered. “But start at the beginning.”

  Keith cleared his throat and began to talk about the video. Eva barely listened. Tears kept flooding her eyes as she remembered how pale Tania looked. How her blond hair flew back and forth when Jeremy shook her.

  She’s dead, Eva told herself. And now her body’s gone. We left her lying here alone and now she’s disappeared!

  Eva took a deep breath and wiped her face. As she did, she glanced up.

  Leslie stood at the top of the bleachers, gazing down. The wind swept her long hair back from her face, and Eva could clearly see her expression.

  Leslie was smiling.

  A chill ran up Eva’s spine. The chill she always felt when she sensed that something was wrong.

  Does Leslie know something? she wondered.

  “Look!” Eva cried, interrupting Keith’s story. She pointed up at Leslie. “If you want to know what happened to Tania, try asking her!”

  As the policewoman glanced up, Leslie began to edge down the row of seats.

  “Hey!” the officer called.

  Leslie spun and ran toward the end of the bleachers, her shoes slapping loudly on the concrete.

  “Stop her!” the officer shouted.

  chapter 14

  The officer ran off, leaping to the ground and sprinting around behind the bleachers. Eva could hear her calling to her partner as she ran.

  “What’s Leslie doing up there?” Keith asked. “Do you think she—”

  “I don’t know what I think.” Eva felt herself shaking so hard her teeth chattered. She stumbled toward the bleachers and sat down. “Leslie had a look on her face. Such a weird smile.”

  The police officers returned. Leslie walked between them, looking very frightened. Jeremy came up behind them, a confused expression on his face.

  “We need you to tell us what you saw,” the policewoman said to Leslie.

  “I didn’t see anything!” Leslie declared.

  “Then why did you run?” the policeman asked.

  “Because I was scared,” Leslie explained. “I mean, I’m just standing up there, right? Then all of a sudden Eva is pointing at me. And two cops start chasing me like I’m some kind of criminal!”

  “What were you doing up there?” Eva asked.

  “I wanted to see how the video was going. Okay?” Leslie’s face flushed. “I couldn’t help it. I know I’m not in it, but I couldn’t stay away.” She shrugged. “When I got here, all I saw was a bunch of people running around in a panic.”

  “Do you know what happened to Tania’s body?” the policewoman asked.

  “I told you, I …” Leslie broke off, her eyes wide in surprise. “What?” she gasped. “Tania’s body? What are you talking about?”

  “Tania is dead,” Eva told her. Her voice breaking, she described what had occurred. “Are you sure you didn’t see what happened to her, Leslie?”

  Stunned, Leslie shook her head. “I told you, I saw everybody running around. I never saw Tania.”

  Is Leslie telling the truth? Eva wondered. She seems totally shocked about Tania. But after all, she does want to be an actress.

  As the police began asking more questions, Eva started to shiver. The rain had picked up and so had the wind.

  But it’s not the weather, Eva thought.

  Something’s wrong, I can feel it.

  She glanced around at the group. Leslie still seemed shocked. So did Keith. Jeremy stared at the ground, a dazed expression on his face.

  Everybody’s having the right reaction, Eva thought.

  But someone is faking.

  Someone here is lying.

  Eva shivered again. Her weird feelings usually just told her when something wasn’t right.

  This time, it told her that someone was lying.

  But who? she wondered, glancing around again. Who is it? And what are they lying about?

  Footsteps pounded loudly on the concrete. Sandy suddenly appeared. Rain plastered his light-brown hair to his head, and he gasped for breath.

  “Where have you been?” Jeremy demanded.

  “Looking …” Sandy bent over and gulped in some air. “Looking for Tania.” He took some more deep breaths, then straightened up and slicked the rain out of his hair. “I thought she’d be waiting in my car, but …”

  Jeremy’s head snapped up. “What did you say?”

  “How could she be waiting in your car?” Keith asked. “She’s dead, remember?”

  Sandy glanced away, looking uncomfortable.

  Jeremy stepped toward him. “You know something, Sandy! What is it? What are you hiding?”

  “If you know something, you’d better tell us,” the policewoman warned. “I don’t need to tell you this is serious. You could get in a lot of trouble if you don’t tell us everything.”

  “Okay, okay, I’ll tell you!” Sandy wiped rainwater from his hair again. “Look, this wasn’t supposed to happen, okay?”

  “What wasn’t?” Jeremy demanded. “What are you talking about?”

  “It started out as a joke. Tania and I cooked it up,” Sandy explained. “The idea was, I’d strangle her for the movie. She’d pretend to be dead, and I’d go along with it. We just wanted to shake everyone up. For fun.”

  “Huh?” Eva let out a shocked cry.

  “You and Tania decided to play games with my movie?” Keith cried.

  “Yeah, for fun,” Sandy repeated.

  Eva gaped at him. “That’s a terrible joke,” she declared. “How could you and Tania do something so awful?”

  “Never mind that. Where is she?” Jeremy asked. “Where is Tania?”

  “That’s the problem,” Sandy told him. “See, after everybody got all crazy, Tania was supposed to jump up and yell ‘surprise!’”

  “But she didn’t,” Eva reminded him. “And besides, Jeremy ran down and grabbed her. He would have known if she was faking!”

  Jeremy shook his head. “I was too freaked to really check her,” he said. “She was so still!”

  “Right—and that was part of the plan,” Sandy explained. “I figured she was really into the joke, you know? I mean, she wasn’t going to jump up until everybody started running around like crazy anyway.”

  Jeremy glared at him. “So when did you decide this wasn’t such a great joke?”

  “When Tania disappeared. That wasn’t part of the plan.” Sandy gazed around as if he were looking for Tania to suddenly reappear. “But she really is gone! I don’t know where she is!”

  Eva stared at Sandy. Is he lying? I can’t tell. He looks confused and worried, but so does everybody else. Someone is faking, but who?

  And what happened to Tania? Did she really die?

  “
Go back a couple of steps,” the policewoman told Sandy. “This strangling scene for the video—you and Tania both decided to pretend you’d really killed her?”

  Sandy nodded. “She’d act dead. Then I’d check her and start screaming. We just wanted to freak everyone out. But—”

  “Okay, so you checked her,” the officer said. “Was she breathing then?”

  “Yes.” Sandy paused, frowning. “Well …”

  “Well, what?” Jeremy demanded. “Was she breathing or not?”

  “I think she was,” Sandy replied shakily.

  “How could you not know?” Jeremy wailed.

  “Because I was only pretending and I didn’t check very carefully.” Sandy closed his eyes. “I thought she was breathing, but … but now I’m not sure.”

  “You did it!” Jeremy accused.

  Sandy’s eyes snapped open.

  “You did it!” Jeremy repeated. “You strangled her! You killed my sister!”

  Stunned, Sandy backed away.

  Jeremy leaped at him, pounding him with his fists. “You killed Tania!” he screamed in a fury. “You strangled her! Then your other girlfriend came and got rid of the body, right?”

  “My other …” Sandy started to say.

  But the words choked in his throat as Jeremy’s hands clamped tightly around his neck and began to strangle him.

  chapter 15

  “Whoa! 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

  White 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 somebody, 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.