Who Killed the Homecoming Queen? Read online

  “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

  Cherise 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!”

  Cherise raised the knife higher.

  “Cherise!” Tania shrieked.

  Jeremy kicked the magazines out of the way and raced across the room.

  Eva reached out, trying to grab Cherise’s arm.

  Too late.

  With a furious scream, Cherise plunged the knife toward Keith’s chest.

  Chapter 29

  “Noooo!” Jeremy bellowed.

  Tania and Eva both screamed.

  Keith raised the camcorder to shield himself.

  The knife clattered against the metal casing of the camera.

  And bounced out of Cherise’s hand. It landed on the living room rug.

  With a cry of anger, Cherise whirled around and dived for it.

  Eva kicked it away from Cherise’s grasping fingers.

  The knife spun across the rug, skidded under a chair, and banged up against the far wall.

  Furious, Cherise turned back to Keith and swung her fist at the camcorder.

  Keith shifted the camera to his other hand, raising it out of her reach.

  “Give me that!” Cherise shouted. “Give it to me!” She drew her arm back, ready to swing again.

  Jeremy caught her by the wrist, spun her around to face him and grabbed her by the shoulders. “Stop it!” he shouted into her face. He shook her, hard. “It’s over, Cherise. It’s over!”

  Cherise struggled, screaming and trying to hit him.

  Keith set the camera down and helped Jeremy drag her to the couch. When they pushed her down, she collapsed against the cushions, sobbing in fury.

  But she didn’t try to get up.

  Jeremy and Keith backed away from the couch, breathing hard.

  Cherise curled her feet up and buried her face in one of the pillows.

  Eva slowly let her breath out. It finally is over, she thought. She turned to Jeremy.

  Still breathing hard, he held his arm out.

  Eva hurried to his side and hugged him. Tania joined them. Then Keith slung his arms around the whole group.

  They stood that way for a moment, shocked and relieved.

  Keith finally broke the hug. “Now what?” he asked in a shaky voice.

  Eva turned to the couch. Cherise still lay curled up, her face in the pillow, crying softly.

  Eva sighed. “Now we call the police,” she told him sadly.

  When the two police officers arrived a few minutes later, Cherise had stopped crying. She sat stiffly on the couch, staring straight ahead, while the others explained what had happened.

  The officers were the same ones who had come when Tania disappeared. One sat in a chair near the couch, writing in a small spiral notebook. The other stood behind the couch, listening.

  They know part of the story, Eva thought. But not the worst part. Not the part about Sandy.

  “Cherise was trying to get back at us,” Eva told them. She sat on a footstool near the policewoman’s chair. “She thought we were laughing at her behind her back. She sawed the bleacher railing so I’d fall. You can go check it out. But before that …” She paused.

  The policewoman glanced up from her notebook. “Before that?”

  “She killed Sandy Bishop,” Tania said. “And she was going to kill Eva and Keith. And blame Jeremy for everything.”

  The policewoman gazed at Cherise. “Is that what happened, Cherise?”

  Cherise shrugged.

  “Is that a yes or a no?” the woman asked.

  “It’s a yes,” Keith declared. He sat cross-legged near the door, holding his camcorder. “Cherise admitted that she killed Sandy, and all the other stuff, too. We have her confession.”

  Both officers shifted their gaze to him.

  Keith hoisted the camera. “It’s all on tape.”

  The policewoman stared at the camcorder for a moment, then turned back to Cherise. “Is this true?” she asked.

  Cherise started to shrug again. Then her shoulders sagged and she let her breath out in a long sigh.

  Finally, she looked at the police officer. “Yes. I might as well admit it.” She gazed at the camcorder and her mouth twisted in a bitter smile. “It’s all on tape.”

  The officer finished writing and snapped her notebook closed. “Where are your parents?” she asked Cherise. “We have to call them. Then we’ll take you down to the station.”

  “They’re at a business convention downtown.” Sighing again, Cherise rose to her feet. “The number is on the refrigerator door.”

  While the policeman followed Cherise to the kitchen, the other officer carefully placed the knife into a plastic bag. Then she turned to the others. “We’re going to need statements from all of you,” she told them. “Come down to the station tomorrow and we’ll write them up for you to sign.”

  The officer and Cherise returned from the kitchen. “I made the call,” the man informed his partner. “Her parents will meet us there.”

  “Right. Let’s go.” With a nod to Eva and the others, the policewoman strode out of the living room. Her partner followed, his hand wrapped around Cherise’s arm.

  At the living room door, Cherise stopped and gazed back at them.

  Eva stared at her. What should I do? she wondered. Wave good-bye? Wish her good luck? What do you do when someone you know turns out to be a murderer?

  But before Eva could do anything, Cherise walked quickly through the doorway.

  “That was awful,” Tania murmured with a shiver as they heard the front door slam shut.

  Keith suddenly scrambled to his feet. “The cops forgot to take the tape!” he cried. “It’s still in the camcorder!”

  Clutching the camera, Keith dashed out of the living room and down the hall.

  He was back a few seconds later, still holding the camcorder. “They already left,” he announced.

  “It’s okay. We can take it to them,” Eva told him. “But before we do, let’s look at it.”

  “Good idea,” Keith agreed. He glanced around and spotted the VCR on a wall unit above the television. Quickly, he removed the tape from the camcorder, slid it into the VCR, and turned on the TV.

  “I hope the thing is in focus,” he muttered as he joined the others across the room. “It was starting to get dark. But I didn’t want to do anything to stop Cherise from talking.”

  “Ssh,” Tania told him. “It’s starting.”

  Bouncing snowflakes covered the television screen.

  Static crackled from the speakers.

  Everyone waited.

  But the snow and the static remained.

  Eva and Keith exchanged glances. “I don’t believe it!” he cried. “The camcorder jammed again.”

  About R.L. Stine

  R.L. Stine is the best-selling author in America. He has written more than one hundred scary books for young people, all of them bestsellers.

  His series include Fear Street, Ghosts of Fear Street and the Fear Street Sagas.

  Bob grew up in Columbus, Ohio. Today he lives in New York City with his wife, Jane, his teenage son, Matt, and his dog, Nadine.

  THE NIGHTMARES NEVER END … WHEN YOU VISIT

  Next …

  INTO THE DARK

  Paulette Fox refuses to let her blindness stop her from living a full life. But one thing she’s never done is fall in love—until now. Paulette knows Brad Jones is the only guy for her.

  Even when her friends see Brad commit a horrible crime, Paulette is sure that he’s innocent. Her friends tell her he’s out of control. That she will be his next victim. But Paulette knows that he would never hurt her.

  Is Paulette right about Brad? Or has her love put her in terrible danger?

  Students are
dying to get out of …

  FEAR HALL

  Don’t miss this shocking two-part story!

  FEAR HALL: THE BEGINNING

  The horror is just getting started …

  FEAR HALL: THE CONCLUSION

  Welcome back to the scariest dorm on campus.

  Nobody lives here for long!

  Come hang out at Fear Hall, where life is a scream!

  You can’t get the whole story unless you read both books!

  R.L. STINE

  Available from Archway Paperbacks

  Published by Pocket Books

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  COLLECTOR’S EDITIONS

  DO YOU DARE READ THEM ALL?

  THE BEGINNING

  The New Girl

  The Surprise Party

  The Overnight

  NIGHTMARES

  The Sleepwalker

  The Secret Bedroom

  Bad Dreams

  SECRETS

  The Confession

  What Holly Heard

  The Face

  DANGEROUS GIRLS

  The Rich Girl

  The Dare

  The Prom Queen

  EVIL POWERS

  Runaway

  The Mind Reader

  The Thrill Club

  SUMMER POWER

  Sunburn

  The Dead Lifeguard

  One Evil Summer

  DEADLY GAMES

  The Fire Game

  Night Games

  Truth or Dare

  LESSONS IN TERROR

  The Cheater

  College Weekend

  Final Grade

  CREATURES OF THE NIGHT

  First Scream

  Loudest Scream

  Last Scream

  THE HOUSE OF EVIL

  The First Honor

  The Second Horror

  The Third Honor

  From Archway Paperbacks

  Published by Pocket Books

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  Students are dying to get out of …

  Fear Hall

  Don’t miss this shocking two-part story!