[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.”“Something’s happened,” Marilyn interrupted quietly, taking a seat on Trixie’s desk chair.“Something terrible.”Oh, God, Echo thought.And Trixie said, “No! I don’t want to hear this! I don’t want to know about it.Let’s just go to the mall and go shopping and pretend that everything is just fine.Can we do that, please? Please?”Deejay shook her head.Wispy dark tendrils clung to the round, smooth cheeks.“Can’t, Trixie.There are cops down there, checking every car that leaves campus.We can’t pretend that’s normal.”Trixie sighed heavily, leaned against the closet door.“Okay, then, okay! What is it? Is it really bad?”Ruthanne nodded heavily.There were pain lines around her mouth and, as she spoke, she bent and began rubbing her left leg.“It’s horrible.The biker attacked a runner on the river path.Gabriella Stone, the tall, really thin girl on the relay team.Do you know her?”Trixie and Echo both shook their heads negatively.“Is she okay?” Echo asked, her voice unsteady.Ruthanne began rubbing the right leg.“No.She’s dead.She was crushed against a tree.”Trixie burst into tears, and Echo sagged against the wall.Another one! Another victim had died at the hands of the Mad Biker.And Echo had known the whole time who the guilty party was.If only she hadn’t waited for Trixie to leave, if she’d called the police first thing this morning, maybe Gabriella Stone would still be alive.“That’s why we were late,” Deejay explained.“When I pulled my car out onto Campus Drive, an ambulance was blocking the way, and traffic was backed up.There were policemen there, and I asked one what had happened.He told us.Didn’t want to, I could tell, but I made a pest of myself.Then I turned around and came the back way.Like I said, the cops are checking every car that leaves campus.That’s why the traffic was backed up.”Sickened by the news, Echo began shaking from head to toe.She moved backward until her legs bumped against her bed, and then sank down on it.She couldn’t think, didn’t want to think.Couldn’t feel, either.She went completely numb.No one said anything for a while.Then, “Pruitt’s going to be really bummed,” Deejay said quietly.“He knew her.”Echo’s head snapped up.“Pruitt knew Gabriella Stone?” Like he knew Nancy Becker?“Yeah.They were on the debating team together first semester.Fighting for the same slot.Gabriella got it, so Pruitt dropped out.He didn’t seem at all upset about it.You know Pruitt.He doesn’t get wrecked over stuff like that.”That wasn’t the Pruitt Echo knew.The Pruitt she knew got very “wrecked” when things didn’t go his way.Marilyn spoke up, her face very white.“Pruitt knew Nancy Becker and Gabriella Stone?” she asked Deejay.“Yeah.Why?”“Well, don’t you think it looks a little like Pruitt is under some kind of curse? Maybe Echo should stay away from him.”Like I have a choice, Echo thought.“A curse? Marilyn, come off it.Lots of people on campus knew Nancy and Gabriella.They were both popular.I still say Echo is safer with Pruitt around than she is alone.So don’t make her afraid of him.”Echo laughed to herself.Too late.But she wasn’t afraid of him because of any curse.She was afraid of him because she knew, better than anyone, what he was capable of.Gabriella Stone hadn’t known that, or she would have let Pruitt have that slot on the debating team.Then Deejay astounded Echo by saying, “Trixie, if you’re coming with us, you’d better fix your face.Your eyes are a mess.”Echo lifted her head to stare.“You’re not still going to the mall, are you? After what’s happened?”Wiping her eyes with a tissue, Trixie stood up and grabbed her purse, saying bitterly, “We’ll be a lot safer at the mall than we are here.I think you should come with us, Echo.You look too upset to stay here alone.”But Echo wasn’t going anywhere.Gabriella Stone’s horrible death could have been prevented.There’d be no trips to the mall or anywhere else until the police had been clued in on the biker’s real identity [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]