Halloween Party (9 page)

“You call the police,” Philip told Justine. “I'll see what the situation is.”

“Wait, Uncle Philip!” said Justine. “No police—yet.” Philip nodded and together with the others they ran up the two flights of stairs to the attic.

“It's in here,” said Terry, leading the others to the closet. He braced himself for what he knew he was going to see and pulled open the door.

There was nothing at all inside the closet.

“I don't believe this!” he cried.

“Where is he?” asked David at the same moment.

“Very funny,” said Trisha angrily. “For your information, Terry, you're not supposed to pull tricks on members of your
own team!
”

“It's not a trick!” Terry protested. “I saw him—we both did!”

“He was here,” David added. “And blood was
dripping.” He bent down and touched the closet floor. “It's dry,” he said, sounding astonished.

“I guess I'm not the only one who prepares ‘surprises,' ” said Justine with a little smile. “Come on, Uncle Philip, let's go back downstairs.”

The others were about to follow them when Niki came into the room.

“Has anyone seen Terry?” she asked. Then she spotted him. “What's going on? What are all of you doing in here?”

Quickly the others explained what had happened. “So we get up here,” Les finished, “and there's not only no body, the closet's completely empty. Obviously, they made the whole thing up.”

“Did you make it up?” Niki asked Terry, her dark eyes searching his face.

“
No,
” Terry repeated. “I saw the body. It was real. I don't know where it is now, but it was here.”

“Come to think of it,” said Ricky, starting to sound worried, “I haven't seen Alex for quite a while. Has anyone?”

“Maybe you just thought you saw something,” said Niki. “There are a lot of shadows in here.”

“What we saw was real,” said David. “It was Alex.”

“Then if he was—like you say— We've got to find him!” said Niki. “Come on, Terry, let's look in the rest of the rooms.”

No one felt like searching alone, so the six of them—Terry, Niki, Les, David, Ricky, and Trisha—carefully checked behind the boxes in the attic, then crept down the stairs and began to go through the rooms on the second floor.

“This is Justine's room,” said Niki, opening the door. “Maybe he just—” She broke off with a shriek.

The others crowded closer. Lying on Justine's bed was the Silver Prince.

But as soon as they got near, it became clear it wasn't Alex.

Ricky approached the bed first. “Hey!” he said. “This is just—”

“A dummy!” Terry finished for him. The object lying on the bed was Alex's silver costume, stuffed full of rags. The “blood” Terry and David had seen was streamers of red cellophane that had moved slightly to resemble dripping. In that light it was hard for Terry to believe he had been fooled so badly.

It had been so real that he even imagined the sound of the blood dripping onto the floor. What an idiot he had been!

“Gotcha!” Alex jumped out of the bathroom, dressed in a blue robe, laughing so hard he could hardly breathe.

“Are you all right?” Niki asked, wide-eyed.

“He's fine!” said Terry in disgust. His voice was shaking again, but not from fear, from anger. “That was a rotten trick!” he told Alex. “We thought something had really happened to you!”

“I'm touched by your concern,” said Alex with a pleased smirk. “Nice work, David.”

“It did look pretty real,” David said, also smirking.

“You mean you were in on it?” Terry asked David, furious.

“Sure he was,” said Alex. “How else could we convince you wimps to waste all that time searching for my body? While you were running around trying to find the Silver Prince, the rest of the jock team finished the treasure hunt. Too bad, guys, you lose again!”

Niki turned to Alex, angry now herself. “That was really mean, Alex!” she said. “I never thought you could do something so rotten!”

For a moment Alex looked hurt, then he smirked again. “Hey,” he said. “Don't you know all's fair in love and—Halloween tricks? Besides, Niki,” he added, “I gave you plenty of chances to join the winning team.”

“Come on, Terry,” said Niki, grabbing his hand. “Let's go back to the party.”

“Why don't you all clear out,” said Alex. “I've got to change back into my costume—so my team can collect the prize for the treasure hunt.”

As they walked back down to the living room, Terry's head was swimming. He liked surprises. But Alex's little trick had left him shaken.

I guess I still care about Alex, Terry thought. Otherwise I would have been able to think more clearly when I discovered that dummy in his costume hanging in the closet.

In the living room Murphy and Angela were dancing in the dim glow from the electric candles. The “treasures” were piled up on a table by the fireplace.

“Want some punch?” Terry asked Niki.

“Sounds great,” she said. “I'll save you a seat. I need to talk to you.”

Terry brought two cups of punch and then settled in the loveseat next to Niki. She was every bit as beautiful as she had been at the beginning of the evening, but her dark eyes were now narrowed with concern.

“Still upset about what Alex did?” Terry asked her.

“Not really,” said Niki. “It's something else. Remember
when I told you what I saw Justine saying the other day?”

Terry stopped her in surprise. “You don't still think she's up to something?” he said. “Justine's the only person at the party who hasn't done anything weird.”

“Let me tell you what I found,” Niki went on. “And tell me what you think. While you were on the treasure hunt, I went into Justine's room—”

“You were snooping in her room?”

“She didn't say any part of the house was off-limits,” Niki reminded him. “Besides, I was curious. Terry, she doesn't have any of the normal high school stuff in her room—”

“Well, why should she?” said Terry. “She only moved here a few months ago. Besides, she's lived all over the world. She's probably more interested in stuff she got in her travels than pennants or school colors.”

“She doesn't have things from her travels either,” said Niki. “Her room is practically bare, except for one thing—”

She told Terry about the hidden closet and the clothes she'd found there, along with the picture of Justine and the older man.

“Right,” said Terry. “Well, there's a simple explanation. Justine's a CIA agent and the guy's a Russian spy.”

“Will you be serious!” said Niki, but she was laughing too. “Look, I know it sounds crazy, but nothing I found in Justine's room makes any sense. And I also found some prescription bottles made out to Enid Cameron.”

“That's her CIA name,” said Terry. “And that's why she's having the party. She's going to ask everyone on the guest list to be a spy.”

“Maybe you're not so far off,” said Niki. “Terry, I really think Justine leads some kind of double life.”

“Well, maybe she does,” said Terry. “But so what? If you're really that bugged about it, ask her. She's a very nice girl, and I'm sure she wouldn't want anybody to be suspicious of—”

He broke off as Justine rang her bell again. The dinging came from overhead, and all eyes turned to see Justine standing at the railing on the balcony above the living room, a gold foil-covered box on a table next to her.

“It's time to award the prize for the treasure hunt,” she said. “And I'm so happy it was such a success. Even if”—she paused and smiled mischievously—“there was a surprise or two even
I
hadn't planned on.”

Most of the kids applauded and cheered, and Justine made a small bow. “The prize is special chocolates from Paris,” she said. “Who would like to accept them for the winning team?”

“I will,” said Alex. He was back in costume, and handsome as ever as he slowly walked up the stairs to meet Justine.

“Perfect,” she said breathily. “Golden chocolates—for a Silver Prince.” She bent down to pick up the gold box, then staggered slightly and caught herself against the banister. Before she could hand the chocolates to Alex, the railing suddenly gave way—and with a bloodcurdling scream, Justine fell forward and plunged to the floor below!

S
he fell so fast, no one could move.

Her scream echoed off the high ceiling.

She landed hard on one of the dark crushed-velvet sofas beneath the balcony and didn't move.

Terry and the others ran to the sofa, too scared to speak.

Justine lay across the sofa, her eyes closed, her arm hooked crookedly over the sofa back.

Alex reached her before anyone else. “Justine!” he cried.

Her eyes opened and she slowly sat up.

“What happened?” she murmured, dazed.

Terry realized he'd been holding his breath. What can possibly happen next? he wondered.

“You fell,” Alex told Justine gently. “Are you all right?”

“I think so,” said Justine. “But how—”

“The banister—it just gave way,” Alex said.

“But how could it?” said Justine. “It's solid—we had all the woodwork checked when we moved in here.” She leaned against the cushion and gave a little gasp of pain. “My wrist—” she said.

“It may be sprained,” said Alex, taking it in his hands. “Do you have an elastic bandage?”

While Trisha and Angela went for the bandage, the other kids started to climb the stairs to inspect the place where the banister had broken. But Philip was already up there, and despite his sad clown's mask he looked furious.

“All right!” he said in a stronger voice than Terry had heard him use all evening. It stopped everyone cold. “Which one of you kids did this?”

“Did what?” asked Murphy. “The banister just—”

“It was sawed!” said Philip.

He held up one end of the broken railing, and everyone could see that it had been cleanly cut through.

“The jocks did it!” Ricky blurted out, backing down the stairs with everyone else. “We heard some of their tricks were going to be dangerous!”

“We didn't do anything!” snarled Murphy. “Admit it was you guys—because you can't stand to lose!”

“Are you totally crazy?” protested Les. “Why would we do such a stupid thing? In fact, why would anyone?”

“I can think of a reason,” said Alex, his face grim.

“Oh, yeah?” said Les. “What?”

“To make our team look bad,” he said, staring directly at Terry.

“Are you accusing me of something?” Terry asked. “If so, say so.”

“I'm not accusing anyone of anything,” said Alex. “I just think it's funny that right after your team loses the treasure hunt, something bad happens.”

“That's ridiculous!” said Terry. “When would we have had the time and privacy to do it? You're probably just covering up for doing it yourself! Isn't it enough that you had to cheat to win the treasure hunt? Do you want to kill someone too?”

Alex came down the last two stairs fast, breathing hard. “If you weren't an old friend,” he said, “I'd—”

“Yeah?” said Terry, angry at himself for letting this dispute happen, but unable to back down. “You'd what?”

“Nothing,” muttered Alex, deciding he'd be the one to let things chill out.

“Stop it! Can't you two stop it?” Niki was standing between them and shouting at both of them. “Something terrible has happened and all you two can do is fight about it!” She turned to Philip. “Mr. Cameron,” she said, “we all feel terrible about this. But I'm sure no one here could have done such a terrible thing.”

“Someone cut the banister,” said Philip, downstairs now, sitting beside his niece. “And nearly killed my niece.”

“Now, Uncle Philip,” Justine said placatingly. “Whoever it was couldn't have known I'd be the one to lean on the railing—” She put an arm around her uncle's shoulders. “I just feel so bad that it's spoiled the party. All I ever wanted was for everyone to have a good time.”

Philip stood and stepped away, shaking his head.

“Hey, no problem.” Alex was at her side on the couch and slipped his arm around her. “Nothing's spoiled. It's a great party.”

“Honest,” chimed in Angela, wrapping Justine's wrist. “None of the things that have gone wrong are your fault. We're all having a good time.”

“Really?” Justine asked in a tiny voice. “Thank you for saying so.”

Now everyone else crowded around Justine, telling her what a great party it was. Justine turned her smile back on in full force.

“Thank you all so much,” she said. “Maybe we just need a few minutes to catch our breath and relax, and then we'll get on with the party. After all, there are still plenty more surprises.” She paused and stood up, then glanced around. “I'm going upstairs for a few minutes to get myself together. I'll see you guys soon.”