The Accident (11 page)

Megan, watching in agony, knew the exact moment when her mother recognized the red-and-silver bike lying on the ground. With a half scream, half moan, Connie Logan raced for the back door and out of the house.

There was time for him to stop, to get out of the way. And he used his brakes, I saw him. Why didn’t he stop?

Thomas couldn’t give her any answers. He was unconscious, bleeding from the nose. Although the ambulance attendants said nothing as they gently lifted him onto a stretcher and took him away, accompanied by his weeping mother, their faces were grim.

As the ambulance pulled away, Megan felt the same horrible wrenching sensation that had torn at her when she’d entered the mirror for the final switch. What was happening to her family? First her mother, now Thomas.

The sounds of the street, the birds singing as if something terrible hadn’t just taken place, the boat motors out on the lake, the small crowd whispering about the accident, it all seemed vague and distant, as if it were taking place at the far end of some long, dark tunnel.

Megan cried soundlessly, seeing Thomas’s limp, broken body being lifted onto the stretcher.
You have to be okay, Thomas, you have to.

Although she needed desperately to get to the Medical Center, she stayed behind to wait for Juliet and tell her what had happened. She was about to go into the house to wait when she saw Juliet standing on the corner, watching the ambulance shriek down Lakeside Boulevard.

“Thomas has been hurt,”
Megan said quickly, anxious to get going.
“Did you see it happen? Where’s Justin?”

Juliet nodded. “I saw it. Justin had to drop me off at the library. He had some stuff to do there. I walked the rest of the way. How bad is Thomas hurt?”

“Bad. I’m going to the hospital. You’d better come, too.”

“I will. I’ll call Justin at the library. He won’t mind coming to get me when he finds out why.”

He didn’t. While they were waiting for him, Juliet asked Megan, “Your party won’t be canceled now, will it?”

Megan was stunned.
“The party? Cancel the party? Juliet, Thomas could
die
! You don’t think I care about that stupid party
now,
do you? I don’t
care
if it’s cancelled.”

“You don’t mean that,” Juliet protested. “I mean, maybe you think you do now, because you’re upset. But believe me, you’ll be sorry later, when Thomas is okay and you didn’t get to celebrate your sixteenth birthday. I know how that feels, Megan.”

What was taking Justin so long?
“Juliet, I know you were really disappointed about your party, and I’m sorry about that, but I just don’t feel the same way you do. Did. Do. I can have a party any time, but I only have one brother.”

When she arrived at the hospital, Megan hovered near her distraught parents, awaiting news of Thomas’s condition. Slowly, she went over the accident in her mind. The red-and-silver bike was new. Those brakes should have worked. Why hadn’t they? Had someone deliberately destroyed Thomas’s brakes the way Jenny’s steering mechanism had been destroyed? Or was it really just, a simple, tragic accident?

No. It wasn’t. Or there would have been no tom-tom drawing.

Who would hurt a little kid?

Not Vicki. Even she wouldn’t do something that nasty.

Unless … unless she was totally crazy. Out of her mind.

Because that’s what it would take for someone to target an entire family. And wasn’t that just what someone was doing?

Megan watched Juliet take a seat beside Megan’s mother.
She doesn’t belong there.
I
belong there.

It seemed years before the doctor arrived to tell them that Thomas would be a patient at Lakeside Medical Center for some time. He had a fractured pelvis, a broken leg, and a concussion. He was out of surgery now and would sleep all night. They might as well go home and get some rest.

Connie stayed, but she sent her husband and Juliet home, telling them they would have to take her place at Thomas’s bedside the next day, so they needed a good night’s rest.

When they got home, Megan’s father went straight to bed, while Juliet checked the answering machine in the kitchen to see if Justin had called.

There were messages from Hilary, from Cappie, and from Mrs. Tweed at Cut It Again, Sam, informing Miss Logan that the operator scheduled to do Miss Logan’s hair on Saturday afternoon had taken ill, but another operator could take care of her beauty needs at two o’clock if that would be all right. If not, could Miss Logan please give them a call?

“
I told you to cancel that appointment,”
Megan said.

Juliet shrugged and concentrated on additional messages. “Oh, golly, Megan, I forgot,” she said as Justin’s deep voice began speaking. “I’ll do it tomorrow, first thing, I promise.”

Megan didn’t feel like listening to Justin tell Juliet he missed her or he loved her or whatever he was telling her these days. All those things he’d never told Megan. She went upstairs, mentally preparing the speech that would put an end to this nightmare. Surely Juliet would understand that with a second member of her family injured, it was now time for Megan to become herself again.

But when Juliet came upstairs a few minutes later, she surprised Megan with, “Wait till you see what I’ve got!” Swinging the denim shoulder bag over the bed, she turned it upside down and dumped out its contents. Out came six or seven sheets of folded construction paper and a handful of brightly colored crayons.

It took a minute or so for the booty to register. Then Megan said,
“What is this? Where did you get all this stuff?”

Juliet grinned. “In Donny Richardson’s locker. This is the first chance I’ve had to show it to you.”

“Donny? You broke into his locker? Juliet, what if someone had seen you? Someone like Donny, for instance? If he’s the one behind all this terrible stuff and he saw you —”

“Megan, I didn’t do it as
you
,” Juliet said. “I did it as
me.
So no one could have seen me.”

“As
you
?”
Megan asked.
“What do you mean, as
you
?”

“Megan, I’m still me. I told you that before. I can leave your body if I need to. And I needed to. It was the only way I could check out Donny’s locker.”

“You can leave? Where was my body while you were going through Donny’s locker?”

Juliet laughed. “Asleep in the school library with your head down on the desk.”

She can leave? Just like that? Whenever she wants?

“Listen, never mind that now,” Juliet said. She gathered up the paper and crayons. “I’m going to take this stuff and the drawings you found to the sheriff tomorrow. I figure, if he arrests Donny, things will calm down. And then,” she added brightly, “your parents will let you have your party. Especially now that we know Thomas is going to be okay.”

“Juliet, I—”

“Don’t thank me, Megan. My goodness, I owe you so much! This is just my tiny little way of thanking you.” Stuffing the colored paper and crayons back into the shoulder bag, she added, “I told you everything would be okay. And it will be. Now I’ve got to go eat something. I’m starved. Night, Megan.”

Her step as she left the room was light and happy.

I should feel like that, too. What Juliet did today,
w
hat she found, doesn’t that mean an end to all of this? If the sheriff arrests Donny tomorrow, and why wouldn’t he, I won’t have to worry about something happening to Juliet before Saturday at midnight. I’ll still be here, in this awful place, but it’ll only be for two more days and then it will all be over.

So why didn’t she feel better? Because she didn’t. Not at all.

W
HEN
M
EGAN CAME INSIDE
the next morning after a long, lonely night out on the lake, Juliet had already gone.

She must have left early to talk to Sheriff Toomey. Will what she has to show him stop this awful nightmare? It
has
to!

The room was a mess. There were clothes everywhere, and the closet door stood open. Inside something black and very pink caught Megan’s attention.

Megan moved to the closet. Hanging between her new party dress and a pink robe was a short, black, strapless dress with a hot-pink cummerbund and a full skirt. Not the kind of dress anyone wore to a pizza place or the mall or a movie. This was very definitely a party dress.

Where had it come from?

I would never wear a dress like this. It’s too sophisticated. More Juliet’s speed than mine.

But Juliet wasn’t going to the party. If there
was
a party, Juliet wouldn’t be going. So why did she need this dress?

Does she have a big date with Justin tonight? Is he taking her some place so special that she had to go shopping?

The date must have been made earlier in the week, because Justin wouldn’t suggest a big date with Thomas hurt and in the hospital. In fact, if they’d planned a date, Justin had probably canceled it when he heard about Thomas. Juliet would have to take the dress back.

Megan spent the day at the Medical Center, encouraged by Thomas’s condition. He wasn’t talking much, lying pale and listless in the bed, but he was conscious. And by late afternoon, he was more concerned about the damage to his bike than his own injuries.

But Megan felt drained and weak. If Sheriff Toomey didn’t put Donny away, her father could be hurt next. Tom-tom. Only one Tom was in the hospital so far. Or Juliet could be the next victim. It was lucky that she hadn’t been hurt so far, probably because she was always with Justin or Hilary or Barb and Cappie. There really must be safety in numbers.

Hoping for good news, Megan went to school at the end of the day to ask Juliet about her visit to the sheriff’s office.

And the first person she saw leaving Philippa was Donny Richardson, unaccompanied by Sheriff Toomey or a deputy, no handcuffs on his wrists. Strangely enough, he looked like an ordinary, lonely boy walking home from high school alone. There was nothing sinister about him.

Bitter disappointment drowned Megan. Why hadn’t he been arrested? And with the disappointment, feelings of doubt surfaced. Donny Richardson certainly didn’t look like a killer.

But wasn’t that how killers got away with their terrible deeds … by looking ordinary?

Juliet had found the evidence in Donny’s locker. He might look ordinary on the outside, but on the inside he had to be evil.

Still worried, Megan continued to look for Juliet. Unsuccessful at school, she decided to try the house.

No one was there. Each room was silent, still, as if waiting patiently to see what would happen next.

Where is Juliet?
Megan’s cold, empty world suddenly began to spin around her. Something terrible had happened to Juliet. Something that had stopped her from going to the sheriff. That’s why she wasn’t at the hospital, wasn’t at home. With only one more day left in Juliet’s week, Megan’s worst nightmare was upon her.

If Juliet is hurt or … dead … what will happen to me? Oh, God, please don’t let me stay like this forever! Please! Let me have my life back again!

Juliet could have gone straight to the hospital from school. Racing over there, Megan prayed,
Be there, Juliet, be there!

She wasn’t.

But Sheriff Toomey was.

When Megan saw him, she was terrified. Had he come to tell her parents that the body of their daughter had been discovered, lying in a field somewhere?
I will never be me again. This horrid, empty world is all I’m ever going to know, because Juliet is gone, and I can’t switch back now.

“So,” the sheriff said to Thomas, “you’re saying you couldn’t stop? That you tried and failed?”

He was there to talk about Thomas’s accident.

The darkness lifted around Megan. The sheriff was there about Thomas, not Juliet. All hope wasn’t lost.

A pale, bruised Thomas nodded. “Is my bike okay?” he asked anxiously. “It’s practically brand-new, you know. Mom says you guys took it to check it out. Is it okay?”

The sheriff smiled. “Sure, son. Your bike’ll be fine. One of my deputies took it over to Mickey Ryan’s bike place. He can fix anything. It’ll be good as new in a couple of days.”

“Yeah,” Thomas grumbled, “but it’ll never be the same. Darned truck.”

When the sheriff asked Megan’s parents to come outside and speak to him, Megan followed.

In the corridor, Sheriff Toomey shook his graying head. “Go figure,” he said. ‘The guy in the truck says he tried to stop and couldn’t, just like your son. We’re looking into it, but I don’t expect we’ll find anything more than we found in the Winn girl’s accident. Or your accident, Connie. No leads, no clues.” Another grim shake of the head. “I remember, thirty, forty years ago, when your mom was young and theirs was the only house out there on the lake. Owned twenty acres. Everyone else lived in town. Martha told me they never locked their doors or windows, not even at night. No reason to.” He let out a weary sigh as he turned to leave. “Times sure have changed.”

He never said a word about crayons or drawings or warnings of any kind.

Why had Juliet changed her mind about telling him? And where
was
she?

She was home, Megan discovered when, desperate, she returned to the house again. A wave of relief washed over her when she moved into the bedroom and found Juliet rummaging around in the closet.

“Juliet, where have you been?”
Megan demanded. The terrible things she’d imagined happening to Juliet during the past few hours had nearly driven her crazy.
“I’ve been looking all over for you.”

“Justin and I went for a ride.”

“A ride? You knew I was waiting to hear what Sheriff Toomey said, and you went for a stupid ride? I thought something terrible had happened to you.”

Juliet laughed. “Well, I’d scold you about your overactive imagination, but if you didn’t have an imagination, you probably never would have heard my voice in the first place.”

Megan had been too terrified to be so easily placated now.
“You should have gone to the hospital after school. Mom and Dad could use some support.”