The Cheater (11 page)

He held her, soothing her. “There's got to be a way out,” he said. “Don't worry. Just stop giving him money. I'll try to think of something.”

Carter leaned against Dan, glad he was there. She had never realized how strong he was, but even with his strength and calm, she couldn't imagine
how he could help her out of this. She wished he could, but she knew it was impossible.

After Dan left, Carter hurried to her room. She took her jewelry box from the dresser and dumped the contents on her bed. Then she poked through it, picking out anything that could be of value.

She gathered together all the gold chains, necklaces, bracelets, and earrings, stuffed them in a brown paper bag, and drove to the Old Village.

Dan means well, she thought as she searched for a parking place. But he doesn't know Adam. If I can buy a little more time from Adam, maybe we can figure something out. But the important thing is to get Adam that money.

Adam could be really dangerous, after all. She remembered the terrifying car chase. Before that, the horrible double date. And before that, the cow's heart.

Adam's getting more dangerous all the time, she realized with a shiver. I hate to think what he'll do next.

She carried her brown paper bag full of jewelry into Corelli's Antiques.

Mr. Corelli remembered her. He smiled and nodded.

She dumped the jewelry on the counter, and the old man frowned.

“These items are not of the same quality as the earrings,” he said with his accent. He sifted through it all carefully. Carter watched him impatiently.

Mr. Corelli picked out a few of the gold chains and bracelets. “I will give you two hundred dollars for these,” he said, holding up the chains he had chosen.

Two hundred dollars! Carter needed a thousand. She tried to hide her desperation.

“Didn't you like these other things?” she asked. “I think you could sell them.”

The old man shook his head. “No. Just these things. Two hundred dollars, miss.”

Carter saw that he would not bargain this time. Maybe two hundred dollars would hold Adam for a few days, until she thought of some way to get more money. It would have to hold him.

“Okay,” she said. “It's a deal.”

Mr. Corelli gave her the money. She stuffed it into the paper bag and left.

She took the rest of the jewelry to the other antique shops on the block, but nobody wanted to buy the things Corelli had rejected.

Carter was near tears. What could she do? It was already five o'clock. She had no idea where she could scrape up eight hundred dollars on such short notice.

What would Adam do when she offered him only two hundred? Would he take it? Or would he be insulted, or angry that she couldn't give him all he'd asked for?

She didn't know how he'd react and was shaking with fear and fury as she made her way through the narrow streets of the Old Village to Adam's house.
Easing the car down Fear Street, she pulled up at the curb. Then she climbed out of the car, clutching her paper bag. She took a deep breath and walked up to Adam's front door.

It was dark by the time she turned onto her street. After leaving Adam's house, she had driven around in a daze, not seeing where she was going, and not caring.

One thought floated through her mind as she drove: Is the nightmare over now? Could it really be over?

Pulling into her drive, she saw that her parents were still out.

But someone was there, leaning against the front door.

Carter's heart pounded. She climbed out of the car and walked up to the front door. “Dan!” she cried.

“Where have you been?” he demanded.

She didn't answer him, avoided his eyes, and wondered why he'd come back. She opened the front door and went into the house. Dan followed her in.

“What's wrong?” he asked. “Did you see Adam?”

She didn't want to tell him. She tried to come up with another lie, something he'd believe.

She didn't get a chance. The doorbell rang.

With a cry of surprise, Carter went to answer it, Dan behind her.

She opened the door to two grim-faced police officers.

“Are you Carter Phillips?” asked one.

Carter stared at them, her mouth open. She nodded.

“We'd like to ask you a few questions.”

“What about, Officer?” asked Dan.

The other police officer cleared his throat. “Someone shot Adam Messner,” he said. “He's dead.”

C
arter froze. The police officers strode into the house, shutting the door behind them.

“Can we talk in there?” asked one, indicating the study. “We just have a few questions.”

“Of course,” said Dan. He led Carter into the room. The two officers followed. They all sat down.

Carter was glad Dan was there, handling this for her. He was so calm and collected. If only she could be that way. But she couldn't. She shook as she waited to hear what the officers had to say.

“Miss Phillips,” said the first man, “this won't take long. Did you know Adam Messner?” He flipped open a notepad and sat with a pen poised above it, waiting for Carter's answer.

Carter nodded. “He went to Shadyside High. He was in my math class,”

The other officer said, “Did you see Adam today, Miss Phillips?”

“No,” Carter lied. Her mind was racing from thought to thought. “I know Adam, but we're not friends. I don't see him outside of school.”

“One of his neighbors said she saw your car parked outside his house this afternoon,” said the officer.

“No, she must have been mistaken,” said Carter, shaking her head. “I haven't seen Adam today. In fact, Dan and I have been here all day, studying. Right, Dan?”

Dan looked at her, startled at first, and then suspicious. Then he backed up her story.

“That's right,” he told the man. “We've been here all day.”

“And where are your parents, Miss Phillips?”

“They're out of town at a wedding. They won't be back until late.”

The officers glanced at each other, then stood up. The first one snapped his notepad shut.

“All right,” he said. “Thank you, Miss Phillips. I hope we haven't upset you. We may have to come back later to ask more questions. But that'll do for now.”

Carter showed them out. She shut the door after them, leaning against it with a sigh.

“You
did
go to Adam's house today, didn't you,” said Dan, following her into the hall. “Why did you lie about it?”

Carter hesitated.

“I didn't want the police to get involved with my
troubles with Adam,” she replied finally. “They might have found out why he was blackmailing me! But I didn't kill him, Dan, I swear it!”

Dan just stared at her.

Carter thought, I've never seen Dan like this before. So cold. What does it mean?

She strode up to him and grabbed his shoulders, pleading with him. “I didn't do it, Dan! You've got to believe me!”

But she could see that he didn't believe her. And Carter couldn't blame him.

After all, why should he believe anything she said? Lately, she'd done nothing but cheat and tell lies.

“I'm going home, Carter,” Dan said, his voice strangely distant.

“Dan,” she said, “will you call me later? I'll be here all alone for a couple more hours. I-I'm kind of scared.”

He stared at her without smiling. “Sure, Carter. I'll call you later. Don't be frightened.” But his words lacked any warmth.

He walked out without kissing her goodbye.

Alone in the house, there was nothing for her to do but pace from room to room. She walked upstairs, downstairs, upstairs, downstairs, thinking wild, frantic thoughts, her mind racing through the events of the past couple weeks.

As she paced, squeezing her hands into tight fists at her sides, one thought kept popping into her
mind. She tried to push it out, but it wouldn't go away.

Adam is gone, she thought.

He's finally out of my life—forever.

My problems are solved.

Carter felt a brief moment of relief. But she couldn't enjoy it for long.

Because another thought intruded. Adam was dead, and the police knew there was a connection between them.

“What's happened to me?” she wailed out loud to the empty rooms. “I used to have a perfect life. How did it get so messed up?”

For an hour she paced the house this way. Finally the ringing of the telephone broke through her tortured thoughts.

It's Dan, she thought happily. It's Dan, calling to tell me he's sorry he doubted me, to make sure I'm all right….

She answered the phone. “Dan?”

Another voice whispered, “Carter. I know what you did.”

“Who
is
this?”

Carter gripped the receiver with both hands. “Who
is
this?”

She heard a click, then dead air and a series of clicks. Finally a dial tone buzzed in her ear.

Carter dropped the phone with shaking hands. She was terrified.

Who could that have been? There was only one person she could think of—Sheila.

Carter started to pace again. What does Sheila know? she wondered, shuddering. Did Adam tell her anything—or everything?

Carter felt the panic rise within her. Sheila had been watching her, snooping around, hassling her since the day of the test. Was there something Sheila found out on her own?

Just then her parents' Mercedes pulled into the driveway. She ran upstairs and climbed quickly
into bed. She couldn't face them now. Her father would be sure to see the guilt….

A few minutes later Judge Phillips came into her room to check on her. Carter pretended to be asleep.

She spent Sunday in her room, telling her parents she wasn't feeling well. She had hardly slept the night before and couldn't sleep that day. She spent the day walking, pacing back and forth in her room, as if it were a prison cell.

She was exhausted when she got up for school on Monday morning. But she dragged herself out of bed and made herself go.

The best thing to do, she had decided, was to go on with her life as usual. Pretend there was nothing bothering her. Pretend everything was normal.

As soon as she got to school she realized how futile that was.

It was obvious that everyone in Shadyside had heard about Adam's murder. Carter stepped into the school building, smiling at her friends and saying hello to people, but that didn't last long.

No one smiled back at her. Her friends turned away—and the others just stared.

People stopped talking as she neared them. After she passed them, she heard whispering. She caught only a few of their words, but those few were enough:

“Police.”

“Adam.”

“Murdered.”

Carter started walking faster down the hall, trying not to look into anyone's face.

Then she saw Jill. Her best friend. Carter ran up to her. But when Jill saw her coming, she became frightened and backed up a few steps. Then she turned and started to run.

Carter called after her. “Jill! Wait!”

Jill kept running. Carter started to chase her, then stopped.

She couldn't blame Jill for being scared of her, after all Carter had put her through. But they were best friends….

She seemed to have become a freak, overnight. No one was on her side, not even Jill. She had no one—no one but Dan.

She had to find Dan. She had to find someone who believed in her. Someone who would help her.

He'd be upstairs, hanging out by his locker. She ran up the steps and down the hall. She saw him. He was alone.

She ran to him. “Dan!” she called.

He turned to her. One glance at his face stopped her cold.

He didn't smile. His eyes were ringed with dark circles. “Hi, Carter,” he murmured softly.

He shifted his weight. He seemed uncomfortable with her.

Carter tried to ignore his coolness. She was
desperate for someone to talk to. “Dan,” she said. “Why didn't you call me yesterday?”