Susie straightened the collar of her white blouse with fingers that trembled slightly. She was more upset about the note from Kelly than she’d wanted to admit. She knew that Jennifer and Tim had planted the note as part of their skit. There was nothing spooky about that. But the notes were definitely bad luck, and she wished she’d never opened her makeup case to find it.
When Susie had shown everyone her note, she’d realized that a couple of her friends were beginning to believe that Kelly’s ghost was real. They thought that the recent deaths hadn’t been accidents at all, that Kelly’s spirit was actually causing them!
Susie thought about it as she’d waited for their rehearsal to start. What possible reason might Kelly have for causing these “accidents” ?
It wasn’t difficult to find a motive for Zada’s death. She’d been a psychic and she’d brought special aids to the lodge, to make the séance work. Perhaps Kelly hadn’t wanted to come back and she’d been angry with Zada.
Melanie’s death had seemed utterly senseless until Susie really thought about it. Melanie had asked to have Kelly’s old locker, the one on the end right next to Tommy’s. Kelly could have been mad about that. Perhaps she’d even been jealous that Melanie got to see Tommy so often in the halls.
Ronnie’s death, however, was a complete puzzle. What had Ronnie ever done to Kelly? It took a moment, but then Susie figured it out. Ronnie had taken over Kelly’s spot on the student council, a position he’d only gotten because Kelly had died.
Susie shivered as her thoughts turned inward. Had she ever done anything to make Kelly mad enough to kill her? She wasn’t on the student council, she didn’t have Kelly’s old locker, and she’d never even thought of dating Tommy. Kelly would have no reason to be angry with her, unless . . .
Kelly’s antique doll collection! Susie’s face turned pale. She’d bought it from Mrs. Bridges right after Kelly’s death, thirty dolls, all collector’s items. Kelly’s doll collection had been her pride and joy, and it had been much better than Susie’s. Was Kelly angry at Susie for putting them all together so she could have the best doll collection in Foothill?
Susie shivered and goose bumps prickled her skin. Her great-grandmother had an old saying: When you shivered and goose bumps popped up on your skin, it was supposed to mean that a goose had just walked over your grave. But Susie didn’t have a grave. She was still alive and she intended to stay that way. There was no way she was going sit here and shiver, afraid of a ghost that didn’t exist!
Work was the best medicine. That was another of her great-grandmother’s favorite sayings, and it seemed to be true. Susie sat down at the library desk and picked up her script. She’d go over her lines again. Even though she knew them perfectly, working on her lines would take her mind off Kelly’s ghost and that silly note she’d found.
As she read over her lines, Susie began to feel much better. Dale had written the script and it was very good. She played a psychotic teacher who had murdered several of her former students.
The bodies of the former students were hidden in Susie’s library and the five plastic skeletons, dressed in school clothes, looked very gruesome. They were sitting around the library table, tied to their chairs with fishing line. Several of them had books in their bony fingers and one even wore wire-framed glasses.
“Here’s your blood, Susie.” Dale came in, carrying a large plastic capsule. “Cheryl says it’s guaranteed to work.”
Susie held the capsule very carefully. She knew that if she squeezed it, the blood would splatter out. “But we’ve only got a couple of these. Do you think I should use it tonight?”
“Go ahead. We have to try it once before the actual performance. You brought extra clothes, didn’t you?”
“Of course. Do you know if this stuff’ll wash out?”
“It’s supposed to. Cheryl read the instructions and it says it’s guaranteed not to stain if you wash it out within twenty-four hours.”
“Okay.” Susie slipped the capsule into the pocket of her blouse. “How do the skeletons look?”
“Great.” Dale walked over to stick a baseball cap on one of the skeletons and then he started to laugh.
“What’s so funny?”
“I brought a pencil to stick behind one of the skeleton’s ears. I forgot . . . skeletons don’t have any ears!”
Susie laughed, too. “Don’t worry, Dale. I’ll wire it between a couple of finger bones. That’ll do.”
While Susie wired the pencil in place, Dale draped a letter sweater over the shoulders of another. “How’s this?”
“It looks good, but whose letter sweater is that?”
“It’s mine.”
Susie’s frown deepened. “Are you sure you want to use it? I mean . . . won’t you feel kind of strange when you wear it again?”
“Why should I? It’s just a plastic skeleton.”
Susie turned away. For some reason, seeing the skeleton with a letter sweater really bothered her. Perhaps it was because Ronnie had been so proud of his letter sweater, and now he was dead.
“Hey, Susie.” Dale walked up and put his hands on her shoulders. “If that sweater bothers you, I won’t use it.”
Susie forced a smile and shook her head. “No. It’s perfect. It looks really gruesome.”
“Okay. We’d better take our places. They’ll be coming any minute. Let’s knock ’em dead, Susie.”
Susie frowned. She knew knock ’em dead was only a slang phrase, but it was an unfortunate choice of words, considering what had happened. Zada and two of Susie’s friends had already been knocked dead on this Halloween weekend. Three victims and none of them even had a chance. Susie was going to be extra careful. She had to make sure that the same thing wouldn’t happen to her.
Susie grinned as Brian dimmed the lights. The first half of their skit had gone very well. Everyone had gasped when she’d bashed Dale’s head with the fake hammer and he’d fallen to the floor, presumably dead. Susie had left the room and Dale had given his solo performance, regaining consciousness and telling the audience how he was planning to trap his teacher, Miss Perkins.
Dale had given the audience the background story. Students had been disappearing from Roosevelt High. The missing students had been flunking out of school and their parents had assumed they’d run away from home. Dale didn’t believe it. He suspected that Miss Perkins was responsible for the disappearance of his classmates and he was going to prove it.
Although Dale had been a good student, he’d deliberately flunked several tests. He’d also failed to do his homework and now he was on the teacher’s list of flunking students. Just as he’d hoped, Miss Perkins had invited Dale to her home for a study session, all alone, at night. Dale had gone because he knew that several other students had attended one of her study sessions, never to be seen again.
During the first act, when Susie had hit Dale and he’d pretended to die, the library table had been hidden from view by a screen. Now that the room was dark, Susie and Dale quietly removed the screen. Then Dale took his place at the library table and Susie got back in character, holding a book in one hand and a ruler in the other. She was conducting a gruesome geography class for her dead students, and she would be quizzing Dale when the lights came back up.
“Now we’ll have a short oral quiz on your homework.” Susie’s voice came out of the darkness. “Who wants to answer the first question?”
There was no answer and Susie gave an audible sigh. “All right, class. If there are no volunteers, I’ll choose a student to answer. Name the continents, Dale.”
No one spoke and Susie sighed again. “Dale? Give me your answer!”
There was a collective gasp as the lights came up and the audience saw the skeletons around the table. No one had seen the skeletons before. Dale had decided not to use them until this final dress rehearsal, and Susie was pleased to see that they had real shock effect.
Dale was sitting at the end of the table, his head buried in his hands. Susie marched over to him and held up her ruler.
“Answer me, Dale! Name the continents!”
But Dale was perfectly motionless and Susie raised her ruler higher. There was another gasp as the ruler came down to hit the table so close to Dale’s hand, it looked as if she were actually hitting him. “You’ve failed another quiz, Dale. That is why I had to punish you. You were a baaaaad student! And bad students deserve to die!”
“No! I’m not a bad student, Miss Perkins!”
Susie pretended to reel in shock as Dale spoke. “You can’t speak! You’re dead! I killed you!”
Dale sat up a little straighter. “Yes, I’m dead. You killed me and I came back to tell you that you made a mistake. I was a good student, Miss Perkins. I can name the continents.”
“Then do it!” Susie’s voice was shaking and she looked slightly uncertain. “I think you’re bluffing!”
Dale rose to his feet and smiled. And then he recited the names of the continents, one by one. When he had finished, he pointed his finger at Susie. “It’s like I said. You made a mistake, Miss Perkins. You punished a good student. Why don’t you admit it?”
“No!” Susie backed up as Dale started to move toward her. “That’s impossible. Good teachers don’t make mistakes.”
“But you did, Miss Perkins. You killed me, and I didn’t deserve to die.”
Dale advanced and Susie retreated. For the first time she began to look very frightened. “I’m sorry I killed you, Dale. I’ll make it up to you, I promise!”
“There’s only one way to do that.”
“How?” Susie’s voice was shaking. “I’ll do anything!”
Dale began to smile. “Your life for mine, Miss Perkins. It’s the only way to atone for your mistake.”
“Yes. I see that, Dale.” Susie nodded slowly. “You are quite correct. I killed you in error and now I must make amends.”
“Exactly! Go down to the police station and turn yourself in. They’ll see that justice is done.”
“No!” Susie shook her head. “I am the teacher. I will decide what is just and what is not!”
There was a gasp from the group as Susie darted behind the desk. They knew from previous rehearsals that she was supposed to pull out a drawer, take out a handgun, and pretend to kill herself. Susie knew it, too, but the prop gun wasn’t where she was sure she’d placed it.
Susie stared down at the drawer for a moment. Where was her gun? She felt around in the back of the drawer and almost smiled in relief as she found it hidden under a pile of papers. Thank goodness she’d found it! Her carelessness had almost ruined Dale’s skit.
But was this gun different? It seemed heavier as she lifted it out, but Susie didn’t have time to think about that. Dale was shouting his line and she had to act quickly.
“No, Miss Perkins! Don’t do it!”
Susie raised the gun and pointed it at her head. The blood capsule was already in her hand and she’d break it the moment she heard Brian’s gunshot. Since the gun didn’t actually fire, Brian would play a recording of a gunshot over the microphone and Susie’s timing had to be perfect.
“I am a baaaad teacher!” Susie delivered her line in a fierce voice. “And bad teachers deserve to die!”
“No, Susie! No!”
Susie almost laughed as she heard Jennifer’s voice. Jen was really getting into this skit. She’d even called Susie by her real name, not the name of the character she was playing. But Susie didn’t hesitate. She was a good actress and good actresses went on with the show. She just put her finger on the trigger and began to squeeze it.
There was the sound of Brian’s recorded gunshot, right on time. But at that exact instant, something horrible happened. There was another gunshot, directly on the heels of the first, so close that it sounded like one long explosion. It was so loud that several members of the audience screamed and covered their ears. But Susie didn’t hear their screams. She didn’t even hear the second explosion.
The sound in the library was deafening, echoing against the walls and bouncing back and forth between them. And then Susie was on the floor, blood spurting from her head in a sticky red river as the life flowed from her body.
“Fantastic!” Pete started to clap and everyone else joined in. “That was great, guys, much more realistic than the last rehearsal. Those blood capsules really work.”
Dale was smiling as he took a bow, and then he reached down for Susie’s hand. “Okay, Susie. You can get up now.”
But Susie didn’t grasp Dale’s hand and pull herself to her feet as she’d done at the last rehearsal. She didn’t even twitch as Pete called out her name.
“Susie? Come on, Susie. You don’t have to be such a ham. The skit’s over. It’s time to take a bow.”
But Susie still didn’t move and Pete’s grin faded as he walked over to her and knelt down on the rug. “Susie?”
But Susie didn’t answer. She just stayed on the floor, motionless, in a pool of her own warm, red blood.
“Susie?” Pete sounded scared as he took Susie’s hand and felt for a pulse. And then he looked up and the horrified expression on his face said it all. Susie wasn’t acting. The second explosion had been a real gunshot. The fake gun wasn’t a fake and their friend, Susie Romano, was dead.