by R. L. Stine
“Get away from me!” she snapped.
“Okay, okay.” Daniel backed away and zipped up his jacket. “Just listen a second. I’m sorry about the phone call. Really. It was stupid. I didn’t mean it.”
Reva gazed at a spot on the wall, as if Daniel didn’t exist.
“Oh, forget it!” he exclaimed. “I’m out of here. I don’t know why I’m wasting my breath apologizing to you.”
Reva didn’t know why either. Did he really expect her to forgive him? She held herself still, waiting for him to leave.
“Just remember this, Reva,” Daniel muttered as he turned away and shoved the door open. “Sooner or later you’re going to get what’s coming to you.”
A cold wind blew in as the door swung shut behind him.
He actually threatened me again! Reva thought with a shiver. Right here in the police station! The guy must be nuts!
Should she go back and tell Detective Blake?
Reva glanced down the ugly hallway and quickly decided to go home instead. She could call Blake from there, where it was warm and comfortable. If she had to stay in this place one more second, her head would explode.
Untangling the car keys from her pocket, she turned up her jacket collar and hurried outside.
The snow had started to stick. Reva made her way slowly down the slippery steps and onto the sidewalk. The wind howled, pelting her face with icy flakes. She’d be lucky not to come down with pneumonia before this night was over!
Bending her head and squinting her eyes against the stinging flakes, Reva hurried down the sidewalk. When she spotted her car, she began to run.
Her foot came down on a patch of ice. As she flung her arms out to keep from falling, the keys flew from her hand and landed in the snow at the edge of the sidewalk.
Just great! A perfect ending to a perfectly hideous night!
Shivering and disgusted, Reva began searching for the keys. As she scuffed at the snow with her shoe, she heard a sound behind her.
Footsteps.
She glanced around. “Hello?”
No one came into view. Reva saw the hulks of parked cars and the deep shadows between the streetlights.
She turned back, searching the snow-covered grass, hoping to spot the keys and get out of here.
Where were the stupid things? They had to be here somewhere!
More footsteps.
Reva spun around. “Who’s there?” she called. The wind whipped the words from her mouth.
Still no answer.
Still no sign of anyone.
Reva shivered again, but not from the cold.
“Who’s there? Is someone there?”
Chapter 18
BAD NEWS FROM DAD
More footsteps, closer this time.
Forget about the keys! Reva told herself. You’re close to the police station. Run back inside and get help!
Her heart pounding, Reva began to run.
A shadow rose up from between two parked cars.
Reva screamed and spun back in the opposite direction.
“Reva!” a voice cried. “Stop! It’s me!”
Reva tried to stop and slid on the ice. She caught herself and whirled around.
A figure came running toward her, into the glow of a streetlight.
Grace Morton.
Reva’s fear turned to fury. “Grace!” she shouted. “What are you doing here?”
“Sssh!” Gasping for breath, Grace scurried along the icy sidewalk. The wind had whipped her wispy brown hair into a tangled mess. Her nose was bright red and her teeth chattered. “Don’t shout, you might—”
“Why did you sneak up on me like that?” Reva cried. “You scared me to death!”
“Not so loud!” Grace urged, grabbing hold of Reva’s arm. “I wasn’t sneaking up on you.”
“You could have fooled me!” Reva snapped.
“It wasn’t me!” Grace glanced around in a panic. “It must have been Rory!”
“What? Rory is out here?”
“Yes. He’s after me. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you!” Grace cried. “He’s out of control! He says he’s going to kill me—and you, too! He’s going to kill you for hiding me!”
Reva felt a flash of terror. Her heart thundering, she hurried back to the spot where she’d dropped her keys.
“What are you doing?” Grace demanded. “Your car is over there!”
“I dropped the keys!” Reva cried. “Don’t just stand there, Grace. Help me find them!”
Grace hurried over and began scuffing at the snow along with Reva. “Hurry!” she urged, practically whimpering with fear. “He’s crazy! Crazy! We have to hurry!”
Gasping in panic, Reva scraped in the snow with the side of her shoe. Something jingled. “I found them!” she cried.
She bent over to pick them up.
“He’s coming! Hurry, Reva!” Grace exclaimed.
Reva snatched up the keys and dashed toward her car, afraid to look back. Afraid to see Rory bearing down on them.
At the car, Reva fumbled with the keys, trying to find the right one.
Grace whimpered again.
Should we run into the station? Reva wondered. No. Let’s just get away from here!
She finally found the key and jammed it into the lock. She yanked open the door and threw herself inside, scrabbling frantically to get the key into the ignition.
Grace pounded on the passenger window.
Reva turned the key and hit the power-lock button.
Grace tumbled into the seat. “I saw him!” she cried, her teeth chattering. “Get us out of here! Hurry!”
Reva gunned the engine, put the car in gear, and stomped on the accelerator.
The car shot forward, then stopped as the tires whined and spun on the ice.
Grace cowered in her seat.
Reva gritted her teeth and put the car in reverse. She rocked it back, then forward again.
Finally, the tires caught.
Reva floored the gas pedal and the car leaped forward with a roar. The speedometer shot up to sixty as the car hurtled down the street. Reva let up on the gas.
“Hurry, hurry, hurry!” Grace kept urging.
“I have to slow down or we’ll spin out of control!” Reva glanced in the rearview mirror. The street was empty. No cars. No one running after them on foot. “Besides, there’s nobody behind us. We made it, Grace!”
Grace hunched down in the seat, shivering. “We’ll never make it,” she muttered. “Not for good, anyway. Rory will always be after me.”
Reva turned off of Division Street. “This is crazy,” she declared. “I wasn’t thinking clearly. I panicked. We should have run into the police station. I should turn around. Go back. So you can get them to arrest Rory.”
“No!” Grace bolted up in the seat. “Don’t do that! Please, Reva! Rory will kill me if he finds out I went to the police! He’ll kill us both!”
“According to you, he’s going to do that anyway.” Reva shuddered and flipped the heater on high. “Did he really say he’d kill me, too?”
Grace nodded. “And if he finds out I told the police, he’ll just go into hiding. Trust me. He’s very sneaky. They’ll never find him. And just when we think it’s safe, he’ll show up and get us!”
Reva shuddered again. Would she have to look over her shoulder the rest of her life just because she’d been nice enough to invite Grace home for the holidays?
Remind me never to do anything that nice again, she told herself. It’s definitely not worth it.
“What happened, anyway?” she asked as she turned another corner, heading into North Hills. “Did Rory come to the house?”
“He called,” Grace told her. “He said he was close. Real close. I didn’t believe him at first. But a few minutes later, I heard the dogs barking like mad. When I looked out the window, I saw him!”
“Inside the grounds? Where was the guard?” Reva demanded.
“Rory wasn’t inside the grounds, he was outside
the gate.” Grace held her raw, cold hands in front of the heating vent. “I didn’t see the guard. Maybe he was trying to quiet the dogs or something.”
“Rory would never make it past the dogs or the guard,” Reva told her. “You should have stayed in the house.”
“Maybe, but I panicked,” Grace admitted. “I couldn’t help it, I just had to get out. I ran out the back way and kept running until I got downtown.”
Too bad you stopped there, Reva thought. You should have kept running—right out of my life.
“I’m sorry,” Grace murmured. “I know I’m causing you a lot of trouble, Reva.”
Reva rolled her eyes. Then why don’t you just pack up and go home? she thought.
Reva sighed. “It’s not just you,” she told Grace. “Daniel made this awful phone call to me. That’s why I was down at the police station. He actually told me I deserved what Traci got. Can you believe it? All because of that stupid joke I pulled.”
Grace shook her head. “That’s awful. I guess you hurt his feelings.”
Reva sniffed. “Oh, please! I mean, I didn’t ask him to come! Daniel is a loser, that’s all. I’m glad I met Grant.”
“I bet Liza isn’t glad,” Grace murmured.
Reva snorted. “If she can’t hold onto her boyfriend, that’s her problem. Besides,” she added, “I really need Grant, with everything that’s going on.”
“You mean Traci’s death?” Grace asked. “That was so terrible.”
Reva nodded. “And it really messed up the scarf show. The first one is tomorrow, you know, and we never really got a chance to rehearse. I’ll have to hire a new model first thing in the morning. I just hope she doesn’t fall on her face.”
“I’m sure everything will go okay,” Grace assured her.
“It better,” Reva declared. “The scarf show is really important to me. I can’t let anything ruin it.”
As Reva pulled to a stop in front of her house, Grace sat up, tense again.
Reva glanced around warily. She hadn’t seen a car following them, but that didn’t mean anything. Rory might have come a different way.
Still, everything seemed quiet. “If Rory were here, the dogs would be barking,” she told Grace. “Come on. Let’s get inside.”
As they left the car and dashed up the front steps, the door swung open.
Reva’s father stood there, a grim expression on his face.
“Daddy!” Reva cried. “What happened? What’s wrong?”
“I have some news, Reva,” Mr. Dalby told her, his voice as grim as his expression. “Some very bad news.”
Chapter 19
ANOTHER FRIGHTENING
CALL
Grace gasped. “It’s Rory, isn’t it? I know it is! What happened? What did he do?”
Mr. Dalby stared at her. “I’m sorry, Grace. I don’t know what you mean. Who’s this Rory?”
“Never mind that now, Daddy!” Reva cried. “You look so upset. What is it?”
“Take off your coat and come into the living room,” her father told her. “Grace, if you’ll excuse us?”
“What? Oh, sure.” Grace hurried toward the stairs. “See you upstairs, Reva.”
Reva tossed her jacket on the foyer table and followed her father into the living room. What was going on?
Mr. Dalby stood in front of the fireplace and gazed sternly across the room at her.
“Daddy, tell me what happened!” Reva pleaded. “Is it Michael? Is something wrong with him?”
“Your brother is fine,” Mr. Dalby snapped. “No, this is about you, Reva.”
“Me?” Reva’s mind raced as she tried to figure out what she could possibly have done to make her father so upset.
“Your cousin Pam and her friend paid me a visit about an hour ago. They had some interesting things to say. Interesting—and disturbing.”
Uh-oh. It’s about the scarves, Reva thought. They came over here and blabbed their mouths off!
“I’m extremely disappointed in you,” Mr. Dalby declared. “You led me to believe that you had designed those scarves. How could you lie to me like that?”
“Daddy, I—”
“And then you refused to draw up a business contract with the real designers!” her father interrupted. “You were going to cheat them, Reva! How could you even think of doing such a thing?”
“Daddy, you don’t understand!” Reva cried. “I’m sorry, really. I didn’t mean to make you think I designed the scarves. And I didn’t refuse to make a business arrangement with Pam and Willow. I planned to be very fair with them. It’s all a big misunderstanding. I was going to tell you everything!”
“Oh? Why didn’t you?”
“I just got so busy,” she explained. “I want the scarf show to be absolutely perfect. And it’s a lot of work to do in just a couple of days. And then . . .”
“Yes?”
Reva lowered her eyes and sniffed. “Then Traci was killed,” she continued in a quivery voice. “It was just so horrible I forgot to tell you about Pam and Willow!”
Mr. Dalby remained silent.
Reva kept her head down and peered up at him through her eyelashes.
Good. He didn’t look so grim anymore. He was definitely softening up. “I’m sorry,” she repeated softly. “I didn’t mean to disappoint you.”
“Well. . .” Her father cleared his throat. “I know Traci’s death was a shock. But really, Reva, you should have told me about Pam and her friend at the very beginning.”
“I know,” she whispered. “I planned to, but—”
“They were upset and they had every right to be.”
“Yes.” Reva clenched her teeth.
“I worked out an arrangement with the two girls. A generous arrangement,” he added.
“Oh, good!” Reva gushed. “Thanks for taking care of it, Daddy.”
Her father nodded.
So Pam and Willow have their precious contract, Reva thought. Big deal. I’ll still be running the show.
“Listen, Daddy, I’d better go get ready for bed,” she told him. “I have to be at the store early. Tomorrow is the first show, and I want it to go really well.”
“It better,” her father warned. “Because if one more thing goes wrong—just one more thing—I’ll have no choice. I’ll have to cancel the show.”
“Don’t worry, Daddy, everything will be perfect,” she assured him. “I promise.”
Reva kissed her father on the cheek, then quickly hurried from the living room.
Climbing the stairs, she seethed with anger as she thought about everything that had happened in the past few hours.
The threatening phone call from Daniel. Sitting in that hideous police station. Being chased by Grace’s crazy ex-boyfriend.
And to top off the totally horrible night, her own cousin had gone behind her back. Pam had actually snitched on her about the scarves!
Now Daddy is angry at me, she thought. He said he would cancel the show if anything else happens.
And he meant it!
Humiliated, Reva marched down the hall. The guest room door opened.
“Is everything okay?” Grace murmured anxiously.
“You don’t have to whisper!” Reva snapped. “This isn’t a funeral parlor!”
“Sorry.” Grace looked hurt. “Your father seemed upset and I wondered what was wrong.”
“What could be wrong?” Reva asked sarcastically. “Everything’s perfect. Just perfect!” She frowned. “You really should put some of that makeup on your eye,” she added bluntly. “That bruise makes you look like a panda bear.”
Grace nervously touched her eye. “I was going to put some makeup on. Then Rory called and I forgot. I guess I didn’t realize how ugly it is. Sorry.”
“Oh, forget it.” Reva took a deep breath. “I’m going to bed. See you tomorrow.”
Grace slipped back into the guest room, and Reva strode away, still annoyed. Grace was such a mouse! She probably shouldn’t have snapped at her like that, but she
couldn’t help it.
On second thought, maybe she should keep snapping at her. Then Grace might pack her bags and go home.
Fat chance, Reva thought as she entered her room. The way things were going, Grace would probably move in for good.
As Reva crossed the room toward her closet, the phone rang.
She hurried to the nightstand, then stopped, biting her lip.
It might be Daniel again. What had he said at the police station? Sooner or later, you’ll get what’s coming to you. I definitely don’t need another call from him.
Or it could be Rory. He’s going to kill you, too, Grace said.
The phone rang again.
Reva’s hand hovered in the air.
Should she answer it?
Chapter 20
A PROBLEM AT THE
SCARF SHOW
Get a grip, Reva told herself.
If it’s Daniel again, the police will slap him in jail so fast he won’t know what hit him.
And if it’s Rory? Use caller I.D. and get him out of Grace’s life. And yours!
Reva took a deep breath and picked up the phone. “Who is it?” she demanded in a cold voice.
“It’s me, Reva. Grant.”
“Grant!” Reva sank down onto the bed, sighing in relief. “What a nice surprise!”
“Who were you expecting?” he asked. “Whoever it was better look out. You sounded ready to bite their head off.”
“I was, but never mind that,” Reva told him. She fluffed up her pillows and stretched out on the bed. “I’m so glad you called. I’ve had absolutely the worst night of my life. Plus I’m so stressed about the show tomorrow.” She smiled into the phone. “I’ll bet you called to wish me luck. That’s so sweet.”
“Uh, yeah, I do wish you luck.” Grant hesitated. “But that’s not exactly why I called.”
“Oh?”
“I. . .” Grant paused again.
Reva frowned. What was the matter with him? “You what?” she asked.
“Well, the thing is, I went home after our date this afternoon. And I still felt really guilty about Liza,” Grant told her in a rush. “And I think you and I should stop seeing each other.”
