Prom Date (16 page)

Margaret had wanted to tell her that her mother was saving the turquoise dress for her, but she didn't. Caroline had to ask Scott because she wanted to go with him, not because she wanted to wear a particular dress. That wouldn't be fair to Scott.

School was grim. Finals were racing toward them. Everyone knew they should be concentrating like mad. Impossible. Normal anxiety about grades had been compounded by a very real fear of physical danger. It was in countless faces as Margaret walked through the halls, always with Mitch or Caroline, Scott or Lacey or Jeannine at her side. She saw it everywhere. Fear. Atmos/^^r, she thought, realizing that the looks sent her way contained some measure of awe because she'd survived an attack and wasn't even in the hospital. But what she also saw in those faces as they passed her was a wariness, a knowledge that she might very well be the target of an additional attack. Unless they were willing to risk being caught in the crossfire, they'd be wise to steer clear of Margaret Dunne.

It was weird. Four years of high school almost over and only now, in the last two weeks, did everyone know who she was.

I would rather still be anonymous, she thought, and knew that it was true.

She learned via the school grapevine that Kiki hadn't been able to identify her attacker. Couldn't even tell if it was a guy or a girl. The words that had been whispered in her ear had been repeated so many times around school that they had become an exaggerated version

of the truth, including a bizarre threat to "cut off her toes and mail them to her in a box if she attended the prom."

Of course she wasn't going. That word, too, circulated very quickly. Kiki had tearfully broken her date with David. She was terrified, and even if she hadn't been, everyone who knew her knew she wouldn't appear in public until her face was completely back to normal.

Handsome, popular David Goumas, like Michael Danz before him, no longer had a date for his senior prom. But this time, Margaret's friends were careful not to rejoice while she was present. When Lacey asked her at lunch if there were any prom dresses left at the shop, she did it so casually, almost lazily, that Margaret refused to make an issue of it. 'Tes. A dozen or so." She did not mention David Goumas.

And later, when she spied Caroline and Lacey talking sympathetically to a despondent David, Margaret kept right on walking with Mitch. She wasn't about to say to her friends: "Be careful what you wish for. If I were you, I wouldn't be so anxious for a prom date now. Look what's been happening to those of us who are going." Because even if she could be absolutely positive that was the reason behind the attacks, she knew they wouldn't listen. No

matter what, they'd still want to go. They wouldn't believe that something as awful as the attacks could happen to them. Impossible to believe until you actually feared for your life, as she had in the Dumpster. If someone had told Margaret Dunne that accepting Mitch McGill's invitation meant that someone would try to poison her, would she still have accepted? Or would she have said no?

If I had really believed it, she told herself, I would have said no. I'm no masochist. The trouble is, I wouldn't have believed it. It would have sounded totally insane.

It still did.

There was no announcement that the prom was being canceled. Stephanie's mother replaced the missing funds, accompanying the check with a note that said her daughter would have wanted her to, and generously wishing everyone a good time.

When Mitch dropped Margaret off at Quartet shortly after three, Adrienne was waiting at the door for her. Her face was strained, her mouth pursed in an anxious line.

It must have been hard for her all day, Margaret thought, giving her mother a hug. I should have called her more than that once at lunchtime. Tomorrow I will.

But in the next moment, she learned that it

wasn't only her safety that had her mother upset.

''Margaret, it's happened again," Adrienne said in a low voice to avoid being overheard by a handful of customers in the store, which included a few Pops and, Margaret saw, Lacey and Jeannine, browsing among the remaining prom dresses.

Margaret's initial reaction was that her mother meant there had been another attack. Her heart began racing. ''Oh, no! Who is it this time?"

Adrienne shook her head. "No, no, not that. No one's been hurt. But another dress is missing. One of those three I had to replace? It's not here. Like the other one, it was finished, hanging by the register, and ready to be picked up, although I hadn't called and told her yet. But it's gone."

Confused, Margaret said, "No, that can't be right. Stephanie's dress disappeared after she was . . . killed. Like her attacker was sending a message or something. Kiki Pappas is the girl who was attacked at school yesterday, so it would be her dress that's missing. But . . . Kiki didn't buy her dress here, Mom. She went to the city, just like she always does. So how could her dress be missing?"

"I know Kiki didn't buy her prom dress here,

Margaret, rm not talking about her. But one of the dresses is missing. It's the blue one. That pale blue slip dress. The one Beth Andrews bought. It's gone. It's simply gone. I can't find it anywhere."

"Beth? Beth's dress is missing?" Adrienne fixed apprehensive eyes on Margaret. "I don't like this, Margaret. I don't like it at all. That girl could be in serious danger."

"Lucas? She thinks Lucas took the insecticide?"

"She didn't say that, Margaret. But they keep their garage locked. If he was the only one in there . . . Tm calling the police. Beth could be in danger."

Of course Beth is in danger, Margaret thought. Aren't we all? She kept the thought to herself. "It's weird that my dress wasn't stolen." Or . . . "It wasn't, was it?" she asked nervously.

"Your dress isn't here. I took it home with me, so no one would buy it."

"Good thinking. Thanks.^' Margaret barely knew Lucas. Why would he try to poison her? But he was a big guy. He could easily have lifted her into that Dumpster.

As Adrienne went to phone the police, the door flew open and Caroline breezed in. She seemed surprised to find Margaret standing just inside the entrance. Her face fell. "Now what?"

Margaret told her about the dress.

"I don't see what's so scary about that," Caroline said. "A missing dress? We already know whoever is doing this doesn't want his victims to attend the prom, right? In Beth's case, he must have thought another act of violence was too risky, with every police officer in town looking for him. So he just took the dress. You should be relieved, not worried."

Skepticism moved Margaret to say, "Caroline, everyone who knows Beth knows she can afford to buy another dress in plenty of time for the prom. Stealing the one she already bought isn't going to keep her home." Then she repeated what Adrienne had told her about the insecticide in Kiki's garage.

"Lucas?" Caroline asked skeptically. "That's crazy. Why would Lucas poison you? He doesn't even know you."

"I know it's crazy," Margaret said pointedly. "Doesn't that tell you something? Look, Scott's got the van. Will you take me to find Beth? We should warn her. Don't tell my mother. She'll never let us go. I'll tell her we have errands to run for the prom. She'll let me go if I don't go alone."

Adrienne returned to say that she had called Beth's house first. "She had a hair appointment this afternoon," Adrienne said. "The housekeeper didn't know where, but the officer I spoke to then said he'd find out. There's nothing more we can do now."

Oh, yeah, there is, Margaret thought. We can find Beth ourselves, and tell her what's going on.

She told Adrienne they had errands to run, and although her mother expressed reservations about Margaret leaving the store, she finally gave in. "Come back here the minute you're done, okay? And be careful, Margaret. You and Caroline stay together the whole time, promise?"

Margaret promised. While Caroline ran to the rest room to adjust an irritating contact lens, Margaret limped upstairs to deposit her books and sweater in the Sweatbox. After one more anxious warning from Adrienne to be careful, they left the store.

In the car, Caroline asked, "So Beth's having her hair done. Any idea where?''

"Probably the most expensive, classiest shop in town."

"That would be on the East Side," Caroline said. "Out there by Toomey Hills, where all the Pops live. I'm game if you are." She grinned. "Although the air will probably be much more rarified there than it is down here. Maybe we should take oxygen masks. I still think you're overreacting. It's not like Beth was actually attacked."

Not yet, Margaret thought.

"This is kind of fun," Caroline said cheerfully as she expertly wove her car through traffic toward the East Side of Toomey. "Like being

on a treasure hunt. Or, we could pretend we're detectives, looking for a missing witness, right? We used to do silly stuff like that all the time, Margaret. Remember? And when we went out to the Point, we pretended we were members of an international secret organization. You and Jeannine and Lacey and I."

"We were little kids then, Caroline, and besides, we were never in any real danger." Margaret's knee was throbbing, and her head ached. She had no idea what they were going to say when they found Beth. We just came to inform you that someone stole your prom dress and my mother thinks that means something ominous and she also thinks you shouldn't get too cozy with your boyfriend right now? What was Beth supposed to do about all of that? No point in buying a new dress, since she might not be going with Lucas, after all. K Lucas had stolen that insecticide and dumped it into a carton of milk at Quartet, Lucas wouldn't be going to the prom.

And so Beth wouldn't go, and then Beth wouldn't be queen, which was what she wanted more than anything. The drawing proved that. Margaret's mind raced. Just how much did Lucas love Beth? Enough to erase all of the competition for something that Beth really wanted?

But Fm no competition for Beth, Margaret reminded herself sternly. Unless Lucas believed that if she went with Mitch, she might stand a chance simply because Mitch was so popular. Was that possible?

But if she was right, Beth was the one girl in Toomey who didn't have to worry. Lucas was trying to protect her, not hurt her. Still, she had a right to know what was going on.

Why would Lucas have stolen her prom dress?

'This is so stupid!" Margaret cried heatedly, startling Caroline, who jumped. "I cannot believe that someone is attacking girls to keep them from attending their senior prom! It's so totally insane! I just don't get it."

"I do." The late afternoon sun was hitting the windshield. Caroline pulled the visor on her side into place to shield her eyes. "I kind of know how they feel"

"Oh, Caroline, that's ridiculous! You do not\ You've never hurt another person in your lifeV

'Tou haven't known me my whole life. Only since fifth grade. Anyway, I didn't say I agreed with what he or she is doing. But it's obviously someone who isn't going to the dance, hasn't been invited, and is angry about it. And that I do understand. You should, too. Heaven knows we've sat out enough formal dances."

Although Margaret's new theory was very different from Caroline's, she didn't say so. She could be totally off-base about Lucas. "Yes, but we never felt like killing anyone, did we?"

Caroline's half smile was impossible to read. "No, I guess not-Might have thought about it once or twice, though. Didn't you?"

"No. Do you really think we know someone who is so insane they did more than just think about it?"

"Sure." Caroline whipped the car around a sharp comer. "Maybe even more than one person. It's just not the kind of insanity that's obvious, that's all. We studied people like that in psychology class, remember? The kind who keep their sickness hidden. They're very clever. No one ever knows how sick they are until something horrible happens. Like now. Because the rest of the time, the signs aren't right out there in front of us. We all have these weird ideas about insanity, images of screaming, shrieking people running around in the streets. It's hardly ever really like that. It's a lot more subtle, especially with someone who kills people."

"What makes you such an expert?" Margaret was thinking that Caroline's description could fit Lucas. He seemed normal enough.

"Fve read a lot about it. The subject interests me, and as you know, I have a lot of time on my hands to read. And we do know people like that, Margaret. Til bet we'd be really surprised to find out who they are. Probably the people we would least suspect. Kiki, frankly, always struck me as teetering on the edge. She was trying too hard. Liza, too, and Beth never quite measured up to the others, so that could have driven her over the edge."

Caroline screeched to a halt in front of a small, upscale shopping center, set some distance back from the street and beautifully landscaped with neatly trimmed spring flower beds. A sign in hot pink hanging in front of one of the low, white buildings read, Shear Delight. "You just never know about people, Margaret. You think you know them, but you don't. Not really."

While Margaret dealt with that depressing thought, they climbed out of the car into bright sunshine.

"Did you know that David's taking a cousin of his to the prom?" Margaret asked as they hurried to the salon entrance. "She's only a sophomore. Kiki set it up. She didn't want David to miss his prom. I think that's kind of nice, don't you? That she cared enough to make him go even though she couldn't?"

"Adorable." Caroline opened the salon door. "He sure wasn't available very long. Lacey's crushed. So is every other girl at school who doesn't have a date yet." Im sure.

Beth wasn't in the salon, and they were told that no one by that name had an appointment.

Back in the car, they hit three more salons in East Toomey. Margaret's anxiety increased when they didn't find Beth in any of them. Had the police taken her mother's call seriously? Were they looking for Beth, too? And maybe Lucas as well?

"This isn't fun anymore," Caroline commented as they drove through the streets of East Toomey. "We'll try one more, and then that's it. I'm tired. There's a place a couple of blocks up that's veddy posh. Let's hope she's in there."