The doll wore a long white gown with white lace trimmings and a purple cape. Her hair sported feathers and pink and white flowers.
“My goodness she looks real!” Sharon ran her finger along the doll’s cheek.
“That’s how they made dolls early in this century,” Irene said.
“It even feels like real skin!” Sharon drew her finger back. The uncanny resemblance to a human being made her shiver all over. The doll looked at her with startling blue eyes, perfect in every detail. She even had eyelashes and eyebrows. It was watching her.
“The people who fashioned these dolls were real artists. They made them look like their owners.”
Sharon gasped. “But this doll is so old—you mean it looks like somebody who’s dead?”
“Very likely.”
What a strange sort of immortality! Sharon thought. She touched the long, blond, curly hair. It felt very fine and silky, just like real hair.
“It’s probably some of the owner’s hair.” Irene seemed to read her thoughts.
Sharon stepped back. The room seemed to spin around. How was it possible? The doll even had delicately carved fingernails.
“Are you all right?” Irene’s voice came from a distance.
“Let’s go. I’m probably spooked because of everything that’s been happening.” Sharon groped for the doorway and left the room.
“What actually happened? I’ve been dying to ask you.” Irene gently placed the doll in the rocking chair and shut the double doors behind them. “I’ve just heard bits and pieces. You see, I was hoping to be here for the party. But I had bad plane connections.”
“You wouldn’t have wanted to be at that party for the world!” Sharon led Irene downstairs to a small, ground-floor apartment where she and her mother lived. “It was the strangest party I’ve ever been to!” Sharon threw herself down on her bed and kicked off her shoes.
Irene sat in a chair across from her. She fixed her violet eyes on Sharon and listened attentively. She put her sketchbook to one side.
“It was creepy from the beginning. Some jerk sent out these real fancy invitations before I got a chance to invite my own guests. You should have seen them.” Sharon snatched one from her nightstand and shoved it in front of Irene.
Irene studied the gilt-edged preprinted invitation that said, “TO THE BEST OF THE BEST.” Then she looked at the gold-foil-lined envelope carefully.
“Why, I don’t think it’s peculiar at all!” Irene’s violet eyes flashed as she handed it back. “In fact, it’s a rather nice touch.”
“I don’t get it.”
“You see, I sent the invitations myself.”
“You did what!”
Irene shrugged. “I thought it would be a nice way for everybody on Amelia Island to see the new resort.”
Sharon was having a hard time finding her voice. “But—but you ordered the caterers, too, and all that fancy stuff? You did that?”
“Of course.”
Sharon remembered how shocked and surprised everybody had been. Was Irene always so mysterious? Why didn’t she tell Sharon’s mother, her father’s franchisee, what she was up to?
Sharon bit her tongue. She wasn’t about to criticize the daughter of her mother’s boss.
“Why—why did you invite only kids who never have anything to do with each other?”
Irene smiled. “I actually put the names of everyone in the senior class in a hat and drew them at random until I reached fifty.”
Sharon knew a random drawing wouldn’t have selected only the kids who didn’t know each other. She racked her brain to remember what she had learned in her probability and statistics class. This just didn’t add up.
“Just one more question.” Sharon wet her lips. “Why did the invitations say TO THE BEST OF THE BEST?”
“It sounded nice.” Irene pouted.
Br-r-r-r-r-ring!
Sharon ran to answer the phone in the living room.
A strange, distorted voice taunted her. “You know where Donna, Elaine, and Marge went. You put them there.”
“Who is this?” Her knees failed her. She sank down onto the couch.
“Somebody who sees everything that you do.”
“Leave me alone!”
“Look under your mattress first.”
The phone went dead.
“Who is it?” Irene leaned around the corner.
Sharon pushed past the new girl and lifted up her mattress. Sure enough. There was the gold jewelry that Donna, Elaine, and Marge were wearing the night they disappeared. How could she forget Donna’s ring, Elaine’s pendant necklace, or Marge’s earrings? And now they were lying right in front of her.
Sharon dropped the mattress and screamed.
Chapter 3
The next thing Sharon knew she was standing in the front lobby with Irene. Irene had her arm wrapped tightly around Sharon’s shoulders while more policemen swarmed around Ocean House. Her mother looked distraught and worried. She kept dabbing her eyes with a Kleenex. Sharon could barely even remember all the questions the police had asked her—one right after another after another.
“It’s not your fault, Sharon,” Irene kept insisting. “Somebody’s trying to frame you. You never would have stolen that jewelry.”
Phil burst through the door. Someone—probably her mother—had called him. He stormed over to Sharon and put his arm around her shoulders very possessively. Irene stepped back as he started calling out to the policemen, “How dare you assume my girlfriend has anything to do with this! It’s obviously someone who wants to make her look bad.”
“Phil, please!” Mrs. Jones put a restraining hand on his arm. “You don’t want to get in trouble with the police, too.”
Just then Sue, Angel, and Vicki hurried through the front door. “Sharon, what happened?” Angel gushed. “We heard about the jewelry on the news.”
“Is there anything we can do?” asked Vicki.
“Thanks for coming.” Sharon croaked. Her voice was hoarse from crying.
Sue said, “Whoever this creep is, he really acts fast.”
“We’ve been watching this place since this morning as we promised,” Vicki interrupted. “We haven’t seen anybody suspicious.”
“Just the police and a bunch of reporters,” said Angel.
“Maybe somebody broke in during the middle of the night,” Sue suggested.
“Who has keys?” Vicki was on the case.
“Just people who work here, friends of the family, and the guests.” Mrs. Jones answered.
“That lady with the little girl did seem to be in an awful hurry to get away,” Irene reasoned.
“Oh, dear! I never thought of them,” said Mrs. Jones.
“It’s too late now,” sighed Sue. “They’re gone.”
Sharon’s new friends, the members of “the pact,” hovered around her like mother hens. Sue put a hand on her arm. Vicki held her hand. Angel even cried with her. But nobody could stop the police from ransacking the place. They were convinced that Sharon was guilty.
Tears streamed down Sharon’s cheeks despite anything she did to stop them. Her mother had warned her that if Ocean House attracted any more negative press, no one would stay at the hotel and Mrs. Jones wouldn’t be able to pay the bills.
Suddenly Sharon spotted Dan leaning against the wall near the door. She hadn’t noticed him come in. He kept shuffling his feet, stuffing his hands into his jeans pockets, and fidgeting. He obviously couldn’t get comfortable. Then he cleared his throat and darted his eyes from side to side.
What is with him? Sharon wondered.
Mrs. Jones had set up a coffee cart in the lobby for the police. She was busily refilling Styrofoam cups and asking if anybody wanted sugar packets, creamers, or stirrers. Though she acted very stiff and very formal, she looked tired and very nervous. Her eyes kept on darting toward the front door as if she were expecting someone.
Obviously it wasn’t Dan. He continued to hide out in one corner of the lobby not talking to anyone,
eyeing people warily, and generally giving Sharon the creeps. She wanted to ask him what was going on in the worst way.
Suddenly Sharon’s father burst through the door. He was wearing a business suit and was loaded down with his briefcase, laptop, and a Burberrys trench coat slung over one arm. He’d obviously just returned from one of his international business trips. He was always flying somewhere.
Sharon hadn’t seen him in several months. She nearly forgot what was going on as she ran into his arms.
“Sugar,” he whispered, “what’s the problem? Your mother tells me you’re in some sort of trouble with the police?”
Her mother was standing next to them with her hands clasped tightly in front of her.
Was there any point in telling her father what she’d repeated a hundred times to her mother and to the police? She didn’t know anything about the disappearing girls or the jewelry. All the circumstantial evidence pointed to her, but she didn’t know what was going on.
Suddenly a policeman approached them with a smile on his face. “Miss Jones, I think we’ve got the case solved. You’re a free woman.”
“Whadda you mean?” She was so taken aback she could hardly speak. First she was going to jail. Now she was free—and she hadn’t done a thing except stand there.
“We caught him trying to escape.” The policeman glanced back over his shoulder.
Dan was surrounded by police. He was leaning with his hands against the walls, and they were frisking him. One policeman was on his radio. “George, you’d better send another squad car. This one’s armed and dangerous.”
The police pulled a gun out of Dan’s jeans pocket. Sharon gasped. She barely felt Irene’s hand on her shoulder or heard Sue’s snort of disbelief or Angel’s and Vicki’s whispered comments. She was hardly even aware of Phil’s letting out a long string of curse words.
Sharon called out. “Dan, what’s going on? I—I don’t believe this is happening!”
Dan looked away. The police were reading him his rights.
The officer standing beside Sharon began to explain. “We found a transcript of his crank phone call to you in his pocket. We also found more gold jewelry and a list of pawnbrokers where he could sell the stuff he had left over. I had my eye on him all morning. Kinda fidgety character. Criminals always like to revisit the scene of the crime.”
“But—but there’s no reason Dan would want to steal a bunch of jewelry and plant it under my mattress.”
“Oh yeah, miss?” the officer said. “Well then, feast your eyes on this!”
He thrust a paper in front of her. It seemed to be another transcript of a phone conversation, one that hadn’t yet taken place. A death threat.
It was in Dan’s handwriting. Sharon would know it anywhere.
Chapter 4
Dan. Arrested for kidnapping. What was happening? Sharon thought.
Dan might not be her idea of a boyfriend. He might not be exciting. But ever since they’d been little kids Dan was always like a rock. He never changed. He was always a good guy.
His father, Mr. Evans, was a math teacher at Ocean High. He was the coach of the boys’ basketball team. He was the Eagle Scout leader and one of the most respected people in town.
Mrs. Evans taught Sunday school. She was the head of the PTO. When the grade schools had fairs, she was the organizer. When the high school needed extra chaperones for a dance, she always volunteered.
The Evans family had always been so upstanding that they’d seemed like something out of an old sitcom on Nick at Nite like Leave It to Beaver.
Dan had a perfect record at school. He’d never been in trouble. He’d never had detention or gone to the principal’s office. He was the quietest boy in the class. You’d forget he was there if you didn’t look over at him scribbling notes. He never gave the teachers any trouble and was always the best student.
“This has to be a setup,” Sharon kept murmuring over and over.
“See what I told you?” Phil boasted. “That creep has gone AWOL with jealousy. He’s crashing fast.”
Sue was standing by Sharon’s side. “Maybe if I blink again, I’ll wake up. This’ll all be a bad dream.”
Angel said, “Oh, wow! What a trip! Tell me when to laugh. This has got to be the worst joke I’ve ever heard.”
“Man, even if I wrote a story for the school newspaper nobody would believe it!” said Vicki.
At least there were other voices of sanity in the room. That gave Sharon courage. “Wait a second!” she said to the police as they were about ready to cart Dan away. “I want to have a minute alone with him.”
“He’s been patted down,” one officer said to the other. “I think it’s OK.”
The other officer nodded at Sharon and said, “Miss, if you need us, we’ll be outside.”
Phil protested, but soon Sharon and Dan were alone. She stood in the inn’s lobby staring at Dan. Neither one of them said anything for several minutes. She was aware of the ticking of the grandfather clock in the parlor.
Dan stared at his feet.
“Well?” she finally asked. “Are you gonna just stand there? Tell me what’s goin’ on. I mean, we’ve known each other for seventeen years.”
“What can I say?” He shrugged. His face was pale. He was biting his lip. His eyes held such a pained expression that it was hard for Sharon to look at him.
“Why would you do something like this?”
“I like you a lot, Sharon.” He stuck his hands in his pockets and took a step toward her. Since he was a juvenile the police hadn’t bothered to put him in handcuffs. “It broke me up when you said we were calling it quits.”
There seemed to be something deliberate and planned about the way he was approaching her.
“But I can’t believe you’d do something like this.”
He slowly came closer. He seemed to be moving his left hand in his jeans pocket. “I wanted to hurt you the way you hurt me.”
Had Dan flipped? He was making her more uneasy every minute.
Dan grabbed her by the waist and shook her. Vanished was the guilty, abject look. He hissed. “Sharon, watch out for Phil! He’s up to something, and—”
Sharon screamed as Dan toppled backward onto the floor with Phil on top of him. Phil had the advantage of surprise and had pinned Dan to the floor. Phil was a much bigger guy, and Dan was having a hard time wriggling out from underneath. Phil had powerful shoulder muscles and a mean left. He pummeled Dan in the jaw while sitting on him.
Dan surprised Phil by lunging at him and striking him in the nose. Phil fell back onto the floor, his eyes wide with shock.
“Phil! Dan! Stop it! Somebody help!” Sharon screamed.
The police broke up the fight. They took Dan off in a police car with flashing red and blue lights.
“Good thing I came when I did!” Phil told everybody. “It looked like Dan was gonna jump Sharon.”
Sharon’s parents asked Phil if he wanted something for his cuts and bruises. They gave him a Coke in the kitchen while he recounted his exploits to Irene, Sue, Angel, Vicki, and a stunned Sharon, who sipped her soda slowly.
“I don’t think they’re gonna let that creep outta jail, but if he bothers you again just give me a holler.” Phil kissed Sharon on the head.
Sharon was too numb with shock to respond.
“Let me know when you get this all figured out,” Sue whispered as she said goodbye.
“I don’t know if I ever will,” Sharon said truthfully. But she wasn’t going to try to figure it out now. She was just too tired.
She barely made it to her room before she collapsed on her bed.
“Don’t take it so hard, dear.” Mom appeared in the doorway. “I’m sure the police will find a perfectly logical reason why Dan went berserk. Teenagers do go through stages.”
Sharon wondered who was telling the truth—Phil or Dan? Phil was her boyfriend. She loved him. There wasn’t any reason to be afraid of him. He wouldn’t harm her for the world.
&
nbsp; Would he?
No. It wasn’t possible.
“Dan didn’t hurt you, did he, dear?” Her mother walked over and sat down on the bed next to her. She felt her daughter’s forehead and cheeks.
“He scared me a little. That’s all. I’m just sleepy.”
“I’m sorry if all this mess has been upsetting you. Your father’s going to stay in town for awhile until everything’s settled.”
“That’s nice!” She yawned and wished she could feel happier. It was really great that her dad would be around. She hadn’t seen him in weeks.
Sharon was shaken from her thoughts by a dull thudding on her ceiling. “The guests upstairs make too much noise. I can’t sleep well at night.”
“That won’t be a problem much longer,” her mother said grimly as she stood to leave. “We’re losing customers like crazy. Pretty soon Ocean House will be as quiet as a tomb.”
Sharon drifted off to sleep dreaming of the pool. The water lapped against the black marble tiles, gleaming in the moonlight.
Sharon woke up with a start. She glanced at her wristwatch, blinking rapidly. She must have slept for hours!
Groggily, she sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed. Then she sneezed and reached into her jeans pocket for a tissue. Her hand lighted on a piece of crumpled-up paper.
Sharon quickly unraveled it. At once Dan’s bold, dark hand leaped out at her:
Look in the room upstairs!
How had the note gotten into her pocket? Had Dan planted it when he’d grabbed her by the waist?
There was only one room directly above the suite of rooms that she and her mother called the manager’s apartment. It was the biggest and fanciest room in Ocean House. It was the one the lady and the little girl had recently stayed in. The room with the doll.
Sharon started up the main staircase, her knees feeling like jelly. She wondered if this was a smart thing to do. She didn’t want to see the creepy doll again. Should she wait until Sue, Angel, or Vicki was with her—or Irene? Too late now. She was halfway up.
Sharon didn’t know how the brand-new, state-of-the-art air-conditioning system managed it, but it got colder the higher she climbed. Wasn’t warm air supposed to rise?
Pool Party Page 3