Regina's Legacy (Sweet Valley High Book 73)

by Francine Pascal

  "Lead the way," Chad ordered, giving Jessica another push.

  Sweet Valley High was a maze of corridors, and Jessica purposefully took the long way around to Elizabeth's locker. Maybe she would find somebody else in the school building; maybe someone would discover the break-in and investigate.

  And maybe the photograph will be in Liz's locker, Jessica thought, hoping against hope. Once he had what he wanted, he would leave her alone, wouldn't he?

  "This is it," Jessica said, stopping in front of Elizabeth's locker.

  "Get to it, then. You've wasted enough of my time already."

  Jessica put her hand on the dial of the combination lock. She stooped and squinted to read the numbers in the dim night lighting. She turned the dial to the right, then to the left. But her hand was shaking so badly she overshot the second number in Elizabeth's combination.

  "What's taking so long?" Chad snapped.

  "I—I messed up."

  "Get it right!" Chad yelled. He kicked the locker, and the metallic crash echoed down the deserted hallway.

  Jessica jumped at the noise and quickly spun the dial. But it was harder than ever to read the numbers on the lock because her eyes had filled with tears.

  She misdialed again. "I'm sorry," she said, brushing the tears from her cheeks. "This time I'll—"

  "Clear out of the way!" Chad shoved Jessica aside. He kicked again at the locker, striking the lock hard with his boot heel. Jessica stood frozen with terror. It was apparent that Chad was desperate enough to rip the door of the locker right off with his bare hands.

  Suddenly a bright light illuminated the corridor. "Hold it right there!" a deep voice commanded.

  Jessica whirled to face the light, one hand raised to shield her eyes. Men in blue uniforms—the police!

  Chad turned in the opposite direction and sprinted at top speed away from the police spotlight. Away from the police, but straight into Todd!

  Todd jumped out from behind a bank of lockers and tackled Chad to the ground. Chad and Todd rolled over and over, locked in a fierce struggle. Jessica screamed. Chad was choking Todd!

  With a grunt, Todd thrust Chad off. An instant later, Todd had pinned Chad, just in time for the policeman who had rushed to the grappling pair to snap handcuffs on Chad's wrists.

  Jessica slumped against the lockers, not sure whether to laugh or cry. Then she saw Elizabeth hurrying toward her with another policeman. "Jess, are you all right?" Elizabeth cried, throwing her arms around her sister.

  "Oh, Liz!" Jessica hugged her sister with all her might.

  "Don't worry," Elizabeth said soothingly. "You're safe. We came after you."

  "I knew you would!" Jessica smiled at her twin through her tears. "But did you have to cut it so close?"

  Todd and Elizabeth had followed the police to the high school. Now Jessica joined her sister and Todd in the BMW, and once more they tailed the police car, this time to the Sweet Valley police station.

  "Is someone going to tell me what's going on?" Jessica demanded, leaning forward from the backseat to stick her face in between Elizabeth's and Todd's.

  Elizabeth was glad to see that her sister appeared to be recovering rapidly from her scare. "Todd and I don't know much more than you do," she admitted.

  "But Chad." Jessica shivered as she spoke the name. "Who is he? What is this photograph he's so concerned about? And why did you take it?"

  "It's a long story, and I think it's going to get longer," Elizabeth predicted. "Chad's the one with the answers. The police are going to question him, and we'll hear what he has to say for himself."

  "I'll tell you one thing," Jessica said, shaking her head. "That's the last time I go out with a total stranger just because he's cute, and it's also the last time I let somebody think I'm you. Talk about a double whammy!"

  Todd parked in front of the station, and the three hurried inside. An officer ushered them into a conference room, where a glowering Chad was already seated between two policemen. Jessica clutched Elizabeth's hand, and Elizabeth gave Jessica's a supportive squeeze.

  "Twins," Chad muttered. "I should've known. Twins have caused me nothing but trouble."

  Detective Meyers, chief of the Sweet Valley police force, conducted the questioning. "You've been informed of your rights," he began, "and I'd like to inform you of something else. An FBI team is on its way. You might as well give us the story now. It will be a good rehearsal. Ms. Wakefield, can I have the photograph?"

  Elizabeth handed Detective Meyers the photograph and told him the date she had taken it. Detective Meyers in turn showed it to Chad. "This is the reason you abducted Miss Wakefield and broke into Sweet Valley High, isn't it?"

  At the sight of the photograph, Chad's rage bubbled to the surface once again. "That idiot Ron Hunter!" he burst out. "If it hadn't been for him—"

  "Ron Hunter!" Elizabeth exclaimed.

  "Who's Ron Hunter?" Jessica wanted to know.

  "Ron Hunter is the key witness in a drug inquiry currently underway in the Senate," Detective Meyers informed her. "Can you explain to us how Ron Hunter could have been on the beach in Sweet Valley with you, at the very same time he was testifying in Washington, D.C.?"

  "Twins," Chad answered with a bitter laugh. "That's Ron Hunter in the picture, all right. The guy in Washington pretending to be Ron is his twin brother, Rich."

  "Identical twins!" Elizabeth whispered to Todd. "Of course! Why didn't I, of all people, think of that?"

  Chad paused in his story and looked down at the handcuffs on his wrists. He has to recognize how serious his situation is, Elizabeth imagined. He's trapped—he might as well talk.

  Chad took a deep breath and continued. "Ron and Rich were both involved with us, selling drugs."

  "Drugs?" Jessica asked Elizabeth in a whisper.

  "Just listen!" Elizabeth whispered back.

  "But Ron went soft on us. Said he didn't want to make money from ruining people's lives anymore. So he got out of it and turned informer. He blew the whistle on us. The biggest operation in the country, and the government had no idea we even existed until he told them," Chad said with perverse pride. "We came up with a way to stop him before he could name names, though. We kidnapped him before he could give the rest of us away."

  "And his brother Rich took Ron's place in order to change the testimony and protect you," Detective Meyers surmised.

  "You got it. It would have worked, too." Chad turned his hostile gaze on Jessica and Elizabeth. "If it hadn't been for her—or her? Whichever one it was on the beach that day!"

  Elizabeth closed her eyes. For a few seconds, she felt transported back to that afternoon at the beach when she'd been taking pictures with Regina's camera. The three men running with Ron Hunter in the middle . . .

  "He escaped!" Elizabeth exclaimed.

  "That's right," Chad said. "We made the mistake of treating the guy like an old friend instead of the back-stabbing traitor he really is. Took him for a drive to get some fresh air. We were at a stoplight near the beach, and the next thing we knew he jumped right out of the car and made a break for it. Me and George chased him halfway down the beach before we caught him." Chad pointed in the twins' direction. "That's when you—or you—blew it all by popping out of nowhere to take our picture!"

  "You had a good reason for wanting to get your hands on the photograph," Detective Meyers observed.

  "You're telling me," Chad snorted. "With Ron's, I mean Rich's face on every TV channel, we couldn't risk that picture being seen."

  "You know, I might never have noticed the resemblance between the man in my photograph and the man on TV," Elizabeth spoke up, "if your friend hadn't made such a big deal about my having taken the picture in the first place. That's what made me suspicious."

  "At first we thought the only thing we could do was cross our fingers that nothing would come of it. And then I spotted your sister." Chad smiled coldly at Jessica. Elizabeth felt Jessica tense. "It seemed like a great chance to get hold of the picture and
destroy the evidence. I suppose you two think you're pretty smart, leading me right into a trap!"

  Elizabeth and Jessica exchanged an amused glance. If Chad only knew!

  "I think we've heard enough for now," Detective Meyers announced. "You can lock him up," he instructed the other officers.

  Chad left the room in custody. Elizabeth, Jessica, and Todd got to their feet. "We'll need to talk to you again tomorrow," Detective Meyers told the twins. "For now, I'd just like to shake your hands. You've done the whole country a great service."

  "It was just luck," Elizabeth said as she shook Detective Meyers's hand. "I guess I was in the right place at the right time!"

  "You and your camera." Jessica laughed. "And I just thought you were being a real pain lately, taking pictures of everything under the sun. I didn't realize you were catching criminals!"

  My camera and me, Elizabeth thought. Then she corrected herself. Regina's camera and me. It looked as if together they had accomplished some pretty important work.

  Twelve

  "That's twice you've been on national TV in a matter of weeks," observed Amy at lunch two days later.

  "I know," said Jessica complacently. "Isn't it something?"

  Of course, Eric Parker's talk show about a month back didn't really count. Due to an underhanded trick of Lila's, Jessica was prevented from appearing on the show, and Eric had actually interviewed Elizabeth, pretending to be Jessica. Sort of like Ron and Rich Hunter! Jessica reflected. But of course Amy didn't know that. Only Jessica, Elizabeth, and Todd knew the truth behind that episode. But last night's TV appearance had been for real. The day after Chad's arrest and the subsequent release of the real Ron Hunter, Rich Hunter had broken down and confessed as well. The huge drug operation had been busted wide open, and Jessica, Elizabeth, and Todd were mentioned in all the news reports.

  "How does it feel to be a hero?" class clown Winston Egbert asked, sticking an imaginary microphone under Jessica's nose.

  "I don't think of myself as a hero," Jessica answered, with an air of noble humility. "I think of myself as an ordinary citizen, doing my small part to keep this beautiful nation free of crime and vice."

  "Spare us," Lila groaned. "Liz is the one who was trying to track down criminals. You were just trying to get a date!"

  "Be that as it may," Jessica replied, "I helped!"

  "A lot of great things are done by accident," Winston pointed out to Lila. "That doesn't make them any less important."

  Lila yawned, a look of indescribable boredom on her face. Lila always pouted when Jessica was in the spotlight. Jessica was sure that in a moment or two, Lila would remind them all of her bit role in Jamie Peters's upcoming movie. Jessica thought she had better answer Winston and cut Lila off before she got started. "So true." She smiled broadly at Lila and then took a big bite of her sandwich.

  "Make way," Winston announced. "More heroes to starboard."

  The group at the lunch table shifted to make room for Todd, Elizabeth, and Shelley. "I don't think I qualify," Shelley said.

  "Sure you do," Winston told her. "You still possess hero status from helping the girls' basketball team win the county championship."

  "That was awhile ago, though," Shelley reminded him.

  "No problem," Winston insisted. "Hero status lasts for six months. After that, it has to be renewed with another heroic act."

  Shelley laughed. "Oh, is that how it works?"

  "Take it from Winston," said his girlfriend, Maria Santelli, "Sweet Valley High's champion opportunist."

  Elizabeth put down her lunch tray. On it were a sandwich, an apple, a bottle of seltzer, and her camera.

  "There it is," Winston said, holding his hand over his heart. "The camera that caught a thousand criminals."

  "The camera that drove a thousand people crazy," Jessica corrected him. "Please tell us you're going to let us eat our lunch in peace," she begged her sister, "and not take pictures of us chewing and swallowing!"

  "Chew and swallow all you want," Elizabeth replied. "I promise I'm not working on a photographic series entitled 'My Sister Eating Her Lunch.' "

  "And what are you working on?" Todd asked.

  Elizabeth raised her eyebrows at him, and Todd laughed. "I thought maybe crime fighting had distracted you and you might have let your guard down," he teased.

  "No such luck!"

  But the Ron Hunter adventure had been a distraction. While she and Todd had been busy pursuing the mystery of the three men on the beach, Elizabeth had almost forgotten about the photography club's project. Now, she was making up for lost time. The club would be putting the photo essay together in only a few days.

  "I missed the last photography club meeting," Elizabeth said to Shelley. During that meeting on Monday, she and Todd had been at Mr. Sutton's studio. "Although I suppose nothing much happened because the darkroom was still shut down."

  Shelley just shrugged.

  "But I bumped into Jim earlier today," Elizabeth continued, "and he said that although some of the equipment was damaged beyond repair and will have to be replaced, the rest of it is back in service for our meeting today." She smiled. "He was pretty excited!"

  "I'm sure."

  Elizabeth was surprised by Shelley's sarcastic tone. Was something wrong between her and Jim? I'll have to find out about this another time, Elizabeth decided. The crowded cafeteria wasn't the place for a private conversation.

  "Seriously, though, Jessica," Maria was saying. "That horrible Chad person was a real desperado. He could have killed you! Weren't you scared?"

  "Not at all," Jessica answered, ignoring Elizabeth's dubious look. "Chad wasn't going to kill me as long as he thought I had what he wanted." That much was true. "I was just waiting for my opportunity to gain the upper hand. If Liz and the police hadn't shown up when they did, I was going to improvise a few karate moves. You know, Maria, variations on some of our cheerleading kicks."

  "Right. I would have liked to see that!" Lila burst out. "Then I suppose you were going to tie him up with your shoelaces, sling him over your shoulder, and deliver him to the police station yourself!"

  "Exactly," replied Jessica with a grin.

  Just then, Elizabeth spotted Ms. Bellasario, a music teacher, sitting with a group of students. Ms. Bellasario had arranged several half-full seltzer bottles in a row. Using a spoon, she was improvising a tune on the bottles and making the students laugh.

  That would make a great picture for the photo essay! thought Elizabeth. She grabbed her camera and stood up. As she did, she glanced at Shelley who was looking at Jim, sitting with some of his photography club friends a few tables away.

  The expression on Shelley's face spoke volumes. She looked resentful and hurt and wistful all at the same time. Elizabeth made a mental note. The next mystery she'd solve would be the one concerning Jim and Shelley!

  "This is it, you guys," Jim announced to the members of the photography club who were assembled at the school on Saturday morning. "Everybody stake out a space and go to it!"

  Mr. Marks had cleared everything with Mr. Cooper. The photography club was free to use the entire north wall of the lobby for their mural. First, they had tacked an enormous piece of plastic sheeting to the four corners of the wall. Now, equipped with stepladders, glue guns, and their photographs, the club was ready to start.

  It's going to be wonderful, Jim thought, walking behind the row of busily working students. Everyone's pictures were so different! Claire's were hilarious. She had snuck into the boys' locker room and caught the football team in their towels. Andy's photographs were sensitive studies of interracial friendships at Sweet Valley High, and included a beautiful portrait of Patty and DeeDee. Meanwhile, DeeDee had recorded the life of the arts at Sweet Valley High: students painting, sculpting, and acting. Neil's pictures were of students standing in the cafeteria lunch line and making gruesome faces. Allen's were group shots: the cheerleaders in a pyramid, the chorus posed on risers rehearsing for a concert, a crowd at a sports eve
nt.

  Jim stopped next to Elizabeth. "There's space here for your pictures," she told him. "Hey, you know, that reminds me. You never did say what your special angle for the mural was going to be."

  Jim handed her a stack of photographs. "See for yourself."

  Elizabeth flipped through them and smiled. "They're of us!" Jim had caught the photography club in action in the darkroom, printing pictures and talking to one another about their work. A picture of herself made Elizabeth laugh. "I don't remember you taking this."

  "None of you guys noticed me clicking away at you. I guess when you're used to pointing a camera yourself, you don't notice when someone points one at you."

  "Well, they're great," Elizabeth pronounced, returning the pictures to him.

  "Yours turned out pretty well, too."

  "I think so," Elizabeth admitted. "I just hope it's not too obvious which teachers I like best!"

  "Not too obvious," Jim said, indicating a nine-by-twelve of Mr. Collins.

  For a few minutes, the two worked side by side in silence. Jim felt comfortable with Elizabeth, and a few times he cleared his throat, as if he were on the verge of confiding in her. He hadn't talked to anybody yet about his falling-out with Shelley. He was almost afraid to admit that it might be more than just a quarrel. But he was starting to worry. Every day in school, Shelley gave him the brush-off, and lately when he called her at home, she always had something to do or somewhere to go that prevented her from talking to him. Was she spending her time with Greg Hilliard now?

  Before Jim got around to breaking the silence, Elizabeth spoke up. "I've really learned a lot from the photography club so far. Working on the photo essay and taking pictures on my own has sharpened my powers of observation, you know? Photography will probably make me a better writer in the long run."

  "Right. It's like the name of your newspaper column, 'Eyes and Ears.' You have to look and listen for good stories."

  "I just never thought one little photograph could be so powerful," Elizabeth mused.