Free I Know What You Did Last Summer by Lois Duncan

floundered for words.
    "Dream on," Elsa said and picked up her magazine. "You
just keep dreaming on."
    The next day Helen had taken her Junior Class picture, a good
picture that showed her fine bones and shining hair and bright,
perfect smile, and entered
it
in the Channel Five Golden
Girl Contest It turned out to be the smartest thing she had ever
done.
    There was a rap at the door. Helen snapped out of her reverie
with a jolt "Who is it?"
    "Collie. Just checking to see how you got through the
night."
    "Wait a minute, will you? I'm just getting up." Hurriedly, Helen
went to the bedroom and got a robe out of the closet. A glance in
the mirror as she passed it caused her to stop to comb her hair and
apply some lipstick. Collie might be no more than a platonic
friend, but he was, after all, a male friend.
    That fact was reflected in his eyes when she opened the door to
him.
    "I was going to ask you if you slept," he said. "I thought you'd
be haggard and baggy-eyed. I sure thought wrong."
    "I did sleep," Helen told him with a touch of apology in her
voice. "I don't know how I could, but I did. I'm just going to make
some coffee. Would you like some?"
    I've already eaten, thanks. I'm on my way out to my folks'
place. Did you have a chance yet to call the hospital?"
    "Barry's out of recovery and into a private room. They say he's
'resting comfortably,' whatever that means."
    "I guess it means just that." He hooked his thumbs into his
pants pockets. "I guess you'll be going over there after your disc
jockey show?"
    "They're not permitting visitors."
    "Then he's still on the critical list?"
    "I don't know," said Helen, suddenly unaccountably
irritated. "I don't know anything. Nobody tells me anything. I'd
call the Coxes, but I'm just sure Mrs. Cox would be the one to
answer, and I bet she'd hang up on me."
    "Don't blame the old girl too much," Collie said. "She wasn't
all there last night. Women get like that when something happens to
a kid. My own mom's that way."
    "Well, I was upset too," Helen reminded him. "I'll bet I was as
upset as she was. They're letting the
family
go in to see
him. I'm tempted to go down there and pass myself off as his
sister."
    "No chance-anybody who owns a TV set will know who you are
before you open your mouth." He was frowning a little. "Look,
Helen-there's something I want to ask you."
    "Yes?"
    "Last night on the way over to the hospital, you told me Barry
was a
gay who
didn't have any enemies. We ruled out
a couple of other things too- robbery, dope. It kind of leaves us
with nothing, doesn't it? I mean, no reason for the shooting at
all?"
    "I don't even want to think about it," Helen said shortly.
    "I think you
ought
to think about it. You know Barry
better than anybody. If he was mixed up in something
shady-something illegal-maybe peddling pills or-"
    "He wasn't. There's not even a question in my mind."
    "I'm not saying it had to be that. It was just the first
suggestion that came into my head. Maybe it was something entirely
different, but people don't usually get shot for nothing, Helen.
Oh, once in awhile a gun goes off while somebody's cleaning it or a
hunter fires at a deer and finds out it's another hunter, but
something like this, where a guy gets lured out of the house by a
phone call-well, it's
planned.
It has to have been."
    "I don't believe that," said Helen.
    "What do you believe, then? Do you have an answer? All I'm
getting at is that you're the one who has the best chance of coming
up with an answer, at least until Barry's able to talk
himself."
    "I can't think of anything."
    "Okay, okay." He reached out and gave her chin a tap. "Keep it
up. Enjoy your coffee. I'll see you later."
    He was off down the hall, and Helen pushed the door shut behind
him. It clicked into place and she turned to walk away from
it-then, slowly, she turned back and slid the bolt.
    She went back into the bedroom. The sound of the lawn mower was
dimmer now; the caretaker had moved over to a yard across the