Free Most Likely to Die (A Kate Jasper Mystery) by Jaqueline Girdner Page A

talked all wrong. At least for my parents’ crowd. But it was something weirder. Sid’s dad was always pissed at him, always giving him a hard time. And Sid’s mom cried a lot. But both Mr. and Mrs. Semling tried to act happy to see me whenever I came over. It was all so strange. I sometimes wondered if Sid was my friend because his father ordered it.”
    “But why would Sid’s father order it?” I asked.
    Charlie shook his head again, this time in puzzlement.

“I don’t know. And I’ve tried to figure it out over the years. I even thought about writing a short story about the whole thing. Because here was Sid, this intrinsically popular kid with unpopular parents. And here was me, this intrinsically unpopular kid with popular parents—”
    “Not that unpopular,” I reminded him. Someone had to. Obviously Rodin Rodent wasn’t giving this guy enough lessons in self-worth. “Pam certainly liked you.”
    He smiled softly.
    “Sid did help me with Pam,” Charlie said quietly. “He told her what a great guy I was. And he convinced me she liked me too. But Pam and I never talked. I guess we were both too shy. And then one evening, the three of us went out to the beach in the Mustang, and Sid just left us there. Drove right off. So Pam and I had to talk. God, it seemed like we were there for years before Sid came back. And Sid was right, she did like me. I was in heaven.” He sighed. “We were in heaven.”
    Heaven didn’t seem to have lasted though. Charlie frowned again.
    “But then Sid kept wanting more stuff from me. My father found out I was letting Sid drive the Mustang without me, and he said I couldn’t let Sid do that anymore. When I told Sid, he tried to blackmail me. He told me he’d tell Pam I was having sex with another girl if I didn’t let him keep driving the car. I couldn’t believe it. I would have never made love to anyone else. I was in love with Pam. I told Sid I couldn’t disobey my father. And Sid did what he said he would. He told Pam this long story about all the girls I’d been with. Like Becky Burchell and Natalie Nusser. And a bunch of others.”
    Charlie’s body tensed. I waited for another explosion. But none came.
    “Luckily, Pam was a very sensible girl,” he said, his voice slower. But I could hear the vibration of the strain it took for him to keep the brakes on. “She just laughed at Sid and asked me what the deal was. I told her and she said I should stop hanging out with Sid.” Charlie shook his head ruefully.
    “Unfortunately, it wasn’t that easy to stop hanging out with Sid. He was still pretending to be my friend. And oddly enough, I still believed him. Then the next thing he wanted was to date my sister. But she was a year older and definitely not interested. But Sid kept saying I could get him ‘into her pants’ if I really wanted to.”
    Charlie wound his hands together tightly, his knuckles bulging.
    “And then Pam got pregnant.” Charlie’s face reddened again, but I was pretty sure it was anger this time. I could even smell it in the bitter scent of his sweat now. “And I made the mistake of telling Sid. Sid treated it like a big joke, slapped me on the back. ‘No college for you, ho-ho-ho.’“
    I recognized the “ho-ho-ho.” It was the evil captain’s.
    “And then he sat there grinning and told me either I got my sister to give him a ‘roll in the hay,’ or he’d tell everyone that Pam was pregnant. See, Pam and I wanted to at least keep it secret until we graduated. And neither of us had told our parents yet. We were still trying to figure out what to do. I pleaded with Sid. I told him there was no way I could get my sister to sleep with him, outside of drugging her and giving him the key to her room. He told me that sounded fine. It was like seeing Dr. Jekyll turn into Mr. Hyde. Because he was serious. I guess that was when I finally realized he’d never really liked me.
    “I told him no. I had to. Pam and I talked it over. I