Free Blood on My Hands by Todd Strasser Page A

forehead with the back of her hand, and heading toward the house.
    Dakota stood by the badminton net—her face red and glistening, her eyes narrowed, her jaw clenched—glowering as if she were ready to kill. I felt an elbow touch my arm and turned to find Jodie with one eyebrow raised as if to say, See?

Chapter 17
    Sunday 5:08 P.M.
    THE FRONT DOOR of the apartment is across the room. I’ll have to get past Tallon to reach it.
    Once again Jasmine says insistently, “Tallon?”
    “Can it wait?” Tallon answers, clearly uncomfortable about taking her eyes off me.
    I decide to take a step, to see how she reacts.
    “I’d appreciate it next time if you’d ask before you use our living room for tutoring,” Jasmine says in a huff, and closes her door.
    Tallon turns and stares at me, clearly bewildered.
    “For God’s sake, Tallon,” I whisper, “do you really think I could kill anyone?”
    “But the pictures …”
    I start to whisper fast, desperate to make her understand before she screams for help. “She was dead when I found her, and someone took a picture that made it look like I did it.” I just hope Jasmine doesn’t have her ear pressed to the door. “Can’t we talk someplace more private?”
    Tallon stiffens. Does she think that maybe this is my way of getting her alone so that I can stab her, too? Callie Carson, serial maniac killer. Tallon has definitely been watching too much CSI . I pat my pockets and turn my palms out, showing her that I’m not carrying any weapons. “Tallon, please. This is serious . I’m desperate. You have to listen.”
    She gestures to the couch and takes a seat on the other side of the small coffee table. “If you didn’t do it, why not just go to the police and tell them what happened?”
    “You saw the pictures. Everyone thinks I did it. I mean, come on, you think I did it, too.”
    Tallon averts her eyes, more or less confirming what I’ve just said. “There was something on the news this morning about how it might have been sexual,” she says in a low voice. “If that’s the case, why would they be looking for you?”
    “I don’t know,” I said. “There are a lot of things about this that don’t make sense.”
    Tallon studies me. “Why did you come here?”
    “Last spring, a few weeks before the PACE show, something happened between Dakota and Katherine. Like, for a couple of weeks they were completely icy to each other. Didn’t speak, wouldn’t even look at each other. Dakota wouldn’t even come into the cafeteria at lunch. I know they fought a lot, but this time it was different. It went on for much longer and seemed more serious. And then it went back to normal. I came here to see if you know what happened.”
    Tallon’s eyebrows rise. I was worried that she wouldn’t even know what I was talking about, but her reaction tells me she knows exactly . “Why do you want to know about that?”
    I have to answer carefully. I don’t want her to think that I may be trying to pin Katherine’s murder on Dakota. “I … heard something.”
    The faint lines around Tallon’s eyes deepen and she slowly nods her head. “It was really personal, Callie. I can’t imagine how it could have had anything to do with Katherine getting killed. It would be pretty far-fetched, don’t you think?”
    I have no idea what she’s talking about, but I have to pretend. “It may be far-fetched, but put yourself in my place. Right now it’s all I’ve got to go on. It may be a dead end, or maybe it will lead to something else.”
    Tallon purses her lips, as if she’s not sure what to do. I wonder why she doesn’t just tell me to go ask Dakota about it, but clearly something is making her hesitate. “Listen, Callie, I understand that this is incredibly serious for you, but the reason people confide in me is because they trust me. I can’t go revealing the intimate details of someone’s life just because you think there’s a slim chance it might pertain to your