and Iris to have to drop out. Without Linette, they both have a decent chance of winning, or at least finishing in the money.”
“Sure, I’ll take them.” Skye doodled a tiara on her yellow legal pad. “Anything special I should know?”
“We’ll drop the TransSport and the girls off at your place at seven on Saturday. You have to be at Laurel High School by eight, and ready to go on by nine. Kristin and Iris pretty much know what to do, but I’ll jot down some instructions for you.”
“Seven a.m.?” Skye squeaked. She was not a morning person.
“Sorry about that.” Gillian didn’t sound sorry. “Anyway, I’ve got to run. Thanks a million for helping out. Bye.”
Friday morning Skye walked through the deserted high school. Although she had arrived nearly half an hour before anyone else was due, she wouldn’t have time for a swim this morning. She headed directly to the guidance office and unlocked the door. Once inside she thumbed on the desk light, opened her appointment book, and put her purse into the right-hand drawer. Settling into the butt-softened leather chair, Skye reached for a pad of passes and started filling them out. She would give these to Opal, who would hand them out to the kids during homeroom.
The old wooden desk was big enough to spread out files and sort through forms. Skye had managed to keep her tiny office in the junior high, even though she was supposed to have had it for only one year. This year, the elementary school had given her a space to work, but she had to share it with the speech pathologist. The high school was the only holdout in providing her with a room, but she was still working on Homer.
Skye had just finished writing the passes when Charlie entered her office. “Wally’s going to talk to the parents at three-thirty. He was busy this morning.”
She noticed today that Charlie looked every one of his seventy-plus years. His normally fluffy white hair lay flat, and his usual vigorous gait was slow and plodding. She had to find the murderer before the stress killed her godfather.
“Should be okay if the parents were notified.” Skye reached for her appointment book and made a note.
“The PTO phone tree got the message out.”
Skye nodded. She knew that the PTO phone tree was a better communication device than anything in the Department of Defense. Once the president made the first call, it would take the end of the world to stop the rest of the ladies from calling their designated list of names, who would then call their lists, and so on, until every parent in Scumble River had received the message.
Charlie paused at the door. “I’ll be back after school. Give me a jingle if you need me any sooner.”
A few minutes later, at precisely seven-thirty-five, starting time for teachers, Coach poked his head into the guidance office and groaned. “You here again?”
“Yes. Do you need something?”
“My office back,” he grumbled.
“Sorry. How about using your office in the gym?”
“Have to share it with the other PE teacher,” he complained.
“I certainly know how hard it is to have to share space.” The barrel-shaped man backed out, muttering.
“Let’s chat again,” Skye trilled to the slammed door.
She hurriedly delivered the passes to the school secretary and grabbed a cup of coffee, sliding back behind her desk just as the first bell rang.
A few minutes later Elvira Doozier, her first appointment, erupted into the room. “Yeah, what do you want?”
The girl looked almost exactly as she had the day she ran into Skye’s office and announced that Sleeping Beauty was dead. Same type of low-riding pants and belly shirt. Same pierced navel. And same long, straight, two- toned hair.
“Have a seat, Elvira. When you weren’t at school yesterday, I was concerned that maybe finding Lorelei like you did might have upset you.”
“Nope, just didn’t want to talk to the cops.” The teen glared at Skye. “I don’t want to talk to anyone.”
“I can understand that.” Skye paused and changed her direction. “So, are you related to Earl and Junior Doozier?”
“Earl’s my brother and Junior’s my nephew. You know them from the time they pulled you from the river, right?”
“Right.” Skye smiled. “Junior helped me out a couple of times.”
“Yeah, by helping you out last year, he got my other brother, Hap, thrown in jail.”
“Are you saying that was a bad thing?”
“Well, it kept him off of hitting on his boy,” Elvira admitted. “Earl takes care of my nephew Cletus now.”
“Sounds like maybe things turned out for the best.” Skye leaned forward. “So, tell me about finding Lorelei.”
“Like I told you that day, I cut class to sneak a smoke in the gym, saw her laying there, and grabbed you.”
“How close did you get to Lorelei?” Skye was sure Elvira would have gone up for a close-up look.
“I never stepped much past the door.”
“How could you tell she was dead?”
Elvira’s smile was that of a very old woman. “I’ve seen dead people before. Dead people is easy to spot.”
Skye didn’t particularly want to know why the teen had such an intimate knowledge of corpses. “Did you see anyone in the hall when you were going in and out of the gym?”
“No one was around.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yeah. Just me and the dead cheerleader.” Elvira fingered the ring in her navel.
“Why, out of all the adults, did you come get me?”
“Remembered seeing you here on my way to the gym.” Elvira spoke to her lap. “And Junior thinks you’re okay.”
“Did you know any of Lorelei’s friends?”
“No way, man.” Elvira shook her head so hard that her long hair formed a cloak. “Those girls are brutal.”
Frannie Ryan marched into the guidance office and sat down facing Skye. “I didn’t kill her.”
Skye fought for a neutral expression. “Do you mean Lorelei?”
“How many dead bodies have you found around here?”
“Should we be looking for others?” The hair on the back of Skye’s neck rose. She could feel this girl’s anger from across her desk.
“None that I know of, but I wouldn’t be unhappy to see a few more princesses added to the list.” Frannie’s long lashes veiled her expression.
“They’ve hurt you?” Skye had seen firsthand the devious, self-esteem-destroying tactics commonly used on some teenage girls by the more popular girls.
Frannie snorted. “Their brand of social fascism is so galactically brutal, you end up bleeding to death before you even feel the knife go in.”
“Was Lorelei like that?” Skye asked. Talk about a motive for murder.
“She was more subtle. Most kids think she was so nice, but they didn’t realize that anything her posse did, she approved beforehand.” Frannie sat rigidly, waves of hostility pouring off of her.
“That sounds like a lot of power.”
“Lorelei Ingels was the sun, and the student body of Scumble River High revolved around her.”
“And she didn’t like you?” Skye asked.
“In her world, I didn’t even deserve that much respect. I’ve been taking dance since I was six, and I’m good. Despite my size, I’m also good at gymnastics. Obviously with these boobs, I’ll never make the Olympic team, but I have talent. Mrs. Frayne noticed me at a dance recital, and asked me to try out for the cheerleading squad. I was so up.”
“You thought this was your chance to fit in,” Skye ventured.
