“Well, I think she killed Jeff,” Kip insisted. “And I think she tried to kill Tracy’s grandma, too.”
“Big deal.” Alison sneered. “So that’s what you think. But how do you know?”
“Well, I know she killed Tracy’s horse,” Kip shot back. “Tracy says that’s why they’re kicking her out. She’s crazy.”
“Oh, come on,” Alison started, but Tracy interrupted her.
“But she is crazy, Alison,” she insisted. “I was hiking up near the mausoleum yesterday, and she was up there. I heard her talking about someone named Amy that she thinks killed Jeff.”
Alison stared at her. “Amy?” she repeated. “Who’s she supposed to be?”
Tracy rolled her eyes. “She’s the ghost! And I heard her talking about how this Amy killed Jeff because he was teasing her at my party.”
The other three fell silent, eyeing each other uneasily, and Tracy could see that she hadn’t yet convinced them. “Well, she is crazy,” she insisted. “And I bet Kip’s right. I bet she’s so crazy that she killed Jeff, and doesn’t even know it. I bet she really believes a ghost did it.”
Alison’s eyes narrowed, and she stared suspiciously at Tracy. “What about your grandmother?” she asked. “Do you think Beth tried to kill her too?”
Tracy hesitated, then nodded.
“Why?” Alison demanded. “What did your grandmother ever do to her?”
“Nothing,” Tracy replied. “Except she can’t stand Beth, either, and Beth knows it. But crazy people don’t need a reason to do things—they just do them.” Then she had an idea. “And my grandmother was acting real weird last night, too. First she talked to Daddy, and then she made us go get Beth and bring her to the hospital. And afterward, Beth wouldn’t tell any of us what she and Grandmother talked about.”
“Think maybe she saw Beth down there yesterday?” Kip asked.
“If she’d seen her, why would she want to talk to her?” Alison asked. “I mean, if somebody tried to kill me, the last thing I’d want to do is talk to them!”
“Maybe she wasn’t sure it was Beth,” Kip suggested. “Maybe she wanted to talk to her to see if she could trap her, like they do on TV all the time.”
Alison rolled her eyes impatiently. “Oh, who cares what they talked about? There’s no way we can find out, anyway.”
There was a momentary silence, and then Tracy grinned conspiratorially. “I bet I can find out.”
“How?” someone asked.
“I’ll go visit Grandmother,” Tracy went on. “And I’ll bet I can pry whatever she told Beth out of her. I can always get Grandmother to do whatever I want, because she hates Carolyn so much.”
“I bet she doesn’t hate her as much as you do,” Alison said, rolling over onto her back, and closing her eyes.
“I bet she doesn’t, either,” Tracy agreed. She, too, flopped back and closed her eyes. “In fact, I wish I could figure out a way to get Daddy to throw her out, too. Or maybe I could even get Beth to kill her. Wouldn’t that be neat? Getting her to kill her own mother?” She giggled maliciously, and after a moment, the others joined in.
Tracy left the club at four o’clock, deciding it was better to walk the two miles into town than to ask her father to take her to the hospital when he came to pick her up. He’d want to know why she suddenly wanted to visit her grandmother, and she wasn’t about to tell him.
She started along River Road, wondering how she would get the information she wanted out of her grandmother. She couldn’t just ask her—she already knew that. If she’d made Beth promise not to talk, she wouldn’t just start talking herself. And then, as she approached the railroad tracks, she knew the answer.
Get her talking about the past. If there was anything her grandmother liked to do, it was to talk about the “good old days” before Tracy was born. And then, when she had her grandmother’s guard down, she’d figure out how to lead her into talking about what had happened last night.
She was crossing the railroad tracks on River Road when she suddenly felt as if she was being watched. Turning, she saw Beth Rogers standing a few yards away, staring at her.
She froze, wondering what was going to happen. What if Beth had already figured out what she’d done to the oats? Would she have the nerve to say anything? But it wouldn’t happen—Beth, she was sure, was too dumb to figure out what had really happened