Why Did She Have to Die? Read Online Free Page A

trying to get her tongue untied.
    “Your sister, huh? I see good looks run in your family.”
    Elly turned beet-red. Pleasure seeped through her with his compliment, but she noticed that his eyes barely scanned her before resting again on Kathy.
    “Come on. Get in.” Russ pushed the passenger door open.
    Kathy looked at Elly questioningly. Elly refused to budge. She grabbed her sister’s arm. “Dad will ground you for the rest of your life!” she muttered under her breath.
    “Not if you ride with us,” Kathy countered.
    “He wants
you
to ride with him. Not me.”
    Russ gunned his motor impatiently. “What are you two doing? Voting?”
    Kathy giggled. “Your offer includes Elly, doesn’t it?”
    Elly could have strangled her.
    “Sure!” Russ said. “Two pretty girls are better than one!”
    Kathy flashed Elly a pleading look. Elly fought her better judgment and gave her sister a short, jerky nod of acceptance. Feeling like an intruder, Elly gritted her teeth and climbed into the back seat. Kathy settled in the front and smiled sweetly at Russ. “Thanks for the lift.”
    Russ popped the car into gear and squealed away from the curb. Elly clutched the seat. She prayed under her breath that their father wouldn’t see them.
We shouldn’t be doing this
, she told herself.
    The car was terrific, Elly had to admit. It smelled of expensive aftershave. She ran her palm across the smooth upholstery. She felt a certain importance about sitting in Russ Canton’s car, driving down the familiar streets of her neighborhood. She hoped she wouldn’t run into her parents, but she half hoped Joy would see them . . . or even Kenny Hughes.
    “We live down this street,” Kathy said as Russ shifted into a higher gear.
    “I know where you live, but why go home yet? Let’s go for a ride.”
    “Kathy, we—we really shouldn’t,” Elly blurted. She suddenly realized that they were someplace they shouldn’t be. The thought weighed heavily on her conscience. She watched Russ’s eyes focus on her in his rearview mirror.
    “I’ll go around the block and let you off. Then Kathy and I can go.”
    Elly’s cheeks burned. She really wasn’t wanted. Giving her a ride was the only way Russ could get Kathy to go along. Elly felt a sudden dislike for the cocky driver and the pain of her own humiliation.
    “Oh, I don’t know, Russ . . . ,” Kathy started.
    Elly stared straight ahead, wishing she could slip between the cracks in the seat. Up ahead, right in front of them, Elly saw a little girl wobbling unsteadily on a bicycle. Elly remembered her first experience on a bike without training wheels. She’d been determined to ride on two wheels, like Kathy. Her father had cheered her on despite her many spills.
    The little girl didn’t seem to see the car, and Russ was concentrating on Kathy. For a brief moment, Elly thought the girl would get out of the way before the car came any closer. But she wobbled even more. Time seemed to freeze. Everything around Elly seemed as if it were moving in slow motion. She opened her mouth, but no sound came out.
    Someone in the car—was it her?—shouted, “Look out!” At the last second, Russ saw the little girl. Elly braced herself as he hit the brakes. He whipped the steering wheel to avoid the girl, and the car responded as if it had been shot from a sling.
    Elly saw a blur of motion as a lamppost loomed next to the passenger side. She heard a crunching, shattering sound, felt the impact of metal against metal, smelled the odor of burned rubber. She heard a scream, and the world flipped around her in a skidding circle. A wrenching twist of pain burned along her side. A numbing sensation shot down her leg. Finally, she fell forward into a pit of welcoming blackness.

FIVE
    E lly floated in a gray fog. The sensation was not unpleasant. She felt buoyed on an ocean of air, cushioned and safe. She heard sounds—sirens, voices, grinding, and the shearing of metal. She drew back from the annoying