No Accident by Emily Blake Page B

the thought away along with the paper. Keep dreaming, Ramirez , he told himself. The whole thing was probably a prank. Maybe it was Chad. Or Zoey. He hadn’t been particularly nice to his sister lately. Maybe she was trying to make a fool out of him.
    â€œActually, Tommy lost his mommy.” Debbie #5’s squeaky voice interrupted Tom’s thoughts and he jerked his head in her direction. Was she actually talking about his mother? “Lost,” was not exactly the word he would have used to describe the way his mom was stolen from his life. And the assistant at the bridal boutique was not exactly someone he wanted to discuss the details of his mother’s death with.
    â€œHe was just eleven, weren’t you, Tommy?” When Tom did not respond, Deirdre went on telling the story without him while the fitter nodded sympathetically and shoved more veils onto Deirdre’s head. “She died in a horriblecar accident. Went right off the road and into a lake. And the DA, my fiancé, was away. It must have been so hard with your daddy out of town and everything. You and Zoey were all alone.” Deirdre turned back to Tom and stuck her bottom lip out in a sympathetic “poor baby” pout.
    Tom stared at her, horrified. Couldn’t she see he did not want to talk about this? Couldn’t she shut up ? Not to mention she had it all wrong. His father was not away the night of his mom’s accident. He was just working late. Like he always did.
    The sound of Tom’s cell phone provided him with an easy exit from the conversation he was not having. “S’cuse me,” he mumbled as he headed for the door. The tiny glowing screen read “chad.” If he weren’t so grateful for a way out of Weddings ‘R’ Us he might not have taken the call. Like everything else in Tom’s life, Chad was really bugging him lately.
    â€œLook, man, I haven’t even finished tomorrow’s homework yet,” he said, flipping the phone open. He hoped he sounded like he was joking. Or maybe he didn’t care.
    â€œNo. Dude. That’s not why I’m calling. It’s Dustin.” Chad’s voice was tight. He sounded worked over.
    â€œWhat about him?” Chad’s older brother was always in trouble. Tom wasn’t sure why the problem of the week warranted a call.
    â€œDad just kicked him out.”
    â€œGood for him!” Tom laughed and stepped in a puddle on the sidewalk. A worm was squirming in the water, drowning.
    Tom thought Chad should be rejoicing. With Dustin gone, maybe the fighting wouldn’t be so bad, and maybe Chad could get his schoolwork done…
    â€œDustin wants me to go with him.”
    â€œWhat?” Tom heard him, he just couldn’t think all of a sudden. The rain was starting again. And across the street he had just spotted a familiar car. The silver Audi TT with the tinted windows and clown-head antenna was sending up steam on the other side of the street. “What?” Tom asked again, staring.
    A chill ran down his spine. The TT was turning up in too many places. It was giving him the creeps. School. The mall. His neighborhood.Here. He was at a bridal boutique! This was no mere coincidence. Wherever he went, there it was. Either his dad was having him followed or his admirer was not just an admirer. She was a stalker.

Chapter Sixteen
    Twelve new text messages. Kelly started to work the keypad on her phone, then threw it down on the bed in frustration. Every one of the messages was from truthteller. And this time they contained more than one word each. This time they had lots of words—her words. Somehow “tt,” as Kelly had begun thinking of the anonymous texter, had gotten hold of the first draft of her “will” and was threatening to take it public.
    Fuming, Kelly opened more messages. She really didn’t care how many insulting things she’d said in her will or who she’d said them