Read Online The Girls' Revenge by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor - Free Book Online Page B

very well what had happened in Beth's bedroom.
    For a moment they stared at each other in horror. Then they went tumbling down the ladder to the floor below and ran like lightning down the hill, across the bridge, and into their house.
    Mother was back in the dining room, still wrapping packages, and Dad, who was a sheriff's deputy as well as a postman, had not come home yet.
    The boys tore upstairs, where Josh grabbed the phone in the hallway and dialed 911.
    “I want to report a murder,” he said, breathless, his sides heaving. “Over on Island Avenue… the Ben-sons' house…I mean, where the Malloys are now. In an upstairs bedroom.” And then he hung up.
    From downstairs they could still hear the Bugs Bunny tape Peter was watching on the VCR. Then Mother's footsteps sounded in the hall below.
    “Boys?” she called.
    “Yeah?” answered Jake, still breathless.
    “Are all three of you home?”
    “Yeah …”
    A pause. “Is everything all right?”
    “Yeah, we were just having a race,” said Wally.
    “Okay. If any of you have homework tonight, you'd better get at it,” Mother said.
    The boys went into the twins' bedroom and shut the door. Then they sat down on the two beds and looked at each other.
    “Maybe Caroline didn't kill her. Maybe she only knocked her out,” Josh ventured.
    “Well, if she didn't kill her, she sure meant to,” breathed Wally. They didn't call Caroline the Crazie for nothing, but they hadn't figured she was that crazy.
    “Think we should have told Coach Malloy instead?” asked Jake after a minute.
    “What if he tried to cover up? Say Beth fell and hit her head or something. I mean, wouldn't it be natural?” said Josh.
    “Man! I never thought I'd see a real murder!” said Wally. He could still feel his heart racing. “Do you suppose Caroline will confess?”
    “No. She'll lie,” said Josh. “But if there's a trial, and she does lie, we'll be witnesses.”
    “You didn't tell the police who you were,” Wally reminded him.
    “I'm not dumb. I don't want them to think we had anything to do with it. Don't tell Mom, either.”
    “Let's sneak back over and see what happens,” said Jake.
    They went downstairs again.
    “Mom, we forgot something. Be right back,” Jake yelled, and they ran across the road, then over the bridge, and up the hill to a clump of bushes some distance from the Malloys' back door.
    The policemen were already knocking, and just as the boys reached the bushes, they saw Coach Malloy usher them inside.
    “Do you suppose he knows what happened upstairs yet?” asked Josh. “Jeez! Beth! I can't believe it!”
    “I'll bet Caroline's made up some lie. She's such a good actress she'll probably get away with it too,” said Wally.
    “What would make her that mad, though? I've been mad at you guys plenty of times, but I'd never hit you over the head with a hammer,” Josh mused.
    They could see lights coming on upstairs, then the two policemen moving about from room to room.
    “Well, they've found her by now,” said Jake. “Any minute they'll call for an ambulance.”
    “Or a hearse,” said Josh.
    The boys waited some more.
    Much to their surprise, however, when the door opened again, the two officers came out alone. They were not leading Caroline Malloy out in handcuffs. There was no stretcher with a body on it, either. Mr. Malloy and one of the officers were, in fact, shaking hands.
    “What?” said Josh, staring.
    “Do you suppose Caroline hid the body?” asked Wally.
    “Maybe Beth recovered, and was just dazed,” said Jake, and the boys watched dumbfounded as the squad car turned around in the clearing and headed back down Island Avenue toward the business district. The back door of the house closed, and the light on the porch went off.
    “Wait a minute,” said Jake, grabbing his brothers' arms. “The light! Don't you remember? Right after Caroline hit Beth, the light went out.”
    The three boys looked at each other.
    “So who turned it out?