Poison Pen by Carolyn Keene

Author:Carolyn Keene
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon Pulse

Chapter

Nine

FOR A MOMENT Nancy just stared at Brenda. She was furious with the reporter, but what made it even worse was that she herself had ended up buying Brenda’s dumb stunt.

“Wait a minute,” Rick said, his green eyes’ bewildered. “You mean you made the letter up? This woman whose husband wants to kill her—she doesn’t exist?”

Brenda fiddled nervously with the white fringe on her bathing suit. Without looking up, she nodded.

“And the accident in the mall, with the beam. You said someone was trying to kill you,” Rick said. “Were you just making that up, too?”

Brenda nodded again, shamefaced.

“Why?” Rick asked. “What was the point?”

When Brenda didn’t answer, Nancy spoke up. “It was for publicity. Brenda wanted to make a splash with her new column, so she invented an exciting, dramatic scenario. Right, Brenda?”

Brenda lifted her head and tossed back her dark hair. “Well, it could have happened,” she said indignantly. “People need to know that things like that can happen. In a way, you could say I was just being a responsible journalist.”

“Come off it, Brenda,” Rick said angrily. He moved to the edge of the pool and sat down with his back to Brenda, his feet dangling in the water.

Brenda seemed to have lost some of her spirit as she turned to Rick. “I had to do it,” she said, pleading to his back. “My father threatened to cancel my column because I wasn’t getting any interesting mail. I figured if I got just one exciting letter, others would follow. So I decided to write one myself. I’m sorry,” she added weakly. “I never meant for it to get out of hand like this.”

That reminded Nancy of something she had wondered about. “Brenda, how did you come up with that particular letter?”

“I got the idea after the crash in the parking lot. Mrs. Keating kept talking about how her brakes weren’t working, and I thought, suppose they were deliberately sabotaged?” She shrugged and seemed to be faintly pleased with herself. “The idea just took off from there.”

“I thought that might be it,” Nancy murmured, shaking her head. “I should’ve listened to my instincts.”

“I couldn’t believe it when Rick told me about his aunt, and I realized I had made up a story that was actually happening!” Brenda went on. Nancy noticed that she made it sound as if she’d done something really great.

A moment later, however, Brenda’s expression deflated as she glanced at Rick, who had been sitting silently by the edge of the pool. Beams of late-afternoon sunlight shimmered on the surface of the water and outlined his slumped figure with a golden glow.

Nancy saw Brenda bite her lip uncertainly. Then the reporter rose from the chaise longue and went to sit beside Rick. She made little swirls in the water with her feet and stared down at them, as if unable to face Rick directly.

“Rick, I really am sorry,” she said softly.

Nancy and Ned looked at each other in surprise. Brenda actually sounded humbled!

“I know I shouldn’t have left you in the dark the way I did.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.