I Know What You Did Last Summer Read Online Free PDF Page B

way I did or you
might find yourself turned into a lobster. This southwest sun can
really get to you when you're not used to it"
    "Right on. Good luck on not peeling." Collingsworth Wilson
raised a hand in casual farewell.
    He's nice, Helen thought again as she skirted the pool and
climbed the stairs to the second level. The doors to the
second-floor apartments all opened onto a narrow balcony. She
walked slowly along it, wondering how red she really was. It
had been a foolish thing, she knew, to have lain out like that
right in the middle of the day. A tan could look great on camera,
but it had to be picked up carefully at no more than an hour at a
time.
    If I do peel, she told herself, maybe I can work it into the
weather report. "It was good and hot today. I hope you viewers
showed better sense than I did." That was the sort of thing she was
beginning to learn to do-to toss out ad libs. As she kept telling
Elsa, there was more to television work than just looking pretty
and smiling. You had to think under stress and seem natural and
come out with occasional personality-type remarks so you
didn't come across as a mechanical doll.
    There was a paper taped to the door of her apartment. She
didn't see it until she reached it, and then she could only stand
and stare.
    It was a picture cut from a magazine advertisement. The
written message was cut away, and what remained was a drawing of a
little boy on a bicycle.

    chapter 5
    When the envelope arrived in the morning mail, Ray Bronson was
not surprised. He opened it and drew out the newspaper clipping. He
knew what it contained, for he had read it many times before. Now
he did so again and felt all the old sensations:
    "A ten-year-old boy was killed last night in a hit-and-run
accident on Mountain Road, two miles south of the Silver Springs
picnic area. Dead is David Gregg, son of Mr. and Mrs. Michael Gregg
of 1279 Morningside Road Northeast. David was riding his bicycle
when he was struck by the unidentified automobile.
    "A phone call from one of the occupants of the car informed
authorities of the accident. A police car and an ambulance
immediately departed for the scene. The boy was conscious
upon arrival of the rescue crew but died en route to St. Joseph's
Hospital.
    "Mr. Gregg informed reporters that his son had been spending the
night at the home of a friend in the Mountain Road area and had
evidently decided to return home during the evening. The
bicycle did not have a light or reflectors.
    "Police are looking for the car that struck young Gregg. Paint
deposits on the bicycle show it to have been light blue in
color.
    "David is survived by his parents ... a half
brother ... a half sister... a maternal grandfather ... two
aunts ... an uncle...."
    Ray folded the article and put it back into the envelope. His
own address stared up at him in the same black, hand-printed
letters that had formed the message to Julie.
    It's not a joke, he told himself quietly. It's not a joke at
all.
    Not that he had ever really believed that it was. Since Julie
had thought so, there had seemed little sense in pursuing the
matter. It was
possible.
It might have been a joke. And
she had managed to convince herself.
    In his heart, even then, he had been pretty sure that it
wasn't.
    So it's caught up with us, he thought, finally. His own lack of
surprise was the thing that surprised him. It was as though he had
known all along, somewhere deep within himself, that this was
going to happen. It was why he had come home, and a year ago it was
why he had gone away.
    Raymond Bronson of a year ago had been a pretty
spineless individual. He had always been small, which was part of
it It wasn't so much that he was short-five-foot-eight was a
passable height -as the fact that he was lean and light-boned and
not particularly well-muscled. In some families this would not have
mattered. When you were the only son of a man who had once been a
professional football player, it mattered a lot.
    Herb Bronson, Ray's