Social Suicide Read Online Free PDF Page A

on my way home from school when I’d seen Sydney in the pool, freaked, ran, and called 911.
    “Wait—” Raley said, putting up a hand, “you were on your way home from school?”
    I nodded.
    “But you live that way,” he said, pointing in the opposite direction from the trail.
    “It was a nice day. I thought I’d take a little detour.”
    Raley stared down at me, leaning in so close I could see right up his nose. I tried not to stare, lest that nausea come back.
    “A detour?”
    “Yep. I’m . . . a nature lover.”
    Yeah, I know. That sounded lame even to my own ears. But I wasn’t sure just yet how much I wanted to share with Raley. He had a habit of interpreting situations his own way, and I figured that me planning to meet a dead girl and spying on her from a tree was not a situation he would interpret in a positive way.
    “How did you see Sydney?” Raley asked.
    “What do you mean?”
    “I mean the back fence is six feet high. How did you manage to see in the yard?”
    “Through a crack in the fence?”
    “Is that a question?”
    I cleared my throat. “No.”
    Raley gave me a stare down again, but, thankfully, let it go.
    “How well did you know Sydney?” he asked instead.
    I shrugged. “Not that well. We go to the same school.”
    “Was she there today?”
    I shook my head. “No. She’s suspended. She cheated on a test.”
    Raley raised an eyebrow. “Suspended. I guess she was pretty upset about that?”
    “I guess. Like I said, we weren’t really that close.” I paused. “Why?”
    Raley avoided my eyes. “No reason. Just asking.”
    Huh.
    “How had Sydney seemed before she was suspended?”
    I narrowed my eyes. “‘Seemed?’”
    He shrugged. “Was she generally a happy person, or did she keep to herself?”
    “She was in the running for homecoming queen until two days ago.”
    He leaned in. “She lost?”
    “She was kicked off the court when she got caught cheating.”
    He raised an eyebrow. “Suspended and kicked off the homecoming court. So, I’d guess she was upset.”
    I narrowed my eyes at him again, trying to follow his train of thought. “Why does it matter if Sydney was upset? This was an accident.”
    Raley looked at me, his face a blank, unreadable cop thing.
    “It was an accident, right?” I repeated.
    He sighed. “It’s too soon to tell. At this point we need to explore all possibilities.”
    “Meaning . . . ?”
    “Meaning most teenage deaths that we investigate end up being self-inflicted.”
    I blinked at him. “Suicide?”
    Raley nodded.
    “Oh no. You’ve got this all wrong.” I shook my head violently from side to side. “No, that doesn’t make any sense. Sydney wasn’t suicidal.”
    “I thought you said you didn’t know her well,” Raley countered.
    “Not that well, but trust me, Sydney did not commit suicide.”
    “You just said she was suspended for cheating. Maybe the guilt overwhelmed her?”
    I let out a laugh, then quickly stifled it as Raley shot me a look.
    “Look, Sydney wasn’t the guilty type,” I explained. “For example, Erin Carter was the front-runner for homecoming queen. Until Sydney started a rumor that Erin had lice. Suddenly no one would come within five feet of Erin, and the school nurse even came in to check her head right in the middle of PE. Trust me, guilt was not in Sydney’s repertoire.”
    Raley did the deep-sigh thing again, and I looked away to avoid seeing his nose hairs vibrate with the effort. “Look, it’s too early to tell much of anything at this point. All I can say is that it doesn’t look like an accident.”
    “What do you mean? She drowned, right? That can happen, can’t it?”
    “We have to wait for the ME’s report, but it doesn’t look like she drowned. We found something in the pool with her.”
    “Something?”
    “Her laptop.”
    “What do you mean?” I asked, trying to process the information.
    “It was plugged into an outdoor wall outlet. Our best guess is that Sydney