That Summer Read Online Free PDF

you keep in touch with Liam?”
    “No. After the case was over, we didn't really want to spend much time together.”
    “Is the case over? Was it officially closed?”
    “No. Technically it's still open, but it's been put in the cold case category. The only thing that might make the police open it is if someone found Leslie's body. Which is unlikely after all this time.”
    “You're sure she was killed, then?”
    He licked a drop from the side of his cone. “They found a baseball bat with her blood on it. Yes, I think she was killed.”
    “I think so too. I just can't imagine you or Kevin or Liam doing it.” I took a bite of my own cone. “Someone else must have killed her and disposed of the body.”
    Justin raised his eyebrows. “Why are we talking about this?”
    I sighed. “I don't know. Coming home like this, with time on my hands, it just keeps coming back to me. My mother and father hustled me off to boarding school right after it happened, so I missed the investigation.”
    “It was pretty awful. The police practically said that it was Liam or Kevin or me. They just didn't have any proof. So now the three of us have to go through life wondering if people think we are killers.”
    I nibbled on the edge of my cone. “If you feel like that I would have thought you'd leave town and not come back to practice.”
    He wiped some ice cream off his mouth with a napkin. “Mr. Benson made me such a good offer, and then there was Lauren. All of her friends are in this area. She didn't want to move.”
    “I imagine it's pretty well forgotten by now.”
    “It is. But every time I see Kevin or Liam, I think about it. Someone killed her, Anne. She didn't run away—not Leslie.”
    A little drip of ice cream fell onto my hand and I licked it off. Justin finished his cone, smiled and said, “It was nice talking to you, Anne.”
    “It was nice talking to you too.” I watched as Justin went off to his car.
    I drove back home, still thinking about Justin. He really had had a fantastic high-school career. What Bruce Springsteen would call the “glory days.” I bet a lot of my contemporaries used him as their lawyer. They'd figure he had to be good at the law, he was so good at everything else.
    I had been a lowly sophomore when Justin was a senior, and the only reason he knew me was because I had sometimes been included in the circle that had formed around Leslie the summer after her graduation. I remembered how Liam and Kevin had come home from their boarding school, full of excitement from graduation and anticipation at entering the University of Virginia in the fall. It hadn't taken long for them to meet Leslie.
    My mind was preoccupied with the past the whole drive home, and after I parked the car and sat on the porch, I shut my eyes and let the past engulf me. Once again I was sixteen years old and asking my parents if I could go to a barbeque at Leslie's house.
    My mother wasn't keen on my going. “That's the fast crowd from school, “ she worried. “I'm sure there'll be drinking. I wouldn't put it past Andy to get a keg. He lets Leslie have everything she wants.”
    We were in the kitchen and my mother was making dinner. “I promise I won't drink any beer, “ I said. “And Liam is going. He'll take care of me.”
    My mother was chopping an onion. “From what I hear, Liam is going to be too busy with Leslie to have much time for you, Anne.”
    “Leslie has a boyfriend. She's with Justin Summers.”
    My mother sniffed and blinked her eyes. “She was with Justin when Justin was the best pickings around. Now that Liam and Kevin are home, her horizon has expanded.”
    “Kevin is better looking than Liam.”
    “Yes, he is.”
    “If she drops Justin maybe she'll take up with Kevin.”
    My mother put down her knife. “Honey, I wish you would get over this crush you have on Liam. He's too old for you.”
    “He's only two years older. Lots of senior boys have sophomore girlfriends. Anyway, I'm a junior now,