The Dead Man in Indian Creek Read Online Free PDF Page B

sounded kind of stupid in print. To make it even worse, he put in a detailed description of me throwing up in the police station, just as I had feared he would. As a result, Parker came out the hero, while I was the comic relief.
    The only thing I learned from the article was that Parker was right. The man really had been shot in the head with a small caliber bullet. But nobody knew who he was or where he came from. The police suspected he had been killed somewhere else and dumped in Indian Creek. In fact, Sergeant Williams was quoted as saying it looked like a drug war execution.
    "Drugs," Mom said. "Can you imagine? That's the kind of thing that happens in Washington or Baltimore, not in a nice little town like this."
    I shoveled some cereal in my mouth and tried to choke it down. There were a lot of things Mom didn't know about Woodcroft, I thought. If I was the kind of kid who wanted drugs, I knew a dozen places to get them.
    "What's the matter, Matthew?" Mom watched me shove my cereal aside, half eaten. "Don't you feel well?"
    I tried to convince her I was too upset about the dead man to go to school, but I ended up slogging to Letitia B. Arbuckle Junior High through a cold drizzle. The wind was blowing a bunch of ragged clouds across the sky, and wads of leaves eddied around in the air and slapped down on the sidewalk, all wet and slimy.
    It was the dreariest day of the year, and when I met Parker on the corner, he looked just as miserable as I felt. The rain had plastered his hair against his skull, and his eyes were shadowed. I had a feeling he hadn't slept any better than I had.
    "Do you think everybody at school saw the paper?" I asked him.
    Parker nodded. "We'll be famous," he said, but he didn't sound particularly excited.
    "They'll all know I threw up. Why did you have to tell Fisk about it?"
    "I didn't think he'd put it in the article," Parker said.
    I sighed. Not too far ahead of us, I saw Jennifer Irwin and her friends, Linda Greene and Melissa Woltzman. Jamming my hands in my back pockets like Parker, I slowed down. If there was one person I hoped hadn't read the article it was Jennifer. I've been half in love with her since she kissed me in third grade; unfortunately, she's never done it again, but I keep hoping. Who wouldn't?
    Parker didn't seem to notice how slowly I was walking. Head bent, he was thinking his own thoughts, so I was free to admire Jennifer's long blond braid swinging just below her waist and the way she tilted her head when she talked and the sound of her laugh floating back to me.
    Much as I would have liked to catch up with Jennifer and see her smile, I let the distance between us grow. For one thing, I never had the nerve to say more than "hi" to her, and after I'd said that I'd have to walk on past her. Then, instead of me seeing her back, she'd see mine.
    But even worse, if she'd read the paper, she'd probably have a million questions about the dead man, and it would be Parker she'd be talking to, not me. And worst of all, she might tease me about my performance in the police station. If Jennifer didn't, I knew Linda and Melissa would. Especially Linda-she's the kind of girl who just loves to make a fool out of you.
    So I dawdled along until Parker finally noticed our snaillike pace. By then we were only a block away from school, and Jennifer, Melissa, and Linda were waiting on the corner ahead of us for two other girls in our class.
    "We're going to be late, Armentrout," he said.
    "What do you want? Detention with Miklowitz?"
    Parker hurried ahead and caught up with the girls as they started to cross the street. Just as I thought, he was immediately surrounded and bombarded with questions about the dead man. Like a rock star being interviewed by his fans, Parker turned from one to the other, giving each of them a few details. Until Linda asked me about throwing up, nobody even looked at me. Then, of course, they all started laughing and making fun of me.
    All except Jennifer. "If I