If the Witness Lied by Caroline B. Cooney Page A

Rand?”
    Better off, in Diana’s opinion. Last winter, the older three were so stunned by their father’s death and how it happened, they couldn’t even stand up straight. They stumbled around, hunched and silent. Cheryl liked to remind Smithy and Madison that the reason they didn’t have a mom, and the reason they didn’t have a dad, was sitting right there needing a fresh diaper. Oh, you have a chance to get out of here? cried Cheryl. Take it!
    When Smithy asked to move in with the Murrays, Diana was thrilled.
    No, said Diana’s mother gently. Life is tough, but Smithy has to stick it out at home. She still has a family, albeit one that is smaller and sadder. We Murrays will always be here for her. But Smithy can’t move out.
    Diana’s mother was wrong.
    Smithy moved out within days. Diana’s friendship, the yearsof dolls and ice skates, slumber parties and lipsticks, was over. Instead, Diana became that handy tool, the babysitter down the block.
    “Cheryl has to be doing something right,” her mother insists. “Tris is a great little guy.”
    Diana does not agree. What saves Tris is a great day care and a great brother.
    Diana leaves her cell on, hoping Jack will update her. But when it rings during literature, the caller ID says Reed Fountain. Diana almost faints. Is he calling from heaven?
    Cell phones are not allowed in class to start with, but talking on them is absolutely forbidden. People often text, holding the phone under their desk, and some people even manage to play games, but Diana is not in this group. She gives the teacher a tight apologetic smile, whispers, “Sorry!” and scurries out of the classroom. The teacher says something, but Diana chooses not to hear. “Hello?” she says into her phone. She’s never talked to a dead man. She walks swiftly down the hall in case the teacher pursues her.
    “Jack took Tris early from day care because it’s a half day,” says Cheryl in a taut, angry voice.
    Diana reexamines the caller ID. It’s the Fountains’ house phone, hardly ever used. Cheryl always calls from her own cell. Cheryl has gotten rid of every other trace of Reed and Laura Fountain. She hasn’t realized that the caller ID still shows up with the dead man’s name.
    In spite of the fact that it’s Cheryl, Diana feels as if Mr.Fountain is trying to tell her something. He’s listening in, expecting something of her.
    “Jack texted me,” says Cheryl peevishly. “They’re at a soccer game. But I
have
to pick them up, Diana. This is quite urgent. Who are they playing?”
    There is no half day and the school does not have a Friday game schedule. They’re not playing anybody.
    But it is the plus and the minus of cell phones that the caller doesn’t know the location of the other phone, so Cheryl does not know that Diana is still in class, and that Jack should be too. Diana backs Jack up. “They’ll probably be home soon. How’s the paint job going?”
    “I can’t start on that yet. I have other things on my plate. Di, I’m really worried. I need to find them.”
    She hates being called Di. “What are you worried about?”
    “I don’t know where he is!” cries Cheryl.
    Cheryl Rand never knows where Jack is. Or cares.
    “You know that Jack is very difficult,” says Cheryl, who sounds as if she is crying. There seems to be somebody with her, comforting her. This is not good. Cheryl will do anything for an audience. “He keeps ganging up on me,” says Cheryl. “I can’t cope with him.”
    Cheryl is showing off for somebody, and she’s doing it by slandering Jack. Who could that person be? Cheryl is friendless, as far as Diana knows. “I don’t think one person can gang up on you, Mrs. Rand. I think a gang of people has to gang up on you.”
    “Fine!” shouts Cheryl Rand. “Don’t help, then!” She slamsthe phone down, which you can do with a house phone. Cheryl has a very expensive smartphone, and during television ads she watches videos, checks celebrity news