SVH11-Too Good To Be True by Francine Pascal Page A

fault, but boy, was she mad!"
    Suzanne sighed. "It must be fun having a sister."
    "You wouldn't say that if you knew Jessica. I mean, I love her dearly, but she can be a real pain in the neck sometimes."
    Suzanne cast Elizabeth a shy look. "I know this is going to sound incredibly corny, but these past couple of weeks you've been so fantastic about everything, Liz--well, I can't help thinking of you as sort of a sister. I hope you don't mind."
    "How could I mind?" Tears of emotion filled Elizabeth's eyes.
    What a fool, thought Suzanne. Elizabeth was almost too easy to trick. The same with her whole family. Look at how they'd swallowed that story about Mr. Collins. All she had had to do was mess her hair up, rip her blouse a little, add a few tears--and presto. Oh, it was too juicy for words! It was all she could do to keep from laughing in their faces.
    As far as Roger Collins went, well, he was only getting what he deserved. It would serve
    him right to get fired after the way he'd treated her.
    I snowed him, she gloated to herself. No one can ignore Suzanne Devlin and get away with it!
    "You know, Suzy," Elizabeth continued, "I'm going to miss you like crazy when you leave."
    "You're the sweetest girl in the whole world!" Suzanne gushed.
    "The second sweetest," Elizabeth amended laughingly.
    The doorbell chimed downstairs.
    "That's got to be Aaron," Elizabeth said with a glance at her clock. It was exactly eight. "Todd is always at least fifteen minutes late. Lateness is like a religion with him."
    Suzanne inspected her reflection one last time. Then she dabbed on some perfume and grabbed the lacy shawl that she'd dropped on Elizabeth's bed. As she was dashing out of the room, she stopped to give Elizabeth a peck on the cheek.
    "Thanks, Liz."
    "For what?"
    "For being my friend. For helping me make sure that creep Mr. Collins got what he deserved."'
    Suzanne frowned, and for an instant she no longer seemed beautiful to Elizabeth. Her lovely eyes narrowed into mean slits. Hatred twisted her mouth into an ugly grimace. Then tile moment passed, and Suzanne looked her old
    sweet, smiling self again. Elizabeth blinked. She must have imagined it. Suzanne could never be
    ugly.
    As soon as Suzanne had left, Elizabeth fished the gift-wrapped box out from the back of her closet, where she'd placed it after she'd gotten home from shopping in the afternoon. Suzanne's suitcase lay partially open on Jessica's bed. On the spur of the moment, Elizabeth decided to put the present inside it. That way Suzanne would find it the next morning when she finished packing. She smiled to herself, imagining how surprised Suzanne would be.
    She was rearranging some things inside the suitcase to make more room when something glinted up at her from the folds of a skirt. Elizabeth fished it out. Her lavaliere! What was it doing in Suzanne's suitcase?
    Her stomach did a slow cartwheel of disbelief. There was no possible way her necklace could have gotten into this suitcase unless Suzanne had put it there.
    But why? Why would Suzanne want to take her necklace? It didn't make any sense at all.
    There had to be some other explanation, thought Elizabeth. A perfectly normal explanation. She would ask Suzanne about it when she got to the party. But right then she couldn't imagine what it might be. What if Suzanne
    really had meant to steal the necklace? What if ...
    She heard Todd's car in the driveway. With trembling fingers, she hastily fastened the lavaliere about her neck and hurried down to meet him.
     

Fourteen
     
    "You seem so quiet," Todd remarked, reaching out and squeezing Elizabeth's hand. "Is anything wrong?"
    "I'm not sure," she answered thoughtfully. "Remember I told you I'd lost my lavaliere?"
    "Yeah, I remember. You were really upset about it."
    "Well, I found it."
    "That's great! Where was it?"
    "In Suzy's suitcase."
    Todd looked confused. "How did it get there?"
    "That's the part I'm not sure about. Todd, how else could it have gotten in there