The Biker (Nightmare Hall) by Diane Hoh

grimly, “I heard that if Lily D’Agostino lives, she’ll be a quadriplegic. Paralyzed from the neck down.” Marilyn shuddered.
    “Well, what she did was pretty stupid,” Pruitt said crudely. “Guy on the radio said she tried to outrun that bike.” He seemed to have recovered quickly from the news of Nancy Becker’s horrible death.
    Several people at the table shook their heads in disgust.
    “Even if Lily isn’t paralyzed,” Ruthanne said almost absentmindedly, “she’ll probably be in pain for the rest of her life. I know what that’s like. Sometimes, it’ll get so bad, she’ll wish she had died.”
    Maybe she’ll get her wish, Echo thought dismally.
    Turning her attention to Echo, Marilyn asked, “By the way, Echo, did you ever remember if you knew any bikers?” To the others, she said in a confidential voice. “Echo thought maybe she knew some, so I thought maybe she’s met the Mad Biker, only she doesn’t know it. I mean, he certainly wouldn’t come right out and admit that’s who he is, right?”
    Pruitt gripped Echo’s hand so cruelly, she thought he was going to break her fingers. I didn’t tell, she wanted to shout, I didn’t! Instead, she said to Marilyn, “We must all know one or two people who ride motorcycles, Marilyn, but, as you just pointed out, unless we actually see them on their bikes, we wouldn’t know it, would we?”
    In the restroom later, Deejay said, “I think it’s good that you’re with Pruitt, Echo. I mean, he hasn’t dated at all since Nancy Becker broke up with him. They only dated once or twice, but I know he had a thing for her. He told me so. So I’m glad he’s not alone tonight.”
    Deejay bent from the waist to brush her short, dark hair and Echo stared into the mirror. Nancy Becker, the recently deceased Nancy Becker, had given Pruitt the old heave-ho? And now she was dead. And Deejay was afraid he’d be really upset?
    I don’t think so, Echo thought, her hands trembling as she finger-combed her own hair. She didn’t want to believe this. Cold-blooded murder? Was Pruitt really that sick?
    He would know she believed he had pushed that Miata off the cliff. Could she pretend she hadn’t guessed? No. She wasn’t that good an actress. Had he done it because Nancy had dumped him? Or had he done it to show Echo that he meant business?
    Maybe both.
    Without saying good-bye to Deejay, Echo roused herself enough to leave the restroom, make her excuses, and insisted that she and Pruitt leave the restaurant. She really didn’t care if anyone thought that was weird. She just wanted to get out of there.
    But once she was outside, her skin went clammy at the thought of walking back to campus alone with him. She wouldn’t mention Polk and Nancy, she wouldn’t! She would just pretend it hadn’t happened.
    “Did you do it?” she said, the words spilling out of her mouth of their own volition. “Did you push that car off the cliff?”
    He grabbed her hand and wouldn’t let go. “What do you think? You know she dumped me, don’t you? I can tell. Someone told you. Deejay, probably, when you were in the bathroom. Do you really think I’d let someone do that to me and get away with it?”
    He said this as calmly, as unemotionally as he might have said, “Vinnie’s has the best pizza in town.”
    “I don’t know,” she answered stiffly. “I don’t know you well enough to guess what you would or wouldn’t do.” But she did. That was the problem. She did.
    “Well, you will. You will.” He glanced down at her as they crossed the highway. “I mean, you wouldn’t want to end up in a ravine, would you?”
    If they talked about Polk and Nancy another second, Echo was going to scream. Instead, she said boldly, “That was a really rotten thing to say about Lily. Aren’t you afraid people will guess how hardhearted you really are?”
    He shrugged. “It’s true, isn’t it? She tried to outrun the bike and didn’t make it. What’s so bad about saying