Read Online The Photographer by Barbara Steiner - Free Book Online Page A

people who are photographed more than others. Especially the girls who are pretty. And we’ve just had Homecoming. Might it also follow that those girls are the ones who’d get mono, too?” Robert grinned, teasing Megan.
    â€œThat kissing business is a joke, Robert. Last year only two people in the whole school had mono. Harold Fox—who is not what his name would suggest. And Ruth Anne Penny—not the world’s most popular girl. One was a freshman, the other a senior, and they probably never even sat side by side at lunch.”
    â€œOkay, forget the kissing joke, Megan. What could you possibly be getting at here? I thought you were my best reporter, and here you are thinking up something—well, I’m not even sure what you are thinking.”
    â€œI’m not either,” Megan admitted. “But call it a hunch, Robert.” Megan could see that she and Robert were poles apart. She sure wasn’t going to mention that sometimes she knew things. It sounded too peculiar. “Call it woman’s intuition. Something is going on here. I know it.”
    â€œOkay, don’t get mad, Megan. Prove it to me and I’ll listen. Give me some concrete evidence that these girls have gotten sick because Derrick took their pictures. Or because we took their pictures. What are you saying? That the camera is stealing their souls?” Robert started to laugh. And put into those words, it did sound impossible. Even ridiculous.
    â€œLaugh all you like, Robert.” Megan gathered her books and the photos. “I’ll get you some concrete evidence if you insist.” She pushed past Robert and started out the door.
    Megan didn’t like Robert or anyone else laughing at her. As farfetched as her idea sounded, she knew Derrick had something to do with this. There was some tie-in between the fact that he had taken an inordinate number of photos of Cynthia and Bunny, and that they were the most ill. Especially Cynthia.
    â€œMegan, be reasonable!” Robert shouted to her as she hurried down the hall.
    â€œI am. You haven’t heard the last of this.” Tears filled Megan’s eyes as she found her way to her locker.
    Not caring who saw her, who knew she was cutting classes, she headed for the library, leaving the photos in her locker. Pulling books from the shelves, she settled at a table and read more than she wanted to know about mono. The final bell rang and she left the pile of books for a library assistant to shelve.
    Hurrying back through the crowd, she reached her locker and grabbed her notebook and several books. She knew she wasn’t going to study tonight, but she’d make the pretense. Swinging around to leave, she crashed right into Gus. Books, notebook, lunch sack with a leftover apple all tumbled to the floor.
    â€œI’m sorry, Megan.” Gus gathered Megan’s books and piled them back into her arms. He looked at a photo of Cynthia that had escaped the stack in her notebook. His face was stricken with pain. “Want to go to the hospital with me?”
    â€œNot today, Gus. Give Cynthia my love. Tell her I’ll call her tonight.”
    Then, as Megan started down the hall, another voice made her freeze in her tracks. “You dropped this, Megan.” Derrick handed her another photo that had slid away from her. It was an informal shot of Cynthia, obviously labeled on the back for the annual. A photo Megan should not have had in her possession.
    â€œOh, thanks, Derrick. I’m getting some shots of Cynthia blown up to poster size for her birthday. It’s in November.” Her voice trailed off as she met Derrick’s steel gray eyes, intense, questioning.
    â€œWant a ride home?” The tone of Derrick’s voice had a magnetic pull to it, and Megan felt she couldn’t refuse to go with him even if she had wanted to.
    â€œYeah, sure,” Megan said quickly to show Derrick that life was normal and that she had