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eBook Category: Mystery/Crime/Suspense/Thriller
eBook Description: Shannon and her two friends, Marge and Traci, look forward to spending the summer as employees of Arapahoe State Park. But their joy is spoiled by a tragic accident. Marge's rejection of nerdy Del Evans results in her giving him a shove. Del plunges from a boat into the deep, choppy waters of Lake Arapahoe. His body is never recovered. The following summer, the three friends return to the park. On the anniversary of Del's death, they are shocked when the words "Remember Last Summer" mysteriously appear scrawled in red, dripping paint across the old boathouse. Other, ominous messages follow which spell disaster for Marge and Traci. Did Del somehow survive the accident? When she finds the final note, "Three to Die," Shannon knows that, even though innocent, she, too, has been singled out for a deadly vengeance.

eBook Publisher: The Fiction Works, Published: 2000
Fictionwise Release Date: May 2006

9 Reader Ratings: Great Good OK Poor

Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: Adobe Acrobat (PDF) [807 KB], eReader (PDB) [153 KB], Palm Doc (PDB) [138 KB], Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [124 KB], Microsoft Reader (LIT) [134 KB] - PocketPC 1.0+ Compatible, Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [177 KB], hiebook (KML) [360 KB], Sony Reader (LRF) [191 KB], iSilo (PDB) [113 KB], Mobipocket (PRC) [142 KB], Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [180 KB], OEBFF Format (IMP) [180 KB]
Words: 41919
Reading time: 119-167 min.
Microsoft Reader (LIT) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
Adobe Acrobat (PDF) Format:  Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud DISABLED
All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED

"4 Stars, Excellent! Three To Die is a page turner that takes you on a journey with three young women and a couple of their friends as together they face love and laughter, tragedy and terror."--Tracy Eastgate, Tracy's Book Reviews

"The writing is crisp and uncluttered, taking the reader quickly through a story that is full of action, mystery and suspense."--Alan Brooker, geocities.com/midnightscribe

"5 Thumbs up! For all you mystery lovers out there, this book is a Must Read!"--Kathy's Faves and Raves

"4-1/2 stars! ... a riveting read!"--Karen Larsen, Scribe's World

The Fourth of July dance Shannon had looked forward to with such anticipation had been a disappointment. Traci, who hadn't danced even once, had encouraged her to leave the party early. After changing into cut-offs and T-shirts, the two girls wandered down the rocky cliff-line back toward the main camp area.

"Blaine and Del were really making fools of themselves tonight," Shannon said.

"Marge had them all but fighting over her," Traci added almost resentfully. "But even that wasn't enough. She kept making a play for Nick, too."

The smell of rain hung in the hot and sultry air. As they passed the recreation center, where the rest of the summer crew lingered, mingling with the campers and the crowd from the nearby town of Summit, they could hear music from the dying party. The occasional pop of a contraband firecracker, strictly prohibited in the park, boomed into the darkness.

Shannon brushed straight, dark hair, damp with humidity, back from her forehead and envied her friend Traci's springy, blonde curls. It would be so much cooler to wear her long hair tied back the way Traci did, but it made her look too young, like a child of ten instead of seventeen.

Shannon's thoughts drifted back to the party ... and to Nick. Ever since she had taken the summer job at the park, she had been drawn to Nick Ryan. There had been a moment this evening when she had felt his deep blue eyes upon her, a moment when she had held her breath and hoped he might walk over and ask her to dance. But, of course, that hadn't happened.

Nick liked her friend Marge instead. Cute, spoiled Marge with her red hair and green eyes and sprinkling of freckles was everyone's favorite.

But Nick hadn't danced much with Marge, either.

Shannon had to smile to herself as she remembered how Del Evans had kept hanging on Marge every second, how he had even pestered her into dancing with him once, a dance Marge had irascibly cut short. Shannon had felt a little sorry for Del when he had accidentally spilled the Coke he had brought her from the refreshment stand on Marge's new dress. His attempts to win popular Marge's affections were somehow pathetic, like a take-off from the old Jerry Lewis movie about a backward professor in love with and ignored by a beautiful woman.

Immersed in private thoughts, Shannon was startled by an excited voice breaking through the stillness. "Shan! Trace! You'll never believe this!"

Marge, with her flame of glowing red hair, burst into the path in front of them.

"What's up, Marge?" Traci asked.

"When I left the dance a while ago and went home to change, I found this note under my door!" Marge triumphantly held the slip of paper out to them. Shannon squinted in the moonlight to read aloud the carefully printed message, "Meet me at the boathouse. I'll be waiting. Your Secret Admirer."

It just has to be from Nick!" Marge cried with delight. "It has to be! During our last dance he asked me when I was going to take him for a spin on my boat!"

"Are you really going to meet him?" Traci asked. "What about Blaine? I thought you two were still going steady."

"I told you we've split up for good this time," Marge replied with a little shrug. "It's Nick I want. Blaine's history."

Shannon felt her heart sink. She had hoped Marge's flirtations with Nick, even the brief dance with Del, had only been attempts to make the boy she had just broken up with jealous.

She should know by now the good guys, or in this case girls, don't always win. How could Shannon possibly compete against a rich girl with her own boat? Trying to conceal her deepening sense of disappointment, Shannon managed to ask, "Is that where you're going now? It's getting awfully dark."

"Come with me!" Marge insisted. "Both of you! We'll meet Nick, take out the boat, and have a really great time!"

Groping for an excuse, Shannon hesitated. She didn't really want to horn in on Marge's date, nor did she want to see Nick and Marge together. Besides, if things didn't go exactly to please her, Marge could be a very difficult person, not in any way fun to be around. If the three of them hadn't been friends for so long, Shannon knew she would find it hard to overlook Marge's willfulness, her determination to always get her own way.

Shannon glanced up at the sky where thick clouds had moved in front of the moon. "It looks too stormy to take the boat out."

Marge shot her one of those you're-just-jealous looks. Did Marge know about her own crush on Nick? Was she asking her along only to rub salt into the wound?

"I don't know Nick all that well." Marge looked genuinely doubtful. "There's safety in numbers, you know! Honestly, I'd feel better if you two were with me."

"Let's go then!" Traci said enthusiastically.

Shannon felt a tug of guilt. What if Marge really was anxious over meeting Nick out here alone? Refusing to go with her, when Traci also wanted to go, did seem a little selfish.

"I knew I could count on you two!" It was Marge's keen sense of adventure that made them put up with her faults. Marge moved forward to link one arm conspiratorially around Traci, the other around Shannon. "Off we go. The Three Musketeers!"

Shannon's misgivings returned as the three friends cut through a dark path in the trees that led to the cliff-enclosed side of the lake. If Nick had wanted to be with Marge, why hadn't he just said so at the dance? Why the note and all this mystery?

Beyond them, in the moonlight, Shannon could see the wooden dock where Marge's motor boat, her pride and joy, was moored along with the bulky, green crafts belonging to the park.

At the edge of the long pier stood the old boathouse, a rickety building, stocked with extra gas cans, life preservers, oars, and old floats.

Glaring light from an unshaded bulb on the building spread an eerie glow over them. Shannon was aware of no motion save the slight rocking of the boats bobbing in the dark water.

They waited. Marge's light-hearted laughter and her easy stream of words had long ago ceased. "He's not going to show," she said at last, drawing herself up proudly.

"Wait! I hear something." Shannon listened, frowning. Strains of haunting music rose and fell as it drew steadily closer to them.

"Where's that awful music coming from?" Marge demanded impatiently.

"Over there!" Traci pointed toward a dark form emerging from out of coal-black trees.

A solitary figure came squarely into the light walking hesitantly, awkwardly, down the long cement slab toward them. As the boy drew nearer, Shannon heard Traci's gasp, then stifle a giggle. "Your secret admirer isn't Nick, after all, Marge!" she snickered, her voice lowering, "It's Nerdy Del!"

That was Marge's pet name for him, one Shannon had always considered cruel. Del wasn't really that bad--not the typical geek with short hair and thick glasses, not the total nerd Marge managed to have everyone label him. His wide-spaced, brown eyes, although prone to fasten fixedly on a person, were honest and intelligent. It wasn't his looks, but something else, perhaps his intensity, his dogged affection for Marge, which bordered on obsession, that made him an object of ridicule.

Two bright spots of color appeared on Marge's cheeks, a flush of outrage and humiliation. Marge delighted in making fun of Del. But now the joke was on her, and she was finding that hard to swallow. Shannon knew just how much Marge hated to be embarrassed in front of her friends. Shannon drew in her breath, expecting trouble.

"What are you doing here?"

Like a puppy who has been yelled at, Del stopped, looking toward Marge with expectation. Lank hair spilled down over his forehead as he ducked his head to the cassette player he clutched in both hands. "Listen to this, Marge. I just taped it. It's our song."

"We don't have a song," Marge snapped.

"The one we danced to tonight." With nervous fingers he turned up the volume and a deep, low voice sang, "Remember last summer, the sun in your hair..."

Marge whirled toward the pier. "You're sick! If I'd known that note was from you, I wouldn't have wasted my time coming out here!" Turning her back on all of them, Marge swished down the pier toward her boat.

"Come on, Shan," Traci said. "We can't let her go out alone."

Shannon slowed to speak to Del, but unable to find any words capable of alleviating his suffering, she soon trailed after Traci.

"He's such a jerk!" Marge wailed, working angrily to remove the padlock from the chain that secured her boat. "How could he do this to me?"

"Marge!" Del called, starting after them. "Marge, wait!"

Wanting Del to hear her, she cried out. "Come on, girls! Let's ditch this creep!"

A loud rumbling of thunder sounded, and a streak of lightning brighter than any fireworks flashed across the troubled water. "It looks really stormy," Shannon said to the two girls already inside the boat.

"It's the Fourth of July, for pity's sake!" Marge said. "I want to have some fun!"

Shannon glanced back to Del, who stood a few feet away looking totally rejected. Beyond him, far in the distance she could see the lighted rec center where the dance would now be officially over.

"What are you waiting for?" Traci demanded.

The sound of smuggled fireworks from the other side of the lake had been replaced with genuine cracks of thunder. The boat rocked against the edge of the pier as Shannon climbed aboard.

"Don't worry," Marge said with bold confidence. "I've taken "The Princess" out in worse weather than this. We'll just make one quick spin around the lake."

Del's face, tight with misery, gazed down at them. Deep pity rose in Shannon. It wasn't fair the way everyone treated him. Sure he was backward, a little scary with all his seriousness, but he was nice and his affection for Marge was painfully real.

Del's voice rose in startled protest. "You surely aren't going out in weather like this! You'd better let me go with you!"

"As if he'd be any protection," Marge muttered, switching on the ignition.

"Marge," Del said, "wait! I'm going with you!"

The boat, jolted by Del's leaping downward into it, rocked precariously. Splashing water spewed across Shannon, as she caught the side of the pier and attempted to steady it.

"Who invited you?" Marge cried out in alarm. She turned to face Del, shrieking, "What's wrong with you, anyway?"

"I'm sorry. I guess I shouldn't have left that note. I just..."

Marge, looking angry and grim, gripped the wheel. Shannon could not see her face now, but she knew the full, pretty lips would be set in that don't-fool-with-me manner.

Why didn't Marge just order him out? "This isn't a good idea." Shannon called above the roar of the motor. "It's really going to storm. Let's all get out."

Marge ignored her pleas. The boat backed away from the pier and picking up speed, surged like an arrow toward the heart of the lake.

"Marge!" Shannon cried out. "Slow down!" Lightning split the sky. It momentarily illuminated Traci's form seated beside her. Shannon and Traci exchanged worried looks.

"Turn around!" Shannon demanded. "I want to go back!"

"No way. Del wants a boat ride so I'm going to give him one. I'm going to give him the scare of his life!"

Recklessly, Marge increased the speed. The small craft skidded across the water, sending an icy spray into the air. "Are you having fun yet?"

One hand carelessly on the wheel, Marge turned on Del. "I've been nice up to now, but now I'm going to tell you exactly what I think of you! You're an idiot! I don't want you to ever bother me again, do you hear? I don't want you hanging around me; I don't ever want to see you again! Do you get it?"

Shannon could see Del's back and thin shoulders tensing. She knew that Del, captive audience to Marge's rage, was deeply shaken by her foolish tirade.

"You don't have to be so mean about this, Marge!" Shannon yelled, her own voice rising as angrily as Marge's had.

In answer, Marge increased the boat's speed. Del's hands tightly gripped the railing beside him, and Shannon was suddenly reminded of how poorly he swam. He must be terrified!

"You've had your say," Shannon insisted, trying to reason with Marge. "Let's turn around and drop Del off at the dock."

"Yes, let's all go back," Traci pleaded, the wind loosening her wavy, blonde hair and plastering it against her face.

In the center of the lake, Marge suddenly cut the motor and rose from her seat. "If he wants out that bad, let him swim!"

Del stood when Marge did, and took an entreating step toward her. The sudden motion made the boat rock dangerously.

Marge in a gesture of loathing backed away from him.

Del attempted to reach out for her. At the same time Marge gave Del a little shove. Shannon felt the boat tilt crazily, saw Del stumbling. Before she could make a move, he had slipped over the side into the deep, angry lake!

Shannon leapt to her feet, leaned across the edge of the boat. She could see only his flailing arms, the bobbing of his head above the churning water.

"Del!" She reached out as far as she could, Traci holding on to her. "Del, grab my hand! Del!"

A horrified scream sounded from the water's surface. One thin arm rose upward. Shannon pounced forward in an effort to clutch it. She strained her eyes, aware of Del's panicky, floundering motions. She tried to locate the reaching hand. Blackness blotched her vision. She saw it only for a moment, then it slipped downward out of sight.

Shannon followed, diving into the icy water. The shock to her body, the unexpected depth, numbed her efforts. She groped blindly, unable to find Del.

She rose, sucked in her breath and dived again, still deeper. She felt a stab of pain when her knee jabbed against one of the sharp projections of limestone that covered the uneven bottom of the lake. Del's loose clothing could be snagged on one of these rocks.

But she could see nothing in the black water. She continued diving, over and over, until her chest felt as if it would explode. At last, forced to the surface, she swam toward the boat and clung to the side of it, overcome with horror, weak, and gasping for breath.

Traci, who had also been diving, now stood inside the boat, screaming at the top of her voice. "Help! Someone help us!"

Her howl of terror rose above the wind and the rain that had started to fall in torrents.

Marge had not moved from where she had sunk back into the driver's seat. She made no motion at all, as if she were gripped by a deep state of shock.

Shannon wanted to weep in despair. Finding Del was impossible! Waves billowed up with fury, jolting the small boat. Shannon released the railing and dived again.

Beneath the water Shannon tried to loosen her muscles and be swept along with the flow of the current. Desperately she prayed that in this way she could find where Del had drifted.

The strong undercurrent pulled her toward the rocky cliffs that towered above the lake. She explored the caves hollowed into solid rock. Del could be anywhere! Even if she found him, by now he would be dead!

Hours seemed to have passed before Shannon, barely able to make it back, returned to the others. She remained in the water, clinging, as she had before, to the boat.

She noted with relief that Traci's calling had attracted attention. A park-patrol boat armed with extra lights was speeding toward them. Traci had found a flashlight and now waved it wildly. As the boat careened to a stop near them, she directed the beam on Nick Ryan's face.

Shannon saw his features clearly for a moment, his sun-streaked hair, wet from the rain and gleaming in the light. A muscular arm pulled the boats together.

"What's happened?"

"It's Del!" Traci's voice broke in a sob. "He's fallen overboard! We can't find him!"

"How long has it been?"

"Fifteen, twenty minutes! Oh, Nick, I'm afraid he's gone!" Traci's shrill voice faded, then rose again. "He could never survive this! Poor Del could barely swim!"

"When I heard you crying out, I called for emergency assistance," Nick said. "More patrol boats are on the way. We'll cover every inch of this lake! I'll do everything I can to find him! I promise you!"

A deep frown cut between Nick's eyes when he spotted Shannon. With several quick motions, he glided the craft forward. She made an attempt, but could not pull herself up into the boat.

Strong arms reached out for her and she felt herself being lifted. The swaying, wooden floor beneath her feet made her head spin and nausea settle over her. Nick's arms encircled her, held her tightly.

"Everything will be all right," he said, his mouth against her dripping hair. "You've done all anyone could ever expect. We'll take over now."

As she buried her face against Nick Ryan's chest, she could hear the sound of raring boat motors near the dock faintly rising above the noise of the storm. Thank goodness, they were alone no longer! Help was on the way.

It too late, way too late!

Opening her eyes, Shannon caught a glimpse of Traci, who had boarded Nick's boat to huddle close beside her. "When you didn't come back, Shan, I was so afraid!"

Tears and rain streamed freely down Traci's face. She looked imploringly at Nick. "Could it be a trick? Could Del have swum to shore?"

Shannon could mentally picture the jagged line of trees so very far away, and in her heart she knew the answer.

She heard the terrible, gasping sound of her own sobbing. The numbness she had felt suddenly broke away and left in its wake a penetrating coldness that caused a shaking throughout her body. Nick drew her closer.

When Marge's wooden voice finally broke the silence, the three of them turned to her as if a statue had suddenly come to life. "It was an accident," she moaned. "I only wanted to scare him. I never meant for this to happen!"

Nerdy Del would never be bothering anyone again.