Most Likely to Die (A Kate Jasper Mystery) by Jaqueline Girdner

star quarterback, do you remember him?”
    I shook my head. Football hadn’t been my thing.
    “Guy named Gary.” Elaine grinned broadly, looking all the more like Sid with those Sylvester the Cat cheekbones jutting out. “Man, Sid got him good. Gary was a real snot, thought he walked on water. But then this one time he really messed up, fumbled so bad he lost the whole game. The whole season. So Sid got the rest of the guys to strip him naked. Then they put girl’s underwear on him, poured beer all over him, tied him up, and then drove him downtown and dumped him in front of the police station. It was a riot. Boy, was Gary embarrassed.”
    Elaine leaned back and laughed in memory.
    I couldn’t even squeeze out a responding chuckle. My neck was tingling again. And my stomach was queasy. Because Gary must have been a lot more than embarrassed. He must have been humiliated. And scared shitless. Or maybe football stars aren’t subject to those kinds of feelings.
    “What did the police do?” I asked softly.
    “Oh, once they realized it was a prank, they let Gary go,” Elaine said, shrugging. Then she pulled her lips back in that Sid/Sylvester grin again. “But first they gave Mr. Star Quarterback a grilling he never forgot. He was there over three hours, I heard.”
    If I’d been that guy, I could have killed Sid twenty-five years ago, I thought. Or twenty-five years later.
    “Did Sid get in touch with Gary when he got back out here?” I asked.
    “Uh-uh,” Elaine said thoughtfully. “At least, I don’t think so. They weren’t really friends. I mean, Gary wasn’t one of the gang. Anyway…” Her voice faltered.
    Anyway, I decided, how could this Gary have electrocuted Sid if he didn’t even know about the party? I needed to put some reins on my imagination.
    “Listen,” Elaine started up again. “Gary forgave Sid. He had to. Sid wasn’t ever malicious. He just knew how to have fun.”
    “Just a prankster,” I murmured, wondering just when pranks crossed the line into pure sadism.
    “He did some other good ones on Gary though,” Elaine told me, helping me to answer my own question. “Found a gay men’s magazine in San Francisco and planted it in Gary’s locker. No one ever knew but me. All the guys wondered about Gary from then on. And he found a little bottle of hair spray the same size as Gary’s deodorant and switched the labels so Gary sprayed his armpits with hair spray. God, Sid was such a riot!
    “Him and Robert and me did some good ones too. When we were real little, we’d just go downtown and stare up into the sky for a long time. Then crowds would form and stare up too. It was real funny ‘cause there was nothing there.”
    I allowed myself a genuine smile. That one sounded harmless at least. And funny in a way.
    “Or we’d go around to strange men saying, ‘Daddy, Daddy, why’d you leave Mama?’ I never quite understood it at the time, but did we get reactions! These weird old guys would get all uptight and run away. That was one Robert dreamt up.” Elaine was relaxed now, lost in memory. At least for a while. Then her eyes came back into focus. “Still, Robert could be kinda stuck-up too. Always trying to outdo Sid with ideas. Though Sid didn’t seem to mind.”
    “Was Sid in it with him on the fireworks?” I asked quickly.
    “No,” Elaine answered just as quickly, squinting her eyes at me. “That was Robert’s show. Who told you that?”
    “No one,” I admitted, deep-sixing the Sid-gave-Robert-the-fireworks theory once and for all. “I just wondered.”
    “What did you and Sid think of the other guys in the gang?” Wayne asked before I could get myself into any more trouble.
    “Well, he thought Charlie was an idiot,” Elaine drawled in answer. “Charlie had everything, you know. Rich parents. Smart in a way. But he was a complete dork. You wouldn’t believe what Sid put up with to help that guy out. And for what? Then Charlie turns on him.”
    I kept my