The Night Of meets Carrie when a boy finds a girl’s body in the ditch on prom night…and becomes the primary suspect in her murder.
Intrigued? Read on to discover the synopsis and an excerpt from Lisa Schroeder’s A Night To Die For, which releases on March 1st 2022.
All Mario wants is one normal night before he graduates. He’s spent most of high school riding solo and gaming with his only friend, Lucas. But when his mom asks him to take Elana Dexter to the prom as a favor to her father, his mother’s boss, he figures this might be his chance to be less of a loner.
Only, the night takes a turn quickly. First, Mario gets crowned Prom King alongside the school’s it-girl, Maribelle Starr. Which is weird enough. But what’s weirder is that when they put the crown on his head, hundreds of worms slither out of it and all over Mario. Just when Mario thought the night couldn’t get any worse, he sees something on the side of the road while driving Elana home. That something is Prom Queen Maribelle Starr—murdered and left for dead.
All Mario wanted was to go to prom…but somehow, he ended up in hell.
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Mario
A car approaches. But not just any car. When he spots me, standing next to my little Nissan pickup, he turns on his flashing red and blue lights.
There isn’t much traffic out here, especially late at night. No houses nearby either. This section of Wessinger Road has just two lanes and then grass with lots of tall fir trees farther back. The ditch is a few feet deep, and that’s where the girl’s body lies, fully clothed in a red dress and heels. My whole body is shaking. I take a deep breath and roll my shoulders back, telling myself to relax.
The deputy gets out of the car and shines a light on me. “You all right, son?”
I cross my arms in front of my stomach and hope I can keep it together. “I was driving by and saw something in the ditch. I couldn’t tell what it was. I got out and shined the flashlight on my phone down there. Just as I saw it was a girl, you pulled up.”
The beam from his flashlight moves from me to her. “Oh, no.” He starts running down into the ditch. He yells up at me, “You sure you didn’t hit her? With your vehicle?”
“No. I mean, yeah. I’m sure! I didn’t hit her, I swear,” I call back. “I just found her there.”
He’s down there for only a minute before he’s radioing for help. “Dispatch, I’ve got a female juvenile and she’s unconscious with no pulse. Send medical, code three and extra units. Location is Wessinger Road, just south of Hart Road. Her skin is tacky. I’m starting CPR.”
I pace the side of the road. Back and forth. Back and forth. I keep wondering if there’s something I should be doing, but he told me to stay put.
After a few minutes have passed, I yell out, “Is it working?”
He doesn’t answer.
A minute later, I hear the sirens. A fire truck and an ambulance pull up, and a few seconds later, another deputy. I stand back and watch as everyone moves into action.
When the original deputy climbs back up the steep embankment a while later, he’s breathing hard. “Dispatch, page out detectives,” he says into his shoulder mic.
“Is she dead?” I ask. I read his name tag: Deputy Mitchell.
He wipes his brow as he replies. “Yes.” He circles my truck, his flashlight zooming in on every little dent and scratch. The beam finds Elana, my prom date, curled up in the front seat. She doesn’t even stir.
“Oh, god,” I mutter. I hold my stomach tighter. I can’t believe this is happening.
The other deputy goes to work taping off the scene with crime tape.
Deputy Mitchell pulls out a notebook. “Can I see some ID?”
I pull out my wallet and hand him my driver’s license. After he writes my information down, he says, “Step over here with me, please. Away from your vehicle.” I follow him over to his car. “Who’s the girl in your truck?”
“My prom date. Elana Dexter. She’s kind of, um, out of it, at the moment.”
“Too much to drink?” he asks.
I don’t want to tell him, but he’ll check for sure no matter what I say.
“Yes.”
“Just broke up a party not too far from here. You two go to a party tonight after prom?”
“Yes,” I say. “How’d you know?”
“Neighbor called it in,” he says. “Said it was getting noisy. So, what about you? Have you been drinking as well?”
“No.”
“Can you tell me what happened tonight?”
“We left the party and Elana didn’t want to go home right away. Didn’t feel well, you know? So I drove around, she passed out, and then, like I said earlier, I saw something in the ditch, so I stopped.”
“Looks like the deceased came from prom as well,” he says. “Didn’t find any ID on her. Any chance you might have been able to see her face well enough to identify her?”
“Yeah. She goes to my school. Her name’s Mirabelle Starr.”
I want to say, She’s the girl I stood beside onstage just a few hours ago when we were crowned king and queen. I can’t believe she’s dead.
“You sure about that?”
“Positive.”
“Did she have a date for the prom?”
“Yes. Parker Young is her boyfriend.”
He finishes up his notes, then reaches around and opens the back door of his car. “Mario, I’d like to have you take a seat back here. I’m going to need to get a Breathalyzer test, and then a detective will want to talk to you.”
“Okay.”
After he gives me the Breathalyzer, which comes out clean, he tells me to hang tight. And so I do. I call my mom to tell her a very brief version of what’s happened and that I hope to be home soon. She’s worried, of course, but there’s nothing I can do. After we’re done talking, I sit back and wait while watching the commotion outside. More cops arrive, including a state trooper, and the road is completely blocked off on both sides. At one point, I see Deputy Mitchell talking to Elana, who’s finally woken up.
A while later, a different deputy pops his head in. “Just have a few more questions to ask you. He’ll be over in a few.”
“Do I get to go home soon?”
“Hopefully it won’t be much longer.”
One of the patrol cars pulls out and drives away.
“Where’s he going?” I ask.
“To the victim’s home,” he says softly. He looks up at the sky, like he’s trying to keep tears back. “Every year, parents worry about their kids on prom night. Hoping and praying they keep their wits about them. Hoping they don’t do something crazy and end up in a ditch somewhere.” He shakes his head and looks in the vicinity of Mirabelle. “What a tragedy.”
