The Train (11 page)

    Determined though Hannah was, she was shaking by the time they reached the long, solid shape sitting at chest-level against the wall. For one blank second, she couldn't remember why she was there.

    Then she reminded herself, I am doing this so that I will know if Frog is the one who's been terrorizing us.

    Hannah turned to peer into the blackness shrouding her friends. "Ready?" she whispered.

    "No," Kerry said, "but you're going to open it anyway, so go ahead."

    Mack whispered, "Ready? I'll help. You can't lift that lid by yourself." And he moved forward to grip the edge of the lid.

    "On the count of three," Hannah said, her pulse racing wildly. "One… two… three…"

    They had lifted the lid less than an inch when the click of a switch broke the breathless silence and the overhead light went on.

    Blinking in surprise the five whirled simultaneously, as if they were attached.

    The conductor stood in the doorway.

    "What in blazes do you think you're doing?"

    

    

    

    Hannah flushed guiltily as all four hands instinctively let go of the lid, and it thudded shut. Hannah knew that no excuse in the world would convince the conductor that what they'd been about to do was the right thing. The truth, in this case, wasn't going to do the trick. She'd have to come up with something better.

    The angry conductor began striding across the room toward them.

    "I asked what you thought you were doing," the conductor demanded. "Am I crazy or were you people about to open that coffin?"

    It sounded to Hannah as if he wasn't sure exactly what he had seen. Probably because he couldn't believe what his own eyes had told him. Too gross, even for teenagers.

    "We were just looking for something," she said quickly, taking a half step forward. "I'm the one who was shut in the coffin, remember?"

    He nodded slowly, suspicion still clouding his eyes.

    "Well, I lost a very valuable ring, one my grandmother gave me, and I've looked everywhere else. So I decided it must have come off in here somewhere. My friends offered to help me look."

    "You weren't trying to open that coffin?" he asked. It was clear he wanted to believe her, but was still unsure.

    Hannah gasped. "Open it? You really think after what happened to me, I'd open that thing?" There, she hadn't actually lied. She had simply asked a question.

    The conductor looked dubious. "Looked to me like the three of you had your hands on the coffin."

    "We were checking the edges to see if maybe it was somewhere around here. But," Hannah said with feigned disappointment, "it's not."

    "I don't want you kids messing around in here," the conductor said sternly. "Can't have that."

    Hannah's cold bones warmed with relief. He'd bought her story.

    "Didn't your teacher tell you to stay in your compartments?" he added, disapproval heavy in the words.

    Hannah nodded contritely, her eyes on the floor. "Yes, sir, she did. And that's where we're going, right this minute, I promise. Thanks for being a goes guy.»

    He harrumphed and stood aside to let them pass.

    Flashing him grateful smiles, they all hurried out of the baggage car.

    But the smiles quickly faded as they exited into the dim, empty corridor.

    "Well, that certainly was a waste of time!" Kerry announced in disgust. "You guys hardly even got the lid open. We almost got into serious trouble, and for nothing!"

    "It wasn't for nothing," Hannah said calmly, "and it wasn't a waste of time." She moved ahead to lead the way back. "I found out what I wanted to know."

    

    

    

    Kerry stopped in her tracks. "You couldn't have!" she cried. "How could you have found out anything? That lid wasn't open more than a crack."

    Hannah turned to face her friends. "That was enough. Frog was in there." She could hardly believe it herself, but it was true. She had seen it with her own eyes. Still, where had he been while she was in there?

    Jean Marie moved forward. "How could you tell, Hannah? I agree with Kerry. The conductor turned on the light too soon."

    "No. No, he didn't. I saw that tattoo."

    Mack frowned. "Tattoo? What tattoo?"

    Hannah leaned against the paisley wall. "Frog had a tattoo on his left wrist. It was gross. A rat with wings and bared fangs." She shuddered. "It was ugly. And that’s what I saw in the coffin. A wrist with a winged rat tattooed on it. Nobody else at school had anything like that. So I knew it was Frog." She shook her head in disbelief. "I was so sure…"

    "Well, you were the only one who thought he might not be in there," Kerry pointed out. Relief filled her voice as she added, "I'm glad that's over!"

    Hannah lifted her head. "Kerry, aren't you forgetting something? All we know now is that Frog really is dead and where he's supposed to be. But that doesn't explain anything else. We still don't know who hurt Lolly and put me in the coffin and stabbed Lewis. Or, for that matter, where Frog's body was when I was in there."

    The door to the baggage car opened and the conductor stuck his head out to deliver a stern glare.

    "C'mon, let's go," Lewis urged. "We can think better back in one of the compartments. We'll talk about it there."

    Hannah insisted they stop at Lewis and Mack's compartment. "I'm not going back into ours," she said firmly. "I couldn't sleep in that bunk no matter hove beat I was. Not after this morning."

    Kerry groaned. "Oh, Hannah, I thought you agreed that was just a terrible nightmare. Are you telling me we're not going to get a good night's sleep tonight? After the day we've had? I'm not sleeping in that compartment alone! And at least you know now that Frog couldn't possibly have been in your bed, right?"

    Hannah didn't answer until they were safely inside and seated, with the door locked. "Kerry," she said slowly, deliberately, "Frog may be where he belongs, but there's someone else out to get us. And whoever it is knows which compartment is ours." She glanced at the faces of the other three. "I don'tthink any of us should stay in our compartments tonight. It's not safe."

    While they pondered that, Hannah stared out the window, filled now with their pale reflections and, beyond those images, the soft golden haze of distant lights. I wish I were there, Hannah thought. I wish I were in that town, in one of those houses or one of those cars on the highway. I'd be safe there.

    She couldn't stop thinking about Frog. Okay, he was in the coffin now, where he belonged.

    But where had he been while she was in there? And how had he appeared in Kerry's bunk that afternoon? The thought that someone might have taken him out, removed his body and placed it elsewhere, was sickening. How could anyone do something so horrible?

    Still, was moving a body any more horrible than strangling someone or trying to suffocate someone in a closed box or splintering someone's flesh with an ice pick? Someone who would do one of those things probably wouldn't even hesitate to lift a corpse from its place of rest and deposit it elsewhere.

    "I have an idea," Mack said, leaning forward on the seat. "Why don't we go to the Observation Lounge? Nobody will be there this time of night. We won't be able to see anything out of all that glass, but we'll have it to ourselves. No one will expect us to be up there, so we should be safe, right?"

    "Is it open?" Lewis asked.

    "I think it's always open. Worth a try, right?"

    The idea appealed to Hannah. Simply being somewhere unexpected would give them an edge. No one would think to look for them up in the Observation Lounge.

    "I'm for it," she said eagerly. "Jean Marie?"

    Jean Marie nodded. "But I'll have to go tell my roomies I'm staying with you guys tonight, or they'll call out the guards. I won't say where we're staying, though. Come with me?"

    They all went together, first to Jean Marie's compartment, where one of her roommates questioned her three times before finally opening the compartment door less than an inch to peer out. Then they went on to the Observation Lounge.

    It was open. And empty.

    "Told you," Mack said in obvious relief. The car, decorated all in blue, seemed larger than any of the others because of the wide expanse of glass on ceiling and walls. There were comfortable seats to lounge on and tables and chairs stationed in windowed corners.

    "I wish we had something to eat," Lewis said as he took a seat and pulled Kerry down beside him. "I'm starving!"

    "They'd feed you here during the day," Hannah said. She and Mack took the seat opposite Kerry and Lewis, while Jean Marie grabbed a seat for herself across the aisle. "Snacks and Cokes. But not now. Too late."

    "I could get something to eat in Salt Lake City. We stop there in half an hour."

    "Ms. Quick will never let you off the train," JeanMarie said, curling up in a little ball with her head on the armrest. "No one's supposed to get off. I heard her tell the conductor."

    "No one's going to feed you, Lewis," Kerry said, "so you might as well go to sleep."

    Hannah had already closed her eyes. She leaned her head against Mack's shoulder _and tried to close off her mind as well.

    But it wouldn't stop churning. Were they really safe here? Maybe someone had heard them sneaking through the cars for a second time that night. Maybe whoever was after them would check the compartments, find them empty, and begin searching the entire train. Sooner or later, their stalker, whoever it was, would arrive at this car.

    I won't sleep, she resolved, I'll stay awake all night. It's the only way to be sure.

    But Mack's chest felt safe and solid and she was exhausted…

    

    

    

    When Hannah next opened her eyes, it was morning. The others awakened, too, stretching and groaning, to bright desert sunshine blazing down upon them as the train sped across Nevada.

    "I feel like I slept in a sandbox," Jean Marie moaned. "I'm all itchy."

    "My neck hurts," Kerry complained, and the first words out of Lewis's mouth were, "I'm starving."

    But all Hannah could think was, We're all safe. We're all still here and we're safe.

    She smiled sleepily at Mack. "You were right about coming here," she said softly. "It was a super idea. Did you sleep?"

    He nodded and rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah. I wasn't going to, but when no one showed up by three in the morning, I guess I relaxed and fell asleep. Not much of a protector, am I?"

    "I think you must be," she disagreed, "because here we all are, and we're all in one piece."

    "Five pieces," Lewis corrected. His curly hair was askew, with little carroty bunches sticking out every which way and he moved stiffly, the result of sleeping sitting up with Kerry's head on his chest. "Now, can we please go eat before I shrivel up and die right here on the spot?"

    "I have to take a shower first," Jean Marie announced, standing up and stretching. "I cannot possibly go into the dining ear or the Cafe looking like I slept under the train instead of in it. But I'll hurry, Lewis, I promise."

    Lewis made a face, but when Kerry and Hannah both agreed that a shower had to precede breakfast, he gave in and agreed to wait for them.

    "We'll stand guard," he volunteered, "me and Mack. But we're only giving you five minutes, not a second more, understood?"

    What they understood even as they nodded agreement was that Kerry Oliver had never taken a shower and dressed in leas than thirty minutes in her entire life. But they also understood that Mack and Lewis would wait outside the shower room for them no matter how long it took.

    The girls gathered their shower things and fresh clothing from their compartments.

    "You are the only redhead I know who would dare wear that horrible shade of pink," Kerry teased Jean Marie as they hurried to the shower room, robes over their arms.

    Jean Marie laughed. "It's just a robe, Kerry. I'm not planning to wear it in public."

    "Quit arguing," Hannah said mildly. "If we don't hurry up, the showers will be filled to overflowing with bodies."

    But the white tiled room was empty when they arrived. Hannah felt safe with Mack and Lewis stationed outside, and after a night's sleep, restless though it may have been, she felt more optimistic than she had since the attack on Lolly. Frog was where he belonged and as far as they knew, there had been no new attacks during the night. There had been no screaming, no uproar, no commotion -maybe it was all over now. Maybe their crazy tormentor had been scared off by the appearance of the railroad detective and had left the train in Salt Lake City last night.

    Comforted by that thought, Hannah stepped inside one of the three shower cubicles. Kerry and Jean Marie did the same.

    Jean Marie finished first. Over the roar of rushing water, Hannah heard a shower door close and knew it was Jean Marie's. Kerry had that mane of long black hair to wash and rinse. She couldn't possibly be done already.

    Lathering her own hair with shampoo, Hannah thought, Jean Marie and I will both be dressed arid ready to go long before Kerry, and then we'll have to be patient while she fools with that hair of hers. Mack and Lewis will go nuts, waiting.

    But the aches and pains of an awkward sleeping position disappeared under the soothing hot water. It felt so good, Hannah hated to turn it off. She stayed in the shower longer than usual.