Deadly Attraction (Nightmare Hall) Read online

  I don’t want to hear this, Hailey told herself. And I should be thinking of Nell. She’s still on the list of a murderer. She might not be safe even in a crowd.

  Tugging on Pete’s hand, she said anxiously, “We’re wasting time. Talk while we walk.”

  They broke into a fast lope toward Butler Hall. “It never crossed my mind,” Pete said, “that Finn might have thrown that rock, because he was furious over the way Darlene was treated at that party.”

  Hailey tensed, but didn’t break her stride. Finn had thrown that rock? No. Pete was wrong. He had to be!

  “Finn wouldn’t have,” was all she said.

  “That’s what I thought, at first,” Pete responded. “But …”

  They passed the library, open and well-lit but looking nearly deserted through the wide windows. No one wanted to burrow into research books when they could be having fun at a bonfire.

  “But what?”

  “Remember the day Richard was killed?” Pete asked.

  She would never forget it. “Of course I do. Why?”

  “Well, Finn and I got off the shuttle at the diner, remember?”

  “So did Robert Q,” Hailey reminded him.

  “Yeah, but Robert Q stayed there. Finn didn’t.”

  That stopped Hailey in her tracks. She fought the urge to clap her hands over her ears. “Finn left the diner?”

  “Twenty minutes after we got there. I heard him telling Caesar he had an emergency at home. The next thing I knew, he was running out of the diner just in time to grab a shuttle downtown. Never even told me he was leaving.”

  The laughter and shouting from the bonfire made it hard for Hailey to hear Pete. He had to shout.

  But then, Hailey thought, I don’t want to hear what he’s telling me anyway. “Why didn’t you tell the police, when they were asking all those questions on campus, that Finn left the diner? Why didn’t Caesar tell them?”

  “Caesar’s old. He probably forgot. And I wasn’t going to rat on Finn. Anyway, it never crossed my mind that Finn could have killed Richard, or that he’d gone anywhere near the mall. I figured he did have an emergency. His grandmother’s illness could have gotten worse, or Darlene could have come unglued because of Robert Q. When I asked Finn about it later, he said it was family stuff.”

  Hailey turned and began walking again, yanking Pete along with her, but urging him to keep talking. They reached the outside edges of the celebrating throng. She had to hold Pete’s hand tightly, and he had to shout to make himself heard. “Finn hated Richard for agreeing to take Darlene home from the party, for money.”

  Hailey had to elbow her way through the crowd, dragging Pete with her. Her eyes searched for Nell’s orange jacket. “Finn knew about that?”

  “Yes, and he was furious. I’d never seen him so mad.”

  “There!” Hailey cried, pointing. “There’s Nell, over there with Ann and Amy, and Ian and Jess.” Her knees went weak with relief. “Finn isn’t with them.”

  “Well, I could have told you Finn wasn’t here,” Pete yelled over an ear-pounding drum roll. “He’s at home.”

  Hailey looked up at him as someone jostled her from behind. “Why didn’t you tell me?” she shouted.

  “You didn’t ask. I thought you were looking for Nell.”

  “Well, I was. But now that I know she’s safe, I want to see Finn. I want him to tell me for himself why he didn’t tell me the truth … that he was Darlene’s brother and that he didn’t live on campus.” She was being pushed between two groups of pushing, shouting revellers. “Let’s get out of here.”

  They elbowed their way back to the fringes of the noisy crowd. When they had broken free, Hailey turned to Pete. “How do you know Finn is home?”

  “He called me. Said he had work to do in his darkroom and wasn’t coming up for the rally.”

  A soft moan escaped Hailey’s lips. “God, I feel so stupid! All that time, I thought he lived at Lester.”

  “That’s just where he picks up the shuttle. Look, not telling you where he lives seems kind of … trivial, don’t you think? I hate to say this, but I really believe that Finn went to the mall and ran Richard down. It’s the only explanation that makes any sense. And it explains a lot.”

  A sudden gust of icy wind assaulted them. Hailey pulled her knit cap further down around her ears. She couldn’t be sure if she did it to keep out the cold … or the sound of Pete’s voice.

  The music behind them ended. Loud applause and shouting took its place. Hailey couldn’t understand how so many people could be having so much fun when Pete had just told her that he thought Finn Conran had deliberately killed Richard Wentworth.

  “There’s more, Hailey,” Pete added somberly. “The day you were pushed out the window, Finn wasn’t with us when Nell and I got to Devereaux. We ran into him upstairs, in the hall outside your room. He said he’d just come off the other elevator, but I think now he was lying. I think he’d just come from your room.”

  It was too much for Hailey. She felt dizzy, disoriented. She could feel herself weaving, tilting, as if the earth were spinning beneath her.

  Seeing her distress, Pete put a steadying arm around her shoulders. “I think he just flipped, Hailey. Studying, working at the diner, and then all that stuff happening to Darlene, it was too much for Finn. He lost it.” He reached down to tilt her chin up toward him. “We have to call the police, Hailey.”

  “No …”

  “Yes. I don’t like the idea any more than you do, but we don’t have any choice.”

  “I’m going down there,” she said suddenly, pulling away from Pete. “To Finn’s. I have to talk to him. I want him to tell me the truth. I have to hear it from him.”

  “Okay, but you’re not going alone. And I’m calling the cops first, okay? There’s a pay phone in the library. I’ll use that.” He glanced down at her as they began walking. “You okay?”

  “No,” she said, her teeth chattering with cold and fear, “I’m not.”

  But she kept walking.

  Chapter 22

  HAILEY WAITED IN THE library lobby while Pete called the police. She heard him giving the address on Fourth Street. Her head began to throb. It felt like two giant hands were squeezing it. Any second now, it would explode, like an overripe melon.

  “The cops were already planning to pick him up,” Pete said when he’d hung up. “Caesar remembered that Finn left the diner the day Richard was killed. The desk sergeant said they’re getting a warrant now. You still want to see him?”

  “Yes.” Hailey’s lips felt numb. “Take me down there.”

  She let Pete lead her to his car. She moved stiffly, a silent robot.

  “I blame myself,” Pete said quietly as they sped toward town, the river on their right. “I knew Finn was stressed to the max. College was too important to him, you know? He had to work for a year to add to the money his father left him, and when he finally got here, he wanted it to be perfect. He knocked himself out, trying. And it was working. He was doing great. But then all that stuff happened with Darlene. He couldn’t stand seeing her get hurt. And I wasn’t paying enough attention to how really angry he was. Anyway, I was so sure it was Bo. I’m sorry, Hailey.”

  “It’s not your fault. I didn’t notice anything, either. I thought he was fine.” So fine, she thought unhappily. She uttered a short, bitter laugh. “I thought our bad guy was just about everyone on campus but Finn. I guess, like Darlene, I’m not a very good judge of character.” Quiet tears slid down her cheeks, and she fell silent.

  Realizing that she couldn’t talk about it anymore, Pete concentrated on driving.

  Hailey made her mind a blank. It was the only way to keep from screaming.

  When Pete pulled the car to a stop in Twin Falls at 1006 Fourth Street, no police cars had arrived. The house was dark, with only a faint glow reflected from a rear window.

  “He said he’d be working in the darkroom,” Pete reminded Hailey, “in the basement.”

  Hailey�
��s heart began skidding around in her chest, out of control. Her hands trembled, her legs barely made it up the cement steps to the porch. “I can’t go in there,” she whispered as Pete stooped to unearth a key from under a mat. “Maybe we should wait for the police.”

  “If we wait for them,” Pete said, unlocking the door and pushing it open, “you won’t get a chance to talk to Finn yourself. Isn’t that what you want?”

  It was. She wanted to look straight into Finn’s brown eyes and ask him why he had lied to her. She needed that.

  She followed Pete into the darkened house.

  “The darkroom is downstairs,” Pete said again, taking Hailey’s hand.

  She hung back. “Pete …”

  “It’s okay. I know my way around. And Hailey …” He stopped, turned toward her in the dark and bent to kiss her cheek, startling her. “I won’t let anything bad happen. Nell would never forgive me if I let Finn hurt either one of us.”

  Hailey wanted to scream, “Finn would never hurt me!” But she couldn’t. Because Nell and Pete had met Finn in the fourth floor hall at Devereaux the day she’d been pushed out of the window … and Finn shouldn’t have been there. He didn’t live at Devereaux and he hadn’t been visiting her or Pete.

  It was time to face the truth. She’d been wrong about Finn from the beginning. Very wrong.

  Pete opened the basement door and flicked a switch that illuminated a flight of narrow, enclosed wooden stairs leading downward.

  Hailey stared at them. Finn was down there, unaware that his life was about to change forever.

  She followed Pete down the stairs.

  The room they entered was wide, square, with a low, white-tiled ceiling and walls panelled in a dark wood that matched the tile squares on the floor. A worn plaid couch and two matching chairs lined one wall. A television set on a rolling metal cart sat against the opposite wall. The rear end of the room was full of weight-lifting equipment. But it was a bar at the other end of the room that caught Hailey’s eyes. The bar was cluttered with framed pictures.

  She let go of Pete’s hand and walked over to look at the photos. They were family pictures: Darlene as a baby, Darlene’s father and stepmother’s wedding photo, and Darlene and a boy, clearly her new brother. And there were pictures of Finn, as a young teenager, looking much too serious.

  Tears filled Hailey’s eyes again. He couldn’t have had an easy life, she thought. Moving into a new family when he was young, never having much money, working so hard to get to college …

  If I had come down here the night of Darlene’s pizza party, she thought, I would have known then that Finn was Darlene’s brother. But … would that really have changed anything?

  Probably not. She never would have suspected Finn of throwing that rock. Not then. It was hard enough thinking it now, when she knew it was true.

  Wiping her eyes with her jacket sleeve, she turned away from the pictures. And noticed a bare red bulb protruding from the wall over a narrow door off to her left. The dark room. But the bulb wasn’t on.

  “Shouldn’t that red light be on?” she asked Pete. “If Finn is working in there, isn’t that light supposed to warn people to stay out?”

  “Probably burned out,” he said, moving to the end of the room where the weight-lifting equipment was stationed. “Finn forgets about stuff like that. He’s got a lot on his mind, our Finn has.” Slipping out of his jacket, he reached down and picked up a black dumbbell. Although it was small, it looked very heavy. But Pete picked it up easily. “Go ahead and knock.”

  Hailey took a deep breath, marched resolutely over to the darkroom door, and rapped sharply. Once, twice …

  There was no answer from inside.

  Frowning, Hailey turned around. “I don’t think he’s here.”

  Pete grinned at her. “Well, that’s okay. We’re here. You and me. Excuse me, you and I.” He glanced lazily around the room. “Kind of cozy down here, am I right?”

  With his cheeks still red with cold, his clear, blue eyes shining, his broad shoulders straining only slightly under a plaid shirt as he raised and lowered the heavy weight, Pete looked, Hailey decided, like the cover of a fitness magazine.

  But … there was something very wrong with his smile.

  “Pete?” Hailey could sense the ominous feeling descending upon her, heavy and threatening. “Where is Finn?”

  The grin remained in place, as if it had been painted on. “Gee, Hailey, how should I know? I don’t keep track of Finn Conran’s comings and goings. But I figure, wherever he is … probably at the bonfire looking for you … he’ll be home soon. Finn’s one of those boring people who needs a good night’s sleep.” Pete hefted the dumbbell again, this time aiming it slightly in Hailey’s direction. “And when he does walk in, he’s going to find you on this nice fake wood floor with your skull bashed in.”

  Frozen in place, Hailey stared at him.

  Pete laughed. And said, “Surprise, surprise!”

  Chapter 23

  HAILEY, HER EYES ON Pete, backed up against the darkroom door. “What’s the matter with you? That’s not funny, Pete!”

  Laughing, he moved to block the narrow entrance to the stairway, the basement’s only exit. The heavy dumbbell was still in his hand. “Oh, I think it is. I think it’s hilarious that you’re here, alone with me.” His eyes glittering with amusement, he said, “And you thought you were stupid before? You must be feeling like a total moron right about now.”

  “You?” she whispered, “It was you?”

  He nodded smugly.

  “It wasn’t Finn?”

  A laugh of derision burst from Pete. “Finn? Are you kidding? He was furious about what happened to Darlene. But when I asked him what he was going to do about it, all he said was, he was going to find out who really threw that rock.”

  So that part of it had been true, at least. Relief that Finn wasn’t a killer disappeared quickly as Hailey realized that she was alone in the basement with someone who was.

  Pete’s lip curled in contempt for Finn. “Some protective older brother! If he’d really cared about Darlene, he’d have done what I did.”

  “You stole my purse at the mall,” Hailey said through lips stiff with fear. “And made a copy of the key. My purse was never turned in. You had it the whole time.”

  “Well, you’re so careless, Hailey! Leaving your purse hanging on your chair like that. You deserved to have it stolen.” Pete sat down on the bottom step, and turned sideways to lean back against the wall and watch Hailey. He continued to curl the dumbbell as he talked. “I had to hide that stupid purse inside my jacket when I walked into Devereaux. But even without it, I’d have found a way to get a key. If not yours, then Nell’s.”

  “And you didn’t need a key when you trashed our room, because I hadn’t locked the door.” Anger stiffening her backbone, Hailey drew herself up to her full height. “I knew Finn couldn’t have done that. Not that …”

  “Oh, you did not,” Pete countered with a sneer. “Not five minutes ago, you thought he did it all. You bought my story, hook, line, and sinker. I could see it in your face.”

  Hailey’s cheeks burned. “You … you never called the police, did you?”

  “Well, of course not, Hailey. That would be pretty stupid. And as you must have figured out by now, stupid is one thing I’m not.” Pete smiled. “Or you wouldn’t be here, would you?”

  Stung, Hailey shot back, “At least I’m not a murderer!”

  Anger darkened Pete’s eyes. “I never intended to kill Richard. I was only going to steal his stupid car and push it into the river. He deserved far worse than that for the way he treated Darlene. The jerk jumped right in front of the car and wouldn’t move. He thought I was playing, the idiot!” Pete sighed, a sound of self-pity. “Wasn’t my fault,” he muttered. “But,” he added cheerfully, “with him dead, it didn’t matter what I did after that, right? Nothing more to lose.”

  Hailey was only half-listening. Behind her back one hand closed arou
nd the darkroom’s doorknob. Her eyes searched frantically for a way out … a window, another door … there was nothing. The darkroom wouldn’t have an exit … unless it had a window …

  “You’re looking a little pale, Hailey. Maybe you ought to sit down.”

  Hailey ignored him. She remained standing. She wasn’t moving one step away from the door.

  “Aren’t you going to ask me how I knew where Finn kept the house key?” Pete asked her in a sly voice. “Come on, Hailey, get with it! You can’t expect to get information if you’re not willing to ask the questions.”

  “How did you know about the key?” she asked through numb lips.

  “Glad you asked. The truth is, I grew up two blocks away from here. When I graduated from high school, my parents moved to Florida. No great loss. I moved into Devereaux. But growing up, I spent almost as much time in this house as Finn and Darlene did.” Pete’s face darkened. “And there, as Shakespeare says, lies the rub. Darlene thought of me as another brother. And believe me, that wasn’t the way I wanted her to think of me.”

  Hailey, thoroughly frightened, was having trouble digesting Pete’s words. “You did it all? You threw that rock at Gerrie and burned Robert Q’s car? You framed Puffy and Susan and pushed me out of the window? Why?”

  The question infuriated him. He jumped to his feet, his eyes blazing. His face was flushed, and he shook with rage. “Don’t you understand anything?” he shouted. “Aren’t you listening to me? I loved her!”

  Frightened by the sudden change in him, Hailey shrank back against the door, tightening her grip on the doorknob behind her. “Who?” she asked, bewildered. “Who did you love? I thought you and Nell …”

  Pete stomped one foot on the wooden tile floor. “Nell? Nell?” he screamed, his eyes bulging. “Nell is a nothing compared to Darlene!”

  “You … you were in love with Darlene?” Hailey whispered. “Darlene Riggs?”