Deadly Attraction (Nightmare Hall) Page 7

No one did. The shuttle seemed safer.

  Just then, the mall doors opened. Lyle and Richard sauntered out, flanked by Puffy and Lindsey.

  “Hey, Wentworth!” Tom called. “Looks like you forgot to turn off your lights. Man, your battery’s going to be drained. You’ll be shuttling back to campus with the rest of us.”

  Richard frowned. He peered in the direction of the parking lot. Then he took a few steps forward and said, “That’s my car, all right. I had to turn my lights on because of the snow. But I didn’t leave them on. I know I turned them off.”

  Uttering an oath, Richard bolted from the protection of the canopy and began running through the snow toward his car.

  It was so hard to see clearly. Later, when the police asked their questions, witnesses to what had taken place had few concrete answers. “We couldn’t see,” they complained.

  What Hailey remembered was equally vague, as if the snow curtain had clouded her mind as well as her vision.

  Richard had run out into the storm. His bare, blond head had quickly turned snowy-white. As he neared the car with the headlights glowing through the falling snow, he began shouting and waving his arms. It was clear to everyone watching that Richard had not given anyone permission to borrow his new car.

  Puffy shrieked, “Someone is stealing it! Someone’s stealing Richard’s car! Lyle, do something!”

  Lyle didn’t move. “Richard can take care of himself,” he said uneasily.

  Suddenly, the silver car roared backward, out of its parking space. It skidded briefly, then straightened out and rapidly accelerated to the end of the parking lane, not far from the mall’s entrance.

  The wind whipped the snow about, making it difficult to see what was going on.

  But the group under the canopy could see Richard dash in front of the silver car, waving his arms frantically.

  “Is he nuts?” someone cried. Hailey wasn’t sure if they were referring to Richard or the driver.

  “Wentworth’s a fool,” Tom said. “He should get out of the way before he gets hurt.”

  Puffy began screaming, “Richard, get out of the way! Move, Richard, move!”

  Her voice was lost to the wail of the wind.

  And Richard didn’t move. He remained stubbornly planted directly in the path of the idling car.

  For one brief moment, the wind swept away the white curtain. It was as if the onlookers under the canopy were in a theater and the curtain had been raised so they could see the action on stage.

  They all watched in horror as the silver car gunned its engine once, twice, backed up a few feet away from Richard and then, gunning the engine again, sped forward.

  The curtain of white closed then, as quickly as it had opened. No one actually saw the impact.

  But they heard it, in spite of the storm. The thud as metal slammed into flesh was sickening.

  Puffy screamed. Several people moaned and sagged against the wall. Others burst into tears at the awful sound, knowing what had happened.

  The silver car never stopped. It raced away into the storm.

  Richard’s body flew up into the air, sailed through the sea of white, and landed only a few feet from the stricken crowd beneath the canopy.

  Had he landed on the thick carpet of fluffy snow, Richard Wentworth might have survived.

  But he wasn’t that lucky. There was a second thud as his body slammed with full force into a huge wooden planter placed to the right of the canopied area. The blowing wind and the protective covering had kept the planter relatively free of what would have been a cushioning blanket of snow. The sickening sound of Richard slamming into the wood was followed instantly by a sharp, cruel crack as his head snapped backward and slammed, a second time, against the unyielding planter.

  Then he lay perfectly still, his arms and legs hanging over the edges of the planter, like a broken doll left out in the snowstorm by a careless child.

  Chapter 12

  FOR SEVERAL SECONDS AFTER Richard’s body slammed into the wooden planter, there was not a sound from the crowd under the canopy. They stood as one, rendered mute by shock and horror.

  Then Puffy screamed, a thin, keening sound that snapped everyone back to reality. Lyle ran into the mall to summon help. Tom and another boy rushed to the planter to see if there was anything they could do for Richard.

  Hailey held her breath.

  But when Tom had checked Richard’s pulse, his body language told them it was too late. His shoulders sagged, and he shook his head.

  There was nothing anyone could do for Richard now.

  Puffy burst into tears, as did several other people. But Lindsey whirled in fury to face Hailey. “Now do you believe that girl is crazy?”

  White-faced, Hailey stared at her. “What girl? What are you talking about?” But she knew exactly who Lindsey was talking about. And she remembered the brown-haired figure in the store. Right there, at the mall …

  “Darlene, of course! First, she hurts Gerrie and burns Robert Q’s car. Now she’s actually killed someone! This is all your fault, Hailey. Everyone knows you and Nell encouraged that girl to go after Robert Q. Now she’s out to get all of us because you got her hopes up and then he dropped her. She’s a maniac, out for revenge! That was her in Richard’s car. I saw her behind the wheel.”

  Hailey couldn’t let Lindsey’s accusation hang there, unchallenged. “You couldn’t possibly have seen the driver,” she said. “In all this snow? We could barely see the car!”

  A siren sounded in the distance. A few minutes later, the ambulance slid to a stop in front of the canopy. A minute or two later, a police car arrived. No one was allowed to leave until questions had been asked and, when possible, answered.

  It was four o’clock when Hailey and Nell, exhausted and shocked to the core, arrived back in room 416.

  “I’m scared, Hailey,” Nell said quietly when they had collapsed on their beds. When they’d walked into Devereaux, Michelle, their R.A., had informed them that all classes and extracurricular activities had been canceled because of the storm. There was no place they had to be. “I hate what’s happening here.”

  “I’m scared, too,” Hailey admitted. “And I’m frozen to the bone. I don’t think I’ll ever be warm again.” Donning a thick white terrycloth robe over her jeans and sweater, she said, “I didn’t like Richard. He was such a creep that night at the Sigma party, agreeing to take Darlene off Robert Q’s hands for twenty-five bucks. But I never wished he were dead. I still can’t believe that he is.”

  Nell began shivering. Pulling the bedspread around her until only her face and hands were uncovered, she leaned against the wall behind the bed. “Hailey, don’t get mad, but do you think there’s any possibility that … well, that Lindsey had a point about Darlene?”

  Before Hailey could answer, Nell continued, “Look, you just said it yourself. Darlene had plenty of reason to be furious with Richard. When you told me about the party, you said Darlene heard Richard agreeing to take her home. For money. She must have hated him for that.”

  “Well, so did I!” Hailey said heatedly, “but it never occurred to me to run him down! And I’m …” The picture of Darlene viciously slashing Robert Q’s sweater darted back into her mind. “I’m … sure it never crossed Darlene’s mind, either.” But she was painfully aware that her words lacked conviction.

  Nell looked unconvinced.

  “I can settle this right now,” Hailey announced. “I’m going to call Darlene in Willowcreek. If she’s there, she couldn’t have been at the mall this afternoon, okay?” She said it forcefully, but secretly she was wondering if Darlene would be there. And if she wasn’t, where was she? Here, in Twin Falls? If she was, why hadn’t she called? Maybe she didn’t want Hailey to know she was back.

  Or … that she’d never left.

  “Willowcreek is only two hours from here,” Nell muttered.

  “There’s a blizzard going on out there, Nell!” Hailey yelled in exasperation. “It took the shuttle forty minutes to
make the ten-minute trip from town just now.”

  Nell sighed and nodded. “You’re right. Today is definitely not a good day for a quick road trip. Okay, you call. If Darlene is there, at her grandmother’s, I’ll agree that she wasn’t in that car at the mall. Fair enough?”

  Without answering, Hailey picked up the phone to call Darlene. And realized she didn’t have the number. She’d scribbled it on a piece of paper when Darlene gave it to her over the phone. Where had she put that piece of paper? If she’d left it lying around in room 242, it was gone forever. Hadn’t she put it in her purse? The black shoulder bag?

  Hailey’s purchases, in snow-dampened plastic bags, were piled on the floor beside her bed. Her purse should have been there, too. But … it wasn’t.

  “What’s the matter?” Nell asked.

  “I don’t have the number. It’s in my purse.” Hailey fumbled around near the packages. Then she stood up and glanced around the room. “It’s not here. My purse isn’t here. The black shoulder bag. What did I do with it?”

  “Haven’t seen it. You didn’t hang it in the closet, did you?”

  “Why would I do that? Help me look, will you?”

  Because the room was still so bare, the search didn’t take long. They found no black shoulder bag.

  “Where do you remember having it last?” Nell asked. “You must have had it in the drugstore when you paid for your stuff.”

  “I did. And I had it at the food court. I remember taking my wallet out to pay for the tacos. But …” Hailey sat down on the bed. “Nell, I’m not sure I grabbed my purse off the chair when we left to catch the shuttle.”

  Nell thought for a minute. Then, “Hailey, I don’t remember seeing your purse hanging on your chair. If I had, I would have said something. I would have told you to stash it under the table so no one walking by could snatch it.”

  Hailey nodded. “Yeah, you would have. You’re more paranoid than I am. But … if my purse wasn’t on the chair, where was it? I’m sure I hung it there when I got to the table.”

  “Well, I went to get fries, remember? But you were at the table. Wouldn’t you have noticed if someone was trying to take your purse?”

  Hailey’s face flushed as recollection dawned. “Oh, Nell,” she said reluctantly, “I went back to the counter. Just for a second. I’d forgotten to grab one of those little packets of salad dressing. So I went back to get it. And I … I don’t remember taking my purse with me.”

  “You left your purse hanging in plain sight and went to the counter? While I was getting fries?”

  “Well, you don’t need to make it sound like I’m too stupid to live! I was only gone a second.”

  Nell shrugged. “Did you have a lot of money in your purse? Credit cards?”

  “No. I spent most of my cash in the drugstore. And my credit card is in the back pocket of my jeans. But …” Hailey looked at Nell with troubled eyes. “Nell, my keys are in that purse. Including my car keys and my key to this room. If someone stole my purse, they have those keys. The room key has a Devereaux tag on it and the room number. And after everything that’s happened lately …” Hailey fell silent, chewing nervously on her lower lip.

  Nell huddled deeper within her blanket cocoon as the wind howled outside. The lights flickered ominously. “Maybe your purse wasn’t stolen. Maybe you just forgot it and some nice, honest person turned it in at the mall’s lost-and-found. You should call and check.”

  Hailey promptly took Nell’s advice. But there was no answer at the mall. The mall must have closed because of the bad weather. Hailey wouldn’t find out until tomorrow if her keys were in safe hands or if … she couldn’t think about the “if.” Not now.

  The expression on Hailey’s face gave her away.

  “No answer?” Nell asked.

  “No,” Hailey said, hanging up the phone. “The mall must be closed.”

  “Then there’s still hope. Listen, Hailey, I’ve been thinking ever since we got back. Why didn’t Richard get out of the way of that car?”

  “What?”

  “Why didn’t he move? We were all screaming at him to get out of the way. So why didn’t he?”

  Hailey went to the window to look out. There was nothing to see but blowing snow and the pale yellow glow of lights in dorms and from the lampposts scattered across campus. “Maybe Richard didn’t hear us. The storm was so noisy.”

  Nell leaned forward on the bed. “But that’s just it. It shouldn’t have made any difference whether or not he heard us. If you saw a car racing straight toward you, you’d instinctively jump out of the way, right? Anyone would. Unless—”

  Hailey turned away from the window. “Unless,” she finished for Nell, “you recognized the driver and you were positive it was someone who would never run you down. Then you’d think it was just a joke and you’d think the driver was going to stop at the very last second. Like a game of chicken.”

  “Right!” Nell said. “That’s exactly what I’ve been thinking. Maybe Richard wasn’t waving his arms because he was mad. Maybe he was clowning around. Because he knew the person behind the wheel would never actually hit him.”

  “Someone he knew,” Hailey mused aloud. “Someone he was positive wouldn’t run him down? A friend?”

  “Or a girl,” Nell said pointedly. “Richard was a sexist pig. He would never expect a girl to do something so Rambo.”

  The shrilling of the phone startled both girls.

  “Maybe that’s Darlene,” Hailey said. “I can ask her where she was this afternoon.” She glared at Nell. “Even though I already know the answer.”

  But it wasn’t Darlene. It was Finn.

  “I heard about Wentworth,” he said. “Someone told me you were there. It must have been awful.”

  Hailey leaned against the wall. It was nice to know he’d been thinking about her. “It was horrible. I still can’t believe it happened.”

  “No classes tomorrow. Canceled because of the weather and, I guess, because of Richard, too. Everyone is in shock. Someone who saw the whole thing said it was deliberate … like murder. No accident, I mean.”

  “No, it definitely wasn’t an accident. But …”

  “What?”

  “Well, Nell and I were just talking about it. Richard could have jumped out of the way. Should have. He had time. And he didn’t do it. We think it had to be because he knew the driver and believed the guy was just playing around.”

  “You think someone Richard knew ran him down?”

  “It’s the only thing that makes sense.”

  Finn was silent for a moment. Then he said, “Like who?”

  Hailey almost said, “According to Nell, like Darlene.” But she held back the words. Saying them aloud would give them life, make them too real.

  “I don’t know,” she said instead.

  Chapter 13

  HAILEY’S SLEEP THAT NIGHT was broken by the nightmarish image of Richard Wentworth’s body flying through the air. When she was awakened in the morning by the shrill ringing of the telephone, she felt tense and irritable.

  It was shortly after nine o’clock when she answered the phone. Devereaux Hall was quiet. With no classes scheduled, everyone was sleeping in.

  “Hailey, it’s me, Darlene. I heard about Richard. Robert Q must be devastated! I tried calling Sigma Chi, but they told me he wasn’t there. I know they were lying.”

  And I know who told them to lie, Hailey thought. She tugged her robe more tightly around her and pulled the phone out into the hall so she wouldn’t wake Nell, even though Nell seemed capable of sleeping through anything. “Are you still in Willowcreek, Darlene?”

  “Well, sure, Hailey. I’d have called and told you if I was back in Twin Falls.”

  So that hadn’t been Darlene in the drugstore. Unless … unless she was lying. “How did you hear about Richard?”

  “It was on the news. I couldn’t believe it. I called my brother and he filled me in. Poor Gerrie!”

  It was the first time Darlene had
mentioned Gerrie since the night of the party. “Gerrie?”

  “Sure. She and Richard had grown very close. I have a friend who works at the hospital. Mimi said Richard visited Gerrie a lot. Brought her flowers, candy. He even read to her.”

  “Richard?”

  “Yeah. Mimi said Robert Q showed up one afternoon and he and Richard had a fight about it. Right there in the hospital.”

  Hailey remembered Lindsey insisting that she’d recognized the driver of the car. If it was Robert Q she’d recognized, would she have said so? No. Not in a million years. She’d have lied and said it was someone else.

  Was Robert Q the jealous type? Possessive? Exactly how angry would he get if a friend of his who had once dated Gerrie began moving in on her again?

  “I didn’t think Robert Q cared about Gerrie anymore,” Hailey said, “now that Gerrie isn’t … perfect anymore.”

  That comment seemed to delight Darlene. “I think you’re right, Hailey. The fight must have been about something else.”

  Realizing her mistake, Hailey quickly changed the subject. “Darlene, have you heard from Bo?” The police still hadn’t told her what, if anything, they’d learned about Bo.

  “Bo? No. Why would I? He knows we’re through. I told him it was Robert Q I loved, the night of the Sigma Chi party.”

  Before Gerrie was hit by that rock, Hailey wondered, or after?

  “I can’t imagine why Gerrie would pick Richard over Robert Q,” Darlene said, switching the subject again. “Richard was a really terrible person. Remember how he wanted money from Robert Q to take me home from the party? I don’t think I’ve ever,” she added heatedly, “hated anyone as much as I hated Richard that night. So,” she said, her voice abruptly calm again, “if anyone expects me to be shattered by what happened to Richard, they’ll be disappointed.”

  Darlene had obviously rewritten the party scene. No one could convince her now that her version was pure fiction. She blamed Richard, not Robert Q. And she’d hated Richard because of it.

  How much had she hated Richard? Enough to make the two-hour trip from Willowcreek to Twin Falls in a raging blizzard?