by Diane Hoh
When Milo and Linda left, Ian stayed behind. He stood over Jess, his dark eyebrows drawn together. “You sure that’s what you saw?” he asked. “A shadow of that girl? It couldn’t have been a tree branch?”
“Tree branches don’t have curly hair, Ian. I must have been wrong about it being real, but I wasn’t wrong about whose shadow it was. It was Giselle’s.”
“Okay. Linda’s right. I shouldn’t have told you about her. Maybe you could ask Mrs. Coates to switch your room when she gets back.”
Right. Like someone else would be willing to sleep in this room now that they all knew the truth.
She knew he was just trying to make her feel better. “Ian,” she said as he turned to leave, “Linda wasn’t right, blaming you and Milo. Everyone on campus knows about Giselle. I’m glad I heard the story from you first.”
“Yeah? You mean it?”
“I mean it. Now get out of here so I can change my clothes.”
Five minutes later, Jess left her room. The sense of relief that flooded her as she closed the door behind her made her knees weak. She would have to have such a good time at the party that she’d forget all about Giselle McKendrick. Otherwise, going back into that room when she got home would be impossible.
She did have a good time at the party. But she didn’t forget about Giselle.
The party was held in the Student Center on campus.
“This isn’t the room where they’re holding the Fall Ball,” Ian mentioned as they all arrived. “Not big enough. That’ll be in the main hall.”
But he didn’t turn to Jess then and add, “So … you want to go with me?” Instead, he smiled at her and moved away to talk to a friend he’d spotted.
Maybe he couldn’t afford tickets to the ball. They were expensive. And he’d have to rent a tux and buy a corsage …
Maybe she should ask him.
But you can’t afford the tickets, either, she reminded herself. So forget about the ball and have a good time in the here and now. Tonight is free.
She met tons of new people. The sophomores hosting the event made it their business to introduce themselves to as many freshmen as possible. Jess met several girls who hinted that she might be considered for their sororities, and she was too polite to tell them she wasn’t interested. She met several boys who bragged about their fraternities, and several people who shared her love of music and dancing. She was invited to join the chorus, work on the college newspaper, and volunteer for an adult literacy program conducted in the community by a group of sophomores and juniors.
“I wish I had time for all that,” she confided to the tall, heavyset girl with blonde hair who had mentioned the literacy program.
“Well, we hold the sessions right here on campus,” the girl, whose name tag read BETH, said. She smiled. “You might not even have to leave home. Which dorm are you in?”
Flushing slightly, Jess said, “I’m off-campus. At Nightingale Hall.” One of the sorority girls had wrinkled her cute little nose in distaste and disappeared quickly upon receiving this bit of information. Would Beth do the same?
No. She stayed, but a look of sympathy crossed her square, strong face. “Oh.” She hesitated, then added, “I guess you know about Giselle, then.”
Jess nodded. She didn’t want to ask, but she couldn’t help herself. “Did you know her?”
“She was in my English lit class,” Beth said. “You know, it’s strange … oh, never mind.”
“What?” Jess asked. If Beth knew something …
“Well, it’s just that my last memory of Giselle is so awful. I … I saw her fighting with someone on campus, the day before she died.”
“Fighting? You mean arguing?”
“No. Fighting. I mean, the other person was yanking on her hair, grabbing her arm, stuff like that.”
Jess gasped. “Who was she fighting with?”
Beth shrugged. “I don’t know. I was too far away. Couldn’t even tell if it was a guy or a girl.” She shrugged wide shoulders. “Whoever it was, was wearing jeans and a sweatshirt. Had long hair, though. Dark, I think.”
“If you were far away, how could you tell it was Giselle?”
“It was her, all right. I recognized that long, blonde hair.” Beth paused, then added, “She was really beautiful. She should have been conceited, but she wasn’t. Everyone liked her.” Her expression changed, turned bleak. “Well, I guess not everyone. Whoever was pushing her around that day sure didn’t like her.”
“Are you sure they were fighting? I mean, from so far away …”
“That, I am sure of. I started to run to help her, but just then she got away from whoever it was and ran. The other person followed, and I couldn’t catch up with them. The next day, she … died.” Beth shook her head. “None of us could ever figure why she’d do what she did. The last few months of school, she’d changed, become kind of antsy, like she was worried about something. We all thought she was just scared of finals, although she shouldn’t have been, she was so bright.”
“Did you tell the police about the fight?” Jess asked.
Beth looked surprised. “The police? No, why would I? She committed suicide.”
“But …”
“Besides, what could I have told them? Like I said, I could never describe the other person. Only …” she thought for a minute, then added, “Only, I remember thinking that it wasn’t anyone I knew. It wasn’t anyone I’d ever seen on campus before. I’m not sure why I thought that, but I did.”
Then a smiling Ian came to ask Jess to dance, Beth moved away to join friends, and the conversation ended.
Chapter 13
JESS TRIED TO PUT the conversation with Beth out of her mind. It wasn’t, she thought as she leaned her head on Ian’s shoulder, as if she’d actually learned anything important.
Except … the fight that Beth saw, had taken place on the day before Giselle died. Wasn’t that important?
Someone had been very angry with Giselle McKendrick on the very day before she died.
But … she had committed suicide. Everyone said so. The police said so, and it had been in the newspaper.
So what difference did it make whether anyone was mad at her or not?
Concentrating very hard, Jess pushed the unpleasant subject out of her mind. She was surrounded by friends, great music, and a refreshment table so loaded down she expected to hear it groan at any second. And she was where she wanted to be: in Ian Banion’s arms.
No more bad thoughts. Not tonight.
On the way home, with a half moon smiling down upon them and Linda and Milo walking several feet ahead, Ian asked Jess, “So, are you going to join me at the Chronicle? I know Marty Carr asked you about it. He told me he was going to.”
Working with Ian on campus might be fun. She had noticed at the party how many friends he’d already made. Many of them were girls. Had he asked one of them to the Fall Ball?
“Maybe. But not until after the ball, because I’m busy with the planning committee.” As soon as she’d made the remark, Jess regretted it. Had it sounded like a hint?
If it had, Ian chose to ignore it. Instead, he asked, “Who was the tall blonde girl you were talking to?”
Tall blonde? Oh. Beth. “Beth-something. She knew Giselle.” And then, it was strange. Instead of relating to Ian every word of her conversation with Beth, she changed the subject and began asking him about working on the paper.
She had no idea why she did it. She only knew she didn’t feel like talking to anyone about Giselle. Not even Ian.
Disappointed that he hadn’t asked her to the ball, she told him a hasty good-night when they returned to Nightingale Hall, and hurried upstairs.
She had barely closed the door when someone knocked on it. She turned around and pulled it open.
“I forgot something,” Ian said. His dark eyes were serious.
“What—” Jess began.
And then she was in Ian’s arms and he was kissing her.
It was over muc
h too soon. “Sleep tight,” he said and, smiling, turned and went down the hall to his own room.
Jess went to bed certain there would be no bad dreams that night.
The next day, Jess found herself looking for Beth as she made her way across campus between classes. The day was clear and unseasonably warm, the sun bright. There were things Jess wanted to know about the girl who had lived in the lilac bedroom last spring. And … died there. Maybe Beth could fill her in.
But while she saw many other people from the party, all of whom waved, smiled and said, “Hi, Jess,” she didn’t catch a glimpse of the tall, heavyset girl.
Maybe, she told herself on the way home, it was just as well. She shouldn’t be thinking about Giselle. It had all happened months ago, and had nothing to do with her. Putting it out of her mind should put an end to shadows on her wall.
She had barely seen Ian all day, and when she did, she felt awkward. He had kissed her. But he hadn’t asked her to the ball. Confusing. Very confusing.
Go figure, she told herself.
She had been studying for almost an hour when she heard hurried footsteps on the stairs and in the hall, followed by the slamming of a door. Someone else had come home. Good. After sharing an apartment with three other people, she still felt uneasy being in the huge old house all alone, even when Trucker was working nearby.
After all, hadn’t someone entered Cath’s room without her permission? Maybe being alone at Nightingale Hall wasn’t such a hot idea.
Her relief lasted all of two minutes. It ended when a shriek filled the air, bringing her out of her chair and running to the door.
The sound came again when she was in the hall. It came from Linda’s room. Jess didn’t even bother to knock when she got there. She burst into the room and found Linda standing in front of her chest of drawers, her cheeks scarlet with fury, her eyes blazing. She was waving something in the air.
“I don’t believe this!” she shouted. “I’ve got a meet in thirty minutes and look what someone did to my suit!” Using both hands, she waved half a dozen bright blue latex strips in Jess’s face.
Jess realized immediately what the strips were. Or had been. Linda’s bathing suit. The blue one-piece with the Salem University seal across the left hip. Although freshman swim team members could wear any suit they chose to practices, the university suit was required for meets.
“Why would someone do this to me?” Linda wailed. And then her face crumpled and she added in almost a whisper, her eyes wide with horror, “Jess … this means that someone came into my room when I wasn’t here.”
Jess shoved aside the thought of someone sneaking into Linda’s room, unwilling to deal with the ugliness of it, and said, “Don’t you have another suit?”
“I couldn’t afford two!” Fresh tears flowed. “The other girls all have an extra, but I don’t. They’re expensive.”
Cath, Milo, and Trucker suddenly appeared in the doorway. “What’s going on?” Trucker asked.
Jess explained.
Cath stepped forward to examine the destruction. “Well,” she said as she stepped back again, “now you know how I felt when my paper disappeared. And that paper was a lot more important than some stupid swim meet.”
“That stupid swim meet,” Linda said vehemently, “is why I have my scholarship! Your mommy and daddy dearest may have handed you a college education on a silver platter, but mine couldn’t.” Linda’s hand, clutching the bathing suit tatters, shook. “I’ve worked my buns off since high school to make a college team. Now I have to miss an important meet because some creep went crazy with a pair of scissors. If we miss a meet for any reason other than death, we’re out of the next meet. So I’ll miss two! Coach is going to be furious.” She glared at Cath with reddened eyes. “What do you think missing two meets is going to do to my chances of having my scholarship renewed next semester? If it’s not renewed, I’ll have to leave school.”
To Jess’s astonishment, Milo moved forward then to put a sympathetic arm around Linda’s shoulders. Grateful for the support, Linda managed a wan smile.
But a moment later, she pulled away and turned to face Cath. “You did this, didn’t you?” she whispered harshly. “To get even with me for sticking up for Milo about that dumb essay. You witch!”
“That’s stupid,” Cath retorted, her cheeks flushing with anger. “I never went into your room. I came straight home from school and never left my room.”
“I didn’t even know you were home,” Jess interjected in surprise. “It was so quiet here, I thought I was the only one home.”
“Cath’s right, though,” Trucker said. “I was changing light bulbs out in the hall and I saw her come in.” He glanced at Jess. “Must have been right after you got here. I was putting the ladder away when Linda yelled, but I’d been in the hall that whole time and I never saw Cath leave her room.”
Linda whirled and went to the window. It was wide open. “You mean, she never came out into the hall. But the fire escape is right outside this window. And right outside her window, next door. She could easily have climbed out of her room and into mine without anyone seeing her.”
“Oh, please,” Cath said, “I don’t go around climbing in and out of windows. You probably slashed that bathing suit yourself so you could accuse me. Because I accused your precious Milo. The difference is, he’s guilty. I’m not.” She turned and headed for the door. Over her shoulder, she said, “You should be relieved, Linda. Those suits are the ugliest things I’ve ever seen. Even on people with good figures.” Then she left the room, with a toss of her hair.
But a furious Linda wasn’t ready to drop the matter. “Come on!” she urged Milo, Jess, and Trucker as Cath, her back as rigid as a flagpole, left the room, “I want to check out Cath’s windows. Maybe she left footprints on the fire escape or something …”
“Linda, don’t be ridiculous,” Jess said, hoping to avoid any more confrontations.
But Linda was already out of the room. A second later, she was pounding on Cath’s closed door. “Let us in,” she shouted, “or I’ll make Trucker remove this door!”
An annoyed Cath let them in.
It was unbearably hot in the small, immaculate room. Linda rushed to the window.
“It won’t open,” Cath said, an amused smile on her face. “Go ahead, try it. It’s been stuck since last night. You’ll see that I couldn’t have got out that way even if I’d wanted to, which I didn’t.” Fixing dark eyes on Linda’s back, she added, “Actually, I thought maybe some malicious person had glued it shut, hoping I’d suffocate in this heat.”
Trucker moved toward the window. “It’s probably the humidity. Let me try.” He reached Linda and placed his hands on the window frame.
The window slid up as easily as if it had been greased.
Silence dropped into the room like a bomb. All eyes moved to Cath.
Her face was a vivid, painful red. “But I … I …” she stammered, “I wrestled with that window forever last night.” Her eyes went to Jess in an appeal for support. “Would I be studying in an oven if I could have opened that window?”
“Did you try it when you got home today?” Trucker asked.
“No. I thought it wouldn’t do any good. I tried it last night and again this morning, and it wouldn’t budge. I was going to ask you to fix it after school, but you were busy with the light bulbs. I thought I’d wait until you were done.”
“Oh, brother,” Linda groaned, “is anybody buying this?”
“Linda,” Jess said quickly, “you’re going to be late for the meet. I’m sure you can borrow a suit from one of the other swimmers.” Firmly taking Linda’s arm, Jess began leading the way out of the room. “You won’t miss this meet or the next one, and your scholarship is perfectly safe.”
Linda went with Jess, but she was still angry. “If she thinks I’m going to forget about this,” she muttered, “she’s crazy.” And when they reached her room, Linda turned to Jess and said, “Thanks, Jess, for getting me away
from Cath before I totally lost my cool.” She opened the door. “But … listen, be careful, okay?” Her round pink face was very serious. “This time, it was only a bathing suit. But next time, who knows?”
The warning rang in Jess’s ears as she returned to Cath’s room.
Chapter 14
IN CATH’S ROOM, TRUCKER was still checking the window frame.
“I’m telling you,” Cath was saying in a low, intense voice, “I couldn’t open it!”
Already convinced that Cath hadn’t been traveling back and forth via the fire escape, Jess focused on the awful truth: someone had trespassed in both Cath’s room and Linda’s. That was scary.
The doors to their rooms all had locks, but because only six students were living in the house, they’d never felt the need to use the locks. Until now.
“Trucker, do you know if the keys to our rooms are still around somewhere?” Jess asked.
He shook his head. “Not likely. Probably haven’t been used in years. But I can look around.”
“Well, if you don’t find them,” Cath said, “get us new locks, okay? I’m not staying in this room any longer without a lock on the door.”
Trucker looked doubtful. “New locks? That’d be expensive. I’d have to check with Mrs. Coates.”
Cath looked crestfallen. “I wish you would all just leave,” she said in a defeated voice. “I didn’t climb out any window, I was never on the fire escape, and I didn’t touch Linda’s bathing suit.” Her voice began to quaver. “And I think it’s really rotten that you would think I’d do those things.”
“I don’t,” Jess said. “I don’t think that, Cath.”
“And I didn’t take your essay, either,” Milo said. “It’s no fun being unfairly accused, is it?” He turned and left the room.
Jess was lost in thought as she returned to her own room.
Jon was on the phone in the hall, his chair tilted back against the wall, a grin on his face.
Talking to a girl, of course, Jess thought, realizing that Jon probably knew nothing about the bathing suit episode. He must have just arrived home and had gone, naturally, straight to the telephone.
