The Train (10 page)

    She should have left the train when Lolly did. By the time they arrived in San Francisco, if they ever did, the last shred of her sanity would be gone like the landscape that whizzed by as the train raced across the tracks.

    "I can't get through this day." Her voice was solemn and soft. "I can't. I don't want to be on this train anymore."

    Everyone started talking at; once, reassuring her, telling her they would stay with her and keep her safe. Mack said he wouldn't leave her aide, Lewis nodded agreement, Kerry held her hand and Ms. Quick thrust two aspirin and a paper cup full of water in Hannah's face.

    None of it helped. How could they keep her safe from Frog when none of them believed he was after her? She wasn't going to bring it up again. She couldn't bear the looks that would appear on their faces. She would just do what they had told her to, go where they wanted her to, say what she thought they wanted to hear - but stay alert and on guard every single second, watching for him… waiting.

    Sooner or later, he'd show up.

    "You should sleep," Mack said. "You look really beat."

    Hannah lifted her head. She wiped her face free of tears with the tissue Kerry had given her, tossed her head to shake her hair in place, and stood up. "I can't sleep. Let's do something. You said everyone was at the rec center. Let's go there."

    Mack frowned. "You sure? Look, I'll stay here while you sleep."

    "No. I don't want to sleep." She tried to smile brightly at the cluster of people gathered around her in the compartment. "You guys were right. It was just a bad dream. But I don't want to have it again. So let's play. That's what we're here for, right?"

    Kerry looked at her with a quizzical expression on her face and said, "Well, if you're sure that's what you want, they're showing a movie this afternoon. We could grab some lunch in the Cafe and then watch Schwarzenegger get the bad guys."

    "Sounds great!" Hannah said. "Let's go!"

    The relief that appeared on every face told her she was doing the right thing, although Mack still looked uncertain. She could practically hear them thinking, Oh, good, everything's okay now. Everything's back to normal.

    She would keep to herself the belief that absolutely nothing was normal. "Well, let's go!" she repeated, and led the way out of the compartment.

    When they entered the recreation area where the movie was being shown, everyone seemed to be having a good time. Except for Dale and Eugene, who sat together off to Hannah's left staring stonily at the blank screen, everyone had apparently suspended all thoughts of danger. They cheered happily when the room went dark and the screen lit up.

    Hannah didn't cheer. Sitting in a pitch-black, crowded room watching bodies being blown into oblivion was not what she needed. By concentrating with all of her might, she was able to tune out the on-screen mayhem and listen for a sound out of the ordinary, a movement that might be threatening, any sign that danger could be approaching in the total darkness.

    That sound, when it came, wasn't the scream or shriek of pain that she was expecting. It was a sharp, whizzing sound that sent Hannah's head into an instinctive ducking motion. It came during the last few seconds of the film and no one around her seemed to notice the sound or the startled "Uh!" that followed. Afterward, Hannah would remember thinking at that exact moment, There! There it is! Something bad has happened.

    And, following that thought came another: He's here. Frog is here.

    She sat perfectly still, waiting, as the movie ended and people around her clapped and shouted their approval. The credits rolled, the lights came on, and she didn't move. Her eyes blinked steadily, but she was waxing.

    People stood up, stretched, yawned, grinned at each other.

    Meek stood up. Kerry and Jean Marie stood up.

    Lewis did not stand up. He remained sitting in his chair.

    And he said, slowly and with awe in his voice, "I think I've been stabbed." Hannah's silent reaction was, Well, of course you have. That sound I heard was the knife whizzing through the air. Then I heard you cry out. And I know Frog is here, so I'm not the least bit surprised.

    Outwardly, she did what everyone else did. She hurried to Lewis's side in alarm.

    The weapon wasn't a knife, after all. It was an ice pick. The thick wooden handle protruded from the back of Lewis's leather theater seat, while the sharp, narrow pick itself had penetrated the seat and impaled the flesh near Lewis's collarbone. A small but vivid red stain etched a half-moon, like some trendy trademark, on his white sweater. The half-moon was slowly oozing into a three-quarter moon, and Lewis's face was the murky beige of swamp water.

    "Oh, my God," Kerry breathed.

    "I don't think it's that bad," Mack hastened to reassure her. He knelt beside Lewis. "Too high. Hit the bone, I think." The crowd moving up the aisle past them, preoccupied with discussing the movie, seemed unaware of anything unusual until Mack called out, "Someone get the conductor! And Mr. Dobbs or Ms. Quick. Hurry up!"

    Kerry lifted a pale face to Hannah and said angrily, "I knew we'd need that doctor! And now he's not here, all because of Lolly!"

    Bat it wasn't Lolly's fault she almost got strangled, Hannah thought, and wondered if now someone would believe that Frog was alive and on the train.

    Not that it mattered. She had already made up her mind. She was going to make sure, once and for all, that she was right.

    There was only one way to do that.

    She was going to open Frog's coffin.

    

    

    

    The fact that Lewis's wound proved to be minor, speedily disinfected and bandaged by Ms. Quick, failed to change Hannah's mind about making a trip to the baggage car.

    And the fact that the detective had no answers for them, except to say that the ice pick had been stolen from the dining car, only intensified her determination to see for herself whether or not Frog was in his proper place.

    If I don't, she thought as they all accompanied a shaken Lewis back to his compartment, I will not make it through the rest of this trip. One way or the other, I have to know.

    She didn't want to tell anyone what she was planning. Their response, she was positive, would be disheartening. But there was no way on earth she was going into that baggage car alone.

    They all went back to Lewis and Mack's compartment.

    Hannah waited until the color had returned to Lewis's face. Then she announced firmly, "I'm going to the baggage car after dinner. I want to see for myself that Frog really is dead and he's where he belongs."

    Lewis, Kerry, and Jean Marie gasped. But Mack only nodded. "I knew that's what you were thinking," he said. "I saw the look on your face when you spotted the ice pick in Lewis. You're going to open the coffin?"

    Hannah nodded. "I have to." She knew that had Mack not been on her side, she wouldn't have had a chance of talking the others into joining her. She reached out and touched his arm in gratitude. "I have to know."

    Kerry was still aghast. "Hannah, you know it's going to be horrible! He burned to death, for pete's sake!"

    Hannah opened the door. "You're forgetting, Kerry, I've already seen him. Nightmare or not, what I saw in that upper berth is what Frog would look like now. So it won't be a complete shock to me. Are you coming with me?"

    "I am," Lewis said, getting to his feet. He didn't waver, and seemed his old self. "I want to know who thinks I'd make a great ice cube."

    "If Lewis can go when he's been hurt," Jean Marie said, "I'm not going to chicken out. I'm with you, Hannah."

    "Well, I'm certainly not going to wait alone somewhere for you guys," Kerry exclaimed. "I think the whole idea is totally repulsive and useless. Frog is dead as a doornail and isn't bothering anyone. But if you have to, Hannah, you have to. So I'm going,too." But she added grimly as she stood up, "Just don't expect me to look, that's all. I'd die first!"

    If we don't look, Hannah thought as they left for the dining car, you might die anyway, Kerry. Lolly almost did and I could have suffocated in that coffin, and an inch or two lower with that ice pick would have left you with no boyfriend. Whether Kerry thought so ar not, they were doing the right thing.

    They told no one of their plans.

    Everyone at dinner was glad to see that Lewis was okay. To Hannah's surprise, Dale and Eugene stopped him at the entrance and asked how he was feeling. Lewis was as surprised as Hannah. "Fine," he mumbled.

    "You were lucky," Dale said, moving away. "An inch or two lower or higher and…"

    Eugene raised a hand to make a slicing motion across his own throat. "Yeah, you'd be up in heaven right now with good old Frog," he said with a grin. Then the two left to take a table at the rear of the car.

    "Those two are weird," Lewis murmured. "In heaven? Aren't they awfully optimistic about Frog's final destination?"

    "They're assuming an awful lot just by believing that he's dead," Hannah said sharply. "We won't know that for sure until we check that coin."

    There was a lot of complaining among the students about the detective asking too many questions and getting too few results.

    "Some fun trip," one girl groused loudly. "I was just about to take a nice, long shower when heshowed up at my door, asking me if I'd seen or heard anything unusual. Is he kidding? This whole trip is nuts!"

    Another girl at the same table nodded in agreement. "I'm afraid to step outside our compartment alone. At first I thought what happened to that girl in the Cafe was somebody's idea of a sick joke. But what happened to Lewis sure wasn't funny."

    Everyone agreed that it wasn't the least bit funny.

    There was no laughter or light chatter in the dining car that night. Hannah couldn't help thinking how different the atmosphere was from the way it had been in the Cafe that first morning - before the attack on Lolly. She knew why they were all afraid.

    Because there was no place to run to on a train.

    After dinner, they gathered in Mack and Lewis's compartment, which was closest to the baggage car, until their fellow passengers had taken refuge in their own secure little rooms.

    "We have to be quiet," Hannah warned, opening the door and peering out. "Ms. Quick is a nervous wreck. The slightest sound will set her off and she'll be hot on our trail. And that detective is still roaming around, too. Everyone tiptoe, okay?"

    They had no flashlight. The corridors were dimly lit but the baggage car would be dark. As they made their way down the corridor, Lewis pointed out in a whisper that if they turned on a light, someone might see it from under the door."No one's going to be around," Hannah argued. "Not at this time of the night. Everyone's hiding in their compartments. But we probably shouldn't take any chances. We'll leave the light off."

    "Someone should keep an eye out for the conductor," Jean Marie suggested. "I'll do it if you want. I'll wait outside and if I see him coming, I'll knock twice."

    "No way," Lewis protested. "No one's doing anything alone. We go in together and take our chances together, period."

    "If we get caught," Kerry said, "we'll make up some story. I'll say I needed something from my bag.)) "Right," Lewis whispered in agreement. "Nobody will have trouble believing that."

    The cars through which they passed were so still, so silent. No happy chatter, no giggling or laughter, no cheerful music sounded from behind closed doors. Only an occasional, nervous murmuring competed with the steady ga-dink of the wheels on the tracks.

    Slowly, carefully, Mack pulled the baggage car door open. He checked to make sure no porter or conductor was around and then gestured that it was safe to enter.

    "Can't see a thing," he murmured. They fell all over each other in the dark, a jumbled mass of confusion, all colliding elbows and knees and shoulders as they tried to get their bearings.

    Then they moved off, cautiously, into the thick curtain of darkness."I don't need to see," Hannah whispered. "I can find the coffin in the dark. I know exactly where it is.

    "How are you going to know if he's in there when you can't see?" Kerry asked.

    Hannah began to move forward carefully, feeling with her feet for piles of luggage or boxes. "I'll know. I'll know the minute I open it."

    "Then I'm glad it's so dark in here," Kerry said. "This way, you won't be able to see his face." To Lewis she said, "Under no circumstances let go of my hand. If you do, I'll scream."

    With Mack holding her hand, and Lewis and Kerry and Jean Marie holding on to one another, Hannah slowly, carefully led the way across the baggage car to where the coffin was. As her eyes became accustomed to the gloom, she could make out shapes and was able to avoid several piles of luggage and stacks of boxes. Lewis tripped once and uttered a mild oath, and Kerry, following closely behind him, bumped into him and nearly fell.

    Hannah knew that under any other circumstances, they all would have been laughing hysterically. But not now. Not in here.

    "I don't see why we can't turn on the light," Kerry complained. "You said yourself, Hannah, there's no one out there now. I'm going to trip and break my neck."

    Hannah shook her head. "No. I don't want a light on. Because when I lift the lid, if Frog's in there, you'll see him and scream your head off. Everyone on the train will come running. Just watch where you're going."

    "How can I watch where I'm going when I can't see?" But Kerry subsided then, and they continued picking their slow, careful, silent way through the darkness.