Student Body (Nightmare Hall) (7 page)

“Tory, I want to see Hoop, too,” Mindy said, leaning over the front seat. “But you really should go to the infirmary and get something for your sunburn.”

I’d forgotten that Mindy was with us. There went my visit to Hoop. We could not take Mindy to the hospital. The minute she saw that her handsome, athletic boyfriend had become a mummy, she’d freak. She’d probably start shrieking wildly that it was our fault, all our fault.

We couldn’t risk that.

“Okay, Mindy’s right,” I said hastily before Bay could turn the car toward the Medical Center. “We wouldn’t be allowed to see Hoop, anyway. Take me to the infirmary instead, please, Bay.”

I’d go back to see Hoop later, by myself.

“What
do
you think happened back there at the salon?” Eli asked me quietly. “I mean, any ideas about why you couldn’t get out of that capsule?”

“The lid was probably just stuck,” Bay interjected. “The attendant said that happens sometimes. That’s why they have the alarm buttons inside the lid.”

“It wasn’t stuck,” I disagreed. “I’m not as puny as I look. If it was just stuck, I could have kicked it open. And even if it was stuck, that doesn’t explain why the alarm button didn’t work. Did you see that wire leading from the top of the lid to the button? It looked like it would have been really easy to disconnect it. The ventilation system stopped working, too. I could have suffocated.”

“Tory!” Nat’s voice. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying,” I said firmly, “that I don’t think I was accidentally trapped inside that capsule. If the attendant wants to believe it was my own fault because she’s terrified of a lawsuit, let her. But I’m telling you, someone, somehow, trapped me in that thing and disconnected the alarm button on purpose.”

Once I’d said the words aloud, I realized that I’d believed it from that first, scary moment when the lid wouldn’t open.

They all fell silent, thinking about what I’d just said.

I knew how bizarre it sounded. But there were so many switches, so many gizmos, so many levers on that capsule, any one of them could have been tampered with.

Then I remembered that I’d seen someone darting out of my cubicle.

“Did any of you guys see someone with a bandaged leg walk by while you were waiting in the lobby?” I asked.

“A bandaged leg?” Nat thought for a second. “No. Tory, why would someone with a bandaged leg be getting a tan? Wouldn’t they look a little silly when the bandages came off and one leg was tan and one wasn’t? What a question.”

I’d been upset, almost hysterical when I crawled out of that capsule. How could I be sure of what I’d seen? If anyone had been in that cubicle, bandaged or not, they would have seen that I was in trouble, and let me out.

So, when Nat said after a minute or two, “Tory? You really think someone locked you in that capsule on purpose?” I did a complete about-face.

“No, no, of course not,” I said hastily. “That’s a really crazy idea.’ I guess those tanning rays must have melted my brain. I’m sure the attendant was right. I must have pushed the wrong button, turned the wrong lever, whatever. Forget it. Maybe the doctor at the infirmary can give me something for my brain meltdown, too.”

Relief filled the car. They’d been as repelled as I was by the idea of someone deliberately locking me in that capsule. Didn’t we already have enough to worry about?

“Mindy,” I said, changing the subject, “we need to fill you in on the story we’re going to tell everyone about last night.” I told her what we’d made up, about Hoop running off in a flash of anger.

At first, she balked. “That’s like blaming Hoop!” she cried. “It’s like saying it was his temper that put him in the hospital. That’s not true, and it’s not fair.”

“May I remind you,” I said icily, “that it was your idea not to go back and look for him? That you were the one who insisted that Hoop would be just fine on his own in that fire?”

Mindy let out a dismayed gasp. So did Nat, and I could feel Eli’s questioning eyes on my face.

I hated myself.

But it was true, wasn’t it? Mindy knew Hoop better than any of us, and she had insisted he’d be okay. Well, she’d been wrong, hadn’t she?

If it crossed my mind that she was probably being tortured by the same exact thought, I ignored it. It was more important now that Mindy go along with the story we’d made up than to worry about her feelings. We couldn’t let her ruin everything.

“Look, everyone knows that Hoop has a temper,” I said patiently, even though what I really felt like doing was screaming. My skin burned fiercely, I was still upset about having been locked in that capsule, and I wanted all of this horror over Hoop to disappear. I didn’t feel like dealing with Mindy. But if she caved in and told anyone the truth, we were all dead. “No one will question our story, Mindy. People have seen him lose his temper too many times.”

I’ll never know whether or not my comments changed Mindy’s mind, or if what happened next changed it for her. Because when we arrived back on campus, the place was crawling with cops. There were black-and-whites lined up outside the administration building, Butler Hall, and a couple of official-looking cars with the state logo on the doors, plus two brown and cream state police cars. Everywhere we looked, there seemed to be people in uniform, on the walkways, on the Commons, going in and out of the dorms.

Bay drove slowly, as we all stared in apprehension.

“I thought Twin Falls had a tiny police force,” Nat murmured.

“They’re not all Twin Falls,” Eli said. “Some are state police, some are campus security, and I think the guys in white shirts and navy blue pants might be arson investigators. It’s a state park, remember? The fire isn’t just a local matter.”

Mindy groaned, and leaning over the front seat again, said quickly, “Okay, okay, I’ll go with that story.”

My stiff, aching body went weak with relief.

The doctor at the infirmary said I wouldn’t blister. She shook her head in disapproval at what she called “youthful vanity,” and warned me away from the tanning salon. As if that was necessary.

She told me I was “a very lucky young woman,” gave me a tube of salve to apply to the most painful spots, and dismissed me.

It was Saturday. I hadn’t spent a Saturday night alone since I’d met Eli, and then Bay and the others. But when we separated at Devereaux, no one said a word about doing anything that night, not even Bay. I could have leaned in through the open car window after I got out and said, “See you tonight?” but something wouldn’t let me. The fire had damaged more than the park and Hoop. It had done something to our little group, too. Our easy, trusting attitude toward each other was gone.

Maybe we were all just too shell-shocked to think about going out and having fun. Whatever the reason, Nat and I got out of the car without saying good-bye. All I said as I left was, “Remember, Mindy, don’t screw this up, okay?”

She nodded, but she looked hurt.

“That was kind of mean,” Nat commented as we went inside. “She already promised that she’d go along with the story.”

“I know. It
was
mean. But the police are going to be coming around and she’s our weakest link. She can’t stand the thought of lying about Hoop. I don’t like it, either, so if you have any better suggestions that will get us out of this mess, I’d be happy to hear them.”

We rode upstairs in the elevator in silence.

To find two uniformed Twin Falls officers and one state police officer waiting for us in the hall outside our room.

T
HE FIRST QUESTION WAS
directed at me. “What happened to your face?” the younger of the two Twin Falls officers asked as we ushered them all into our room. “Looks like you burned it some. How?”

I explained. I didn’t want to. It sounded hopelessly stupid even to me, and I’d
been
there. But I was afraid that if I didn’t explain, they’d assume my face had been seared by the forest fire, proof that I’d been with Hoop. So I had to tell them. I didn’t even hint that I was suspicious about how it had happened, though—that would have kept them there longer, and I just wanted them to go away.

I found myself wishing our room were neater, as if that would convince the officers that we were fine, upstanding citizens. Then again, a perfectly neat dorm room would probably have made them even more suspicious.

“I imagine your friend, the basketball player who was injured in the park fire, hurts a lot worse than you do,” the older officer said sternly, moving forward, small notebook in hand. “Could we ask you about that, please?”

That’s when I realized that we’d made one big mistake when we decided on the “story” we’d be telling. We had decided that we would say Hoop had lost his temper and run off in the direction of the state park.

But what we
hadn’t
discussed was what
we
were supposed to have been doing when the fire started, and where, exactly, we were doing it. How could we have neglected to come up with those very important details?

Those were the first questions we were asked.

Nat and I looked at each other as if someone had just asked us to describe the Pythagorean theory.

I began stammering an answer before she did. “Well, uh, we were … we were
here
when Hoop took off. Right … right here, in this room.”

“And after that?” the officer asked, his eyes never leaving my face for a second. “Where were you the rest of the night?”

I couldn’t think. With him looking at me like that, my brain balked. Count me out of this one, it said, and promptly ceased to function. Suddenly brainless, all I could manage was, “Here. We … we stayed here.”

His eyebrows rose sharply. “You stayed here in the dorm room on a night when everyone else was out celebrating Salem’s win in the semifinals?”

“Well, we didn’t stay here the
whole
night,” Nat said, coming to my rescue. “We thought you meant where were we when the fire started. We were here,” she lied easily. “But then we went out.”

“To?” His eyebrows were still arched, fat, furry caterpillars inching toward his hairline.

Instantly, I felt Nat’s dilemma. If she said we’d gone to Vinnie’s or Johnny’s, or any one of a dozen other hangouts, the police would make the rounds, asking if we’d been there.

“Down by the river,” she said. “We took some sandwiches and went down and sat on the riverbank.” She’d thought fast enough to substitute sandwiches for our hot dogs. Hot dogs required a fire. It was absolutely essential that we not be associated with fire in any way.

“Anyone see you there?” the state police officer asked. He was big and burly, could have used a uniform one size larger than the one he was poured into, and his tie was crooked. But his voice was gentle as he asked the question.

“Gee, I don’t think so,” Nat said, pretending to think about it for a minute. “We didn’t see anyone, did we, Tory?”

“No. Not a soul.” I looked directly into the eyes of the policeman who had asked me the first question. “We wanted to have our own private celebration. That’s what we argued with Hoop about,” I added, improvising as I talked. “He wanted to go where the crowd was, and we didn’t.”

Mistake. I thought I was being so clever, volunteering information that would fortify our story. But I was underestimating the intelligence of our questioners.

“He wanted to be where there was a crowd, so he opted for running alone in the state park?” the state police officer said skeptically. “Seems to me he’d have gone on into town to find his crowd.”

“Not without Mindy, he wouldn’t have,” Nat said hastily. “That’s his girlfriend, Mindy Loomis. And she was here, with us.”

My elbow made its way into Nat’s ribs. She shouldn’t have mentioned Mindy. Mindy was so shaky. Liable to say almost anything.

“So what you’re saying,” the younger officer said, pencil poised on his notepad, “is that you weren’t anywhere near the park last night?”

Oh, damn. There it was. Talking about lying to the authorities is one thing. Now that I actually had to
do
it, I couldn’t. I’d done it before, in high school. It had never worked. I wasn’t very good at it and something always tripped me up.

“Well, like we said,” Nat said, saving me again, “we were on the riverbank. I guess you could say that’s near the park, right?” Her eyes had never looked more innocent. “We wouldn’t want to mislead you, officers.”

What could they say? I wasn’t sure they believed us, but they couldn’t prove that we were lying, so they left, telling us they might be back and to “be available.”

“That means,” I said as I closed the door after them, “don’t leave town. Funny, since we’re only lying so that we can
stay.
If we wanted to leave town, all we’d have to do is spill our guts and the administration and the townspeople and the police would be only too happy to escort us out of town. We should write a book:
How to Go from College to Prison in One Easy Move.
”

Nat was shaking. “You shouldn’t have said we were here last night,” she accused. “What a dumb thing to say! Like we’d be sitting around the room while everyone else was out celebrating. Who’d believe that?”

“Well, you shouldn’t have mentioned Mindy, either,” I snapped. “They’re probably heading for her room right this minute. What if she folds?”

“Oh, you sound like someone in a bad movie.” Nat flopped down on her bed and buried her face in her pillow. “She’s not going to ‘fold.’ She’s not giving up everything now. She’s as determined as any of the rest of us.”

I hoped Nat was right.

I had just slathered a greasy coating of salve onto my stiff, aching, skin when Bay called.

“A lot of people are really ticked about the fire,” he informed me, speaking in a low voice. There must have been someone else in his room at the Quad. “They’ve closed the whole park, even the sections that didn’t burn. There was supposed to be a ten-K run through there tomorrow. Had to be cancelled. And a bunch of people had planned a midnight picnic there tonight. That’s cancelled, too. No fishing allowed off the riverbank, either, until the arson investigators come up with some answers.”

I groaned silently. We really had screwed up. For just a second there, I hated Bay with a fierce passion. He was the one who had insisted that we make a campfire. If he hadn’t been so stubborn, so insistent, none of this would have happened.