Free The Train by Diane Hoh Page A

face to the next. "Can't you see that?"
        Kerry shot a worried look at Mack. "But Hannah," she said, "you're the one who got locked in the coffin. And you're the only one who didn't have anything to confess in the Cafe. You're the only one who didn't do something terrible to Frog. So even if he is alive - and I don't think for one single second that he is - why would he hurt Hannah's cheeks blazed. "I have to get out of this awful hallway," she said quickly. "I can't breathe in here. Can we go back to our compartment, please? I'll feel safer there."
        No one said anything as they all hurried back to the compartment, but Hannah knew what they were thinking. Their thoughts circled around her head like vultures about to descend: Hannah's losing it, Hannah's one slice of bread short of a loaf, Hannah thinks a dead guy is alive and walking this train. Poor Hannah!
        Hannah bit down hard on her lower lip. She couldn't help how she felt, could she? She was the one who had been shut up in that horrible coffin, she was the one who knew better than anyone else that Frog wasn't in there. What was she supposed to think? That a dead person got out to make room for her?
        That idea was even crazier than what she was thinking!
        When they reached the compartment, she turned to face Mack. "So you ran after Frog," she said, biting off her words carefully. "That doesn't explain where you were all that time."
        Mack's face flushed as he opened the compartment door and let them all step inside ahead of him. "I… I told you, I feel -like a fool. What happened was, I ran after this… this person, whoever it was, and he went into a little wooden shed in one of the alleys. At least, I thought he did. But when I followed him inside, the place was empty. The door closed behind me and stuck… I tried to get out and couldn't. The hinge was all rusty… guess the place hadn't been used much. Some kind of storage shed, I think. Anyway, I pounded and yelled and pushed, but nothing worked. I was stuck in there."
        "Or locked in," Hannah said triumphantly. Her cheeks as flushed as Mack's, she turned to Kerry and said, "See? He was locked in that shed just like I was shut up inside the coffin. And I don't care what any of you say, it was Frog who did it'"
        "No, Hannah," Mack protested, "no, it wasn't. I told you, the door was stuck, not locked. I got out by breaking a window and I went around to the front and checked the door. It wasn't locked."
        "That doesn't mean it wasn't locked in the firstplace," Hannah persisted. "He could have unlocked it after a while. And you never got close enough to get a good look at the person you were following, did you?"
        "I didn't have to. I realized when I was in that shed that it was a crazy idea. We all know what happened to Frog."
        "We all know what we think happened to Frog." Hannah, her arms folded against her chest, stood firm in the middle of the small, wood-paneled room. "Exactly what Frog wanted us to think."
        Mack sighed heavily. "I give up. Think what you want to. Me, I'm going to check with that detective, see if he has any idea what's going on around here."
        "Me, too," Lewis agreed. "I'll go with you."
        When the compartment door had closed after them, Hannah turned to Kerry and Jean Marie and rolled her eyes heavenward. "They want me to admit that my theory is nuts," she said in exasperation, "and I just can't do that. I don't think it's nuts, do you?"
        Their faces told her they thought exactly that.
        Hannah's heart descended into her toes. She desperately wanted someone on her side.
        Maybe it was a crazy theory. How could Frog fool the whole town into thinking he was dead? Didn't medical examiners check out things like that?
        "Hannah," Kerry pointed out, "suppose, just suppose, you were right. Why would Frog hurt Lolly? She was the first one attacked, remember? But they were