Free The Train by Diane Hoh Page B

friends. More than friends. She was the only girl at school who would go out with him.So why would he try to strangle her?"
        "Well, I don't know about strangling, but they did have an awful fight," Jean Marie said.
        Hannah stared at her. "They did? Frog and Lolly?"
        "Well, she didn't call him Frog, Hannah. She called him Roger. Yeah, they did. Really nasty."
        "How do you know?"
        "I heard them. I mean, I wasn't eavesdropping, not on purpose. I was trying on jeans at The Gap, in the dressing room, and I heard these voices. I recognized Lolly's right away. She kept saying, `You're not going, are you? Are you, Roger? You can't go!' "
        Kerry looked interested. "Go where?"
        Jean Marie shrugged. "How should I know?"
        "What else did they say?" Hannah asked. Frog and Lolly had had a fight? She needed to know how bad the fight was.
        "She kept saying he couldn't go, and he kept saying he was going. Then she said she was sure it was a joke and he was stupid not to see that and he screamed at her not to call him stupid, and then the clerk came over and threw them out. Told them to take their argument outside. The last thing I heard was Lolly saying something like, `Then I'm going with you' and Frog saying `You're not, you'll ruin everything.' Then she said, `You're not going without me, Roger.' But their voices got too far away for me to hear the rest."
        Hannah sank down onto one of the seats. Jean Marie had just answered for her the question of why Frog would hurt Lolly. He'd been mad at her, maybe even as mad as he was at Hannah and her friends.
        "When was this?" she asked quietly, her eyes on Jean Marie.
        "Gosh, I don't remember, Hannah. I mean, why would I? It didn't matter to me." Jean Marie concentrated for a minute. "I think it was the Saturday before the trip. That morning."
        Hannah exhaled deeply. She knew what Lolly and Frog had been fighting about.
        That fight was her fault.
        "Hannah," Kerry said, "quit looking so glum. A fight doesn't mean anything. I'm always arguing with boys and so far, not one of them has wrapped a noose around my neck."
        "Not one of them was Frog," Hannah murmured stubbornly.
        "Look, this is silly." Kerry grabbed her purse. "Come on, Jean Marie, let's leave Hannah here to rest - nobody needs rest more than Hannah does. I'll walk you back to your compartment. Then I'm going to take a shower."
        "We're not supposed to go anywhere alone," Hannah reminded Kerry, alarm in her voice. "We promised Ms. Quick."
        Kerry sighed in annoyance. "You're right. I forgot. Okay, then, Jean Marie needs a shower, too, don't you, Jean Marie?" Without waiting for an answer, she tugged at Jean Marie's sweater sleeve. "C'mon, we'll both take a shower. You rest, Hannah. I know you're nervous, so lock the door after us and, when we come back, I'll knock twice, then three times so you'll know it's me. Okay?"
        Hannah nodded reluctantly.
        Kerry collected her cosmetic case and towel, and then she and Jean Marie left the compartment.
        
        

Chapter 14
        
        Hannah stood alone in the center of the small room, wishing briefly that she'd gone with them. But she was too worn-out to take a shower. Kerry was right: who needed rest more than Hannah Deaton?
        She locked the door to the compartment. She would stay here, safe and sound, until Kerry and Jean Marie came back. She would rest, as promised.
        The knock on the door as she was about to pull down the window shade wasn't Kerry's. No tworap, three-rap deal, as Kerry had promised. It was an ordinary knock.
        Backing away from the door, Hannah cried, "Who's there?"
        "It's Ms.. Quick, Hannah. I have the detective with me. He'd like to speak with you if you're feeling up to it."
        Hannah let them in.
        "I know it's hard to believe right now," Ms. Quick said,