Free The Night Walker (Nightmare Hall) by Diane Hoh

seat.”
    Ivy joined them then, and Quinn dropped the matter. Who was she to be grilling Suze? Hadn’t she herself been at the car? And which of .the two of them was Most Likely To Be Suspected? Which one of them had found a paint-stained skirt and sweater in her room? Which one had been wearing grungy, grimy socks in bed shortly after the attack on Jake’s car, and which one had found glass fragments in her raincoat pockets?
    And which one sleepwalked, wandering around at night like some beady-eyed nocturnal animal when everyone else was asleep?
    Not Suze.
    Maybe it was time for Quinn Hadley to visit a campus counselor again. She didn’t want to. Talking with a counselor would make her feel like she was really losing it.
    Well, maybe she was.
    They stopped at Vinnie’s on the way home. To Quinn’s surprise, Reed and Jake were there, sitting quietly in a corner booth. The simple Band-Aid on Reed’s cheek lied about the severity of the attack.
    “I didn’t expect to see them here,” Suze commented. “You’d think after their narrow escape, they’d be hiding in their rooms.” She shook her head and her ponytail bounced. “It’s a miracle that they weren’t hurt worse than they were.”
    “They must have ducked the first time the hammer hit the car,” Ivy commented, reaching for a napkin. “Or maybe they both fainted, facedown. I know I would have.”
    “Me, too,” Quinn agreed. In her mind’s eye, she saw a yellow-clad figure lifting a large hammer, slamming it down against the car …
    “I’m not hungry,” she announced, standing up. “Just order me something to drink, okay? I’ll be right back.”
    She hurried over to the table in the corner. “I’m glad you guys aren’t lying in hospital beds,” she told Reed and Jake. “We were just talking about how lucky you were. I mean,” she added hastily, “I’m sure it was horrible, but it could have been so much worse.”
    Reed nodded. “We know, Quinn. Of course, Jake here is without wheels now.”
    Quinn couldn’t help noticing that Reed’s hand shook slightly as she lifted her glass.
    Small wonder.
    “Well, at least no one stole your purse from the car,” she said to Reed. “It would have been so easy to just reach in through that broken windshield and yank it right out of there.”
    Reed looked up at Quinn. “My purse?”
    Quinn nodded. “I’m not surprised that you forgot it when the fire fighters helped you out of there. You must have been so glad to get free.”
    “I didn’t forget my purse, Quinn. What are you talking about?”
    Quinn’s eyes moved from Reed’s face to Suze, standing over by the jukebox, flirting outrageously with “Mower” Platte, one of the football players.
    She lied, Quinn thought. She lied.
    Well, her conscience snickered, you were going to lie to her, if you had to. You just didn’t have to, that’s the only difference between the two of you.
    I know why I was going to fib, Quinn thought. Because that raincoat and hat are lying in the back of my closet. But why did Suze lie?
    Quinn made up a flimsy excuse for commenting about Reed’s purse, and returned to the booth, where she announced that she wanted to leave. Headache.
    No one argued.
    When they got back to campus, Quinn went straight to the library, where she staked out a quiet corner and tried to decide what to do. She needed to talk to someone about all of this. Simon? Maybe. She was seeing him later. But she hated to dump all of this on him when they’d just made up. They weren’t that sure of each other yet.
    Ivy? Suze was Ivy’s roommate, and a good friend. Ivy knew Suze was a flirt, but she probably wouldn’t even consider the idea that Suze could be something worse.
    And Tobie had problems of her own. It didn’t seem fair to overload her.
    There didn’t seem to be a whole lot of choice, and Quinn had to talk to someone.
    Sighing, she got up and left the library, walking directly to the student services offices at Butler Hall, the