The Silent Scream (Nightmare Hall) by Diane Hoh

Author:Diane Hoh [Hoh, Diane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781480421653
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2013-08-27T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

IN CATH’S ROOM, TRUCKER was still checking the window frame.

“I’m telling you,” Cath was saying in a low, intense voice, “I couldn’t open it!”

Already convinced that Cath hadn’t been traveling back and forth via the fire escape, Jess focused on the awful truth: someone had trespassed in both Cath’s room and Linda’s. That was scary.

The doors to their rooms all had locks, but because only six students were living in the house, they’d never felt the need to use the locks. Until now.

“Trucker, do you know if the keys to our rooms are still around somewhere?” Jess asked.

He shook his head. “Not likely. Probably haven’t been used in years. But I can look around.”

“Well, if you don’t find them,” Cath said, “get us new locks, okay? I’m not staying in this room any longer without a lock on the door.”

Trucker looked doubtful. “New locks? That’d be expensive. I’d have to check with Mrs. Coates.”

Cath looked crestfallen. “I wish you would all just leave,” she said in a defeated voice. “I didn’t climb out any window, I was never on the fire escape, and I didn’t touch Linda’s bathing suit.” Her voice began to quaver. “And I think it’s really rotten that you would think I’d do those things.”

“I don’t,” Jess said. “I don’t think that, Cath.”

“And I didn’t take your essay, either,” Milo said. “It’s no fun being unfairly accused, is it?” He turned and left the room.

Jess was lost in thought as she returned to her own room.

Jon was on the phone in the hall, his chair tilted back against the wall, a grin on his face.

Talking to a girl, of course, Jess thought, realizing that Jon probably knew nothing about the bathing suit episode. He must have just arrived home and had gone, naturally, straight to the telephone.

“Look,” he said into the phone as Jess passed, “what can I say? Blue-eyed blondes make me weak in the knees. Pick you up at seven tomorrow night, okay?”

Jess rolled her eyes heavenward and went on into her room. Cath wasn’t blonde and blue-eyed, and Jon flirted with her constantly. He should have said, “Females make me weak in the knees.” That would be closer to the truth.

She had begun keeping a sweater on the inside doorknob of her room, automatically shrugging into its warmth every time she entered. That done, she went to her desk and stood looking out the window into darkness. The fire escape was out there, winding its way up from the ground. Could someone be using it to get into their rooms?

Who would do that?

And why? To steal an essay, shred a bathing suit? That made no sense. If those things had happened to only one person, say, to Cath, it would look like someone was angry with her and acting out that anger. But both girls’ belongings had been vandalized.

And maybe the person who had committed those acts of vandalism wasn’t finished. If he could get into Cath’s and Linda’s rooms, he could get into anyone’s.

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