The girl wouldn't say anything. She twisted under Jenny's hands, and Jenny felt the small bones in her shoulders. Finally, almost spitting it in Jenny's face, she said, "P.C. was my friend. He never did anything to that girl. You and your friends did something, something so bad that you had to hide her body and tell those lies. But you just wait. I can prove P.C. didn't hurt her. I can prove it."
Despite the warm day, hairs rose on Jenny's arms. Her little fingers tingled.
"What do you mean?"
Something in her face must have scared the girl. "Never mind."
"No, you tell me. How could you prove it? Did you-"
"Let go of me!"
I'm being rough, Jenny realized. I'm never rough. But she couldn't seem to stop. Chills were sweeping over her, and she wanted to shake the information out of the girl.
"Did you see him or something?" she demanded. "Did he come home the next morning alone? Did you see what he did with the paper hou-"
Pain exploded against her shinbone. The girl had kicked her. Jenny lost her grip, and the girl wrenched away, running to the bathroom door.
"Wait! You don't understand-"
The girl jerked the door open and darted out. Jenny hopped after her, but by the time she looked up and down the second-story walkway, the girl was gone. There were only a few bits of twisted Kleenex on the concrete floor.
Jenny hobbled over to the nearest locker bay and looked into it. Nothing but students and lockers. Then she limped back and looked over the railing of the open walkway to the main courtyard. Nothing but students with lunches.
Young. The girl had been young, probably a ninth grader. Maybe she'd come from Magnolia Junior High. It was within walking distance.
Whoever she was, Jenny had to find her. Whoever she was, she'd seen something. She might know...
I left my purse in the bathroom, Jenny realized. She retrieved it and slowly walked back out.
The pay phone beside the bathroom was ringing. Jenny glanced around-two teachers were locking up a classroom, students were streaming down the stairs on each end of the building. Nobody seemed to be waiting for a call, nobody even seemed to notice the ringing.
Jenny lifted the receiver. "Hello," she said, feeling foolish.
She heard an electronic hiss, white noise. Then there was a click, and in the static she seemed to hear a low whispering in a male voice. It was distorted, drawn out, and there was something weird about the way the syllables were stressed. It sounded like one word whispered over and over.
A as in amble. Then a dragging, hissing sigh: ish. A... ish...
Gibberish.
"Hello?"
Shhshhshhshhshhshhshh. Click. In the background she heard something that might have been speech, a
sharp, staccato burst. Again, the rhythm was weird. It sounded like some very foreign language.
Bad connection, Jenny thought. She hung up.
Her little fingers were tingling again. But she didn't have time to think about it now. That girl had to be found.
I'd better get the others, Jenny thought.
She looked in on Tom's business law class first, but he wasn't there. She headed downstairs. Then she began to forge her way across campus, weaving around fellow students who were staking out their favorite benches. She could hear paper bags rustling and smell other peoples' lunches.
Jenny's group hadn't been eating together these last two weeks-it caused too much talk. But today they had no choice.
Audrey next, Jenny thought. She passed the amphitheater with its blistered wooden benches and looked into one of the home ec rooms. Audrey was taking interior decorating, and-of course-acing it.
Jenny just stood in the doorway until Audrey, who was lingering with the teacher, looked up and caught her eye. Audrey shut her folder, dropped it in her backpack, and came.