The Whisperer (Nightmare Hall) (2 page)

She found the exam after a few more moments of frenzied searching. It was dated. Tomorrow’s date. No question about what it was.

There was no answer sheet accompanying the exam. Didn’t matter. With the questions in her possession, she could look up the answers in her textbook.

She didn’t dare steal the test. Pointless. If she walked off with it, there wouldn’t
be
a test. When Dr. Stark discovered the exam was missing, she’d wait until she’d composed a new and different one. And this risky visit to the professor’s office would become a wasted effort.

Copy … she needed a
copy
of the test. But how … ?

A computer and printer were stationed off to her left. The exam had almost certainly been written on the word processor and then printed. The printer was a laser … very fast. But she didn’t know the file name. Without it, she couldn’t call up the exam and print her own copy.

Would a teacher who had a quick, efficient printer also have a copy machine? Probably not. She could simply
print
extra copies directly off the word processor.

The tick-tock of the wall clock hammered in Shea’s ears.

So frightened she felt physically ill, she clutched the exam and glanced around the room. There was a smaller room off to one side, its door standing open. She had glanced inside when she entered the office to make sure no one was in there. But she hadn’t really checked it out.

She hurried over to peek inside a second time.

And there it was, big as life, a copy machine, standing against the wall, already loaded with paper.

Shea glanced back toward the office door again, her eyes wide with apprehension. She was taking a terrible chance. Any second now, Dr. Stark could burst into the office. When she saw Shea with a copy of the exam in her hands, her eyes would narrow and turn icy blue, and she would say in that brittle voice of hers, “Ms. Fallon? What exactly is it that you’re doing in my office and what is that in your hands?”

And my life will be ruined totally and forever, Shea thought, clenching her teeth.

But she couldn’t turn back now. She had the exam in her hands. It was only four pages, and unless the copy machine was a relic from the dark ages, it would only take a few seconds to copy the entire exam.

She
had
to do this. She had to.

The seconds that it took to copy the exam were the longest of Shea’s life. The machine was fast, quiet, and efficient. But while it was copying, her ears strained for the sound of footsteps and her hands trembled so that she could barely lift the finished pages out of the tray.

Then it was done. All four pages, neatly printed, were in her hands. She held them tentatively, as if she expected them to burst into flames at any moment.

Still, not having the answer sheet seemed to make her deed less dastardly. Maybe you weren’t really cheating if you didn’t steal the answers.

A sound from outside in the hall froze her in her tracks. She held her breath.

But no one entered the office.

She turned off the copier and ran back into the outer office, where she hurriedly thrust Dr. Stark’s copy of the exam into the pile of papers on the desk. Then she opened the door carefully, peering out to see if the hallway was clear.

It was.

Sliding the papers inside her blue cardigan, Shea slipped out of the office, closed the door behind her, and hurried down the hall. No running … too obvious. But she walked quickly. Rounded a corner and …

Ran headlong into the tall, dark-haired guy who was now sitting beside her.

She couldn’t remember exactly what she had said or what he had said … she had a vague impression of having mumbled “excuse me” and clutching the front of her cardigan to keep the exam copy hidden. It felt as if it were burning right through the fabric. He had, she thought now, smiled and backed away. If he had said anything, she’d been too frazzled to comprehend it.

Remembering how easily she could have given herself away, Shea shuddered as she swallowed the last of her pizza.

“What?” Coop, sitting beside her, asked. “Somebody just walk over your grave?” He smiled as he said it. He had a lean look about him, no fat anywhere. She wondered if he was an athlete.

No, no one walked over my grave, Shea thought. But maybe I just walked all over my own future.

Too late now. She would have to keep telling herself she’d had no choice. Maybe eventually she’d even believe it.

Coop and Sid went off to play pool in the back room. Dinah went to the ladies’ room, and Shea was about to follow her when one of the waiters called out her name. “Phone!” he added, pointing toward a little alcove off to one side.

Phone? Here? Tandy, maybe?

But when Shea said hello into the wall phone tucked away in the short, dark corridor, it wasn’t Tandy’s voice that greeted her. Tandy’s voice was crisp and clear and confident.

The voice Shea heard saying her name wasn’t crisp
or
clear. It was barely audible.

“Shea Fallon?”
the voice whispered.

“I can’t hear you,” Shea complained.

The whisper deepened, but it was still a whisper.
“Is this Shea Fallon?”

“Yes,” Shea said impatiently, “but can’t you speak up? Who
is
this?”

“You don’t have to worry,”
the whisper breathed.
“No one will know what you’ve done. I’ve seen to that.”

Shea stared at the phone in her hand. “What?”

“I said, don’t worry. It’s all taken care of. I’ll let you know what I expect in return. Count on it.
“

“W
HAT DID YOU SAY?”
Shea asked, her own voice a mere whisper.

Click. The line went dead.

“Hey, you okay?” a waitress passing by asked. “You look like that red hair of yours is about to turn white.”

“I’m okay,” Shea mumbled, turning away to replace the telephone. She was trembling. Someone knew what she’d done that afternoon?

No … no, it couldn’t be. How
could
anyone? No one had seen her going into or coming out of Dr. Stark’s office. Only Cooper Doyle had seen her in the hall and he couldn’t have known where she was coming from. There were so many other offices …

But … what
else
could the telephone call have meant? Stealing the exam was the only thing she’d tried to get away with. It wasn’t like she was a hardened criminal. No long list of illegal activities for her to sort through, trying to find the one uncovered by the caller. There was only this one thing.

How could someone
know?

Her hands were shaking so violently she had to stuff them into the pockets of her navy blue cardigan. Leaving the alcove, she hurried back to the booth and sank down on the seat. She was grateful that none of the others had returned yet. If they saw her like this, they’d know something was up.

And what would you tell them, Shea? she asked herself. You’d have to make something up. See how one crime leads to another?

Lying isn’t a crime, she argued silently. If it were, no one would be left on the streets. Everyone would be in jail.

She took a sip of water in an effort to compose herself. She had to pull herself together before the others returned. Except for her romance with Sid, which Shea didn’t understand, Dinah was very perceptive. It was going to be hard to hide a guilty conscience from her.

Another sip, and Shea felt a little better. Whoever that had been on the phone, they couldn’t possibly know what she’d done. The whispering voice had to be talking about something else. Maybe some girl who had a crush on Cooper Doyle had seen him sitting with her and had flipped out with jealousy.

“Excuse me,” Shea called out to a waiter, “but is there another phone in here? Besides the one in that little alcove, I mean?”

He pointed. “There’s a pay phone up front,” he said. “By the door.” He hurried away.

A pay phone. So someone in
here
could have called her from the telephone in front. Some girl who was jealous, watching her talking to Coop …

Reality check here, an inner voice said with contempt. You know perfectly well that call referred to the stolen exam. You just don’t want to believe someone knows.

“What’s wrong?’ Dinah asked even before she’d slid into the booth.

I knew it, Shea told herself. I knew she’d notice. “Nothing. I’m beat, though. And,” willing herself not to flush guiltily, “I’ve got that bio exam. I’m leaving. You coming?”

“Aren’t you going to wait for the guys?” Dinah grinned. “I think Coop wants to get to know you better. Not that you need another guy in your life. It’s not like your social calendar is empty. You haven’t spent a weekend night in your room since you got here. But I think Coop has potential.”

Just then Coop and Sid emerged from the back room. Shea didn’t like Sid. She’d never figured out what Dinah saw in him. They’d been together since high school, so maybe Sid was just a hard habit for Dinah to break. He wasn’t bad-looking, but he was cynical and sarcastic, often openly critical of Dinah in front of others. Shea hated that. She didn’t understand it. Dinah deserved better.

Go figure, she thought as Sid put a careless arm around Dinah’s shoulders. He was far too proprietary for Shea’s tastes, resenting it whenever Dinah wanted to do something with her friends. Dinah didn’t seem to mind as much as Shea did.

“Any reason why we can’t all walk back to campus together?” Coop asked lightly, his eyes on Shea.

Not if you don’t mind walking with a cheat, she thought. If he only knew. … Not one of the three of them would believe it if she told them. Not Miss Self-Righteous, who gets so indignant about little injustices, like when Dinah got a speeding ticket from the campus police for going only five miles over the speed limit, or when Tandy had to pay an extra fee because someone in the bursar’s office lost a check she’d given them.

There I was, Shea thought miserably, yelling and hollering, “That’s not right! That’s just not right! It’s the principle of the thing!”

She was a fine one to judge what was right and what wasn’t.

Tired of being disgusted with herself, she forced a smile and nodded at Coop. “No reason at all,” she said casually. “We’re all going in the same direction, right?” He seemed nice enough and she liked the way his eyes smiled even before his mouth did. Besides, she told herself as they left Vinnie’s, even condemned prisoners get a last meal. Maybe I’m entitled to a last fling with a cute guy. Before my life turns to ashes.

It was odd, walking up the road toward campus with someone who talked casually and easily about college life, as if everything were perfectly normal. As, of course, it was … to
him. He
was on his way back to his dorm to study for the bio exam. But she was going back to study a copy of an exam she had
stolen.

Trying desperately to have a good time, Shea forced from her mind the grim thought that nothing was normal for her now. Maybe it never would be again.

The telephone whisper slithered through her mind.
“It’s all taken care of.”

What did that
mean?

Wishing her luck on the test, Coop left her at the door to Devereaux Hall. He lived in the Sigma Chi house, and he and Sid turned in that direction.

“He’s nice,” Dinah commented as they prepared to part at the door to Dinah’s room, five doors down the fourth-floor hall from Shea’s.

Caught off guard Shea said, “Who?”

Dinah laughed as she opened the door. “Boy, that exam really has you tied up in knots! I meant Coop. Don’t you think he’s nice?”

Yeah, she did. So what? Romance wasn’t on her agenda just now. “Yeah, I guess so. He seems okay.”

Dinah laughed. “Just okay? Tandy wanted him for herself, couldn’t you tell? She’d be pretty ticked off if she heard you playing it so cool about him.” As she went inside, she said, “Good luck tomorrow in Stark’s class. I’ll keep my fingers crossed.”

“Thanks.” As the door closed, Shea felt a pang of envy. Dinah didn’t have to worry about the exam. Which was why she wouldn’t understand Shea’s desperation.

If Tandy had been in their room on Devereaux’s fourth floor, Shea would have been forced to go to the library to study, afraid that Tandy would catch a glimpse of the exam copy. But Tandy was out. Maybe at Nightingale Hall again, the off-campus dorm where one Of Tandy’s best friends and swim teammate, Linda Carlyle, lived. Tandy sometimes stayed overnight with Linda, especially if they had an early-morning practice or were going on the road to a meet.

Shea shivered. She didn’t understand how Tandy could sleep in that place. Nicknamed Nightmare Hall because of its gloomy appearance and rumors of strange things happening there, it was a huge, tired old house sitting high up on a hill off the highway, surrounded by deep, dark woods, its wide front porch tilted slightly. The shade of giant oak trees turned its worn red brick almost black. Shea had never had any trouble believing the stories about Nightmare Hall. From the outside, at least, it looked like something out of a horror movie.

Tandy shrugged away the stories. “I like it up there. It’s fun.”

Fun? Maybe. If you had a thing for bats and spiders and the wind howling through cracks in the walls. The Addams Family would be right at home there.

Tandy didn’t come back that night. She called to say she was staying over with Linda, which left Shea free to openly study the copy of the exam. Just to be on the safe side, she locked the door.

She studied all night long. By morning, aided by the exam copy and her textbook, she thought she had soaked up enough information to pull at least a B on the bio exam.
If
she could stay awake in class after being up all night.

But before she left for class, she used scissors to dice the exam copy into microscopic pieces and flushed them down the toilet.