Chapter 15

As tired as she was, she knew she couldn’t sleep now. She collapsed on her bed and slowly dialed the number on the card Officer Mooney had given her. The dispatcher transferred her quickly to Mooney’s car. He promised to come right to the Quad.

She hurried to Gina’s room. She didn’t want to talk to the police alone. Pounding on Gina’s door as softly as possible so she wouldn’t wake the whole wing, she whispered loudly.

“Gina, are you asleep yet? I need your help.”

Gina, in a robe, rubbing her eyes, clicked the lock, pulled her door open a crack. “Abby? I thought you were going straight to bed.”

“So did I. But I found something that woke me up. Listen, Officer Mooney is coming over here and I wish you’d be with me when I talk to him.”

Gina stopped yawning and her eyes widened. “The police? Come in, Abby, quietly. My poor roommate thinks I never sleep. And wishes by now that I’d move out. I’ll get dressed.”

Gina pulled on the clothes she’d tossed on a chair by her bed. She pulled a brush through her short, pixy hair, then pushed Abby back out the door.

“What happened?” she asked as they hurried downstairs to let Officer Mooney into the dorm.

“I — I think I’ve found out who the monster is. I think it’s Carrie.”

“Carrie Milholland? Your roommate? She’s barely five feet tall. How could she attack those guys?”

Officer Mooney and his partner were waiting in the lobby when Abby and Gina got downstairs.

Abby was so tired she felt a bit dizzy. But she knew this was important.

The two policemen followed the girls upstairs to Abby’s room where Abby handed them the ball of fur.

“You found this on Carrie Milholland’s bed?” Mooney asked. He smelled it and rolled it around between his fingers.

“Yes, when I came home from the hospital.”

“Isn’t this the same girl we talked to the other day?” Officer Rodgers asked Mooney.

“Yes, she has some … problems.” Mooney didn’t say what they were. Abby knew he couldn’t tell, but she wished she could ask.

“She’s hardly ever here at night,” Abby added. “And the other day she said she’d done something awful, but she didn’t tell me what it was.” She gave Office Mooney a chance to share if he knew.

“Hummmm.” Mooney nodded. “Abby, did it occur to you that someone might have put this fur here? While you were at the hospital.”

Abby’s mind was fuzzy. She thought that over. “Someone is trying to scare me?”

“You don’t really believe this is some kind of a monster, do you?” Rodgers grinned slightly.

“Well —” Abby looked at Gina who shrugged as if to say, what did you expect from the police? “You think it’s someone dressing up like this and attacking people? Who would do that?”

“If we knew, then we’d talk to him. Arrest him. Think that over, Abby. Make a list of people you could suspect of doing something like this. Maybe it was a prank that got out of hand. But stop thinking it’s something supernatural. That’s for the comics and the movies.” Mooney’s grin was sympathetic, but Abby could see he thought her imagination had run away with her.

“And get some sleep,” Mooney continued. “I’ll take this fur to the lab and have them run some tests.”

“We’ve found fur before,” Gina thought to say. “One of the guys has it, I think. It was just like this.”

Rodgers laughed outright. “The monster’s costume must be getting threadbare by now.” He followed Mooney down the hall.

“They think we’re nuts, Abby. They were just being nice about not saying it.” Gina sat on Carrie’s bed. “You afraid to sleep here by yourself? I can sleep on Carrie’s bed.”

“Would you, Gina?” Abby said. “Maybe I could feel safe then.”

“Yeah, I’ll protect you.” Gina laughed. She wasn’t much bigger than Carrie. Abby always felt gigantic around her, even though she wasn’t much over average height.

Before Abby dozed off, she said, “We’ll find Carrie later, Gina. We’ll follow her and find out where she’s going at night.”

The next morning Abby cut her nine o’clock class and hurried to the hospital. David was sipping orange juice through a straw, sitting up in bed. He must feel stronger, Abby realized.

She perched on the edge of the crisp white bed sheets and squeezed his hand. “How long will you have to stay here?”

“They want to make sure no infection sets in. They think an animal attacked me, and animal claws have tons of germs. I might have to start rabies shots today.”

“Did you see what attacked you, David? The police think your attacker might have been someone dressed like a monster.”

“I couldn’t see very well. It was dark and foggy, and I was busy trying to get away from it. If this is a person, he’s sure strong.”

There was a moment of silence between them. A moment where Abby could feel David’s fear. His fingers traced her hand, then took a strong hold.

“I’m going to have a lot of scars, Abby.”

“You’ll still be handsome.” Abby tried to be reassuring, but David looked doubtful. She wanted to stay with him, to cheer him up, because he seemed so shaken by the attack. But she couldn’t miss her next class.

“I’ll come back.” She told David when she got up to go. “We all will. You can have other visitors this afternoon. I asked.” She rushed out and down the hall, and caught the shuttle back to campus to get to Griswold by ten.

Jerry rushed over to her as she came into the classroom. “How’s David?”

“Go see him this afternoon, Jerry. He needs your sense of humor. I think he’s lost his. He’s really down today.”

Abby dumped her books at her table and hurried over to the lab half of the room. Stan Hurley stopped her.

“You went to the hospital? How’s David?”

Abby stared at Stan. His hair stuck up wildly on one side as if he’d slept on it funny. She had a strange urge to touch those kinky curls. Would they be coarse? Abby hadn’t crossed Stan off her list of suspects. It seemed much more like something he’d do. And she could see that he was strong enough.

“Do you really care, Stan?” Abby snapped. She whirled around and gripped the counter by her station. Pulling out the drawer with her name on it, she set out test tubes, rubber tubing, tongs. She didn’t even know what the assignment was for today, but she needed to keep busy until Stan walked away.

She felt his eyes burn into her, but she kept her own averted.

The experiment was easy. She finished it in a few minutes, entering the results and her notes into her lab notebook. Then she took the rest of the period to mess with her extra-credit work.

When she finally looked around the room, Stan had his back to her, engrossed in his own work. She breathed a little more smoothly, but she felt dead tired. She could lie down on the floor right now and sleep for days.

“Jerry, where’s Gina?” She had finally realized Gina wasn’t in class.

“She’s got the stomach flu.” Jerry moved over beside Abby. “Said to tell you the plans you made last night are out for her. To wait until tomorrow.”

Abby looked at Jerry. “She really just slept in, didn’t she? I know I wanted to.”

“No, I stopped to get her, and she pushed past me and ran to the bathroom.”

Our plans can’t wait until tomorrow, thought Abby. I don’t know how I’ll find Carrie, but when I do, I’m going to keep an eye on her by myself.

Abby had to work in the Quad Caf for the dinner shift. She was glad, since she realized she missed David being with them. He didn’t always talk a lot, but she was used to his being around. Jerry waved at her as he entered the cafeteria, then took a seat next to Lenny. Every time she looked at them they were waving their arms and talking nonstop. She was sure that horror movies was the topic of conversation. Jerry had met his soulmate.

Sissy never came through the line. Abby would bet her share of the gooey enchiladas she kept dipping up that Sissy had gone to the hospital. Maybe that would cheer David up. He was the lowest that Abby had ever seen him.

“I’ll walk you to the library,” said a voice that came from the gathering shadows. It was Martin Beecher, and it seemed he had been waiting for Abby to finish work. “How is David?”

“He’ll be all right,” Abby said, falling in step beside Martin. She was glad for his company.

Martin smiled at her, and she noticed how attractive he was with his unique combination of dark red hair and bright blue eyes. “Maybe we can take a break, get something to eat, after we hit the books for a while,” he suggested.

“I — I’m not sure.” Abby didn’t want to be tied down if she saw Carrie. “I’m really tired. We spent most of last night talking to the police.”

“I hadn’t thought of that. Of course you did. I’ll just walk you home later. I hate for you to walk back to the Quad alone after dark, what with everything that’s been going on.”

“Thanks for worrying.” Abby smiled. She didn’t want him to give up on her.

After looking up some books, she headed straight for the stacks. She was in luck. Staring at a shelf of American history books, she heard whispered arguing. She sneaked to the end of the floor-to-ceiling shelf of books. There in the next aisle was Carrie with her boyfriend, Quinton Brooks. Abby knew him only by sight and from the few remarks Carrie had made about him. But he looked angry.

Carrie whirled around and started in Abby’s direction. Abby ducked back and watched her storm past. Quinton followed her, then stopped and stared, his face as dark as tornado clouds.

Abby didn’t hesitate. Martin wasn’t at the table, but she’d explain later where she’d gone. Grabbing her books, she jammed them into her tote.

Out on the library steps, she glanced in every direction. Carrie was practically running, but Abby spotted her disappearing into the shadows towards Varsity Pond.

Running lightly, Abby followed. She planned to stick tight to Carrie Milholland. She was going to find out where her roommate disappeared to every night.