"Smith, L J - Forbidden Game 2 - The Chase" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith Lisa J)

The girl had dark hair and dark eyes reddened with crying. She looked poised for flight out of the bathroom.
"I'm sorry?"
"I said, they didn't do it. Slug and P.C. They didn't kill your friend Summer."
Oh. Jenny found herself gripping the brush hard, unable to even turn her head. She could only look at the girl's eyes reflected in the mirror, but she understood now. "I never said they did," she said softly and carefully. "I just told the police that they were around that night. And that they stole something from my living room. A paper house. A game."
"I hate you."
Shocked, Jenny turned.
"You and your preppy friends-you did it. You killed her yourselves. And someday everybody will know and you'll pay and you'll be sorry." The girl was twisting a Kleenex between slim olive-tan fingers, tearing it into little bits. Her long hair was absolutely straight except for the slight undersweep of the ends, and her dark eyes were pensive. She didn't belong at Vista Grande High; Jenny had never seen her before.
Jenny put the brush down and went to her, facing her directly. The girl looked taken aback.
"Why were you crying?" Jenny said gently.
"Why should you care? You're a soshe. You wear your fancy clothes to school and hang out with your rich friends-"
"Who's rich? What have my clothes got to do with it?" Jenny could feel her eyebrows come together. She looked pointedly at the girl's fashionably tattered designer jeans.
The girl spoke sullenly. "You're a soshe . .."
Jenny grabbed her.
"I am not a soshe," she said fiercely. "I am a human being. So are you. So what is your problem?"
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.
2
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.
"What is it?"
"We've got to get everybody," Jenny said. "Do you have your lunch?"
"Yes." Audrey didn't ask why they had to get everybody. She just shook spiky copper bangs out of her eyes with an expert toss of her head and pressed her cherry-glossed lips together.
They cut across the center of campus toward the girls' gym. The sun shone on Jenny's head, sending a little trickle of dampness down the back of her neck. Too hot for May, even in California. So why did she feel so cold inside?
She and Audrey peered into the girls' locker room. Dee wasn't even dressed yet, snapping towels and snickering with a couple of girls on the swim team. She was naked and completely unself-conscious, beautiful and lithe and supple as a jet-black panther. When she saw Jenny and Audrey looking at her significantly, she hiked an eyebrow at them, then nodded. She reached for a garnet-colored T-shirt and joined them a minute later.