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  “The way he looked at me was so strange. And his backpack looked empty. It spooked me.”

  “That’s understandable, all things considered.” He put his hand on my arm.

  “Yeah, well get this,” I said, trying to ignore my fluttering heart. “That same guy just walked by the café and was looking through the glass door—like he was looking for something or someone. You guys were over here, and I ducked under the table.” I finally grabbed a handful of napkins.

  “No way,” Rick insisted, his eyes darting to the door. “Your mind is just playing tricks on you.”

  “No,” I said, mopping my forehead and deciding to hold nothing back. “It was him. I’ll never forget those eyes and I never forget a face. I wanted to get us out of there without freaking Marybeth out anymore than she already is. I just said there was a fountain to the north of where we were, but I didn’t know if there really was one or not. I needed to see if he would follow us. I’m telling you, he’s looking for us right now. He was heading in the direction of the hotel.”

  “You’re serious aren’t you? If this “Iceman” really is following us, we are in some deep—”

  “I know,” I interrupted, not wanting to hear a swear word, but liking the way Rick nicknamed the guy following us, Iceman. “How do we get out of here and back to the hotel within ten minutes without him seeing us or freaking out the girls?”

  People started reaching around me for napkins so I moved over to the drink line with Rick. He looked around the café.

  “There aren’t any other exits are there?” he asked, looking at the door we had come in.

  “Not that I can see.”

  “Hold on a minute.” He handed me my cup right as he got to the front of the line, and I filled it while he walked back to the cashier.

  I peeked around the divider and saw Rick talking to the cashier. She nodded and pointed at some doors behind her.

  “Thank you so much. You’re saving me a lot of aggravation.” I heard Rick say. Then he motioned for Kira and Marybeth to come to us.

  I felt Kira’s eyes burn me, like hot flames shooting out at me, but she stood and grabbed Marybeth, leading her to us.

  “Guys, we’ve got less than ten minutes to get back,” Rick said. “Just in case there’s still a tail on us, we’re going out the back.”

  Kira’s eyes were again sparkling as she grabbed his arm, letting go of Marybeth. “Great idea, Rick.”

  Fickle girl.

  I hated that about girls. I grabbed Marybeth, and we all went through the door to the kitchen and then out the back.

  “What did you say to the cashier to let us go out this way?” I asked, once in the alley.

  “I told her that my ex-girlfriend was waiting for us outside and that it would be to her advantage if we could go out some other way to avoid the inevitable fight that would happen if we went out the front doors.”

  “Good one,” I said. How had he thought of that?

  Give me a debate or an essay and I’ll knock it out of the park, but when it comes to real life and common sense, brilliance abandons me. And nowhere was the difference in smarts more apparent than here in D.C. with the murder. I just couldn’t find my way through it—I felt totally vulnerable.

  I tried not to let anyone see how badly I was shaking. Iceman had really freaked me out.

  The back alleyway of the store was just like ones you see in the movies: a long, dark, skinny walkway lined with stinky garbage bags and empty boxes, as well as clothes hanging from lines overhead.

  We headed in the direction of our hotel, and I kept repeating in my mind, we won’t get caught, we won’t get caught. We walked only a short distance before we came upon a brick wall that forced us to go right, down another alleyway, which led to the bright light of the busy sidewalk—the one we were trying to avoid. We all stopped and stared. Rick took a deep breath and so did I. I was scared to death and was so tense, I could feel the pressure in my ears.

  “I’ve got an idea,” I said. Where I got it, I didn’t know. Was this common sense? “Let’s change our appearance as much as we can. You know, to throw them off. If they’re there, I mean.” I flashed a knowing look at Rick.

  “Sounds good to me,” he said, giving me a half-smile.

  I pulled my hair into a pony. Kira pulled up only the front of her hair.

  “I’ll braid Marybeth’s hair,” I said. I knew she wouldn’t change a thing herself and braiding I could do. She was acting like a zombie. It seemed to take forever to braid her long hair. When I was done, I saw that Rick had turned his T-shirt inside out. We all looked each other up and down, and Kira started to giggle. We’d hardly changed at all. The tension was so high, that I giggled too. It surprised me that I could laugh. Even Rick gave a dry laugh.

  “I really don’t think there’s any way we’ll be recognized. We don’t look like ourselves at all now.” Kira’s sarcasm was desperately needed to lighten the mood. Could such simple changes really stop them from noticing us? I had to believe they could or that Iceman was long gone. At the moment, I felt like I really could walk out on that sidewalk and not fall apart. I would pretend I was walking onto a stage to debate.

  Rick and Kira went first. We waited about two minutes, and then I grabbed Marybeth and we headed out into the crowd. When I hit the sidewalk, it felt like my heart was being squeezed. This was no debate, I thought. I couldn’t even look up. My heart pounded erratically as I held onto Marybeth’s arm and steadily pulled her through the mass of people. I had no idea if Iceman was anywhere around because I didn’t look anywhere but at my own two feet. I didn’t know what I’d have done if I had seen him anyway.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw our hotel, and we scrambled up the steps as quickly as we could. Just inside the hotel lobby doors, I let out a long breath—I think I’d been holding the whole way—and glanced around to see if Mrs. J. was anywhere. It looked like all fifty in our group, including the kids from our mini-group, were already in the buffet area eating. I looked out the glass doors of the hotel wanting to celebrate making it to the hotel without being seen, but my heart sank instead.

  Icy blue eyes stared up at me from the sidewalk. In a flash, Iceman disappeared into the crowds of people.

  “Hurry up girls,” Mrs. J. said, walking into the buffet area.

  I pulled Marybeth through the buffet room door to listen to Mrs. J., my mind reeling. I had to tell the others.

  “We have a full day,” she continued speaking, now to everyone. “Today we’ll be touring Arlington National Cemetery and the Pentagon. You’ll need a jacket and some good walking shoes. The bus leaves in ten minutes.”

  Marybeth and I hurried and sat down next to Kira and Rick.

  “We thought you guys weren’t ever going to show up,” Summer said. “We’ve already been here for thirty minutes.” She looked perfect, of course. She must have passed on breakfast and gone to her room to get ready.

  “We didn’t think we’d ever get here, either,” Kira said. “You’ll never believe …”

  “Hey guys, can we hold off on the stories until we’re on the bus?” Rick interrupted, his voice serious. Rick’s eyes darted around the room, finally resting on mine. It was the first time Rick looked really nervous since leaving the hotel to head for Georgetown. How would he feel when he found out Iceman had been just outside?

  CHAPTER FOUR

  We all crowded into the back four rows of the bus so we could hear each other talk. Kira made sure I didn’t get anywhere near Rick. She told “our” story about how we’d attempted to change our appearance in the alley of the café. She wanted me to look as foolish as possible for thinking we needed to. (If only she knew.) Rick nudged Alex and I felt the inevitable tingles he always gave me.

  Why did he have to be so beautiful? I know people use the word beautiful to describe girls, but Alex McGinnis truly was beautiful. I’d look into his intense brown eyes and be overwhelmed. He smiled easily, showing a perfect set of teeth. His deep brown hair had just
the right amount of curl and his tall, tan, muscular body made me forget what I was doing. Charisma emanated from his every pore, drawing, not only me, but everyone in. He had this contagious spark of life that lit up a room as he entered. I wanted to be a part of that life.

  “Hey, come over here a minute,” Rick said to Alex, pointing to an empty row in front of us.

  “Sure, whatever,” Alex said, squeezing past Kira and down the aisle.

  My face flushed as he passed me. I loved to watch him talk, there was something so soothing about his voice. I thought about him having the presence of mind to take pictures of the murder. He had a cool head in scary situations. Hadn’t it affected him at all seeing that blood? I had had to really concentrate to even pretend to be calm.

  Rick gave me a smile and a nod before he left. I was sure he was filling Alex in on our “visitor” at Georgetown University and the café—and telling him the whole story—the story only the three of us would now know.

  I watched them, trying to see Alex’s reaction, but they were bent down low in the seat. I sort of listened to Kira and nodded or said ‘yeah’ when needed. Alex did raise his head and look my way several times, eyes wide. The butterflies in my stomach went wild. I wished I was a part of their conversation, but I knew that if I were up there too, it would attract too much attention, and others would want to know what was going on. Especially Kira.

  After what seemed a long time, Alex, with his head hanging, slightly shaking side to side, took his seat with the group again, and Rick did the same. Summer had just finished her story about their uneventful taxi ride to the Mall and what the four of them had seen there.

  I felt Alex staring at me and worked hard not to look at him. I had a hard time standing still. He’d never really looked at me before.

  “I’m sure we’re in the clear now. No one could’ve tracked us back to the hotel,” Josh said.

  Summer nodded in agreement. “I’m sure we had nothing to worry about from the start.”

  “We can’t think like that,” Alex said, looking away from me and giving Rick a knowing glance. “No offense, but you didn’t see what we saw, Summer. These are really bad guys. We have to assume they could figure out who we are and are wondering if we saw anything we shouldn’t have. The good news is that they must think we didn’t see anything—otherwise, we most likely wouldn’t be alive.”

  Someone took a sharp intake of air.

  If only they knew.

  “We need to act as normal as possible and never discuss it outside of this bus. It’s too loud in here for anyone to hear anything even if they tried to listen. We won’t give them any reason to suspect we saw what we did. Are we all in agreement?”

  I got goose bumps all over.

  People nodded. My body went cold. I didn’t know if I could commit to it. Maybe I needed to tell. Maybe for the dead man’s sake? Or maybe just out of common decency? I felt guilt coming over me even though I was sure I hadn’t done anything wrong.

  “Guys, we can’t make that promise,” Eugene said. “We’ve got to go to the authorities. We witnessed a crime and we have to report it. It’s the law.” Leave it to Eugene to lay down the law. He pressed his glasses hard against his nose as everyone stared at him.

  I let out a deep breath of relief—glad I hadn’t been the one who spoke up first.

  At home, I would have been eager to debate whether to tell or not to tell, but here, I didn’t want anyone to know I was “smart” or really cared. It had become apparent to me that there were many reasons to use your smarts, but making friends was not one of them.

  All my smarts at home had given me was a miserable social existence. It hadn’t bothered me to be alone with my books, projects and research until social dance class (way out of my comfort zone, by the way) had started second semester. There had been nothing more rewarding to me than perfect scores and winning competitions, but school had gotten old and frankly, easy. Social dance was my way to break free of the monotony.

  The first day of class, everyone but three of us had partners. The other two without partners were boys. Instead of choosing me, a girl, the two guys decided to be partners, and I was alone. Everyone had laughed. The sting of that moment still burned when I thought of it. From that moment on, I had seen, really seen, every rejection, every mean comment, every mean action—I truly was a social outcast. Why hadn’t I seen that teachers and adults were my only friends before that day?

  I was determined, however, to change people’s perceptions of me. I watched the cool kids and tried to do as they did and say the things they said. Nothing changed. If anything, I was mocked even more for trying to be someone “I wasn’t”. For the first time in my life, depressed and alone, I tried to soften the blow by telling myself that I couldn’t just decide to be someone different one day and expect everyone around me to forget what I’d said, done and been the last fifteen years and accept the new me immediately. It occurred to me that it must not be in our nature to do so—especially in a small town. I didn’t want to believe that it was impossible to escape, though, and this trip gave me hope. I had friends here. I could change things.

  To my surprise, no one immediately objected to Eugene. In fact, silence hung in the air for several minutes. Heads bowed, fingers fidgeted, and the sound of bodies shifting on vinyl seats grew louder.

  I had to assume everyone felt what I felt, and I couldn’t stop myself from blurting out, “I agree.” Everyone’s eyes turned to me. I was the one shifting in my seat now, the vinyl protesting loudly. Besides, if they knew, really knew we were being followed, they’d want the police involved, too.

  “I didn’t see anything,” Summer said. “And Josh only peeked for a second. We don’t need to report anything. Right, Josh?”

  “Right,” he said. His face had returned to the sickly white it held in the hotel bathroom after he had looked down on the bloody scene.

  “We were all there,” Eugene said. “We all need to go in. I mean, some guy is dead. Let the authorities decide what to do after that.”

  I could feel the tension in the group pressing down on me, and I wondered how I would make it through this, too. The fact that we were being followed was pressure enough.

  “Who would we tell?” Josh raved. “The police? Ha! They’d never believe us. We have no proof. That body is long gone, and if I’m not mistaken, burning someone at a high enough temperature leaves no evidence behind.”

  “We have pictures,” Eugene said, looking hopefully at Alex.

  “You mean the ones on my toilet phone?” Alex asked. His stare could have sliced Eugene in half. Eugene appeared not to notice.

  “Maybe someone with a high-tech machine can still get something off your phone. You know, like they do on CSI?” Summer suggested.

  “That’s a stupid TV show,” Alex retorted. “It’s all fake.”

  “We wouldn’t go to the police anyway,” Eugene pointed out. “It’s the FBI we need.”

  “FBI?” Josh said. “Crap! Crap! Just leave me out of it. Please!”

  I wondered if Josh had something to hide or if he was just too afraid.

  “How do we even find an FBI office?” Rick asked.

  “Every state has field offices,” Eugene said. “But the big kahuna FBI building is not far from our hotel.”

  My body stiffened.

  “Don’t you think they could be watching for us at the FBI building?” Alex asked. “We could be walking right into their hands and proving we saw something. Let’s just forget we saw anything.”

  Again, I couldn’t stop myself. “What about Jonathan?”

  “Jonathan?” Rick asked, frowning.

  “You know,” Eugene said, “the guy who lost his head in the ballroom.” The way he said it was so glib that everyone squinted and wrinkled their foreheads at him.

  “Sick!” Summer said.

  “How do you know his name?” Rick asked me, his tone softer now.

  “The white guy whose head didn’t get chopped off,” Eugene
answered before I could, “called out his name several times while looking at him. ‘No Jonathan, no.’ He said it several times.”

  Just the facts to Eugene.

  “Ughh!”

  “Look guys,” I said. “I know it seems crazy to tell, but I just can’t let it go. Maybe the Feds can catch these guys.” I couldn’t stop myself from talking. “They said something about a bill passing Congress or the Senate or something and Marybeth said the guy in that ballroom, who’s still alive, is her state senator. Maybe we can find out which bill it is they’re trying to get passed and stop it. It must really be important to those creeps, and that can’t be good. It’ll probably cause something terrible to happen to this country. I couldn’t live with myself if that happened. Look at Marybeth. She needs some serious help. I could go on my own, but at least Marybeth needs to go with me.”

  Everyone looked at the back of Marybeth’s head. She hadn’t moved. Despite the roar of the bus, a silence fell over us that seemed to last an eternity.

  “We really should tell someone what we saw,” Rick said, quickly becoming my hero in all this. “Wouldn’t you want to know if your son or brother or friend was murdered? It would be awful to be left to wonder forever what happened to him. Christy’s right. We owe it to the people in Jonathan’s life, as well as to our own country.” Then he leaned into me and whispered, “Besides, they don’t know about Iceman.” He raised his eyebrows and then turned to listen to Alex. I wanted to tell him I saw Iceman again, but I let the chance pass.

  “This is why I hate politics and politicians,” Alex said, adding a few colorful swear words. “Things like this happen all the time in politics. Behind those trustworthy looking faces are lies, death, hatred and more lies. We should tell someone just so that we can blow the lid off this thing, whatever it is. They’ll be exposed and maybe we’ll have made a tiny difference in politics in America. This trip might turn into something of value after all.”

  He paused for a moment. “The real question is, how do we tell and not get caught by the bad guys?”