Fear Street 5 - The Fire Game (9 page)

"We were there," said Nick, "but we didn't set any fire."

"What were you doing there?" asked Jill. Even though she had known Nick was lying before, for some reason she believed him when he said he hadn't set the fire.

"This is going to sound crazy," said Nick. "And if the police ever find us, they'll never believe us!"

"Calm down," Jill said. "What were you doing there?"

"Just before you were supposed to come over and study," Nick said,

"someone knocked on the front door. When I opened it, no one was there.

Instead there was a note. It was addressed to me, and it said to come to the house on Fear Street for some real action."

"Who was it from?"

"It wasn't signed," said Nick. "And then about five minutes later, Max came over. Someone had left the exact same note at his house. We both thought it was so weird we decided to check it out right away."

"You should have waited for me," said Jill.

"Then you'd be in trouble too," said Nick gloomily. "To be honest, the note was so strange I forgot all about our study date." He sighed. "This is terrible. I don't know what to do."

"Don't do anything yet," said Jill. "I'm going to talk to the others.

Maybe we can get together and figure out what is going on."

"I hope so," said Nick. "Are you sure you heard the TV story right?"

"I'm sure," said Jill. "Talk to you later."

After putting down the receiver, she sat very still for several minutes.

If Nick was telling the truth, and she thought he was, then someone else had set the fire.

The only one it could be was Gabe.

He must be completely out of control now, Jill thought. She should have realized that he would do something drastic after his father's car was set on fire.

She remembered how he vowed to get revenge on the person who had set the car fire. How twisted and angry his face was. It had to be him.

Yet, a part of her didn't want to believe it. Didn't want to believe that Gabe was vengeful. Didn't want to believe he was a murderer, even if only by accident.

There must be another answer, she thought. And the only way she was going to find it was to talk to the others--separately or together. Talk to them all and find out what was going on.

Her mind made up, she picked up the receiver again and punched in Andrea's number. The line was busy. She waited a few minutes, then hit the Redial button, but Andrea's line was still tied up. Not wanting to wait any longer, she punched in Diane's number. Diane picked up on the third ring.

"Hello?"

"Diane, it's Jill," she said. "Do you have a minute?"

"Sure," said Diane. "What's wrong? You sound upset."

"I am upset," she admitted. "Something terrible has happened--and our friends are right in the middle of it."

"What?" Diane sounded alarmed.

"There was a fire on Fear Street tonight," Jill told her.

"Yes, I saw it on the news." Diane suddenly gasped. "It's not--it wasn't set by--" She didn't finish the thought.

But Jill understood what she was going to say. "I'm afraid it was. Nick and Max were there. Nick says they didn't set the fire but that someone sent them a note telling them to go there."

"Oh, Jill, how could he tell such an obvious lie?"

"I'm not sure he's lying," said Jill. "I've known him a long time. If it wasn't them, then it had to be Gabe."

"Oh, no," said Diane. "It couldn't have been him. I mean, I just can't believe he'd do such a thing."

"I never would have believed Nick would set someone's car on fire either," said Jill. "It's the whole fire game. It's made them all act crazy."

"I knew it!" said Diane, her voice trembling. "I knew it was wrong from the very beginning. Jill, we have to make them stop. We have to stop them now."

"Yes, of course," said Jill.

"I mean now, "Diane repeated. "If we wait even one more day, who knows what might happen? Listen, my mom's asleep. I'll take her car and pick you up in about ten minutes."

"Where are we going?"

"Over to Nick's," said Diane. "We've got to talk to him, Jill. After Nick, we'll go see Max."

"But--"

"Really," Diane went on, "this is the best thing. You wouldn't be able to sleep now anyway, would you?"

"Well, no," Jill admitted.

"I'll be there in ten minutes," said Diane and hung up.

I feel as if I'm in a dream, Jill thought. It was getting late, and she was lightheaded from lack of sleep. This can't be happening, she told herself. I can't be involved in arson--and murder.

But as soon as she saw the brown station wagon in Nick's driveway, everything that had happened earlier came flooding back into her mind, and she realized that she was involved. They all were.

To her surprise, Max opened the door. "Nick called me as soon as he talked to you," he told Jill. "What are we going to do?"

"First we have to find out who set the fire," said Diane. "Did you do it?"

"Of course not!" said Max.

"I already explained what happened," said Nick, coming in from the other room.

"Jill said you got a note," Diane said. She sounded like a lawyer on TV.

"Yeah, we wouldn't make something like that up," said Max, annoyed.

"Nick, have you still got yours?"

"I think so," said Nick. He went to his room, then came back holding a crumpled piece of paper.

He handed it to Jill. She held it so Diane could read it too. It said exactly what Nick had reported. But what he hadn't told her--and what she and Diane noticed at once--was that it was printed by a computer.

In blue ink.

Neither girl said a word. They just looked at each other, both thinking the same thing.

"Well?" said Max. "Do you believe us now? Or do you think that we wrote it ourselves?"

"We don't think you wrote it," said Jill sadly.

"I didn't mean to sound so suspicious," Diane added. "But after all, Jill saw you at the house on Fear Street"

"Yeah, well, someone else was there too," said Nick. "And whoever that person was set the fire."

"Did you see anyone?" Diane asked.

"No," said Nick. "The house seemed to be completely empty. We just hung around for a few minutes, and then there was this sort of thumping sound and the fire started. We ran away as fast as we could."

"Well, thanks for showing us the note," said Jill. "I guess we'd better go now."

"But I thought you wanted to talk the whole thing over," said Max. "I thought that was why you came here."

"Well, we did," said Jill, "but it's late, and we're all tired. Maybe it'll be better if we just sleep on it."

"All right," said Nick, but he looked at her as if she were crazy.

"It was Andrea's computer," Diane said in a shaky voice once they were back in her car.

"I know it," said Jill. "Unless--"

"Unless what?" said Diane. "Unless there's someone else in Shadyside with a blue-ink cartridge who knows all about the fire game?"

"I just can't believe she did it," said Jill.

"Me either," said Diane. "Or I don't want to. Andrea's a little wild sometimes, but she's basically okay. Maybe there's some other explanation."

"There must be," Jill agreed.

"You don't still think it was Gabe, do you?" said Diane. "You don't think Gabe and Andrea--"

"I don't know what to think," Jill answered.

"All I know is I want to hear what Andrea has to say about it," said Diane.

"Diane, it's awfully late," Jill objected.

"So what? Andrea always stays up late. Besides, we're only a couple of blocks from her house."

Jill nodded wearily. She was exhausted, but like Diane she did want to hear Andrea's explanation--if she had one.

"Well, hi, guys," said Andrea with a bright smile. She was wearing green-striped shorty pajamas but was wide-awake.

Jill sat on her bed, feeling terrible. Her eyes strayed to Andrea's desk and the computer. How are we going to do this? she wondered. Should we just come out and--

But her thought was interrupted by Diane, who surprised her by coming right to the point. "We were just over at Nick's house," Diane said.

"What is this--your night to go visiting?" Andrea laughed. "Listen, if you want, I can throw some popcorn in the microwave."

"We didn't come here to hang out," Jill said. "We came to talk about something. Something very serious."

Andrea frowned, puzzled. Is she faking? Jill wondered. If so, she's very, very convincing.

"Nick showed us the note you sent him," Diane said then.

"What note?"

"The same one you sent Max," Diane went on.

"What are you talking about?" asked Andrea. "Why would I send them notes?"

"Andrea, we know you sent them. They were printed in blue ink."

"So what?" said Andrea, starting to sound annoyed. "What were these notes about?"

"They told the boys to go to a certain house on Fear Street for some real action."

"What?" Now Andrea started laughing. "Is this a late April Fools' joke, or what?"

"It's not a joke," Jill told her. And then, quickly, she told Andrea what she had heard on the late-night news.

Andrea listened until Jill finished explaining what Nick and Max had said. Then Andrea's expression changed to anger. "Let me get this straight," she said. "You're saying that there was a fire over on Fear Street that killed a man, and that you think I set that fire?"

"It's just a possibility," said Jill quickly. "We're not accusing you of anything."

"Well, you're doing a pretty good imitation!" Andrea snapped. "Do you really think that I'd set a house on fire? And try to make it look like some of my friends had done it?"

Jill didn't answer. She really didn't think Andrea would do such a thing-

-except that everything pointed to her. How can this be happening? she thought.

"We don't want to believe it," Diane said, sounding more distressed than ever. "We thought maybe you could explain about the notes--"

"For your information, I don't have to explain anything to anybody!" said Andrea, her face red. "I thought you two were my friends!"

"We are," said Jill. "That's why we're here, instead--"

"Instead of what?" asked Andrea. "Instead of at the police station, turning me in for something you think I did?"

"Andrea, please," Jill begged. "Don't think that. We only--"

"Forget it," Andrea said. "I know what's really behind this. You're jealous of me because your date with Gabe was such a disaster! You're trying to get me in trouble so I won't go out with him!"

"That's not true!" said Jill.

"And somehow," Andrea went on, "you got Diane to go along with your little game! Well, forget it! I'll go out with anyone I want!"

"This isn't about Gabe, Andrea!" cried Diane. "I didn't even know he and Jill had gone out. We're here because of what happened on Fear Street tonight. And because of the notes."

"What do you want?" Andrea snapped. "A full confession? Well, you won't get one, because I didn't write any notes and I didn't do anything else wrong!"

"All we want to do is stop the fires," Diane went on, her voice trembling. "And we want you to know that we're your friends and we'll stand by you no matter what."

"Some friends!" said Andrea. "Just go away and leave me alone!"

"Andrea, please--" said Jill.

"Get out!" Andrea screamed. "Didn't you hear me? This is my house and I don't want you in here! Not now--and not ever again!"

Andrea's face was so distorted with anger that Jill felt she hardly knew her.

She didn't want to believe that Andrea had set the fire.

But she did believe it. And from the look on Diane's face, she knew Diane believed it too.

Jill was startled out of a deep sleep by the jangling of her bedside phone. It took her a moment to realize she was awake. Then she picked up the receiver and managed a croaky "Hello?"

"Jill?" The voice spoke in a whisper, but Jill had no trouble recognizing it.

"Andrea?"

"Listen," Andrea said, "I'm sorry to call so late."

"That's okay. I had to get up to answer the phone anyway. What time is it?"

"Quarter past three," said Andrea. "But this is serious. Jill, I haven't been able to sleep a wink all night. I keep thinking about what you and Diane said when you came over."

Now the whole evening came rushing back to Jill, and she knew that she was back in the nightmare of the fire game. "Look, Andrea," she said, "we weren't trying to make you feel bad. It's just that we're both so worried about the fire."

"So you accused me of setting it!" Andrea said, her voice sounding teary.

"We didn't mean to accuse you of anything. We were just trying to find out what's going on!"

"I just want you to know," said Andrea, her voice again under control,

"that I didn't have anything to do with the fire. But--but I've been thinking, and I have some ideas."

"About the fire?"

"I think I've got it figured out," she went on.

"You mean who set the fire?"

"And why," Andrea agreed.

"Tell me!" said Jill.

"Not tonight," said Andrea. "I need to do some more thinking. Can you get up early and meet me in the gym before classes tomorrow?"

"Sure," said Jill. "But why can't you--"

"Tomorrow," said Andrea. "But I will tell you this. I'm sure that it has to do with Gabe!"

Jill walked briskly in the bright spring sunshine, glad for the time alone. Usually her father gave her a ride to school on the way to work, but she had left much too early. As she walked, she kept going over Andrea's middle-of-the-night phone call and wondering what it might mean.

The night before, when Jill and Diane had gone over to Andrea's house, Andrea had sounded genuinely angry and upset about their suspicions. And over the phone she had still denied setting any fires.

But would someone who was really innocent get so upset over suspicions?

Wouldn't she just laugh them off?

And what did Andrea mean that she had figured it all out? How? How could she have figured out anything unless she had been in on the fire or set it herself?