Chapter 9

Making a Scene

Mitchel left the cabin first. He looked both ways and not seeing anyone, motion for Hannah and Lola to get moving. Mitchel made his way to the lounge car and Hannah and Lola headed for Jack's cabin. Lola knocked on the door and didn't get an answer. She opened the door a little and looked in. No one was there. She open the door and they went in. Lola closed the door and went to the closet. Hannah was looking under the bed. Even though sneaking around and searching people's cabin was exciting, Lola was getting frustrated. They were not finding anything.

"Hey Lola."

"What?"

"I'm not finding anything. Have you found anything?"

"No." Lola answered with discuss in her voice.

"Well, maybe we're not finding anything because there is nothing to find."

"Well, maybe we should move on to John's cabin."

"Okay, that sounds good to me."

They made sure everything was the way they found it and moved onto John's cabin.

Hannah closed the door to John's cabin. Lola had already moved onto John's closet.

"You know Lola, you seem to have a thing for people's closets." Hannah had a big smile on her face as she spoke to Lola.

"That's because you never know what you might find in someone's closet, HANNAH!" Lola drew out Hannah's name and smile wickedly at her.

"How many people on a train are going to have a secret closet in their closet?"

"You never know…" Lola sing song to Hannah.

"OH MY GOSH! Look what I found Hannah!" Lola turned to face Hannah. In her hands was a belt. The belt was wrapped around a very big knife sheaf. There was no knife in it.

"Isn't this that size of the knife that was in the back of Dr. Washington?"

"Yeah, it looks that way Lola, but why wouldn't he just get rid of it?"

"Hmmm…you're right. It doesn't make sense. Yeah! What if someone is trying to frame him. You know, they did it and are hiding the belt here to make it look like he did it."

"Well, we won't know for sure until we check out the rest of the cabins."

"Come on, let's take this and go find Mitchel."

"We better hide it in our cabin first Lola."

"Good idea Hannah."

They left John's cabin and went and hide the knife sheaf and belt in their cabin and went to the lounge car to find Mitchel.

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Mitchel was sitting on the couch talking to Jack and John. They really were into their conversation. So the girls got some water from the bar and sat down on a couch and watched Mitchel talking to Jack and John.

Their eyes started to notice other people in the room. There was Evan and Tracy talking to Steve Wilson and Mary Grant. Ashley and Cole were talking to Sam Smith and Carol.

"I wonder where Hilary and Haylie are?" Hannah asked Lola.

"What about Dylan? He's not here either."

"Duh. They must be doing what we were doing." Hannah shook her head.

"WILL YOU STOP LOOKING AT MARY!" Steve yelled at Evan.

"What?"

"I see they way you are looking at her! Stop it!"

"Settle down Steve." Mary told him.

"Don't settle down me. I see how you're flirting with him."

"I'm not flirting with anyone."

"You got that right!" Steve reached for Mary's wrist.

"Let go of me!" Jack and John got up and walked over to Steve.

"I think the girl asked you to let go of her." John said with a look that spoke volumes. Steve looked from John to Jack to Mary and back to John again. He threw her wrist down and stormed out of the car.

"Are you guys okay?" John asked.

"Yeah." Tracy and Evan answered together.

"What about you Mary?" Jack asked.

"I'm fine. He just had to much to drink I think."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. But I think I'll go and lay down for a little bit." With that, Mary got up and went to her cabin. Mitchel had noticed Hannah and Lola and walked over to them.

"Did you guys find anything?"

"Not here." Hannah said.

"Let's go to our cabin." Lola finished as she started to stand up. Hannah followed suit and stood up too. Together they went to their cabin.

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"So what did you find out?"

"Well, we didn't find anything in Jack's cabin. Either he is very good at hiding things or he is what he says he is." Hannah explained.

"Since we didn't find anything in his cabin, we want to John's cabin."

"Okay. Did you find anything there?"

"Yes we did. Hannah."

"What?"

"Go get it."

"Get what?" Mitchel asked. Hannah went to the hiding place under the mattress and pulled out the belt and knife sheaf.

"Is that what I think that is?"

"Yep it is."

"And you found it in John's cabin?"

"Yeah. But it is also the only thing we found." Hannah told Mitchel.

"The strange thing is, that it was out of place in his cabin. Like someone put it there."

"Maybe they did."

"What are you thinking?" Hannah asked Mitchel.

"Well, if it is 'out of place' there in his cabin, then maybe the real killer put it there. That way they would suspect John and not him or her. See what I mean? What we need to do is to find out if there is a place this belongs."

"Well what do you guys make of that little scene in the lounge car?" Hannah like asking these type of questions. She liked watching Lola and Mitchel puzzle through the answers.

"You know Evan better then us Hannah. Is he a flirt?" Lola asked.

"Well, come to think of it, I've never notice him flirting with any girl. But he is always with Tracy."

"Are they going together?" Mitchel asked.

"Well, they are always together when I see them. And he never done anything to make me think he doesn't like girls. If you know what I mean."

"Has he ever flirted with you?" Lola asked.

"No he never has. But I always thought it was because he is a few years older than me."

"Hey. Did Mary say that Steve had to much to drink?" Mitchel asked.

"I think so. Why?" Lola asked.

"Because there is no drinking on this train." Answered Mitchel.

"You're right. Except the player, we're all under age." Hannah started.

"And so they won't have any alcohol on the train because of that." Lola finished.

"So either Mary was lying or they have their own or it's part of the plot." You could see the wheels spinning in Mitchel's head.

"But what about Barb Watt and Sam Smith?" asked Hannah.

"I don't know now. At first, I would say they were the leading suspects but with the knife sheaf, the blow up and this drinking thing, I don't know what to think." Mitchel started to pace.

"Mitchel…stop pacing. The space is to small." Lola said as she rolled her eyes. Hannah sat there writing everything down in their notebooks so they could come back to it later when she noticed the time.

"Hey, we better get going or we are going to miss supper."

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They were sitting with Jack and John again. Ever since the trip started, the players had been rotating through the different groups so everyone had a change to talk to them. They were in the process of questioning them about their hobbies and activities that they like to do when they were relaxing in hopes of finding something involving a knife. When another scene started.

"You boys better stop flirting with Mary!"

"We're just talking to her." Cole said.

"They're not flirting with anyone." Ashley defended them.

"Cut it out Steve. You're making another scene." Mary was becoming very embarrassed by Steve. Steve threw her hand off of his shoulder, stood up, knocking over his chair, and stormed out of the dining car.

Our trio sat there staring at each other. The wheels were turning.