With Malice by Eileen Cook Page A

wards. I wanted to announce at the top of my lungs that I’d figured it out, but I was pretty sure no one else was going to be impressed. I’d tell Anna later; maybe I’d start calling her my own personal Glinda the Good Witch. I pulled out my phone and clicked on the recorder. “The yellow line leads to the wards. I’m in room 511.” I switched it back off. Done. Now if that detail disappeared from my brain, I’d have a way to recall it.
    The thrill of victory passed quickly. If I could barely find my way around the hospital, how was I going to figure out what happened with Simone in Italy? I rolled into the elevator and punched the number for my floor.
    I closed my eyes. I needed a nap. Between taking the tests and talking about everything, I was worn out. The doctors had warned me that fatigue was normal with a brain injury, but there was being tired and then there was this. I was so exhausted my bones ached. There was a ping as we passed another floor on the way up. Suddenly my mind flashed and I saw Simone. Her mouth was opened in a howl, and her eyes were wide. I reached for her and realized I was screaming. There was a sickening crunch of metal.
    â€œYou coming out?”
    My eyes flew open. I was still in the elevator. There were two people standing in front of the now-open doors staring at me. I blinked.
    â€œAre you okay?” A girl asked.
    I nodded and rolled forward. The group moved past me, already talking about something else, and the doors drifted shut with a soft
thunk
.
    I closed my eyes to see if the image would come back, but it was just black.

Chapter Nine
    Â 
    Â 
    Let’s Travel!
Guidebook
    Rome: The city spans centuries and—from the ancient Roman Forum, to the sprawling halls of the Vatican, to the upscale shopping near the Spanish Steps—has something for every traveler. Be sure to toss a coin in the Trevi Fountain so you can wish to return, because it will take more than one trip to see all that this beautiful city has to offer!
    Â 
    Â 
    EXCERPT FROM POLICE INTERVIEW ABIGAIL JOHNSON, FELLOW STUDENT IN THE ADVENTURES ABROAD PROGRAM
    Date: 4 May  Time: 10:30
    Present: Abigail Johnson, Christopher Johnson (Abigail’s father), Detective Leon Smith
    Transcript to be provided to Italian police
    Â 
    ABIGAIL: Everyone met for the first time in February. The program had a meeting for our parents and us so we could go over all the rules, the paperwork we needed to have filled out, and the itinerary. That’s when I met Jill. She seemed okay, kinda quiet. I remember she talked about how she really wanted to see the statue of David in Florence. We laughed about it because David is hot. You know, for a stone statue. She made a big deal about how excited she was to travel on her own. It seemed like it was important to her. That’s why it was weird to me that Simone ended up coming too.
    Â 
    Simone wasn’t at the meeting in February—she applied late. I thought that was sorta bullshit, because the rest of us applied forever ago, and you had to do all this stuff like write an essay and get letters of recommendation from your teachers and stuff, and I don’t know how she would have gotten that together so late, but whatever.
    Â 
    I didn’t meet Simone until the whole group gathered at the airport in Detroit for our flight. Simone was laughing and joking around like it was a party instead of a departure gate. I could tell she was one of those people who always ended up the center of attention and it made Jill mad that she sorta disappeared when Simone was around.
    Â 
    DETECTIVE SMITH: Was this anger something that Jill expressed to you, or was it just your feeling?
    Â 
    ABIGAIL: I could just tell.
    Â 
    DETECTIVE SMITH: If you could, try to keep focused on things that you saw or heard.
    Â 
    Abigail: Fine. Jill and Simone were the only two people who were friends before we left. The rest of us all came from different