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Chapter Sixteen<br />
Elena hurried toward Robert E. Lee, feeling as if she'd been away from it for years. Last night<br />
seemed like something from her distant childhood, barely remembered. But she knew that today there<br />
would be its consequences to face.<br />
Last night she'd had to face Aunt Judith. Her aunt had been terribly upset when neighbors had told<br />
her about the murder, and even more upset that no one seemed to know where Elena was. By the time<br />
Elena had arrived home at nearly two in the morning, she had been frantic with worry.<br />
Elena hadn't been able to explain. She could only say that she'd been with Stefan, and that she knew<br />
he had been accused, and that she knew was innocent. All the rest, everything else that had happened,<br />
she had had to keep to herself. Even if Aunt Judith had believed it, she would never have understood.<br />
And this morning Elena had slept in, and now she was late. The streets were deserted except for<br />
her, as she hurried on toward the school. Overhead,, the sky was gray and a wind was rising. She<br />
desperately wanted to see Stefan. All night, while she'd been sleeping so heavily, she'd had<br />
nightmares about him.<br />
One dream had been especially real. In it she saw Stefan's pale face and his angry, accusing eyes.<br />
He held up a book to her and said, "How could you, Elena? How could you?" Then he dropped the<br />
book at her feet and walked away. She called after him, pleading, but he went on walking until he<br />
disappeared in darkness. When she looked down at the book, she saw it was bound in dark blue<br />
velvet. Her diary.<br />
A quiver of anger went through her as she thought again of how her diary had been stolen. But what<br />
did the dream mean? What was in her diary to make Stefan look like that?<br />
She didn't know. All she knew was that she needed to see him, to hear his voice, to feel his arms<br />
around her. Being away from him was like being separated from her own flesh.<br />
She ran up the steps of the high school into the nearly empty corridors. She headed toward the<br />
foreign-language wing, because she knew that Stefan's first class was Latin. If she could just see him<br />
for a moment, she would be all right.<br />
But he wasn't in class. Through the little window in the door, she saw his empty seat. Matt was<br />
there, and the expression on his face made her feel more frightened than ever. He kept glancing at<br />
Stefan's desk with a look of sick apprehension.<br />
Elena turned away from the door mechanically. Like an automaton, she climbed the stairs and<br />
walked to her trigonometry classroom. As she opened the door, she saw every face turn toward her,<br />
and she slipped hastily into the empty desk beside Meredith.<br />
Ms. Halpern stopped the lesson for a moment and looked at her, then continued. When the teacher<br />
had turned back to the blackboard, Elena looked at Meredith.<br />
Meredith reached over to take her hand. "Are you all right?" she whispered.<br />
"I don't know," said Elena stupidly. She felt as if the very air around her was smothering her, as if