The Biker (Nightmare Hall) by Diane Hoh Page B

lawyer. Maybe she had no future. “It wasn’t my fault,” she said shakily. “You were the one who was driving.”
    He laughed with scorn. “Get real, Echo. Who’s going to believe that was me on that bike? Aaron Pruitt? No one on this campus has ever seen me near a motorcycle. Their eyes would fall out of their head if they did see it.”
    He’s right, Echo thought, no one would believe that Aaron Pruitt was the Mad Biker.
    “Now you, on the other hand,” he said, his hands toying with a blade of grass, “would make an excellent suspect, it seems to me. So go ahead and tell the police, if you want. See how much good it’ll do you. But my guess is, if you walk into the police station in town, you’ll be hanging yourself, not me.”
    “I don’t even own a motorcycle.”
    “How would you ever prove that? The cops would just think you’d ditched the bike somewhere. So, without any proof to link me to last night, you’d go down alone.”
    Echo mulled his words over in her mind. What scared her the most about them was that they made sense. Who would believe that boring, neatnik Aaron Pruitt would have the guts or the imagination to be the Mad Biker? But almost anyone who knew her or knew of her would readily believe that Echo Glenn had been riding on the back of that bike. Even if she gave the police Pruitt’s name, they’d never find any proof against him. She might very well go down alone, just as he said.
    Echo fell into a miserable silence.
    While she was thinking, Pruitt began enumerating aloud her many offenses: first circulating the infamous petition, then her very vocal denouncing of the administration from the campus library steps for not cooperating. She had almost started a riot, and the Twin Falls police had been called to campus. Then he related, in graphic detail, the afternoon in January when Echo had jumped up on a table in Lester’s cafeteria to decry what she had called “the slop we’re being fed in this dungeon.” He followed up with the story about her running into Liam McCullough on her bike.
    “How do you know all that?” Echo demanded.
    “I checked around. You also have no close friends and would never win the Miss Congeniality award in any beauty pageant. Although,” he added, “you might win for looks, I guess. There are some stunning bones in that pretty face.”
    Echo stiffened. “Maybe you’re right,” she said coldly. “Maybe no one would believe that you had anything to do with the bike attacks. But I still think all I’d have to do is raise suspicion and you wouldn’t dare go near that bike again. Wouldn’t that spoil all your fun?”
    In a split second, he was on his feet and at her side. His left hand came up and gripped her elbow with iron fingers. “You make as much trouble for me as you have for the administration of this university and you will be very, very sorry. Let me make this very clear. Trouble for me could be very hazardous to those good looks I just mentioned, Echo. After last night, you know what being hit by a Harley at high speed can do. Just think what it could do to those gorgeous cheekbones of yours.”
    Too stunned to speak, Echo remained silent.
    Pruitt let go of her elbow and backed away. His face was flushed, and Echo noticed that his hands were shaking. But when he spoke again, his voice was calm. “You can’t hurt me, Echo. But I could finish you off, just like that,” snapping his fingers. He sat back down again. “With you dead, I could pin that whole incident last night on you. But …” he grinned at her, “if I did that right now, I wouldn’t be able to have any more fun, would I? That would mean the end of my days as a wild biker. So don’t worry. I’ll have to let you live, for now. And maybe for as long as you behave yourself.” He studied her carefully, then smiled a long, slow smile. “Now that I think about it,” his words coming slowly, thoughtfully, “I wouldn’t mind being seen at the campus movie tonight with