Chatoyant College Book 9: Sundered

Chapter 34: Transportation

When the nurse came in, he didn't seem all that surprised to see Corrie awake, alert, and with no apparent signs of trauma. He brought a doctor to check her out, and the doctor pronounced her well, but was still reluctant to let her out of the hospital until Edie, Dawn, and Roe all promised to keep watch over her and Edie explained that she was Corrie's roommate and would definitely be in the same room with her for the rest of the night.

The doctor still didn't seem to like it, but she gave Corrie a long list of head injury danger signs to look out for and finally let her go. Then they were free to look for Paul.

"Maybe we should split up," Roe suggested. "I mean, it's already pretty late, and we don't know where the knife is. Some of us could go back to campus to look for it and some of us should look for Paul."

Professor Lal pursed her lips. "Much as I dislike splitting up the group, that may be wise. Only a few of us will be allowed in to speak to Paul, if any are allowed at all."

"What do you mean, you don't know where the knife is?" Corrie interrupted. She kept rubbing her hand over her newly shorn hair. "Doesn't Paul still have it?"

"Not that we saw," said Edie. "The campus police showed up right after you fainted. They didn't see a knife, and I didn't see it anywhere on the ground."

"Maybe it worked, then!" Corrie said.

"What did you do?" Professor Lal asked quickly. "We thought you may have been trying to destroy it—there were obviously protective enchantments on it."

"I was trying to turn it into some other earth-element thing. The last thing I remember trying was a tree root. But I don't know if it worked."

"Well, if we can't find a knife, we could look for a tree root," said Roe, nodding.

"But you should still talk to Paul and find out what the hell he was doing," said Rico.

"Indeed," said Professor Lal. "And each group should have at least one student with it, so that we can keep in touch by phone."

"I should go talk to Paul," Corrie said.

"No!" Edie and Dawn cried at the same time. Edie grabbed Corrie's arm, even though she knew she couldn't hold her back physically.

"He trusts me," she protested. "It wasn't me he attacked. I don't think he knew the knife was going to knock me out like that. I think he was just trying to protect me in some weird way. I think I'm the one he's most likely to trust."

Edie's stomach twisted as she saw Professor Lal narrow her eyes and nod. "That would, perhaps, be the best way to get the information out of him. And the police will most likely want to talk to Corrie to learn her side of the events as well."

"But—" Dawn started.

Professor Lal held up her hand. "She will be with me, and I assure you, she will be in no danger. I will make certain of that." She sounded so scary that no one protested. "But one of you should come along as well."

"Dawn isn't going anywhere near that psycho," said Rico, putting his arm around Dawn's shoulders. She didn't look like she wanted to argue.

"I'll go," said Edie quickly, squeezing Corrie's arm.

"Then I'll go back to the campus with the three of you to find the knife," said Ginny.

"What about Professor Rook?" Dawn asked, looking around. "I haven't seen him since he took the doctor out of my room."

"He will have finished with the doctor and returned to campus by now," said Professor Lal. Edie swallowed, wondering what exactly Professor Rook would have been doing with the doctor. "But that does bring up another problematic topic—transportation."

"If there are any police still around, they might be willing to take you to the police station," said Rico. He looked around at the group. "And I think you could all fit in my car if people squished, but it wouldn't be legal, and then we'd all be back at campus."

"We could go back to campus and then I could drive to the police station," Corrie suggested.

"No," said Edie and Professor Agnew at the same time. Ginny smiled and continued, "You don't seem to have any serious injury, but after a period of unconsciousness, it's not a good idea to handle heavy machinery like that. I think the police are our best bet."

At that moment they turned a corner into the waiting room and saw two police officers leaning on the wall and drinking coffee. One of them straightened up as they approached and looked over the group. "Is one of you Corrie Vine?"

"That's me," said Corrie.

"Would you mind coming down to the station with us? We'd like your statement on tonight's attack."

Corrie smiled. "Of course."