In The Name Of . . . (Sequel to Fault Line) [Completed]

Chapter Seven

Stacy looks uncomfortable at us but quickly hides her emotions and motions for us to enter. We all enter and I nod to her, receiving a small smile from her. The three of us take a set on the couch in her sitting room. Stacy sits on a chair across from the couch.

"What would you like to know?" Stacy asks, placing her hands on her knees.

"Did you two have a special friendship?" Richie asks, taking out a pocket notebook.

"Um, not really. I mean, we were friends but . . . nothing like best friends or anything."

"And can you describe in detail what exactly happened when Jane came and asked for your help?" Lizzy speaks up.

"Yes, I was home alone. Someone knocked on the door and I saw Jane there. She looked liked she had just ran a marathon. She didn't say anything about what had happened, she just wanted to know if I could help her. I told I would but she would have to tell me something about what had happened. She just said that she made a mistake and had to get out of the state. After that I agreed to help her. So I gave her some money and clothes, along with a back pack." Stacy fiddles with her hands. "She told me that I couldn't tell them. I asked her who and she told me that I would know who. Then she saw the police car in my driveway and before I knew it . . . she was gone. It took me a minute to figure it out, but then I realized that she had done something awful. Something extremely bad to be running from the cops like that. That was the last I saw of her before her funeral. Broke my heart to see her like that. She didn't deserve it. No matter the crime, she didn't deserve to go that way." Stacy wipes a hand over her cheek.

I wish that I could comfort her . . . but I know that it would be too weird for me to.

"And where did she go next, do you know?" I ask, feeling like I need to participate in this questioning.

"I watched her from my window. She was heading back into town, towards the train station."

I can tell by the way Richie leans back that that's the information we needed.

"That's all, thank you." Lizzy smiles, standing up with Richie and I repeating her actions.

We leave Stacy's house and walk back to the hotel. Richie and Lizzy talk about more theories and ideas of what Jane next. She took took a train to Missouri, it's not that hard to put the pieces together.

"Lana?" Richie says.

"Yeah?" I snap out of my thoughts.

"Ideas?"

"Oh, I would say that she took a train to Missouri, seeing as her arrival date is two days after that. It's the only logical reason."

"That's what we thought, but it felt like something was missing." Lizzy replies.

"Well, when Jane told me about her running away she didn't stay in Portland any longer than she had to." I tell them, looking them practically dead in the eye.

We reach the hotel and I instantly go to room 113. Grabbing my stuff into my arms, I stand holding my bag protectively in front of me.

After grabbing all of our stuff and packing away Richie's computer stuff, we head out of the hotel and make our way to the train station.

Nobody really talked on the way to the station. Not that anybody needed to anyways. Leaving Portland for someone's murder story isn't exactly something to talk about. Unless you're just crazy.

Richie pays for three tickets to Missouri while Lizzy and I check out the little shop they have here. I think about how some of these things could be useful in certain circumstances. Like the information the books give who could be useful when in dire need . . . or just the book in case you need something to throw at people. Books are good for more reasons then just reading and studying from.

Richie hands me my ticket before going over to Lizzy to give her her's. My mind switches over to the many times Jane had to go by train to run away. Lizzy grabs my attention when her and Richie move to board the train.

I board behind them, my mind still thinking about Jane, but about other things she did. Like buy new clothes for her disguises and if she practiced accents to help her out. And also what she would've been like if she actually was a criminal. No. Jane made one mistake, just one. She's better than that.

Jane was my big sister, she wasn't a murderer, or a runaway, or a mistake.

She was my sister.

And that's all she has to be.

***************

The trip to Missouri sucked. The train was loud with people and crowded and was just terrible. Next time, I'm telling them that I'm going by plane.

We step onto the streets of Jefferson City. I feel like I'm going to be suffocated in this air. It's so thick, how do people breathe?

Immediately, Lizzy takes the lead and brings us to the abandoned place where her and Jane first met. That will be nice, right? Seeing the place where crazy Lizzy met my mistake driven sister.

We step inside the old building and I notice that Lizzy looks a little heartbroken at the sight of it. Weird.

"We'll sleep here for the night. We'll leave in the morning and talk about where we're going tomorrow in the coffee shop down the road." Lizzy says, dropping bag down in the farthest corner.

I make my small bed close to the doorway, and close my eyes. Waiting for sleep to take me so that I may escape the horror filled memories that this place brings me.