Cora Flash and the Diamond of Madagascar (A Cora Flash Children's Mystery, Book 1) (21 page)

Then I
heard a loud thump behind
me
in the direction of the door.
I
had left the door open during
my
investigation, but someone in the hallway had slammed it shut. Since the door opened into the compartment, it would not have been in
the
way
,
should
anyone attempt
to
pass
down the hall.
I
t
must have been
the motion of the train that slammed it,
I
conclu
ded
.
My
deduction
, however,
was short lived when
I
heard another bang on the door. It was not quite as loud as the slam, but it was even more alarming. Something was not right.

"
Hello?
"
I called
.
"
Is there someone there?
"

I
waited for a response, but no one said anything. Whoever had been banging on the door was gone now, but what
had they done
?

I
pulled the handle to open
the
entrance
. It wouldn
'
t budge.
I
tried
my
best several times to open the door,
but
to no avail.
I
could not get it to move. Someone had locked
me
in!

"
Help!
"
I
yelled.
"
Someone let me out of here!
"

I
knew very well that the doors only locked from the inside, so
I
could not understand how
I
had been locked in the room.
Pulling on the door had no effect
;
it
would not give. Whoever had
secured
me
in the room did not want
me
to get out.

I
banged on the door, yelling for anyone who was passing by, but there did not seem to be anyone around. Mr. Sloane
'
s compartment must
have been
too far away for him to hear
me
.

Suddenly, I remembered I
had
my
cell phone in
my
pocket, but who would
I
call?
I
couldn
'
t possibly call
my
mother.
Mom
did not know a
nything
about the diamond theft and
I
certainly did not want to tell her about it until
I
was safely in
Topaz Mountain
.
I
wished
I
had a number for Willy or someone else on the train, but this was not the case.
Earlier, I
noticed Abigail had a phone on her that she would check from time to time. It was a long shot, but
I
had a
n
idea
.

I
opened an Internet browser window on
my
phone and logged into
the
Facebook application.
Once
I
was signed in,
I
searched for anyone named
Abigail
Norton
, hoping to see a picture that looked familiar.
There were
many, many
pages of
“
Abigail
Norton
”
contact records.
I
started
sifting through them,
one
-
by
-
one.

On the fourth page, just as
I
was preparing to give up,
I
saw a picture that was most definitely the Abigail
I
was looking for.
Q
uickly
, I
typed a message to Abigail
'
s contact record and hit
“
send
”
.
I prayed
Abigail checked her Facebook account often.

A few minutes passed,
which felt like hours,
and
I even
considered taking a nap.
Just as I determined the
bench looked quite comfortable, and
would make the perfect spot for
an
eleven-year-
old girl to take a quick
snooze
, I heard a voice on the other side of the door.

"
Cora?
Are you in there?
"

There was no mistaking it. The voice belonged to Abigail.
"
Yes!
"
I
yelled to her.
"
I
'
m locked in. Someone locked me in!
"

"
Okay
.
Stand back from the door. We
'
re going to get you out.
"

I quickly
moved away from the
entrance
and heard Willy
'
s voice from the other side.

"
Are you safely away from the door
,
Cora?
"
he asked.

"
Yes
.
"

"
Okay,
"
Willy said, confirming he heard
my
response. Seconds later,
I
heard a loud crash and the door buckle
d
slightly before flying open and slamming against the compartment wall. Even though
I
was out of the way, the sudden loud opening alarmed
me
and
I
let out a little scream.

"
Are you okay?
"
asked Willy.

"
Yes,
"
I
said as
I
calmed down.
"
I
'
m fine.
"

Abigail asked,
"
What happened? How did you get locked in here?
"

"
I don
'
t know
.
I was in here
,
looking around
,
and I heard a few bangs on the door. It had shut behind me and when I tried to leave, I couldn
'
t.
"

"
That
'
s because someone jammed it shut,
"
Willy said.
"
They took this spoon from the
d
ining
car and jammed it in the door hinge, so you were unable to open
it
from the inside.
"

"
Who would do such a thing?
"
Abigail wondered.

"
I don
'
t know
.
"

Willy looked at
me
with great concern.
"
Have you found anything that could lead us to the thief?
"

I
considered the wet spot on the floor
and
debated if
I
should tell Abigail and Willy about
it
,
but decided to keep it to
myself, at least for now
. Although
I
trusted them both,
I
wanted to ensure they would not tell anyone else
. Clearly, someone was not happy with
me
, thinking
I
knew something.

"
No,
"
I
finally answered.
"
I didn
'
t find anything.
"

"
Huh,
"
replied Willy.
"
I think you should come back to the
d
ining
car. You need to stay with other people.
"