One by One(45)

Topher looks at him. I think he genuinely does not understand Rik’s question.

“Use your head, Toph. If it’s not suicide”—Rik’s voice has an edge I have never heard before. He sounds… dangerous—“Then it’s murder. Is that what you’re saying, Topher? Is it?”

Topher’s mouth falls open. Then he sits abruptly. He looks winded, almost as if Rik really had punched him.

“God. You’re right. Oh my God.” His face is ashen. “Elliot,” he says brokenly. And then he begins to cry.

It is awful, watching him. None of us knows what to do. Rik looks at Miranda, whose face is aghast. Carl puts his hands up in a Don’t look at me, mate gesture of repudiation. Inigo’s expression is pure panic.

It is Tiger who steps up. She goes to sit beside Topher. She puts her hand on his arm.

“Topher,” she says. Her voice is gentle. “We all feel his loss, but it must be incalculable for you, more than any of us. Coming on top of Eva’s death—”

She stops. Not even Tiger can spin this as what will be, will be.

“Why?” Topher’s mouth is square and ugly, tears running down his cheeks. He looks so far from the polished, urbane sophisticate I used to know; I am not sure if I can bear it. “Why would anyone do this to him? Why would they hurt Elliot?”

That, of course, is the $64,000 question.

We all look at one another. No one is sure what to say.

“Come on,” Tiger takes Topher gently by the hand. She leads him from the room. “Let’s go and splash your face with water.”

As they leave, a sigh of released tension ripples round the room.

“Jesus,” Carl says gruffly.

“But he’s right,” Rik says. “Why would anyone hurt Elliot? I mean, Eva, okay. But Elliot? It makes no sense at all. I know Topher doesn’t want to hear it, but maybe he did commit suicide, uncomfortable as it is for all of us to face? Eva’s disappearance and then on top of that the shock of the avalanche—he was quite a—” He stops. I think he is trying to work out how to phrase it without giving offense. “He was quite a quirky personality.”

“I think that’s a pretty offensive stretch, Rik,” Miranda says wearily. “Yes, he had his eccentricities—we all do. But to go from that to—”

“No,” Rik says defensively, “that’s not what I meant. Jesus, I liked him. We were at school together, for goodness’ sake. I’m just saying—look he was very hard to read. Still waters run deep and all that. There could have been a lot going on underneath.”

“And what do you mean, you could understand someone wanting to hurt Eva?” Carl says suddenly.

Rik winces. He knows that he has made a misstep, not once, but twice.

“I didn’t mean that either. Oh bloody hell, I’m putting my foot in it all over the fucking shop.”

“So what did you mean?” It is Inigo. His voice is bitter, almost accusing. His interjection is so uncharacteristic that we all turn and stare at him.

Rik flushes.

“All I meant,” he says carefully. I can tell he is picking his words now. “All I meant was Eva’s death… it changed stuff.”

“What stuff?”

Rik does not want to spell it out. I can see that he doesn’t.

It is Carl who says it for him.

“Eva’s death gave control of Snoop over to Topher, isn’t that what you mean, mate?”

Rik cannot bring himself to reply, but he gives a small, tight nod.

There is a moment’s long, shocked silence, as what he is saying sinks in around the circle.

Rik has joined the first two dots, but no one wants to go any further. They can already see the pattern that is forming.

Several people here had a powerful financial motive for Eva’s death. Specifically Topher, and Elliot. Plus anyone else who was opposed to the buyout for their own private reasons.

Which means…

It means—

I feel the blood rush to my face. Suddenly I can’t go on with this, can’t sit here thinking the thoughts that are threatening to overwhelm me. I have to get out—get away.

I stand, and I run out of the room.





ERIN


Snoop ID: LITTLEMY

Listening to: Offline

Snoopers: 5

Snoopscribers: 10

Danny and I are still standing outside Elliot’s room when I hear the sound of running feet, and I turn to see Liz hurrying along the corridor. For a minute I think she is running towards us, and I tense, bracing myself for whatever has happened, but she stops halfway along the corridor, opens her bedroom door, and slams it behind herself. I hear the key scrape in the lock from the inside, and then nothing.

“Jeez,” Danny says. He looks taken aback. “What’s eating her?”

“Do you need to ask?” I whisper it. The doors here are thick, but you can hear through them if your room is quiet.

“Do you think she heard?” Danny lowers his voice too. “You know. What we were saying before.” He doesn’t repeat it, but the words I uttered just before Liz came barreling towards us still hang in the air between us. Maybe Eva’s death wasn’t an accident.

“I don’t know,” I mutter. “Let’s get out of here. We can’t talk here, and I need to think this through.”