One by One(52)

The hope on her face gives me a momentary stab of guilt, as I realize what our purposeful entry must have looked like. I shake my head.

“No, I’m so sorry. Still nothing.”

“Bloody hell,” Rik says. “Still? Isn’t this getting a little bit… concerning?”

“Well, I must admit, I would have hoped they’d be here by now.”

I look out of the tall windows that span the double-height lobby. It’s the middle of the afternoon, but the air is so dark with whirling snow that it looks like twilight, and I can’t see the lights of St. Antoine le Lac below, let alone the far-off mountain ranges. But then, the thought occurs to me uncomfortably, maybe they are without power down in Le Lac too. The batteries in Danny’s radio have died, and we have no idea now what’s happening down there. It could be much worse than we’re imagining.

“It’s more than twenty-four hours since the avalanche,” Rik presses. “Shouldn’t someone have been in contact by now?”

“I don’t know,” I say.

His concern is making me increasingly uneasy. Maybe he’s right. Maybe there is something wrong.

“They’re very stretched, I imagine.”

“What are you getting at, mate?” Carl says sharply, looking across at his colleague. “You got a point to make, spit it out.”

Rik exchanges a look with Miranda and then says, almost reluctantly, “Look, this isn’t an accusation, please don’t think that. But I’m just saying that it’s… well, it’s unfortunate that no one else managed to talk to the police, apart from Inigo.”

“What do you mean?” Carl says, taken aback.

“I’m just saying… it would be nice to have corroboration of what went down. We only heard his side of the conversation. And it does seem a little… strange, that he’s the only person who managed to get any reception.”

“Are you saying he didn’t call them?” Carl’s eyebrows go up to his shaven hairline.

Rik says nothing, but he gives a little shrugging wince that could be yes or no, but functions effectively as an acknowledgment of the possibility.

“Fuck,” Carl says. He breathes it out like some kind of prayer. “Faaaark.”

Danny shoots me a startled, worried look, and I realize that I never told him about my conversation with Inigo, and Rik’s suspicions, perhaps because I never really believed they were true. Now I feel frighteningly na?ve. What if Rik’s right? What if no one is coming?

“What did you want to talk to us about?” Miranda says, bringing us back to our original mission, and I drag my mind back to the task in hand with an effort.

“Oh. Yes. Well, it was actually Ani we wanted to speak to—we had a quick question.”

“Oh?” Ani looks up from her hand. “Yeah! I mean, sure, anything I can help with?”

“You want a bit of privacy?” Carl says, and he makes to half rise, but Danny shakes his head.

“Stay. Better to keep all our cards on the table, if you know what I mean.”

Carl considers for a second, then sees the wisdom of what Danny’s saying and gives a short nod, and sits again.

“Ani,” I say, trying to think how to put this without causing undue alarm but being as clear as possible about what I mean. “You saw Eva skiing La Sorcière when you were coming up in the lift, is that right?”

“Yes,” Ani says. “Definitely. I, like, already said that though… ?”

“Yes, but what I wanted to ask is, did you tell anyone at the time?”

“Oh…” She frowns, trying to think. “I don’t remember. I might have said something to Carl. Like, Oh, hey, there’s Eva. Do you remember, Carl?”

“To be quite honest, I don’t,” Carl says flatly. “I don’t think you said anything, but hand on heart, I couldn’t swear to it either way.”

“Oh!” Ani says suddenly. She’s flushing pink, and she looks like a child who’s pleased they’ve come up with the answer you were prompting for. I realize, with a disquieting shift, that Ani thinks we are testing her, checking up on her story, and she’s pleased she can give us corroboration. “Wait, I did tell someone. We came off the lift at the top, and Topher was talking about setting off, and Inigo said, ‘But, like, we can’t,’ because of waiting for Eva, and I said, ‘Gosh no, didn’t she tell you? She’s already left. I saw her skiing down the black run.’ I’m not sure if Topher heard me, but Inigo definitely did. He can back me up.”

He can back me up.

She’s looking at me with wide, shining eyes, and her trust makes a lump come to my throat.

But Carl… Carl is looking at her with a kind of horror, and I know that he has joined the dots that Danny and I had already figured out.

“Bollocks to backing you up,” he says abruptly. “Don’t you get it?”

“Get what?” Ani says. She looks surprised, like we’ve taken away her gold star. She can’t understand why Carl isn’t pleased for her, happy that her story has checked out.

“Inigo knew,” Carl says. “He knew where she was skiing. Eva. You told him how to find her.”

“Oh my God,” Ani says, and the color drains out of her face, leaving her translucent skin bone white, the blue of her veins showing through at the temple. “Oh my God, you’re saying—you’re saying—”