One by One(53)

“I’m saying, someone went down that run and killed Eva. So question is, who knew she was skiing it?”

“Not Inigo!” Ani says, and her voice is a cry of anguish. “Not Inigo, no, he was—he and Eva—”

She stops, her hand over her mouth, as if she’s said too much.

“Eva was shagging him,” Carl says brutally. “Come on, love, we all know that. You don’t have to be Sherlock bloody Holmes to get that far. But shagging someone isn’t an alibi, you know that.”

“No!” Ani stands up. The color has come back to her face, and she looks pink and furious. “No. I’m not having this! Eva’s death—it was an accident. And Elliot—I just—no! I won’t—I can’t think like this. I can’t!”

She lets the cards flutter from her hand, and stumbles from the room.





LIZ


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I am standing outside my bedroom door, my back pressed to the wood, when someone comes up the stairs. I can’t see who it is at first. With the lights out, the corridor is too dark. But as she comes closer, I see that it is Ani. She looks as if she has been crying.

My first instinct is to duck back inside my room—but I can’t. Topher is in there. I am trapped. She is walking towards me. I am going to have to interact with her.

“Are you okay?” I say.

“They’re—they’re saying awful things,” she gulps. “About Inigo. I don’t believe it, Liz, I won’t!”

“What kind of things?” There is a cold feeling in the pit of my stomach.

“That he—” She gulps again, and forces herself on. “That he killed Eva. That he didn’t call the police.”

“He didn’t call the police? Are you saying no one’s coming?”

“But he did!” Ani wails. “We saw him! It’s completely unfair they’re saying this stuff and not giving him the chance to defend himself. I’ve worked side by side with him for two years, for God’s sake. I know him!” She pushes past me and bangs on his door.

Carl has pursued Ani up the stairs. The others are following. I see Rik, Danny—holding a torch—Miranda, last of all Erin, still limping.

“Ani, wait,” Carl says. Just as he says it, my bedroom door opens so suddenly that I nearly fall backwards, because my weight is still resting against the wood. Topher shoves past me into the corridor. His face is still blotched from earlier but he is no longer crying.

“What’s going on?” he asks abruptly.

“Inigo!” Ani is still banging on his door. There is no answer. “Where is he?”

“Oh God,” Rik says. He looks at Miranda, and then at Erin. “You don’t think—”

“Oh no, no,” Danny says quickly. “We’re not having another body. Not on my watch.” He elbows past Ani, takes a staff key out of his pocket, and opens the door. Then he shines the torch into the room.

There is no one inside.

Over his shoulder I can see Carl’s belongings, thrown untidily around, and Inigo’s camp bed, the covers neatly smoothed and tucked.

In the center of the pillow is a folded piece of paper.

No one seems to know what to do, but then Erin hobbles past Danny into the room and picks it up.

“It’s a note,” she says, scanning it in the torchlight. Then her face goes blank. “Oh… fuck.”

It is the first time I have heard her swear in front of us. Danny has lost it a few times, but Erin has always been completely professional. Now her face is white. She looks up at Danny and mouths something I can’t decipher.

“What does it say?” Topher says authoritatively. Apart from a slight croakiness in his voice, you would never know he had been sobbing his heart out in my room a few minutes ago. “I have a right to know, I’m still CEO of this company.”

He pulls the note from Erin’s fingers. She does not resist. He reads it aloud.

“?‘Dear everyone, I have made a terrible mistake. I have gone to try to put it right. Please don’t come after me. Inigo.’?”

“Oh fuck,” Miranda says, echoing Erin. “The idiot.” She is standing in the doorway. Now she turns and looks out the long window at the end of the corridor, the window Inigo stood at to try to get reception. It is almost completely dark now. The snow is beating on the glass as if it is trying to get in. I cannot help an involuntary shiver at the sight. “I mean—look at it out there. He’s going to kill himself.”

“What does it actually mean though?” Erin asks. She looks bewildered. “The note I mean. Is he saying he didn’t call the police but now he’s gone to fetch them? Or has he gone after Eva?”

“Fuck knows,” Carl says brusquely. “Stupid little plonker. Has he actually left already?”

“Good question,” Danny says. “I’ll check.” He turns and walks quickly down the corridor taking the torch with him. The shadows close around us as he disappears. We hear him clattering on the spiral staircase, and then the bang of the door into the service part of the building where the ski lockers are. When he returns, he is walking more slowly, and his face is set. “Yes, he’s left,” he says as he comes closer to our group. “His skis are gone. So’s his jacket.”