One by One(62)

“What did you say?” Miranda swings around, and Tiger struggles upright, brushing her hair away from her forehead. Her face is blotched red and white.

“She said something,” she repeats, her voice still hoarse with tears.

“Who?” Rik comes and kneels beside her. His face is urgent, and he grabs Tiger’s arm. His gesture seems to have been harder than he intended, because she winces a little. “Who said what?”

“Last night, Ani. I just remembered. She said something. She tried to wake me up, but I was—” She gulps, forcing back sobs. “She said, I didn’t see her. If only I’d been able to wake up properly, if only I hadn’t taken that sleeping pill—” She breaks off. Two huge tears roll down her face.

“Tiger,” Miranda says uneasily. She crouches beside Rik. “Tiger, are you sure about this? Before you were saying you didn’t wake up.”

“I know, I know I said that, but I was wrong, I remember now. I remember her shaking me. I remember the words.”

Miranda shoots a questioning look at Rik and he gives a minute shrug back.

“Well,” Topher says. There’s a touch of triumph in his voice. “Well, well, well. I didn’t see her. Now who’s got a reason to start slinging mud, Ms. Khan? After all, that sounds like it rules out half the room, doesn’t it?”

“What does?” says a deep voice from the direction of the lobby.

We all look around. Danny and Erin are standing in the doorway, side by side. Erin looks as if she has been crying. I am not sure if they have made up completely, but it looks like they have patched their differences enough to put up a united front. Topher looks slightly annoyed.

“Tiger claims—” Miranda begins, but Tiger interrupts with an angry sob.

“I don’t claim anything. I heard her, I’m sure of it. Ani tried to tell me something last night—she shook my shoulder and she said, I didn’t see her. Only I couldn’t wake up properly. But it fits—it fits with what Liz said, that Ani had something she was trying to figure out, something she wasn’t sure of.”

“I didn’t see her,” Erin repeats slowly. “Are you sure of that, Tiger?”

“Yes,” Tiger says, more emphatically this time. “Yes, I was lying on the sofa just now trying to think back to last night, think whether I’d heard anything, and I remembered suddenly Ani coming over to me and shaking my shoulder. It was like a flashback.”

“Which implies,” Topher says smugly, “that we’re looking for a woman. No? Her, that’s what Tiger said. Ani was trying to figure something out about one of the women in the party.”

He glares at Miranda.

“Not necessarily…” Danny says slowly. He is frowning. He scratches his head, thinking. “Maybe she wasn’t talking about the killer. Ani was the only person who saw Eva on the slope. Isn’t that right? Carl was the only other person on the bubble, and he didn’t see her. Right?”

“Right,” Carl says shortly. “But what are you saying?”

“I’m saying, what if Ani realized she’d made a mistake? What if Eva never skied that slope after all?”

“But she did,” Miranda says, with exasperation. “Elliot’s geotargeting proves that.”

“It proves her phone is there,” Danny says. “But the only evidence we ever had that Eva was with her phone on that slope was Ani’s sighting. What if she realized she was wrong? What if… here, what about this—what if Eva faked her own death?”

That last suggestion causes a little excited ripple around the circle. Faces brighten. People want to believe this. Danny’s suggestion is a solution that doesn’t require a murderer, and everybody would desperately like that to be true.

But there is a problem. Two problems in fact. It is a solution that doesn’t explain Elliot’s or Ani’s death. It does not hold up for a minute. As they would realize if they thought about it. But I can see they are not thinking.

Speaking up in front of the others makes my stomach curdle, but I have to say something. I can’t not.

“Eva was on that slope,” I say reluctantly. “I saw her too.”

Every pair of eyes in the room turns to me. It feels like they are boring into me. My cheeks flush. I want to sink through the floor.

“What did you say?” It is Miranda, her voice almost accusing.

“I said, I saw Eva too. I was in the bubble lift on the way down, and I saw her skiing as well—further up the slope than Ani did, but I saw her. She was on La Sorcière. Ani wasn’t mistaken. She must have been talking about something else.”

“And you didn’t think to mention this before?”

“I didn’t—it didn’t…” I trail off.

“Not something else. Someone else,” Danny says flatly, and there is a moment’s silence. Everyone’s gaze travels around the room, going from one person to another. We are all realizing the same thing. If Tiger is right, there are very few people Ani could have been talking about. Topher folds his arms. Your move, his expression says to Miranda.

“Tiger are you sure,” Miranda says. Now there is a note of desperation in her voice. “Are you absolutely certain Ani said her?”

“I’m sure,” Tiger says stubbornly.