One by One
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.
There is a long, long, silence. Miranda stands up and walks out of the room.
“I don’t care,” she shoots over her shoulder as she leaves. “I don’t care what Ani said. There is one person in this room who had a motive for Eva’s death. One person. Stop pretending that isn’t the case!”
And then there’s nothing but silence, and the clack-clack of her heels on the spiral staircase as she runs up to her room.
After she has gone, there is an extremely awkward silence. Topher is leaning against the mantelpiece, angry and flushed. Rik looks like a man being ripped in half. Tiger is slumped, with her hand over her face. Erin and Danny look intensely uncomfortable. Carl breaks the silence.
“Yeah, but she’s right, isn’t she?”
His voice seems to break some kind of spell, and Topher pushes himself upright and turns for the door.
“Fuck this,” he says. “I’m not doing this anymore.”
“What do you mean?” Rik turns to stare at him, puzzled. “You’re not doing what?”
“This. I’m not sitting here like fucking frogs in a pressure cooker. I didn’t kill Eva, no matter what Miranda and Carl want to believe, and I certainly didn’t fucking kill my best friend or our PA. And I’m not hanging around waiting to prove it by being the next person killed. I’m out of here. I’m going to cross-country it down to St. Antoine le Lac.”
“You’re mad,” Rik says instantly. “The piste is ripped to shreds, there’s trees and rocks everywhere. And look at the weather for God’s sake! You’ll freeze to death.”
Topher shrugs.
There is a short pause.
“You’re mad!” Rik repeats desperately. And then, “I’m coming with you.”
ERIN
Snoop ID: LITTLEMY
Listening to: Offline
Snoopers: 5
Snoopscribers: 10
It’s almost midday, and the group has spent the past hour or more discussing Topher’s decision and going back and forth over the stupidity—or not—of the idea. Topher, for his part, is packing determinedly. So far he’s got an avalanche pack, water, a torch, some energy bars, a rope, and he’s looking for a shovel, though I’m not sure how he imagines he’s going to use it. If there’s another avalanche, a shovel in his pack isn’t going to save him. But if he doesn’t manage to get down to St. Antoine before nightfall, he’s going to need some kind of shelter, so maybe it’s not such a bad idea. There’s worse survival tactics than a snow shelter.
Above all though, he seems set on simply getting away—no matter how stupid or risky the plan. Miranda’s statement has unleashed something people were refusing to face before—Topher is the person who has benefited most from Eva’s death. He’s just been handed everything he wanted—sole control of Snoop. Rik and Liz, on the other hand, stand to lose millions of pounds if the buyout doesn’t go through, and I can’t imagine Miranda and Carl will survive this holiday with their posts intact. Whatever the facts, it’s difficult to believe they can continue working for Topher after basically accusing their boss of murder. There are some things you don’t come back from.
So I can understand why he feels he can’t stay here—just as Inigo felt he had no choice but to leave when the group turned on him. What’s more surprising is that Rik seems set on going too—though I don’t honestly know how Topher feels about this. He has tried to dissuade Rik, but it’s hard to deny that two people will stand a better chance than one. It’s treacherous going out there, and if one person sprains an ankle, they’d be pretty much dead without a mobile phone. At least with two, you have a chance of sending for help.
By twelve fifteen, Rik and Topher are standing in the foyer, looking at the large-scale map of the resort that we have pinned to one of the walls and discussing potential routes, when Tiger comes down the spiral stairs. She’s wearing her snowboarding gear, and she’s looking determined.
“I’m coming with you too,” she says, without preamble.
Topher frowns.
“Tiger—”
“No, don’t try to stop me. I’m as good a boarder as you—and I’m better than Rik.” She says it with no false modesty. “And I can’t stay here after what—” She gulps, stops, tries again. “After wh-what happened—”
But she can’t finish. I can see that beneath her oversize jacket, her small fists are clenched.
Rik and Topher look at each other, and I’m not sure what they’re thinking. Tiger is still the person who had the best opportunity for killing Ani, that part is undeniable. The two of them were locked in a room together, and one of them didn’t wake up. But she was also pretty firm about Ani’s final words, words that deflected suspicion from Topher, which seems like strange behavior for a murderer. Plus Rik and Topher are two big, strapping blokes, each of them probably weighing almost twice as much as Tiger by themselves. If Tiger were the killer, it seems unlikely she could overpower one of them, let alone both. On the other hand, and I can almost see Rik and Topher calculating this in their heads, if one of them is a murderer, isn’t it better to have a third-party witness?
The surrealness of this reasoning strikes me again, and I stifle a short, hysterical laugh, and then clap my hand over my mouth.
“What did you say?” Rik says, turning to me, frowning, and I shake my head. Tears are leaking out of my eyes, but I can’t tell why.
“Nothing, I’m sorry. Ignore me.”
“Fine, you can come,” Topher says brusquely to Tiger, making up his mind.
“Rik.” We all turn at the voice from above, and see Miranda coming down the spiral staircase too. Her expression is pale, but set. Rik’s face falls. He knows what’s coming, and he’s already shaking his head.
“Rik, you can’t do this,” Miranda says. Her brittle voice seems to crack. She takes his arm, her fingers digging into his jacket. “This is incredibly stupid.”