One by One - Ruth Ware Page 0,51
outlying hamlets. We are not the only people trapped without electricity, by the sound of it. In fact we’re considerably better off than some. But it feels like a good idea to reassure everyone that progress is being made, and to stress that we have enough food and water to see us through until they either restore the funicular, or get a helicopter up to airlift us out.
We also have to discuss the elephant in the room—Eva’s death. Although the rumor has gone around the group and everyone seems to have learned of Elliot’s conclusions, neither Danny nor I have formally acknowledged the issue. I’ve been putting it off, unable to face the reality of what has happened, but the time has come that we really have to make an announcement, make it clear that we’re trying our best to contact the authorities and alert them to what’s happened, but at the same time put to rest any false hopes, dispel any fantasies that she’s going to come limping over the horizon at any moment.
Danny beats the gong in the lobby, sending its deafening crescendo ringing around the rafters, and when at last everyone is gathered I tap a spoon against a coffee cup and wait for silence.
“Hi, um, hi everyone. Sorry for dragging you out of your rooms like this, but Danny and I just wanted to give you an update on our situation. Danny spent the morning trekking out to our two closest chalets, which unfortunately—or perhaps fortunately, for the inhabitants—seem to be unoccupied. One is very badly damaged, but it doesn’t look like anyone was there at the time of the avalanche. The other one was out of the path of the fall so it’s fine, but again, there’s no one home. We were hoping to find someone with a two-way radio or a satellite phone, but it’s not looking good so far. There’s one more chalet up at this level, but it’s about three miles away, so Danny’s going to wait until the weather clears before he heads out to check on that one.”
“And have you managed to make contact with search and rescue?” Rik says.
“Yes and no,” I say. “As you know, Inigo made contact yesterday and told them about our situation, but we haven’t been able to get through since, and without access to a satellite phone, I don’t think that’s going to happen until the power is restored. The power cut seems to have wiped out the remaining mobile phone reception. But the key thing is that they do know we’re here. We know from what Inigo said that we’re on their list, we just have to be patient while they work through the more critical rescues.”
“Do they know about Eva though?” The question comes from Tiger, her voice even more husky than usual, as if she is holding back a strong emotion, and a silence falls over the room as I try to answer it.
“Inigo told them that’s she’s missing yes. But they don’t know the latest. However—”
I stop and swallow. I knew this would be hard, but this is ridiculously hard. I see Liz’s eyes, luminous with distress, reflecting back at me from the other side of the room, Topher’s anguished face; Ani shading her eyes with a hand to hide the sudden tears that Tiger’s question has provoked. I take a breath, steady myself on the arm of a chair, trying to take the weight off my ankle, give myself space to find the right words. What I want to try to tell them is that even if we can get Elliot’s information to the search and rescue team, it’s not going to help. Eva’s already dead, and now she’s probably under thousands of tonnes of snow as well. There is no chance of anyone rescuing her alive; in fact, there’s not even any certainty that they will be able to recover her body. Some of the high passes never melt, even in summer. If Eva is buried at the bottom of one of the steep ravines, well, that’s it. There aren’t enough resources and money in the world to make that recovery.
“The position she’s in—” I stop, swallow again, but before I can find words to go on, Carl is interrupting.
“How do we know she’s definitely there though?” His expression is truculent. “I mean this whole place has shit phone reception. How can Elliot say those coordinates are right?”
I look around for Elliot. Where is he?
“My understanding is that