One by One - Ruth Ware Page 0,65

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.”

“Shit,” Carl says angrily. “Bloody little idiot. When did he go? Who saw him last?”

There are shrugs all around the group.

“I saw him at lunch,” Miranda volunteers, and several other people nod.

“I saw him at lunch too,” Erin says heavily. “He was… he didn’t eat. He wasn’t in a good state. He went off, I assumed to his room, but he might have gone to the ski lockers. Did anyone see him after lunch?”

Everyone shakes their head. Then Erin frowns.

“What about Tiger?”

We all look around at each other, and I can see a sinking dread mirrored on the faces of the others. Where is Tiger?

Without saying anything, Danny sets off in the direction of her room. We all follow him, like a flock of anxious sheep.

At the door he knocks. Nothing. I can feel the tension rising.

“Bollocks to this,” Danny says roughly, and he sticks his staff key in the lock. The door springs open—and everyone crowds inside, jostling to see. I am at the back, my view blocked by Topher’s broad shoulders. I