One by One - Ruth Ware Page 0,77

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.”

“Miranda, I’m sorry,” Rik says. His deep voice is very quiet, he’s trying to keep this between the two of them, but it’s impossible, with the rest of us just feet away. “I don’t want to go—but we can’t stay here and get picked off one by one like this. I think Topher’s right. We have to get to the police.”

“But not with him.” She’s whispering, but the acoustics in this room are excellent. I can hear her, so I’m pretty sure Topher can. “Please, please, I’m begging you. Don’t go with him. I’m frightened you won’t come back.”

“Mir—”

“We’ll go together. I’ll get my skis on—”

“You’re not a strong enough skier,” he whispers back. “Please, darling, believe me, I would if I could, but it’s just too—”

“I won’t stay here without you!”

“Oi, what about the other chalet?” We all turn to see Carl, standing in the living room doorway, his hands in his pockets. Miranda frowns, thrown off course.

“What other chalet?”

“That chef, Danny, wasn’t he going to hike out to some chalet earlier? Before all this started.”

I nod.

“He was,” I say. “Chalet Haut Montagne. It’s a big-chain chalet and much more likely to be occupied than the two closer ones, but it’s a trek—a good three or four miles up the valley. That’s why he left it until last.”

“See?” Carl says triumphantly. “Three or four miles, that’s nothing. You could walk that in a morning.”

“I wouldn’t call it nothing,” I say cautiously. “For a start, you wouldn’t be walking it, you’d have to snowshoe, and that’s a really different skill. What with the avalanche, not to mention almost a week of uncleared snow… I’d say you’d be looking at a good three hours snowshoeing. Maybe more if