One by One - Ruth Ware Page 0,86

space of about half an hour. I am at a loss to understand it. When I ask her about it she just mutters something about being worried about Danny, but I am not sure if that is completely true.

I eat most of her portion as well as my own. Then I get up and grope my way through to the kitchen to rinse the bowls under the cold tap. There is no point in trying to wash up. We are past things like that. This is starting to feel like survival. But when I turn the tap, nothing happens. I try the other. Still nothing.

When I get back into the living room, Erin is hunched over, staring into the fire. I sit beside her, gingerly flexing my knee, though it’s feeling a lot better than it was.

“We’ve got a problem,” I say.

She looks up, as if startled at the sound of my voice.

“What? What did you say?”

“We’ve got a problem,” I repeat. “The water isn’t working. I think the pipes have frozen.”

“Fuck.” She closes her eyes and rubs her face as if she is trying to wake herself from a nightmare, which I suppose in a way she is. “Well, there’s nothing we can do except sit tight. Danny and the others must be there by now. We just have to make it until morning. If we can manage that without freezing to death.”

Her words are unsettling, the more so because I realize that even with my snowsuit on, the chalet is almost unbearably cold now. My breath in the kitchen was a cloud of white. Upstairs must be subzero.

“Maybe… should we sleep down here?” I ask.

“I—I guess. Yes. I suppose it makes sense.”

“I’ll go and get my bedding,” I say, making up my mind. Erin nods.

“I’ll make the sofas up into beds. They fold out.”

I’m almost out of the room when she says, “Liz?”

And I look back, expectantly, wondering what she’s about to say.

“Yes?”

“Liz, I just wanted to say—thanks. Thanks for staying here with me. And I’m sorry it turned out like this.”

“It’s okay,” I say, but somehow the words are hard to say. There is something in my throat—an unexpected kind of lump. “It’s okay. It’s not your fault.”

And then I turn and hobble into the lobby and up the spiral stairs, before she can see the tears in my eyes.

ERIN

Snoop ID: LITTLEMY

Listening to: Offline

Snoopers: 5

Snoopscribers: 10

When Liz’s footsteps disappear along the corridor, I slump back in my seat with a sigh and run my hand over my face. I’m sorry. I don’t know what possessed me to say that, except that out of everyone here, it’s Liz I feel most sorry for. I’m not even sure why exactly—maybe because it was so plain, right from the start, that she never wanted to be here. Topher, Eva, however awful this weekend has turned out to be for both of them, they brought it on themselves in a way—choosing to come here, brandishing their money, pushing people around like little chess pieces in their battle for control of Snoop.

But Liz—Liz is just a pawn, like me, caught up in something she never asked for, never wanted.

And yet not once has she complained. Where Topher has grumbled about the crap food, and Carl has stamped and roared and threatened legal action, and Rik has blustered about health and safety and corporate responsibility, and Miranda has made accusations—Liz has just trudged on, putting up with it all, even though under her self-effacing manner I’m sure she was as scared as anyone.

My ankle throbs as I force myself to standing, and I begin to move aside the sofa cushions, ready to pull out the mattress hidden inside the frame. But as I pick up the last cushion, I see something lying underneath it, right where Liz and I were sitting. It glitters in the firelight, and for a second I think it’s a brooch or a piece of jewelry—but when I pick it up, I realize it’s a key. A very familiar one.

It’s a staff key.

Automatically I feel in my pocket, assuming it must have slid out of my jeans when I sat down, but mine is still there, hard and reassuring against my backside.

Only… it’s not reassuring at all.

Because if my key is in my pocket it means… oh God, it means… this is Danny’s key.

Danny’s key that was stolen.

The key that was taken by the killer.

I stand there for a very long time, completely frozen, just looking down at the