‘But why would she have gone . . .’ A particularly rough bounce dislodged Andy’s words, and he fumbled them back: ‘. . . gone into the storm at all?’

‘Maybe she was scared,’ I suggested.

Andy nodded. ‘She looked pretty unsettled when Sofia showed her that photo.’

I’d thought she had just felt confronted by death, but Andy was right. She had been upset, leaving the room straight after. What if it had been a threat from Sofia? In front of all of us, that would have been a confident move, but I already knew confidence was not something the Black Tongue lacked. But what would the threat have been? Was it I know about you or I’m coming for you?

Andy was thinking the same thing. ‘Even if something scared her, why come out here?’

‘She thought she could make it.’ There was a dark edge to Juliette’s voice; it was obvious she didn’t believe her own words. But then why were we out here?

‘In this weather?’ Andy shook his head. ‘That would be suicide!’

At that, Juliette’s eyes met mine for the slightest flicker and then shot to the floor. I realised what she was thinking, why she thought Lucy might have taken herself out into a lethal storm. I thought about the way Lucy had canvassed the guilt in the bar, before she’d been shown the photo of Green Boots and left in a hurry. Maybe Sofia had scared her. After all, the only thing linking the deaths so far was the method, and Erin had rightly pointed out that the Black Tongue’s MO was easily researched. I knew for a fact that Lucy had googled it; she was the one who told me about the first victims. And she had more grievances against Michael than many of us. Maybe seeing him arrive with Erin was the final straw.

I looked back at Juliette, her eyes fixed grimly out the frosted window.

We weren’t out looking for Lucy, we were chasing after her.

MY SISTER-IN-LAW
(former)

CHAPTER 33

Gavin took us up to the top of the chairlift, high on the ridge. A giant, hulking column raised thick black wires into the sky, dotted with three-seater benches hanging underneath, which dropped away from my window into the churning clouds. Out Andy’s side of the vehicle, the wires fed uphill into a corrugated metal shed. Gavin stopped to allow Juliette to jump out and check inside, thinking perhaps Lucy had stumbled into it for shelter, but she came back quickly, shaking her head.