‘Holy shit,’ Andy piped up from the front. He was rubbing his forearm against the fog on the front windscreen. Through the whorl, I could see a large smudge, the size of which could only be Marcelo, waving his arms above his head like he was landing a plane. Behind him shimmered a bright red flare, lodged into the snow around the side of the building. There were more shadows huddled around it. One crouching. ‘I think they’ve found her.’

Lucy must have been there all night, given several feet of snow had banked up on top of her. I could only see her hand, pale white and cold, reaching out from the mound.

No one had tried to dig her out. There was a small excavation above her torso, a hole just big enough to look into, reach in and check a pulse. That showed how quickly the dig was abandoned. If there’d have been any hope at all, the hole would have been bigger.

The flicker of the red flare blooded the snow around us. I leaned forward, saw a quick glimpse of Lucy and pulled away. Her fluoro lipstick was even brighter against her blood-drained face. She was still wearing the yellow turtleneck she’d worn yesterday. Nothing that would keep her warm outside. There was a crown of crimson-stained ice behind and above her head. Crucially, there was no ash on her face. I felt sick. Did anyone tell her the Drying Room wasn’t locked?

‘I only found her because I stood on her hand . . .’ Katherine started. It was her, Sofia and Crawford standing around the body. Audrey was keeping warm inside and, after Marcelo had flagged us down, he had gone to join her. I wasn’t sure where Erin was.

‘Fill in the hole,’ Juliette said.

Everyone looked at her strangely; it seemed such a callous thing to say.

‘We have to leave. We can’t take the bodies with us – we can come back when the snow’s cleared. So we should cover her up, to protect her from animals.’ She leaned over and scooped a mound of snow into Lucy’s impromptu grave with her forearm. I helped cascade in more. ‘Gavin, how long until we can leave?’

It was unfair of her to ask him to take us all down the mountain, but I knew Gavin was obliged to do Juliette a couple of favours if he wanted her to consider his offer on her hotel.

‘I’ll need to refuel. Will take a few,’ he said.

‘Are you saying—’ Andy began.

‘Everyone start packing your stuff. We’re leaving.’