A few runs later, I’m walking up the side of the pipe behind Saskia when Jacinta drops in and pulls one of her huge 720s. Good thing I won’t be competing against her this winter. Saskia will, at an FIS world cup event next week. I could have entered, but after my shameful performance at the Le Rocher Open I’m giving international competition a miss until next year and focusing purely on the British Championships.

Jacinta zigzags back and forth and speeds up the wall toward me. From the position of her upper body I can tell she’s gearing up for another big spin. A small black object tumbles into the pipe. Jacinta swerves around it, but an instant later she’s airborne. Her spin goes off-axis and she returns to earth, board and legs still over the flattop. Her thigh meets the lip of the pipe with an appalling crack.

She screams and slithers to the pipe floor. Oh shit. I sledge down the wall on the seat of my pants to see if she’s okay. Saskia joins me and we crouch over Jacinta, who is in too much pain to speak. I wave madly to the people at the bottom for help.

The back of my mind is processing what I saw. That black thing. What was it? I look around but I can’t see it.

Whatever it was, though, it came from Saskia’s hand.

CHAPTER 29

PRESENT DAY

I trudge up the slope toward the lift shack, eyes glued to the back of Dale’s jacket. I hope I’m wrong about him. Anyway, it’s three of us against one of him, so what’s he going to do?

This is taking longer than I expected. I forgot how hard it was to walk through deep powder. Curtis is powering ahead, almost at the shack already. I glance down at the Panorama building. Heather’s still there.

“Where did you ride last winter?” Brent asks Dale.

“I didn’t,” Dale says. “Me and Heather were too busy setting up the business.”

“And how’s it going?”

He hesitates a beat. “Tough, actually. Barely covering overheads.”

Okay, so Dale is clearly short of cash. Curtis raised the possibility of blackmail. Is that what this weekend is about? Is this whole reunion a desperate scheme that Dale has hatched up to extort money from one of us? What if they can’t or won’t pay up? What would Dale do then?

Curtis reaches the shack and disappears inside. At least the door’s open. With a jolt, I remember it was Dale’s idea to walk up here. I watch him nervously, hoping he doesn’t try anything.

As the rest of us get to the shack, Curtis emerges. And he looks murderous. Something flaps in his hand—a sheet of paper.