Out the window, the sky is gray, the peaks navy. The last of the light has nearly gone. One thing’s for sure: we won’t be getting down from here today and I’m dreading another night in this place.

I toast my fingers by the flames but I can’t stop shivering. Below Curtis’s knee brace, I have my homemade ice pack. The ibuprofens have done nothing to dull the pain. Alcohol would help but I want to keep a level head until the men return.

“That bloody clock does my head in,” Heather says.

“It’s the stag that does my head in,” I say. How many situations like this have those dead eyes seen? Before the Panorama building was erected, a simple wooden hut stood in its place, a refuge for climbers of decades past. You can see it in some of these photos. Did the stag live there, too? It looks old enough.

Heather paws through the wood in the log pile.

“What are you doing?” I ask.

“If we could find the phones, we could call for help.”

We’ve looked there at least twice already but I don’t point that out.

“Argh!” Heather snatches up the clock and hurls it against the wall. It crashes against the wooden panels. Glass showers the floor. I didn’t know she had such a temper.

I see my chance. At a weak moment like this, she’s more likely to tell the truth. “You know I didn’t invite you here, right?”

She nods.

“So who did?”

She chews her lip. “I don’t know.”

“I’m trying to figure out who set up the Icebreaker,” I confide. “I need to know if you and Brent—”

She starts to protest.

“It’s just that if you did, we need to think about who else knows about it.”

Heather glances over her shoulder to the corridor, then snaps her head back to me. “Yes. I slept with him. Happy now?”

“Okay.” I won’t ask if it was while I was with Brent, even though I’m desperate to know. I can’t lay any claim to Brent. I told him I didn’t want a relationship and he’s still the least possessive guy I’ve ever dated. Not that you could call what Brent and I did dating. The only time we ever saw each other on a one-on-one basis was in bed.

And one time in a dark and very steamy steam room.

But what would make Heather cheat on Dale?

Now that she’s admitted it, the dam has broken. “See, I thought Dale cheated on me,” she says. “With Saskia.”

“Seriously?”

“I went to meet Dale at the gym and they came out of the trampoline room together. She had this smug smile on her face.”

“Wait, was this the day before the Brits? I remember that. I was there in the gym when she asked him to spot her.”