With a jolt, I remember Saskia’s threat. I’ll get him back. Is that what happened? Did she cause him to fall? I long to ask Odette if Saskia was anywhere near him at the time but I don’t dare. I’ll go down and ask Brent for myself.

Saskia reaches the top of the lift and glances my way. I couldn’t swear to it, but it looks as though she’s gloating.

CHAPTER 41

PRESENT DAY

This place is doing my head in. Brent sits beside Heather in the candlelit restaurant, either to comfort her or to stop her from saying whatever it is he doesn’t want her to say. I’m trying to figure out what that could be and all sorts of things are going through my mind.

Ugly things.

Things that are much worse than just a one-night affair.

What was Brent doing while I was with Heather and Curtis in the bathroom? Did he fake banging his head? He recovered quickly enough. He took ages to fill those pans up, too. Is it possible that he did something to Dale out there, then shoved him down a crevasse?

The fire is fizzling out. Curtis gets up to put more wood on. Come to think of it, Curtis disappeared for a while as well, supposedly looking for flashlights, and Dale was hardly his favorite person. I know Curtis has a hot temper, but does he hate Dale enough to kill him?

Could Curtis and Brent be in this together?

The black eyes of the stag bore into mine. My gaze shifts to the two empty nails beside it. What used to hang there? Does it matter? I don’t know.

I don’t know anything anymore. My knee hurts too much for me to think straight. I’m trying to remember how long it took last time until I could start walking on it, but it depends how badly I’ve torn it and if it’s just the lateral collateral or other ligaments as well.

The lights come on again.

“Well, that’s something,” I say.

Curtis snorts. “Yeah, but how long are they going to stay on for?”

“True.” At least I know it wasn’t him or Brent who turned them on.

“Someone’s playing with us,” Curtis says.

But who? Dale?

“And I think it’s my sister.” Grim-faced, Curtis checks the doorway, as though she might appear there.

I replay what he said to me this afternoon in the bathroom. If he killed her, why does he seem so sure it’s her? I look around at the others to see what they make of this.

Heather stands. “I’m going to bed.”