Oh yeah. Something was up. Jean’s MO had always been,When in doubt, double down.They stared at each other, locked in a telepathic battle of wills.
You know I don’t like surprises,Libby thought at Jean.
But if I tell you ahead of time, you’ll say no,her roommate frowned back at her.
A knock sounded on the front door.
“Everybody ready?” Keoki called from the living room.
“Slugworth is still in bed,” Jean yelled back. She clapped her hands at Libby. “Time is money.”
“Am I having a nightmare?” Libby asked the ceiling of her room. She staggered to her feet, rubbing the sleep from her eyes as she walked into the kitchen.
Keoki greeted her with a hug. “Big day.”
“Is it?” Libby got a glass from the cupboard.
“You didn’t tell her?”
“I was just about to,” Jean hissed. “Hey, Libs.”
“Hey,” she replied warily, sipping lukewarm water while her roommate unleashed a grin worthy of the cheap cosmetics “brand ambassador” Libby’s mother had once invited to a “party” that involved shaking down your “friends” so you could get a free lipstick.
“You remember that freak blizzard in Utah or Idaho or whatever?”
“I guess.”
“And that girl who got lost in the mountains?”
“My short-term memory isn’t that bad.”
“Well, it turns out she didn’t freeze to death!”
“Oh.” That was a twist. Most of Jean’s anecdotes tended toward the macabre. “Good.”
Keoki nodded agreement.
“And do you want to knowwhyit’s good?” Jean continued, like she was hosting a children’s TV show.
“Um, because she’s a human being and we’re not sociopaths?” Libby guessed.
“Nope.” Jean rummaged through the piles of stuff on the kitchen counter they were absolutely going to put away any day now, once they got some of those cute canvas baskets. Or fancy plastic tubs. Whatever adults used to organize their junk.
“Check this out.” She held up her phone. The video on the screen cut from a worried newscaster in a painted-on purple dress to grainy footage of a man in heavy winter gear trudging toward the camera through hip-deep snow. In his arms he cradled a smaller person, face tucked protectively against his chest. On the choppy audio a voice shouted until the one being carried lifted her head. Her hood fell back, revealing a riot of dark curls that gleamed in the beam of sunlight that broke through the clouds at that precise moment, making the snow sparkle like a blanket of crushed diamonds.
It was like a scene from a movie. Even the weather was perfectly choreographed. “Wow,” Libby said, inadequately.
“I know.” Jean started to set her phone down, but Libby held on, rewinding the video.
“Who’s that? The guy, I mean.”
“Some dude. He found her out there in Butt Lick, Nowhere. They survived a freaking avalancheanda night in the wilderness. Hashtag Iceman Cometh.”
Libby tore her eyes from the screen in time to catch her friend’s suggestive brow wiggle. “What?”
“More likestripsearch and rescue. A little ice planet action, if you know what I mean.”
Keoki stuck his fingers in his ears, humming under his breath. Bedroom talk was where he generally checked out of the conversation.It would be like finding your little sister’s sex toys,he’d once explained.Instant brain bleed.
