Page 107 of My Sister is Going to Kill Me

“It was chaotic at the luggage drop,” Charlie said. “And so early.”

Mandy remembered the cranky people milling around in the predawn haze. PK and Thor arguing over the duffel bags. Imogen with her camera, live-streaming everything, demanding that Marc strut out with mule after mule on display.

“You’re right,” Mandy said. “We started hiking by five. If there was something strange at the luggage drop that PK messaged Babette about, she might not have seen his text until we were way down the trail.”

Charlie turned to Guy. “What time did she get to your hotel room that morning?”

“Early.” Guy shuddered.

“Six?” Mandy asked. “Seven?”

“Nine thirty,” Guy said.

“We were halfway to the river by then,” Thor said. “Zero reception. There’s no way she could have reached PK or anyone in the group.”

Mandy looked at her father. “Why wouldn’t she tell you who it was?”

“I don’t know. She said she couldn’t.”

“But she convinced you to come down with her anyway?”

“I told you, she made me a promise.”

“What promise?” Mandy asked.

Guy glanced at Charlie, then back to her. “She said if I could help her retain her role as CEO, I could name my position in the company.”

Charlie scoffed. “You’re a convicted felon and a fly-by-night investment advisor. What position could you possibly be qualified for at Babette?”

“I was thinking yours.”

Charlie’s face went red. “She would never—”

“Just like you would never steal her company from her?”

“You don’t—”

Mandy gave her paddle a flick in the river, splashing them into silence with the icy water.

“Focus,” she demanded. “Babette brought my dad down here because she was worried about a threat to the company made by someone on this trip who wasn’t supposed to be here. But she couldn’t, or wouldn’t, tell you who it was.”

“Maybe it was one of the guides,” Charlie said. “Maybe she didn’t know their name.”

Katy? But she and Big Pete hadn’t met them until they reached the river.

“Marc?” Thor said. “Could he have been who Babette was stirred up about?”

“Couldn’t have been,” Guy said. “When Marc met us at the ranch yesterday morning, Babette was all smiles and handshakes and can I pet the mule. She’d never seen him before, I’m sure of it. When she started feeling hot and Marc told me to hike ahead for help, she didn’t even bat an eyelash.”

“Maybe she should have,” Charlie said.

“Maybe,” Guy said grimly. “But even if Marc did kill her, he wasn’t the one she wanted my help dealing with.”

“Then who was?”

Before anyone could speculate further, a whoosh of energy hit the front of the raft. The breeze, a wandering trickle in the warm morning air, folded into a sharp, driving wind. All around them, the river erupted into swirling boils, bubbling like a witch’s cauldron.

“Upset Rapid,” Thor said. “Time to strap in.”