Page 17 of My Sister is Going to Kill Me

Liv could feel her sister’s eyes boring into her. Whoops. Only three hours ago she’d agreed to put away her working brain. “I’m sorry. I promised I wouldn’t go all profiler on this trip.”

“No. This is important. What if Babette’s missing?”

“We’ve already established she’s missing.”

“But what if you’re right?” Mandy said. “What if she’s missing missing? What if Charlie and Devon engineered it, and now they’re pretending everything is okay so they can get what they want?”

“Which is what?”

“No clue. Ooh!” Mandy opened her eyes wide. “What if they kidnapped her?”

“And stuffed her in a mule bag?”

“Okay, not that. But what if Charlie and Devon are hiding something, and PK can sense that, and now they’re freaking out?”

They squinted over at the other raft. If Charlie and Devon were working together, they were doing a good job concealing it. It looked to Liv like a full-blown power struggle was underway, the waves of authority bouncing among Charlie, Devon, and Stefan. PK was standing to the side, tightening his PFD and watching the others closely.

“I don’t think it’s easy to make someone disappear,” Liv said.

“Easier than you imagine,” Mandy muttered. “Just ask my last boyfriend.”

Liv considered the evidence: what she knew, not what her sister had invented. There was so little data available to her, and all of it was subjective. Impressions. Emotions. They were as mutable as the river. “We might as well enjoy the trip. That’s what we’re here for, right? And even if Babette is missing, we’re headed downriver. I don’t see what we can do about it.”

“We can’t do much,” Mandy said, waving dismissively at herself and the other guests fumbling into their life jackets. “But you can.”

“I can what?”

“Do your special investigator thing. Find out what happened and where Babette really is.”

Was Mandy serious? Just a few hours ago on the hike down, she had demanded Liv put away anything that had even a whiff of her professional life. And now here she was, asking her to trot it out again.

But Mandy was looking at her with expectation, hope even. Liv liked that look.

“Why does Babette matter so much to you?” Liv asked.

Before Mandy could answer, Thor strode over.

“You ladies ready to hit the water? Give me a look-see.” He reached out and tugged each of the straps on Liv’s PFD. She was glad for the safety review but annoyed by his presumption, the ease with which he manipulated her body without asking.

When it was Mandy’s turn, she raised her arms and gave him a ballerina spin. “How big are these rapids?”

“Horn Creek’s around the corner. It’s a Grand Canyon class eight. At this water level maybe even a nine.”

Liv frowned. “I thought whitewater rapids were only rated one to six.”

“Everywhere else, that’s true. But the Grand plays by its own rules. Here, the ratings go up to ten.”

“Which means?”

“Big waves. Fast water.” The guide smiled and tweaked the cap on Mandy’s head. “Hold on to your hat.”

Chapter Ten

They may not have worked for Imogen’s color palette, but Mandy thought the yellow rafts looked downright cheerful. The two rafts were identical, maybe fifteen feet long, one piloted by Katy, the other by Thor, while Big Pete scrambled back to his set of oars on top of the massive supply boat, now loaded down with all their personal gear. Each raft had three squat rows of inflatable benches, or thwarts, as Thor called them, but he explained that sitting directly on them was a recipe for flying into the river. Instead, he showed them how to perch on the perimeter of the raft, riding the thick rubber tubes that formed the sidewalls, their feet jammed in under the thwarts across the middle.

According to Thor, the front was where the excitement was, so that was where Mandy staked her claim. She and Liv bookended the front bench, then Imogen and Lucinda in the middle, and Fiona on the third bench, balanced along the left outer tube. Thor perched on the very back of the raft, one sandaled foot tagging the spray, his paddle serving as a rudder behind them.

The other raft, piloted by Katy, pulled ahead of them into the quiet heart of the river. Charlie and PK were in front, followed by Devon and Stefan. There was a gap in the third row between the guests and the guide, where Babette should have been. Then again, if Babette had arrived on time, Mandy imagined she’d be commanding the helm of the other raft. Her raft. That was how everyone would see it. She wondered which of Babette’s compatriots would be displaced from the front when she arrived. If she arrived?