Page 58 of My Sister is Going to Kill Me

Big Pete was unfazed by their natural state. “Run into any other groups on your way down?”

“Just them folks with the mule.” This man was huge and bald, a mountain come alive. He wiped his face with a paisley handkerchief, the kind Liv thought had died out with the Gold Rush. “On the esplanade above Surprise Valley.”

“Were they coming down?” the stocky woman asked. “I got the impression . . .”

“That’s what they said. The lady, she had a hat like yours.” The skinny man nodded at Imogen, whose Babette cap was, incredibly, still white. “She gave me this.”

He glided away and pressed himself up onto the far ledge in one smooth motion, shining his weathered behind in their direction. Liv kept her eyes on the creek while he rummaged through a backpack before wading back over to them.

“Said it’s for forgetting troubles and recirculating hydroadapto-whozies.” He held out the white tube, a telltale silver B tattooed along its side.

PK grabbed the tube, cradling it as if it were the holy grail. “This is a CareFree tester. No one but Babette would have this.”

“You think she’s trying to tell us something?” Devon said.

“Probably just being her generous self.”

“I don’t need it,” the skinny hiker said. “My troubles can’t find me out here.”

“Surprised you haven’t seen your friends yet, though,” the woman chimed in. “They were ahead of us, just stopped for some water. If they were coming here . . .”

“Shoulda crossed paths by now,” the bald man agreed.

“Who was in their group?” Devon’s voice was polite but firm.

“That shiny lady with the white hat,” the bald man said, “and two men.”

“Two?” PK said.

“Big boys,” the skinny man said.

“Plus the mule,” the woman added. “Long cartoon eyelashes, all loaded down with stuff. Even if they were enjoying the scenery, I’d have bet they’d get here two or three hours ago. No heavy packs to carry.”

Devon turned to Big Pete. “We couldn’t have missed them on our way up here from the river, right?”

“Not a chance.”

To Liv’s surprise, Devon turned to her next. “What do you think?”

“What do I think happened, or what do I think we should do?”

“Both.”

Liv took a quick scan around the group. Devon looked focused. Big Pete looked concerned. Imogen was combing her hair in the creek, humming at her ever-present phone. The person whose countenance surprised her most was PK. He stood alone, exposed, fidgeting with the CareFree tester. He was practically kneading the tube into submission. Was he worried about his boss out in the wilderness with a mule and two strange men? Or did he know something about Babette’s plan? Was it possible she was bringing a hit man—or hit men—down into the canyon with her? If PK had indeed been delivering threats on her behalf, perhaps the knowledge that she was now so close, with the arsenal to make good on her promises, made the improbable all too real.

Before Liv could answer, there was a rustle from above. Three more hikers, but these ones she recognized: Fiona in the lead, with Stefan and Lucinda close behind. The older woman was leaning on Stefan, his forearm jutting out from his body in an awkward approximation of a walking stick.

“Are you okay, Nana?” Imogen asked.

“Did you see Babette?” Devon demanded.

“Where’s Mandy and the others?” Liv asked.

Lucinda grunted. “Fine. I’m fine. Just spun my ankle a smidge on the way down. Fortunately Stefan doubled back and helped us out.”

She and Stefan shuffled to one of the ledges, and he helped her lower herself beside her granddaughter. Lucinda removed her left hiking boot and sock and plunged her foot into the icy pool.

“That’s better,” she murmured. She turned her foot in slow arabesques under the crystal-clear water of Deer Creek. Then she looked up. “Is your CEO here?”