Page 69 of My Sister is Going to Kill Me

“Calm? Babette is dead, and you’re telling me to stay calm?”

Mandy was still processing what had happened. She kept blinking, trying to chase away the impossible horror before her. She’d dreamt of getting close to Babette, but not like this. Never like this.

Thor coolly removed Devon’s hand from PK’s forearm, angling his body to allow the woman to slide past the wild-eyed assistant and join her brother and their dead sister at the rocks. PK kept trying to shove his way through, but the guide was eerily relaxed, as if he’d prepared for this situation. He stood silent, an implacable wall separating Mandy and the Sauvage siblings from the rest of the group.

PK whirled around, seeking new targets among the others. “It was both of them. Charlie and Devon. Babette knew they were trying to take her down. That’s what the messages in their hats must have been about. They’ve always been jealous, they’ve never been at her level, and she gave and gave but they took and took until here we are on the worst hike in the history of the universe.”

“I cannot believe this,” Stefan said.

“My goodness,” whispered Lucinda.

“Um.” Imogen looked sick. “Are we sure she’s dead?”

Lucinda reached out to take her granddaughter’s hand.

“Because it would be way better if she wasn’t,” Imogen clarified.

“She was murdered.” PK’s eyes had gone black with fury. “By them.”

Charlie shrank into Devon, who tried her best to stand up straight, one arm wrapped around her brother. Mandy remembered the message in PK’s hat, the way Babette called her assistant replaceable. Was it possible he was pointing the finger at Charlie and Devon to divert attention from his own pent-up desire to lash out at Babette? Could PK have somehow killed his hero? Mandy needed Liv, but she couldn’t spot her. Her eyes were still blurry with tears, her body frozen in place in grief and horror.

Thor moved to climb the stairs to the sandstone throne.

“What are you doing?” Devon snapped.

“I’m a wilderness first responder,” Thor said. “I can take a closer look.”

Fiona stepped forward. “I’m a doctor. I’ll do it.”

She climbed up the great stone steps to where Babette lay. Fiona checked Babette’s neck for a pulse, then put a hand to the woman’s heart. She ran her fingers lightly over Babette’s entire body, barely touching her. Something about the doctor’s tentative, thoughtful movements snapped the edge off Mandy’s shock. She watched, letting her gaze follow Fiona’s over Babette’s broken form. There was no blood. No tear in Babette’s clothing. Instead, Mandy caught little suggestions of how recently Babette had been alive. Her cheeks still had color, her forehead broken out. Was it possible the skin care mogul secretly suffered from adult acne? Were there stresses not even the queen of CareFree could wash away?

Fiona gently pressed Babette’s eyes closed and turned to the rest of them.

“Is she dead?” Lucinda asked.

Fiona nodded, her smooth skin revealing not even a wrinkle of concern.

“Murdered?” PK’s voice was hysterical.

“There’s no way for me to know that,” Fiona said. “Her eyes made it look like she was afraid of something. She’d popped a blood vessel from strain. But she climbed up on that throne somehow, and there’s no obvious wound, no marks on her skin. With her eyes closed, she looks perfect.”

“Babette always looked perfect.” Imogen fumbled her phone from her pocket. “I should capture something. For posterity?”

Lucinda swatted at her. “Put that away.”

Mandy inched out from behind the Sauvage siblings and headed toward her sister. She felt shaky, but Liv locked eyes with her, and Mandy shuffled toward her steadiness, trying to match her sister’s solid gaze with deliberate footsteps.

But before Mandy reached Liv, another impossible sight hit her. Her father, rushing toward her.

“Dad? Dad! What are you doing here?”

Guy squeezed Mandy to his chest. His warmth felt good, but also strange. Smothering. She couldn’t make sense of his presence, and instead of offering her answers, he was holding her so tight the wrinkles in his windbreaker creased her cheek.

She felt his words more than heard them, a low rumble against her ear. “Babette didn’t make it. But I’m here. You’re safe.”

Mandy gave in to the oddness of it, sinking into his chest and taking big, gulping breaths. In her periphery, she could sense Liv trying to reach her, trying to insist her way into the reunion. But Guy held her so close. And she was sobbing now, really crying, her tears mixing with the sweat and dust on her father’s jacket. He seemed to be shaking a little, too.

“You?” Stefan took a step toward Guy. “Are you responsible for this?”