Page 85 of My Sister is Going to Kill Me

When Liv walked back up from the riverbank, Big Pete was pacing behind the kitchen area, the clunky black satellite phone clamped to his head. She caught his eye, but he put a finger in the air.

“Where is he now?” Big Pete waited. “I see. Makes sense.” Another pause. “No, you can call them off. Yeah. Tell him to call first thing when he gets in in the morning.”

As soon as he flicked off the phone, she leapt.

“What did you hear?”

“Nothing new from the Park Service,” he said. “That was Jan, in our office. Marc made it back to the rim thirty minutes ago. He went straight to Wild Adventures and told Jan we needed a medevac sent down. Apparently Babette did indeed get worse after your dad left them. Jan called me for coordinates for the medical team.” He sighed. “I told her they aren’t needed anymore.”

“Did Marc say anything specific about her condition when he left her? Anyone else he ran into?”

Big Pete shook his head. “I didn’t get to talk to him directly. Jan said he was about to collapse from exhaustion himself, so she sent him back to his trailer for the night. I told her I want to talk to him as soon as possible tomorrow.”

Liv felt a spike of disappointment at not being able to interview Marc herself. But if the guide had hiked twenty-four miles that day, she supposed he deserved some rest. And her sense of letdown, she realized, ran deeper than that. A piece of her had been holding on to the hope that Babette’s murderer was the guide, or someone else far from their small beach, no matter how little sense that made. Now she had to confront the reality that the killer was most likely here among them.

It was enough to prompt her to put into action the idea Mandy had sparked. While the others lolled in their canvas chairs, inventing constellations and passing around tubs of CareFree for reapplication, Liv pitched her idea to Big Pete. The conversation was shorter than expected. The lead guide seemed hollowed out by the events of the day, and he had few questions to contribute. Once they’d agreed on the basics, Big Pete stepped out from behind the kitchen into the circle of camping chairs.

“Folks, I have an announcement to make.”

It was dark enough now that Liv could make out only the brightest features of each person—PK’s frosted tips, Mandy’s toothy smile—as they turned toward Big Pete.

“I’ve decided to appoint Liv as our safety officer for the rest of the trip.”

Liv braced for resistance, but she was met only with dazed puzzlement.

“Like, CPR training?” Fiona asked. “I’m a doctor. I’m good.”

“You want a vest?” Thor asked. “Or a badge?”

“My sister’s a federal agent,” Mandy said. “She already has a badge. And a gun.”

A few sets of eyes turned anxiously in Liv’s direction.

“My gun isn’t here,” Liv assured everyone. “There aren’t any guns here. Right?”

Big Pete and Thor exchanged a look.

“We have one gun,” Thor said. “In case of mountain lions. But it’s locked up tight on the supply boat.”

“We don’t typically need a security protocol on a rafting trip,” Big Pete said, “but this is anything but a typical situation. So I’ve asked Liv to take this on. And as her first order of business, well, why don’t you tell them?”

Liv inhaled deeply. Her sister had given her the inspiration, but she wasn’t going to like it. No one was going to like it, even if they were half doped on CareFree. Liv didn’t have Mandy’s gift of gab or her dad’s ability to conjure belief out of fairy tales. All she had was the truth. She exhaled and went for it.

“For everyone’s safety, we are going to separate Charlie, Stefan, and Guy from the rest of the group for the night,” she said.

“Separate?” Devon asked. “How?”

“Why us?” Guy said.

“You were the only ones with the opportunity to spend time alone with Babette before she died. We’re going to ask you three to sleep on the supply boat,” Liv said. “It will stay staked in the cove on the other side of these rocks. The guides will remain onshore, and you can sleep on their kits on the boat. The guides will take turns keeping watch from the rocks,” Liv continued. “To ensure no one gets hurt or crosses over.”

“You’re saying one of the three of us is a killer, and the other two have to sleep next to him?” Charlie said.

“Not next to, exactly. The supply boat’s thirty-five feet long. The sleeping kits are on three different sides of the boat, with all that equipment stacked in the middle. You won’t be able to see each other, let alone reach each other. This is for your safety, truly. I’m not accusing any of you of hurting Babette. Maybe you saw something. Maybe you heard something. This is as much for your protection as ours.”

Charlie wasn’t having it. “If one of us wanted to, we could take two steps around the supplies and jump the others before the guide even got down to the water.”

“I have a plan for that.”