Page 60 of Face Her Fear

Overhead, the clouds drifted, and the moon began to emerge, casting a silver glow over everything. Toward the back of the main house, where the roof wasn’t as severely pitched as the A-frame portion of the building in the front, a massive slab of snow had fallen.

“It’s not the bear,” Josie called. She waved him over but he wouldn’t move off the path. Holding her lantern out to the pile, she said, “Look! This slid off the roof. That’s what we heard.”

Brian took a tentative step and peered at what was now a mountain of snow along the side of the main house. “It made that much noise?”

Josie turned back toward him. “Well, yeah. It’s almost three feet of snow sliding off a metal roof and falling onto this.” She stomped her foot against an unbroken area of snow, making a cracking noise. “It froze overnight, but that, on the roof, probably got warm enough to slide off from the wood-burning stove.”

“Holy shit,” he said.

Back inside, Josie could see that the others were at once relieved that the source of the noise wasn’t any sort of threat but disappointed that it wasn’t a rescue. Brian and Nicola decided to switch places. Alice took Josie’s place. While Nicola and Alice settled into chairs around the stove, Brian, Sandrine, and Josie went to their respective beds. Within minutes, Brian was snoring loudly enough to be heard across the room.

Josie stretched out on her mattress and looked over at Alice and Nicola, trying to gauge whether or not they’d be able to overhear if she spoke with Sandrine. Their mattresses were only a foot apart. Sandrine was already on her side, facing Josie, one hand tucked under her cheek. Confident that they wouldn’t be overheard if they kept their voices down, Josie wriggled to the edge of her mattress and reached over, touching Sandrine’s shoulder. She opened her eyes. “Is everything okay?” she asked.

Josie put her index finger to her lips to signal that they should be quiet. Sandrine shifted her body so that she, too, lay at the very edge of the mattress. With only a foot between them, it was easier to converse in whispers.

Sandrine said, “What is going on, Josie?”

“We need to talk. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about Meg. I felt it was necessary at the time.”

Sandrine’s eyes glowed with unshed tears in the flickering light from the stove. “Do you know what happened to Taryn?”

“No.” Josie thought of what Nicola had said.Her blood is on your hands. Before her body went into overdrive, she pushed the accusation away. If they all got out of here alive, there would be time later to examine her role in all of this and whether she’d cost Taryn her life. For now, she was after information. “Today, when I was at the rage room, I learned from my colleague that Taryn, Nicola and Brian lied on their intake paperwork for the retreat.”

A look of horror stretched across Sandrine’s face. “What? What are you saying?”

“They’re not who they’re claiming to be.” Josie explained what Gretchen had told her. “I don’t even think that Brian and Nicola are actually married.”

“What? No! That’s ridiculous. It can’t be.”

Josie put her finger back to her lips so that Sandrine would lower her voice again. “I’m certain of it. I don’t know how they know each other or Taryn but I believe all three of them knew each other before they arrived here, and they’ve come specifically for you.”

With her free hand, Sandrine pulled her cover up to her shoulder. “For me? What does that mean?”

“I’m not exactly sure,” said Josie. “But Sandrine, they want something from you.”

“But what?”

“I don’t know. Some sort of information, from what it looks like.”

Sandrine frowned. “How can you know that?”

Josie told her about the cameras.

Sandrine leaned over the edge of the mattress, her face coming closer to Josie’s. “Is there a camera in this room right now?”

“I couldn’t find one in this room,” Josie answered.

Sandrine lifted her head a couple of inches and looked over toward Alice and Nicola. Josie did the same. The two sat in the same chairs Brian and Josie had occupied, each one staring at the stove. Settling back into their pillows, Sandrine whispered, “But Taryn? She was so sweet. She was practically attached to my hip!”

“I know,” Josie said. “I think that was the point. Taryn’s job was to get close to you. I think she got so close to you that she had a change of heart about whatever they came here to do and maybe that’s why she’s gone.”

“Listen to what you’re saying, Josie. It sounds crazy. You’re saying that these three people lied about their identities to come onto this retreat where they planted cameras because they hoped to get information from me? What do they think I am? A CIA agent?” She attempted a small laugh, but it died in her throat. Her lower lip trembled. “Do you think they’re the ones who killed Meg?”

Josie glanced over at Alice and Nicola again but neither of them had moved. “It seems very likely. She must have found something out or seen something. I can’t be sure if they’re all in on it or not or if one of them has gone rogue and started killing. Regardless, I think Taryn refused to go along with the plan anymore and that Nicola and Brian may have killed her and hidden her body. I just don’t know where.”

“Oh God,” Sandrine sniffled. “What do we do? We’re stuck here. God knows how much longer we’ll be here.”

“Right,” Josie said. “I don’t want anyone else to die before we’re rescued.”

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