Paradise Thriller

The More Drama The Better

"What?" Miranda asked, lifting her head up and staring at Luke. "Every one of them, what?"

"Shhh, nothing," Alison said, stroking her hair. She'd had enough of an upset – there was no point adding to it.

Alison looked back, but Luke had walked away. Everyone else seemed preoccupied. Clarice and Jolene were looking at the view toward the sea. Billy Ray looked like he had nodded off, lying on the grass, his mouth slack, his chest rising and falling evenly. Daryl was busy rolling up the ropes and stowing them in the backpack. Travis, however, was watching her with a considering look, and she wondered if he had seen and heard the exchange between herself and Luke.

The carabiners had seemed secure when she tested them, but she had only checked to make sure the springs allowed the gates to flip inward, and then snapped back in position. She hadn't thought to put pressure on them from the inside and see if they held. The danger generally was that a gate either wouldn't open at all, or would fail to snap back once the rope was inserted. She had never heard of one popping outward under pressure.

She wondered how long Brogan had had the equipment. Had he simply wound up with a bad lot, or was something else going on? And could she believe Luke when he said they'd all been defective? If there really was a problem with the spring lock mechanism, why had he casually tossed them away while he climbed, rather than bringing them all up here to show the rest of the group?

Did Luke have his own reasons for making her feel insecure?

It wouldn't make sense for anyone to sabotage the carabiners. Only the lead climber would be affected, she realized. Since the group would logically pick the person with the most climbing experience to serve as lead, that would by definition be the person least likely to fall and put the carabiners to a test. So if anyone were trying to sabotage the filming, this was a very indirect method unlikely to yield a result.

She felt a sudden chill. Luke had free climbed the rock face with skill and ease, removing each chock without any visible effort. His movements spoke of years of familiarity on climbs far more difficult than this one. Was there another reason – beyond his apparent aloofness – why he had not stepped forward to lead the climb when they first arrived?

Maybe she was reading too much into the whole incident, fueled by her own worry about whatever had happened on the Island when Gwen was here, if Gwen was ever here. The second carabiner had held, she reminded herself, so what she really had was one aluminum ring that didn't work the way it was supposed to. She ran her fingers over it in her pocket. She'd take a better look at it later, when everyone else wasn't just a few feet away from her, and when Travis wasn't watching her with that disconcerting gaze of his, as if she were a puzzle he was trying to solve.

She was jerked out of her reverie when she heard Jolene shout.

"I found it!"

They all ran over, even Miranda getting shakily to her feet. Billy Ray shook himself awake and looked around, reached in his pockets, and seemed satisfied that no one had disturbed him while he was sleeping.

"What is it?" Clarice demanded, and Jolene held it up triumphantly.

"It's the key! The first key, you know, the reason we were supposed to climb up here? I found it!"

A small, weathered box had been sitting there, she explained. And the key wasn't all that was in it. It also contained a hand-drawn map that showed them the trail back to the cabins.

"So we don't have to climb back down!" Jolene said, her enthusiasm uncontainable. "No offense to you outdoors types, but I was not looking forward to that."