Out In The Cold
Has Jo’s controlling brother-in-law Luke found himself on a slippery slope?
Matching suitcases?” Luke raises an eyebrow as Jo bumps her case out of the funicular station and onto the snow. “I know you two are close, but this is a whole new level.”
Her sister, Anna, nudges her.
“Told you.” Her breath makes clouds in the frosty air. “He doesn’t like it when we’re together.”
“What was that?” Luke frowns. Jo exchanges a smile with Anna. Nothing her brother-in-law could say could dent her mood. She’d waited years for this skiing holiday, scrimped and saved, and already, it was as magical as she remembered.
She’d spent three years as a chalet girl after university, but she hadn’t made it back to the mountains since. Real life kicked in – a job, mortgage, but she hasn’t forgotten this feeling: like stepping into another world.
As they leave the station, snow is falling gently, fat white flakes covering the sleeve of her blue Puffa coat like little stars. Everything is a perfect, pristine white – road, pavement, trees, the whipped-cream topping on the rustic-looking chalets. “How far is the chalet?”
“Only up there –” Luke points. “I’ve stayed here before.”
“With his girlfriend. One of many.” Anna smiles. “She still lives here. Annoyingly good skier.”
“Anna –” Luke flashes her a warning look. Instead of telling him off for his lack of humour, she says nothing, just nods.
Jo feels a surge of frustration: this is what Luke had done to her sister over the years; chipped away at her confidence, made her afraid to stand up for herself.
A few metres on, they turn the corner and Jo notices a phone lying in the snow. When she picks it up, a message flashes on the screen. Callmelater. Weneedtotalk. No name, just a number.
“Thanks.” Luke pulls it from her grasp. “Didn’t realise I’d dropped it.”
Jo nods, her thoughts sliding to what she saw last week; Luke walking through Exeter. He hadn’t noticed her as he crossed the road. She wouldn’t have thought anything of it, had Anna not told her that he was meant to be in London.
It’s beautiful.” Jo gazes around the chalet, taking in the wooden panelling, the rustic furniture and fluffy white sheepskins.
“Gorgeous.” Anna’s dark hair is dotted with melting snowflakes. “Makes me wish I hadn’t waited so long to come.”
“I did ask, but you were always busy.” “Studying. I was the boring sister –” “Maybe, but you’re a midwife now. You achieved your dream.”
Anna’s face tightens. “Luke thinks I should cut back my hours.”
“Why?”
“He’d like me around more, and if we start a family –”
“But is it something you want?”
“I don’t know, but Luke’s convinced –” “It’s not Luke’s decision.” Jo frowns. “Anna, this isn’t you. You used to be so confident, independent –”
“I –” But Luke is in the doorway.
“Ready to ski?”
Outside the cable car station, they click on their skis. With Luke in front, they start skiing down the gentle incline. Within minutes, Anna’s tentative turns become more assured.
But when they turn the corner, Anna freezes. The slope dramatically drops away, slick with a bluish sheen of ice.
Aneasyred, Luke described it, but this is definitely a black. Idiot. Is he deliberately trying to dent Anna’s confidence?
“I can’t do it.”
“You’ll be fine,” Luke says heartily, skiing a few metres down.
Tears are forming in Anna’s eyes. “I can’t, Jo, I’ll fall –”
“You won’t. Remember how they showed you to sidestep in the snowdome? We”re going to do that here.”
Inch by inch, they sidestep their way down the side of the piste.
“OK?” Jo asks when they’re a few metres down.
“Fine,” Anna says with a steely resolve that Jo hasn’t seen in years – something else that Luke had chipped away at.
When they reach the bottom, Luke holds up his phone.
“Guess who just messaged?”
“Who?” Anna’s hands are shaking around her poles. Luke seems oblivious.
“Tom. He saw my Facebook post. You’ll never believe it, he’s here too. He’s invited me to a torchlit descent once the slopes are closed –”
“Sounds like fun.” Anna smiles, but Jo senses a hesitation.
“What is it?” she asks as Luke skis away. “I’m just surprised that Tom’s got in touch. They had a big falling-out. Mind you, that’s not unusual, Luke falls out with a lot of people.”
“What did they argue about?”
“He never said.”
Jo nods, once again picturing him in Exeter. There seem to be a lot of things Luke doesn’t tell Anna…
The Next Day
Luke skis towards Le Buvette, the cabin where he’d agreed to meet Tom, snowflakes battering his helmet. A storm is blowing in, and it’s already dark.
When he stops outside the cabin, it looks deserted – no sign of Tom. He glances at his watch. Five pm. Fifteen minutes until the torchlit descent starts.
Nerves flicker in his stomach as a pisteur, responsible for ensuring no one was left on the slopes at the end of the day, skis past at high speed. As the wind howls, lifting up the hood of his jacket and tossing it against his helmet, Luke shivers, feeling very alone. He’ll give Tom a call…
But when he gropes in his pocket for his phone, it’s not there. He pats down his other pockets, but there’s no sign.
His heart starts thudding in his chest. He’s high in the mountains in a storm, alone. No phone, the cable car snow closed, and the pisteurs are gone.
Forget the torchlit descent, he’s off… Luke skis clumsily towards the piste, but as he gets closer, he sees an orange tape flapping wildly in the wind. The piste
Anna’s hands are shaking around her ski poles, but Luke seems oblivious
is cordoned off – huge chunks of snow cover the slope. It hasn’t been bashed.
There’s no way they’ll be doing a torchlit descent here. A sudden realisation: Tom must have been lying…
Looking for another way down, Luke spots a piste marker pointing left. He skis towards it and finds a steep black run. Hard, but not impossible if he’s careful.
But as soon as he starts moving, his bottom ski skids out from under him with a rough, rasping sound. He can’t catch an edge. It’s like pure ice.
It’s then he realises that it is pure ice. This black… it’s the infamous La Glisse, a World Cup run. The surface is injected with water, which when re-frozen, makes it run even faster.
He’s picking up speed. Luke stiffens, panicked, and the jerky movement is enough to throw his weight off.
A loud click. His ski pings off and away, down the piste and into the darkness.
He’s gripped with a cold dread. How is he going to get down? Amid the wind, he hears a sound, on the side of the piste.
Luke lets out a low moan.
Jo lowers herself into the steaming water of the hot tub. “Ahh, just what I need.” Anna smiles, but she looks distracted. “What’s up?”
“I thought Luke would be back by now.” She stands up, water streaming off her costume. “I’ll just check my phone.”
“We’ve only just got in…” But Anna’s already walking across the snow-covered terrace and into the chalet.
It’s obvious that she doesn’t trust him, and it pains Jo to see Anna, her happiness so dependent on Luke. The person she’s become is almost unrecognisable.
It’s past eight by the time Luke appears at the chalet. Anna jumps up. “At last, we were getting worried –” Jo waits for the inevitable joke about apres-ski, but Luke’s fighting back tears.
“Tom never turned up. It was a set-up, a prank. There was no torchlit descent, the slope was closed. I ended up on a black run, lost my ski. I had to walk down, and I kept hearing these noises –” He shudders.
Anna shakes her head. “I knew it was strange, him getting in touch –”
“But why would he do something like that?” Jo says.
“I don’t know,” Luke replies, but a flicker of an expression crosses his face.
“You need to call him,” Anna says. “Find out what he’s playing at.”
“His number was on my phone –”
“I’ve got it.” Anna passes him hers. Pacing down the room, Luke dials, speaking quietly for several minutes. When he turns, his face is pale.
“It wasn’t him. Tom gave up his Facebook account months ago. He isn’t even out here, he’s in the UK.”
“Maybe Tom’s telling the truth,” Jo suggests. “It could have been anyone. Your ex-girlfriend, or someone else?”
“But who?”
Youtellme, Jo thinks, watching him. From what Anna said, it sounds as if Luke has a lot of enemies. our days later, Jo wheels her case into her flat. An instant feeling of relaxation: the last few days of skiing had been stressful, listening to Luke’s conspiracy theories. The one positive, though, was that the experience seemed to have humbled him – much less bravado on the slopes and with her and Anna.
Hauling her bag up onto her bed, Jo starts pulling out her clothes, ready to wash. Except they aren’t her clothes… it’s Anna’s case. They’ve mixed them up.
Jo smiles. She knew this was going to happen. As she starts putting the clothes back in, she notices a mobile in the top pocket. It’s a cheap, supermarket one – not Anna’s usual phone.
Curiousity piqued, she switches it on. No password – a message pops up. Tom:AllOK?
Jo stares, her heart racing. Tom. Clicking into the message chain, she starts scrolling through. He’ s left the chalet. Have de let edFB account. Put UK ringtone on my phone.
Jo hesitates, incredulous. It was Anna who set Luke up on the mountain – with Tom’s help. But why?
She finds her answer at the very start of the message chain.
Have you told Helen you know about herandLuke? No. I’ ll deal with that once we’ ve done it. Helen must be Tom’s wife. She must be having an affair with Luke…
Jo’s thoughts flicker to seeing Luke in Exeter, his odd expression when she asked why Tom would set him up.
Her own phone vibrates, and she pulls it from her pocket. A message from Anna: Coming to stay for awhile. Will explain whenIgethere.
She taps out a reply. Notsureyouneed to. We swapped cases. I found the phone.
Anna’s response is two skier emojis, followed by a thumbs up. Jo smiles. it looks as if the old Anna is back…