“Okay, I might be exaggerating a little. But if she’d gotten off the trail and fallen where no one could find her, it could have happened.
“That’s actually true,” Spencer conceded.
Brad jumped in. “The hike wasn’t so bad and she was great. Carried her own backpack the whole way. Refused help most of the time. That’s really why she was so scratched up. She definitely wanted to prove herself.”
“You know,” said Josh, ?
??she tried to explain it. But I never quite understood why she did that. Maybe you can elucidate, Spencer. Why did she go on that hike today? She said she had to prove you were important.”
Spencer felt his face heating up as he struggled to find an answer, but Grace jumped in.
“It was my fault, actually. She wanted to talk to Spencer, and I told her Spencer would be busy on this overnight hike until Monday.”
“And then Becca lied to her about where the hike was going to be,” Charlie added, “so she ended up at Devil’s Path instead of Harriman Loop.”
“Becca?” asked Josh. “Who’s Becca.”
“Becca is this girl who likes Spencer, so she lied to Emily to throw her off,” said Grace.
“Oh.” Josh gave a knowing nod. “Becca likes Spencer. I get it. Emily did this to attract Spencer’s attention away from Becca. He doesn’t seem worth the trouble to me. No offense, man.”
“No,” snarled Spencer. “I’ve never liked Becca, and Emily didn’t need to attract my attention, she already had it.”
“Josh, you’ve got a long way to go before you can understand my sister. Her mind works in complicated ways.” Charlie pointed her finger at him.
“I’ve got nothing but time, and I’m a patient man.”
“Cute,” smirked Charlie, “A doctor—a patient man? That’s funny.”
It wasn’t funny at all.
“Oh, and she’s a CPA at Gherring Inc. We never did tell you what she did,” Charlie added.
“Ah,” said Josh. “A CPA. Hmmm, that could be a great combination.”
In his mind, Spencer pictured all the different ways he could kill Josh.
*****
“This is fun, Mom. The two of us can sit here together and feel miserable.” At seven a.m. on Sunday morning, Emily had already limped down to her apartment to shower off and change clothes. She’d been shocked at how many bruises and cuts were on her body, and her ankle was definitely swollen. But her shower had been a moment of ecstasy as she’d scrubbed the dirt and dust from her body until her skin was pink. Her mother was fighting nausea again since removing her IV due to painful irritation of the skin around the needle. She was braving the mounting queasiness, attempting to postpone calling Connie to insert a new IV needle.
“I’m just so happy to have you here in one piece I don’t want to complain. But you may not want to stay up here if I start throwing up again.” Her mother’s smile was a bit shaky.
“Why don’t you let me call Connie?” Steven asked. “You know she won’t mind.”
“But she’s got to have some time off. We can’t always expect her to drop everything and come over here,” Anne protested.
Steven’s answer was cut off by a tentative knock at the door. “I wonder who that could be. I’m betting on Spencer.”
“Me, too. He was dying to talk to you last night,” Anne told Emily.
“Well, I don’t look very good.” Emily wished she’d worn long pants to cover her extensive injuries. She couldn’t quite see around Steven when he opened the door.
“Oh, I wasn’t expecting you.”
“Yes, sir. I hope you don’t mind. I was hoping to see my patient before I do rounds at the hospital.” Josh smiled broadly as he entered the apartment. “Hey, Emily.”
She was so confused. “Hi, Josh. What’re you doing here?”