They wouldn’t take no for an answer. They practically shoved me out the door, Mirabelle giving me a hug before disappearing. Ulli insisted on driving me to the crossroads where I could hitch a ride to the bus depot several hours away.
“Why don’t you call the cops?” I asked as his truck bounced down the narrow path to the road.
He laughed. “Cops.” He didn’t explain further.
“What’s going to happen?” I asked, desperate now. These were my friends. This was all wrong. It didn’t feel possible.
Ulli looked at me, his expression hard. “He’ll come back, tonight or tomorrow, maybe with a friend. Mirabelle’s going to give him what he wants. If she says no, he will kill her.”
My chest felt like it had been hit with a rock. “What does he want?”
“Money, probably.”
What money? The resort was a campsite with a restaurant, and there were next to no guests. I was their best customer.
“Why?” I asked instead.
“Because Mirabelle’s brother got into trouble.”
“Her brother? What does he have to do with this?”
Ulli slanted me a look.
There was so much I didn’t know. But I could put together pieces, couldn’t I? Mirabelle never talked about herlife before this place. She had that scar on her face. She’d been hiding, and now, she’d been found.
“Let me help,” I said. “I can try to talk to him.”
Ulli squeezed the steering wheel, his eyes distant even as he navigated the tight corners of the track. “Maybe I can work for them. Only for a little while. I’m not on drugs like James. Maybe I can get them some money.”
“Ulli...”
“Maybe five or ten years would be enough. Maybe she’ll wait for me.”
“Ulli, this is crazy.”
But we were there, at the little crossroads where I was to wait for a ride. Ulli said it would come in an hour. He hugged me, which he’d never done. “Goodbye, Sam. Thank you for being my bestie.”
He grinned at the joke. Then he was gone.
But there was no way I was going to sit around here when God knows what was going to happen to my friends. I ran inside and asked the proprietor to call the cops.
He barely looked up from his little TV behind the counter. “No cops around here, mate.”
“Then send someone then, please!” I shouted over my shoulder. “Anyone!” I was already running.
I was too late, of course.
When I sprinted up the last bit of the path I saw it—the sand next to the counter was soaked with blood.
“No!” I screamed. Mirabelle was on the floor, her legs hidden behind the counter. Her eyes were open. Blood dripped down her face onto her phone on the floor under her. The same phone she used to watch her cute animal-loving romance show on.
“The fuck?”
The familiar voice had me whirling around, a cold knife of dread slicing through my already numb insides. James washere, just like Ulli said he would be. Only Ulli had miscalculated. It hadn’t been about the money. And James had probably never left. He’d waited until they thought he was gone.
James had Ulli on his knees.
Ulli, with tears streaming down his cheeks as he looked over at his beloved Mirabelle.
