Chapter Eleven #2
for them downriver.
“Nature is her muse,” Mandy said. “Devon may be the scientist, but it’s all Babette’s vision.”
Liv looked across the river to the other raft. Katy had navigated her group into a long shadow cast by an outcropping of fluted
schist. Their boat was quiet, the hole where Babette should have been sticking out like a lost tooth. Charlie looked completely
shut down. Devon and PK were bickering about something. And Stefan loomed over the rest of them from the back, eyes cloaked
by his cap, mouth hidden in his beard.
“Stefan Eriksen. You don’t know what role he has with the company?” Liv said.
“He’s a money man.” The answer came from Fiona, the blonde in the back of their raft.
“Does he work for Babette?”
“The other way around. He joined the board a year ago as a lead investor.”
“Is he some kind of Euro-billionaire?”
“Stefan? No. Technically, he represents an investor,” Fiona said. “His boss is the biggest backer of CareFree.”
Liv swung around to face the women on the benches behind her. She’d been so focused on the other boat, Charlie’s terror, and
the wild wave machine of the Colorado that she hadn’t really considered the other guests sharing her and Mandy’s raft: Fiona,
Imogen, and Lucinda. A doctor, an influencer, and a chaperone. Their boat was definitively the B team. No Babette executives.
No power players here.
“What’s your connection to Babette, Fiona?” Liv asked.
Fiona’s face was all angles, her skin smooth as glass, and she didn’t seem to be wearing a speck of makeup, though her white-blond
hair couldn’t be natural. Even after the long hike, brutal rapids, and pounding sun, she sported a tight, glossy chignon under
a wide pastel-blue visor. “I was an advisor on CareFree. Dr. Oz named me the foremost expert on aging gracefully.”
“A gerontologist?”
“Dermatologist,” Fiona corrected. “I ran focus groups for CareFree and other Babette Botanique products in development.”
“In Devon’s division?”
“Mm.”
“What are you working with them on now?”
Fiona smiled thinly. “I’m no longer directly involved with the company. My career started in plant-based treatments, but these
days, I’m focused on something more essential.”
“Dirt?” Liv asked.
“The sun. The source of all vitality. I’m opening a light therapy clinic in Seoul.”
Liv squinted at the doctor. Fiona’s visor was blocking any and all solar energy from reaching her. “But you’re here.”
“Babette asked me to come.”
“Is she interested in Korean light therapy?”
“I doubt it.” Fiona looked uncomfortable. “I imagine it has something to do with CareFree. Babette offered to increase my
stake if I could help her—with what, she wasn’t specific. She said she’d explain everything when I got here. Instead . . .”
Fiona waved her hand dismissively, as if the Grand Canyon was a booby prize at the carnival.
“So you’re an investor in CareFree,” Liv said. “Like Stefan?”
“Not exactly. Investors come in tiers. He’s a whale. I’m a guppy.” Fiona held her placid smile, but Liv could feel the tension
radiating underneath. “Or rather, his private equity firm is the whale. He represents big money, which gives him power as
a board member. But Babette has always been the one to call the shots.”
Liv nodded. “Babette’s the boss.”
“That’s how she sees it.”
“Isn’t it true?”
Fiona eked out another tight, closed-lip smile. “What’s with all the questions? Why are you two here, anyway?”
Liv looked to Mandy to explain. If the superfan story was indeed a lie, Liv wasn’t going to repeat it. Maybe Mandy had a different
explanation now. Maybe she was even ready to tell the truth about her connection to Babette, whatever it was.
“I shouldn’t tell you this, but . . .” Mandy winked at Liv. “My sister’s on a top secret mission.”
Liv wanted to scream. Or slap her. Or both. “I’m not—”
“Don’t be modest,” Mandy said. “Liv is a profiler for the State Department. She’s an international special investigator. Like
James Bond.”
“And you got assigned to this river trip?” Fiona sounded skeptical.
“To find Babette?” Imogen asked.
Mandy was smiling wide now, giving Liv an encouraging nod. Liv knew what her sister wanted. But she wouldn’t. She couldn’t. She was constitutionally incapable of telling bald-faced lies. Just thinking about it made her want to jump in the river.
“I’m sorry to disappoint you,” Liv said. “But I’m an analyst. I don’t work in the field. And I’d never heard of Babette Sauvage
before this trip.”
“They coach them to go in with an open mind,” Mandy improvised. “Blank slate.”
“Mandy, please. That’s not—”
“They train them to deny everything,” Mandy said.
“I’ve never met a secret agent before,” Imogen said.
“Nor have I,” Lucinda added.
“I am not a spy,” Liv said.
“Bet that’s what they all say,” Thor stage-whispered to Lucinda.
The older woman nodded.
“Skin care is not an issue of global security,” Liv said. She had a full-blown headache now. “And I have no connection with
Babette. I’m just here on vacation with my sister.”
Her words hit the swirling water and sank out of view. She didn’t have to look to know Mandy was disappointed. No matter how
far they traveled, they always seemed to find themselves at this same crossroads, where expectation met disappointment from
both directions.