Chapter Forty-Three #2
no, definitely not—propel them down the Colorado.
They had a purpose. They had a goal. They were no longer on a trip that had gone horribly, disastrously wrong. They were on
a mission to make it right.
Liv ignored the expanding chaos on the tarp and focused on the bags no one touched: Charlie’s, Mandy’s, Stefan’s, and Thor’s.
She started with Thor’s knapsack. If by any chance he’d left his knife in there, she needed to sequester it to keep her story
alive. But there was no knife, just flannel shirts and a couple thick paperback novels. She moved on to Stefan’s backpack,
which was mostly German hiking gear, along with a worn wool sweater wrapped around a file folder. She snapped it open. Papers.
Her eyes skated over the many pages of legalese. She slid the folder into her sweatshirt to review later, when reading once
again felt like an attainable skill.
Charlie’s bag held gray and khaki clothing, Mandy’s every bedazzled color of the rainbow. Liv felt a sharp pang while fingering
the rhinestoned top of a flamingo-print bikini. Then, just like that, the feeling floated away.
Devon crouched beside her.
“Is that Stefan’s?” she said, pointing to the backpack.
Liv nodded.
“May I see it?”
Liv watched as Devon conducted her own search of Stefan’s bag, pulling out all the clothing and turning it over, as if she
were searching for a hidden zipper or secret compartment.
“What are you looking for?” Liv asked.
“Nothing,” Devon said. “I just thought . . . he’d mentioned . . .”
Did Devon know about the file folder Liv had taken? Liv’s inclination was to stay silent and keep the evidence to herself,
but time was of the essence, and if she was going to understand the legal papers she’d smuggled out of Stefan’s bag, Devon
might be well positioned to help. It was possible Devon was a killer and something in the papers would trigger her. But Liv
couldn’t imagine she would physically hurt her in broad daylight with everyone else around. After breakfast, Liv had insisted
Big Pete and Katy squirrel all the knives away.
“I wasn’t sure if I should tell anyone,” Liv said, “but now—”
“What?” Devon asked.
“Stefan gave me something. The first morning at camp,” she improvised. “He asked me to keep it safe.”
The lies were getting easier now. Liv stacked them like bricks, each new story bolstering the deceit she’d already laid. She
pulled the file folder out and opened it, setting the pages on the sand one by one.
She and Devon stared down. The papers made no more sense to Liv now that they were all spread out before her. They didn’t
seem to have to do with putting money into Babette’s business. There were no tables of expected returns nor language about
investment tranches. These looked like something else.
“This doesn’t make sense,” Devon said. She started arranging the papers into two separate piles.
“How so?”
When Devon didn’t answer, Liv kept talking. “Look, I know you run a complex business, and there might be private information in here. But if it can help us save your brother and my sister . . .”
Devon sighed. “Charlie and I were in talks with Stefan about taking over management of Babette.”
“Taking over from your sister? Did she know?”
“No.”
The word hung in the air, neither one of them choosing to poke the wasp nest of sibling betrayal.
“Stefan said he’d bring the documents to finalize the leadership transition on this trip,” Devon said. “These pages”—she pointed
to the stack on her left—“are all about that. But these other ones”—she indicated the papers to her right—“are something else.”
“What?”
“It’s odd. This is a vendor contract Babette canceled a few weeks ago,” Devon said, touching the papers on her right. “A waste
management company we were working with to dispose of excess material generated in the production of CareFree.”
“Was there a problem with the vendor?”
“Not to my knowledge,” Devon said. “ADD Inc. specializes in startups that use unusual ingredients in research and development.
We didn’t have any issues with them in the lab. As far as I knew, they showed up on time and took reasonable precautions with
the more volatile material.”
“Volatile? You mean, the psychotropic elements? The—”
“Scopolamine, yes,” Devon said. “It’s a controlled substance, and the CareFree waste is hyperconcentrated. We can’t just throw
it out or pour it down the drain. The waste has to be managed by professionals.”
The information was moving too fast for Liv. She scanned the papers for bold type, capital letters, something she could understand.
“ATTENTION TO DETAIL DISPOSAL INC.,” Liv read. “Babette canceled this?”
Devon nodded. “Maybe a month ago. I don’t know why.”
“Did she often get involved with vendors on the science side?”
“Babette had her fingers in every little thing. Sometimes for a brilliant reason. Sometimes just the flavor of the day. When she wanted something different—poof. It changed.”
Liv could hear Devon’s bitterness, even now, after everything that had happened.
“You and Charlie were hoping to run the business differently,” Liv said.
“We will,” Devon said. “And we’ll do it in her memory.”
Was it possible this was always Charlie and Devon’s plan—to get rid of their sister and take over? It didn’t make sense that
a scientist as analytical as Devon would speak so carelessly if she had in fact orchestrated Babette’s murder. But maybe it
was like what Liv was learning with her stack of lies: The more you believed your own tall tales, the more true they became
for you.
All kinds of people were capable of self-deception. It wasn’t just losers deluding themselves with personal mantras and lottery
tickets. The most visionary people she knew lived deep in the belly of beliefs that ran counter to common sense. They had
to. They saw things other people didn’t. Sometimes their intense commitment to a dream enabled them to do things no one thought
possible. Other times, their obsessions blinded them to how far from reality they were traveling. The difficulty was assessing
when they were right and when they were lying to themselves.
Which was Devon? Right about her sister’s shortcomings as CEO? Or so deluded by that belief that she’d go to any length to
take over the company?
“Why would Stefan bring a canceled waste contract with him to the Grand Canyon?” Liv asked.
“No clue. As far as I know, Stefan wasn’t even aware ADD Inc. existed.” Devon looked downriver, then shook her head. “Charlie
might know more. He processed all the final contracts.”
Liv slid the papers back into the folder.
“Let me keep that,” Devon said.
“Why?”
“Because you’re right. It doesn’t make sense that Stefan brought this down here. If I have more time to look at it, maybe I can figure it out.”
Liv didn’t like it. If the papers held important information Devon wanted to hide, it would be easy for her to stash them
out of sight or simply toss the folder into the river.
But Liv also knew there was no way she’d uncover the import of the contract on her own. If the management of CareFree’s waste
material was germane to the murders, her best bet was to hope Devon could figure out why. That, and that the woman wouldn’t
lie to her about it. Liv was discovering just how easy—and useful—deceit could be.