Lilly basically dragged me down the hallway to breakfast the next morning. I hadn't slept at all, my mind keeping me awake with nagging thoughts and worries. When we got to breakfast, my board was in a pile with Ben and Jimmy's things near the entrance in full view of where we were going to sit. The only thing that worried me at the moment was that Ben wasn't meeting my eyes. He smiled at me, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. No one else seemed to notice, but I was also probably the only one paying it any mind.

We ate mostly in silence. I welcomed it, actually. My head was hurting, as were my legs. I knew I was pushing myself too hard on that treadmill but I didn't regret it.

"You okay?" Ben finally asked, placing a hand on my shoulder.

I looked at him. True concern was in his eyes, along with something else I couldn't quite place. I nodded and sat up straighter. "Just tired. And sore."

"You should've taken it easier on the treadmill yesterday," he said, sounding every bit like the older brother he was. 

"I'll keep that in mind," I told him. I shoved a big bite of my bagel in my mouth. He removed his hand and I found I kind of wished he'd left it there. No matter what he did or didn't do, I loved him. For as much as I wanted him to have no part in the theft, I knew he at least knew who it was. I couldn't just ignore that - no matter how much I wanted to.

Ben dropped the subject and we all finished breakfast in silence. Afterwards, Lilly and I went to our room to get our stuff and met Ben and Jimmy in the lobby fifteen minutes later. Like we did the morning before, we went over our plans. Jimmy and I were going to do one run on a harder slope, then I would go down the double black diamond with Ben, and then I'd do a few runs on the easier slope with Lilly. 

We headed off to the lift, but I made sure Jimmy and I lagged behind. Ben and Lilly got on the lift and I stopped Jimmy. "I need to check over my board," I told him. I checked the straps, but they were fine. I strapped in and slid a little bit, but something felt off. I got out and checked the bindings. One side was loose. On a hunch, I grabbed it and pulled. With only a little resistance, it came off my board. 

Jimmy's jaw dropped. "Why did you do that?"

I checked the screws. Stripped. "Because it felt weird. Now, can you let me into yours and Ben's room? He has some extra screws somewhere."

"Yeah, sure." We headed back into the lodge and I followed Jimmy to his room. He unlocked the door and let me in. "Will you be long?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. I'm not sure where he put them, so I kind of need to go through it all. You could wait in the lobby, though, if you'd like."

He nodded. "I'll leave you to it." He closed the door behind himself. 

Taking a deep breath, I looked around the room. If there was one thing I knew about Ben it was that he was lazy. If he did change out my screws like I suspected, he would have put them in a place that was convenient that he wouldn't think I'd check if I suspected anything. Which was a place like the trash can.

I walked over and dug around. No screws. Now what?

I sat on the bed and glanced around me. There was a single table between the beds with one drawer. I opened it, but there was only a Bible. I closed it and looked at the luggage. His bag was leaning against a chair. I picked it up and sat it on the bed. 

On the bag, there was one pocket I knew he never used, so I opened it. Inside were the screws I was looking for. Tears stung my eyes as I sank onto the other bed. Oh, Ben. Why are you doing this?

Knowing Jimmy was waiting for me, I wiped my eyes and hurried to change the screws on my bindings. 

When I was done, I went out, found Jimmy, and hit the slopes with him. By the time we were at the bottom, laughing and bantering, Ben was waiting with Lilly. "What took so long?" he asked, a small frown on his face.

I raised an eyebrow at him, trying to stuff down the urge to cry. "I had a minor problem with my board, but it was a quick fix." Was it me, or did Ben look relieved for a moment there?

"You okay?" he asked. I nodded and he returned it. "Ready?"

"As I'll ever be." I followed him to the lift, thinking about doing something very stupid. 

We dropped really high up the mountain, higher than I'd been in a long time, and made our way to the start of the slope we were going down. Before going, we took a moment to check our boards one last time. I noticed him watching me very closely. "Straps good?" he asked.

"Yep. I just bought them."

"Bindings secure?"

I dropped my board flat onto the snow and stepped into it. "Well, we'll just have to find out." I strapped in and inched my way over to our starting point. "Won't we?"

"Um, Brenda, I think you should-"

"Go? Me too, actually." I turned my board and gestured for him to follow me as I let myself soar. I glanced back and, behind my beautiful snow trail, I saw Ben hesitate but then hurry after me. I quickly faced forward again, not wanting to accidentally hit a tree or something. 

We raced down for a while, Ben trailing me. I finally slowed down and let him catch up to me. "I really think you should slow down, Brenda," he said.

"If I slow down I won't make this jump," I shouted back over the wind. I sped up and hit the jump, doing a near-perfect front-side 360 for the first time. I shrieked in delight as I landed and didn't eat snow. A quick glance at Ben and I suddenly wasn't sure if I wanted to laugh or cry at his face. It was so comically horrified it was funny, but, at the same time, it was like he was admitting to everything. I quickly ripped my eyes from him.

"Be careful!" he shouted. I slowed down and sprayed snow as I made myself stop, ending up on my butt in the snow. Ben stopped just as hard as me, but managed to stay upright. "What's wrong?" he asked, panic clear in his voice.

I struggled to stand, waving him off when he started to get out of his bindings. "I'm okay, I'm not hurt." Well, I was, but not physically. "Why are you telling me to be careful? You sound like I'm going to crash or something." 

He straightened, noticing there was something I wasn't saying. "Your straps broke yesterday. I just want to make sure it doesn't happen again."

I raised an eyebrow and frowned. "It won't. The ratchets didn't hold. These are new. They're not going anywhere."

He swallowed and glanced behind us, up the mountain. Another rider was approaching us. "We can't stay here and talk, Brenda. I'll race you back to the lodge." He let his board start sliding down the mountain, and I followed suit with a sigh. 

When we reached the bottom of the mountain, I grabbed his arm. "Let's grab some cocoa," I told him. He swallowed, nodding. 

Fifteen minutes later we were sitting in the lobby with cocoas in hand. I shot a text off to Lilly that Ben and I stopped for cocoa and I'd just meet her in a little bit. Nowhere to be for now, I pocketed my phone and turned to my brother. "So," I started. "What's up?"

He shook his head. "Nothing."

I frowned. "Ben, be honest with me. It's about time, don't you think?"

He stared into his cup. "Honest about what?"

I eyed him. "I know there's something you're not telling me, but I'm not sure what it is. I can guess, though."

His lips pressed together. "So guess." I took a breath and opened my mouth to speak, but he cut me off. "Oh, wait, that's right - you think I'm guilty, don't you? You think I took that money, just like everyone else."

"No! I don't think you stole anything!" I hurried to assure him. I let the silence linger for a beat, then said, "But I think you know who did."

He sucked in a breath yet his expression didn't shift. "Why do you think that?"

I thought a moment about how much to let on that I knew. "Do you remember when we were kids? And you hid some of Mom's stuff under our pool and Dad tore up the house looking for it? But you knew where it was and didn't tell him at first?"

"I'd forgot, but yeah."

"The way you acted then is the way you've been acting now." 

He glanced up at me briefly before going back to boring a hole in his mug with his eyes. "I don't know who or why," he mumbled. I knew that was a lie at this point, but I kept silent. "But, yes, I knew someone was breaking in and didn't call the police. I felt like the alarm on the door was on and that would call them. I stayed at my desk and waited until I heard a crash, so I got up and went to see what happened, but it was too late - they were gone."

"Why didn't you go see when you first heard someone in there?"

He hesitated. "I was scared," he said quietly.

I pursed my lips. The inconsistency here was almost laughable. "So you were scared when they first broke in, but when it sounded like they busted something you suddenly weren't?"

He looked up, narrowing his eyes at me. "Yes."

I leaned towards him, resting my elbows on my knees. "I know you're the one who messed with my board yesterday." I frowned and narrowed my eyes. "And today."

He seemed to fold into himself a little before turning away from me. "How did you know?" he asked in a small voice that made me want to just hug him, but I stuffed that feeling down.

"I saw someone had cut the ratchets and saw the pieces on the floor, and then I found screws in your bag that belong on my board."

"Those screws aren't for your board," he said.

I crossed my arms, sitting up properly. "They aren't," I said, disbelief heavy in my voice. "If they aren't, then why are the screws in my board suddenly stripped?"

He stood. "I need to..." he muttered as he walked away, his words trailing off as he got out of my hearing range. 

I huffed a sigh and sat back. He was trying to get out of this. Had I showed too much of my hand? Not enough? I wanted to wait for Kev to get back with me about the officers before I did much else.

Kev.

I dug out my phone and called him. He was on desk duty today, and was willing to talk while he could. "Ben changed the screws on one of the bindings on my board last night," I told him. "He put in ones that were stripped."

"That's dangerous," Officer Jarvis said. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a bit bruised from falling yesterday after Ben messed with my board that morning."

"Why's he doing that?"

I sighed. "I'm not really sure. He lied to me, though. I asked him again about what happened the other night, and he gave me a different story, but it was wrong. I saw what happened on the security footage."

"Don't keep asking him right now," Officer Jarvis advised me. "He'll definitely get suspicious of you if you do and he might get worse."

"Sabotaging someone's board is pretty bad already. I mean, if I hadn't been going easy or felt that something was off when I did I could have crashed and died. Snowboarding is a dangerous sport without all this, and this made it practically deadly."

"All I'm saying is that you need to go easier on him for the time being. Don't give him any more reason to suspect something. What did you do to make him suspicious in the first place?"

I paused. Truth was, I hadn't. "Nothing," I said slowly. Someone else had to have told him. But I wasn't sure who. Was someone following me? Was it one of the people I knew? "Um, Kev, I'll call you later. I have to go." I hung up while he was telling me 'bye'. 

Who was it?