The ride down made us both nervous. While I knew I could probably take a jump with the zips holding me in my bindings, I didn't want to push it. Jimmy barely even wanted me to have any speed. After we were nearly hit by a lone boarder, I pointed out that, if we go too slow, we ran the risk of being hit by people going at a normal speed that didn't see us. That made us speed up and, eventually, have a little fun, racing back to the lodge. 

When I stopped sliding, I bent over to release my bindings. I had to cut the zips with Jimmy's pocket knife, but I was out and safe at the lodge. We went inside and Jimmy went to get us a couple of hot drinks while I sat in front of the fireplace with my board on my lap. The binding straps that had released, at a glance, looked worn.

I leaned closer and studied them. By the time Jimmy returned, I was frozen and my blood was cold. No amount of hot chocolates or lattes could warm this cold, though. "Hey, Brenda, you okay?" he asked when I didn't take the drink he was holding out to me.

I sat up straight quickly, narrowly missing spilling my drink that was in his hand. "Yes! Yeah, I am. Ooh, thanks." I took the drink from him and had a sip. 

He watched me for a moment. "What's wrong?"

I frowned. "Nothing. Please, let it go, Jimmy."

"But Brenda-"

"I like you." We sat silently looking at each other for a long moment. "Um, I really, really like you."

He raised an eyebrow and smirked. "I really, really like you, too, but I thought we'd already established our mutual like of each other. Now, what's really wrong?"

I sighed, unsure of what to tell him. While it wasn't a secret, I didn't really want to tell him I was investigating the theft my brother was framed for. I wasn't scared it was wrong - I was scared he would tell me to stop, especially after this.

"Someone messed up my straps," I blurted. 

His eyebrows rose in surprise. "Why in the world would someone do that?"

I shrugged, feeling heat rise into my face. If there was one thing I hated, it was lying to someone I was close to. I bit my lip, chewing on it for a moment. "Um," I said, feeling a need to fill the silence between us with something - anything. "I, uh, um."

He sighed. "I'm not stupid, Brenda. I know there's something going on that you're not telling me about. Whatever it is, I promise I'll be right here. I'm not going anywhere. Unless, you know, you have an arrest warrant." He gave me a smile, and I knew he was teasing.

But, right now, that kind of teasing was the last thing I needed. I swallowed, trying to get the lump in my throat to go away. It didn't work and my voice still ended up coming out as more of a croak than anything. "I think Ben's innocent."

Jimmy turned more fully towards me and took my hands, letting my board slide off my lap. It hit the floor with a smack, but neither of us paid it any mind. "He very well may be," Jimmy said, but I could hear it in his voice: he didn't think he was. "But evidence-"

"Evidence sides with him being set up," I said, cutting him off. "I'll show you when I get home. It points to someone at the police department being in on it. It points to someone working with a news station."

Jimmy just looked at me with sad eyes but he nodded anyway. "Brenda, I believe you. But what does this have to do with your board's binding straps breaking?"

"Because they're not broken," I said, pulling my hand away and wiping at some rogue tears. "It was cut. Look." I picked up my board and pointed at the ratchets on the straps. "These have been tampered with. They've been cut too low to catch, and the one I always use has been cut too low to hold."

Jimmy looked at me, eyes sharp. "Why would someone do that over a simple theft case?"

I shook my head. "I'm not sure. They probably don't want to be caught, but trying to hurt me? I don't see how they thought that would work to get me to stop."

He studied me. "Can you fix these?" His fingers ran over the straps.

I nodded. "I always bring a kit with me just in case, but I'd need to go buy some more. It's about time, anyway." I shrugged. "But, Jimmy, please don't let anyone know about this - especially Ben and Lilly. They don't need to worry about me. Please."

He tucked some hair behind my ear. "Of course, Brenda." He gave me a soft smile.

---

After texting Ben that I had to run into town for something, I took Jimmy to the nearest board shop. Once I had the right bindings, we headed back to the lodge and I replaced all the straps. It didn't take too long, and we were back on the slopes by eleven. We had just enough time to make a last run. This time, neither of us held back and made it to the lodge in record time. We were panting heavily as we plopped down in the snow to get out of our bindings. 

Lilly and Ben were waiting for us when we went inside. "What happened earlier?" Ben asked. "I've never known you to leave in the middle of snowboarding like that."

I tugged on Jimmy's hand that I was holding. "Oh, my bindings were old and worn and they gave out on me on the slope, so I needed to buy some replacements."

Lilly gasped. "Are you okay?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just gonna have a bruise on my side. Nothing too bad." Ben let out a relieved breath along with his wife. "I'm ready for lunch."

---

The rest of the afternoon was Lilly reading in our room while me, Jimmy, and Ben went to the exercise room. While the three of us all had fun talking and laughing, I couldn't shake a feeling of dread. Someone tried to sabotage my board. Who's to say they wouldn't try something else? Or even try that again? I mean, I was going to check my board before every run now so there was going to be a low chance of the same thing happening, but still. 

Something else wasn't sitting right with me, though. Who knew me and what I've been up to? The only people I knew were the people here with me, and the only one who knew was Jimmy, but I'd only just told him today after my fall. Who else could there be here? I had no doubt that, if someone got the police and a newswoman to help them out, they could get someone here to help them out. The only thing was that we didn't tell anyone where or when we were going. Ben kind of just sprang this on us last minute. 

I hit the button on my treadmill to run harder, ignoring the ache in my legs and the laughter of the guys. Running helped me to focus, and I needed to be as focused as I could possibly be. 

Ben also had money that Lilly didn't even know where it came from. It's possible that he sat a bit of his money from his book aside just in case, but I seemed to remember him putting all of that towards their bank loan they'd gotten to buy their house. I hated even entertaining those thoughts, but I couldn't just ignore them. Like what if he was paid off to keep quiet about who took the money? It seemed plausible. Also, what if-

My legs buckled and I barely managed to slap the emergency stop before I hit the treadmill. Jimmy hit his stop button too and rushed to my side. "You okay?" he asked.

I looked at him and at Ben, right behind him. "I didn't get hurt." I took Jimmy's hand and he helped me stand up. There was a dull ache in my ankle. "I'm just gonna go to the front desk and see if they have any band-aids," I said, gesturing to a small scrape near my foot where the treadmill had gotten me just above my sock.

"Want me to help you?" Ben offered.

I shook my head. "I'll be fine, but thank you." I forced myself to not limp as I walked to the door and then down the hallway. I might be fine eventually, but right now my mind wasn't letting me be fine.

The woman behind the counter was the same one who was there this morning. "Hello, miss," she said with a slight accent that I couldn't quite place. "How can I help you?"

"Do you have some band-aids?" I asked. 

She nodded. "How big do you need?"

"Just a little one." When she bent over I took a moment to glance around and saw there were some black flecks near the wall a little ways away. She stood up and held out a few bandages. "Do you remember me from this morning?" I asked, taking one.

She nodded. "I remember you and your group standing over there with your equipment," she said, pointing where the flecks were.

"When only one of us was standing with the equipment, did anyone approach him or did he walk away at any point?"

She shook her head. "No, no one went up to him. He was too busy working on a snowboard to walk away."

I shivered and glanced at the flecks. "Has anyone cleaned the lobby since then?"

"Not yet, miss. Is something wrong?"

Knowing she was probably seeing something on my face, I promptly gave her a warm smile. "It's fine. Thank you very much for the band-aid, I appreciate it." I gave her a small parting nod as she returned my smile. I sat on the floor next to the black flecks and put the bandage on my ankle. When no one was looking, I licked my finger and pressed it to the flecks. 

At a glance, it looked like dirt, but then I noticed they were hard plastic. Not only that, but they were the width of my strap ratchets and a couple were long, about the length of the width of the straps themselves. 

I dropped the pieces back onto the floor and pushed myself to standing. A slightly panicked glance around and then a near-sprint to the ladies' room later, I was checking stalls to make sure I was alone. Once I knew I was, I pulled out my phone and called Kev. I knew he was on duty, but I had to talk to someone.

"Brenda," he said, though it sounded more like a question. "What's wrong?"

"Um, I-I need a moment." I took a deep, measured breath and slowly released it. I did this a couple of times and then told him. "I think Ben's more involved than I thought. Someone tried to sabotage my snowboard this morning by slicing off the ratchets on my binding straps, and I have reason to believe it was Ben who did it."

"Wait, hold on." I heard some shuffling, muted voices, mumbling, a car door slam, and then he was back. "I'm on patrol right now. So you're telling me Ben's involved in this? How?"

"I don't know!" I said loudly. My phone pinged with a text. I checked it quickly. Jimmy, asking where I was. I opened the door to the bathroom. "All I know is what I just told you. You're the first person I thought of to tell." I stepped out and saw Jimmy a short distance away in the lobby. I began walking over to him. "I've got to go now." I heard Kev protesting it, but I hung up the phone anyway. "Right here," I told Jimmy cheerfully as I came up behind him.

He jumped slightly but turned to me with a relieved smile. "Oh, there you are. I was thinking about what happened this morning with your straps," he said, putting an arm around me and walking us towards the bedrooms. "Someone had to have done something to them, but we don't know who, and I think someone needs to keep an eye on it."

I raised an eyebrow. "But it was in the room with me and Lilly the whole time. No one came in the room, I can assure you."

He shook his head. "Someone could have gotten in while you guys were at breakfast," he said. I sighed quietly, but nodded. I didn't want to argue with him, especially about this. "How about I take it and keep it in the room with me and Ben? We'd bring it with our stuff to breakfast so we know no one's done anything to it."

"What are you going to tell Ben about it?" I asked, hoping to discourage him.

He shrugged. "Just tell him that you wanted us to bring it with us to breakfast and didn't want to take it yourself, so I, your amazing boyfriend, offered to store it with ours."

I snorted a laugh and rolled my eyes as he grinned at me. "Okay, then, amazing boyfriend. I'll get it for you." I knew it was possibly one of the worst things I could do, but I trusted Jimmy to keep an eye on it. Besides, I knew it would probably make him feel better to have it in his sight.