Chapter 3
CHAPTER
THREE
The fire crackled in the fireplace, filling the silence that followed.
Olive stared at JJ again as he lay sprawled on the burgundy rug. His body looked too still, too small. The blue tint hadn’t faded from his lips. His hair, still crusted with frost, made him look younger than he was—barely more than a kid.
She folded her arms tight across her chest, trying to keep her thoughts from spinning out.
Olive had seen death before—more times than she wanted to count—but this one hit differently.
JJ hadn’t been on the front line of an op. He wasn’t a threat to anyone.
Tevin stood beside her, his face pale behind his glasses. He held a wool blanket but didn’t seem to know what to do with it. JJ didn’t need to stay warm anymore. But Olive didn’t want the innkeepers to see this.
She took the blanket from him and placed it over JJ.
“I was talking to him like—what, an hour ago?” Tevin murmured. “He said he was going to grab his gear from the van and go to his room to chill for a while. I just assumed that’s where he was.”
“Did he say what he was doing to ‘chill’?” Olive asked.
Tevin shook his head slowly. “Not specifically. I think he was going to text his girlfriend.”
They all gathered around JJ.
Jason crouched beside JJ’s body, his jaw set and eyes scanning as he pulled back the blanket. “I don’t see any obvious trauma. Could be hypothermia.”
“Could be.” Olive stepped closer. “But look at his wrist.”
Jason frowned and followed her gaze.
Beneath JJ’s sleeve, the skin around his wrist was raw, ringed with faint red marks—like someone had grabbed him hard.
“That’s not from a fall.” Jason’s tone hardened.
Olive didn’t like where this was going—but she wasn’t surprised either. Something criminal had happened out there in the pure, innocent-looking snow.
She squatted next to JJ and took in all the details. The dirt beneath his nails. A single loose button on his coat, torn thread dangling.
“What’s that?” she murmured.
Jason leaned closer. “What’s what?”
She pointed at the edge of JJ’s collar. “That—just under his coat.”
Jason pulled a small flashlight from his pocket—of course he had one—and clicked it on.
The beam cut across JJ’s jacket, catching on a faint indentation near his throat.
A bruise. Oval. Thumb-sized.
Olive’s stomach dropped. “He was strangled.”
Jason’s expression tightened. “Or close to it.”
Tevin straightened. “Let’s not jump to conclusions. We don’t know the full picture.”
Olive gave him a pointed look. “We know enough to stop pretending this was an accident.”
The room went quiet.
Mitzi finally spoke. “I realize you all know this, but if someone did this, then that means—”
“It means that, most likely, JJ’s killer is still close,” Olive finished. “And there’s no one else up on this mountain except us.”
Tevin pushed his curls back away from his face as he seemed to analyze the situation. “Okay, so, hypothetically speaking, if one of us didn’t do it—because I’m not volunteering for a group murder—who else could it be?”
“That’s the question of the hour.” Jason covered JJ again.
“Do you think someone from a past case could have followed us here?” Olive asked as she stood over JJ’s body with her arms crossed. “Someone we made mad and who wanted revenge?”
It would take a long time to go through that list—it made Santa’s naughty list look short in comparison.
“I suppose someone could have followed us,” Mitzi frowned as if she wasn’t convinced. “But that would be hard. We’re all trained operatives. I’d think one of us would have noticed.”
“That’s true,” Olive murmured, glancing at JJ with a frown. “And why JJ? He’s new. He shouldn’t even have any enemies yet.”
“It could be random . . .” Nova suggested. “Though I think we all know that’s unlikely.”
Olive’s mind continued to race. “Who knew we were coming here?”
“Rex had me confirm the details of our stay,” Tevin said. “But he didn’t send the details to everyone else until the day before. He wanted to keep this quiet—the fewer people who knew, the better.”
Silence stretched between them.
Tevin finally straightened and released a heavy sigh. “So what do we do?”
“We lock the doors, check the outbuildings, and start asking questions,” Jason said. “Otherwise, none of us are safe.”
Olive didn’t like the sound of that, but she knew his words were true. If someone had killed JJ as revenge, there was a chance one of them could be next.
“The only other people here besides us are the owners, correct?” Olive asked. “Rex rented out this entire place—all eight bedrooms?”
She hadn’t had a chance to check out her surroundings yet. She’d been trying to do just that when she’d found JJ.
Rule number one: Always assess the situation.
Her dad had taught her that.
“Yes, Mara and Warren are the owners.” Mitzi grabbed an oversized match and slipped the wooden end into the cast to scratch an itch.
“They stay in their private suite on the first floor. They’re an older, retired couple who bought this place five years ago.
And I can verify that both of them have been in the kitchen making cookies for the past two hours. They’re not responsible for this.”
“Someone needs to tell them what happened.” Nova’s voice sounded thin as her gaze slid between all of them. “They just went back to their suite for a minute.”
“Mitzi, since you’ve already met them, do you want to take on that task?” Olive asked.
She hesitated then nodded. “I can do that.”
Olive exhaled as she continued to gather her thoughts. “We treat this as a crime scene. Nobody leaves the main inn or goes anywhere alone.”
Jason nodded. “Agreed.”
Before they could say anything else, the front door flew open.
Olive gasped when she saw a dark figure standing in the doorway.