Page 56 of Obscurity (Pros and Cons Mysteries #5)

O live wished there was a way she and Jason could get to the other two buildings near the campsites, but it was too risky. There was no way to get inside without being caught.

She turned to Jason as they threaded their way through the woods. “Do you think Brad is trying to extract any leftover coal or something?”

He shook his head, his jaw tightening. “No, it would be noisier. There would be more equipment.”

“So what exactly is going on? What is so important that these people are willing to either abduct people or worse in order to not ruin their plan?”

“That’s a good question. But I echo Tevin’s concerns about going in the mine. It’s risky. Once we’re in there, we’re essentially trapped.”

“I think we need to take that risk.”

His jaw flexed again. “I don’t like the idea of you being in there.”

She appreciated his concern. She really did.

But she had a job to do, and his feelings for her couldn’t get in the way.

She placed a hand on his forearm. “Jason, if you weren’t with me this wouldn’t even be a consideration. It’s just part of doing my job.”

Something washed through his gaze. The reality of working together was settling on him. He would see her in risky situations. It came with the territory.

His gaze hardened before he finally said, “We, at least, need to call Rex and let him know what’s going on. Just in case something happens and all three of us are taken out.”

Olive nodded. “We’ll probably have reception once we get closer to Brad’s house. We’ll let him know. If he doesn’t hear back from us, he should send in backup.”

Jason’s neck looked stiff as he nodded. “Let’s do that. But for the record, I don’t like this.”

Olive and Jason bypassed going back to the festival site.

Instead, after talking with Rex, they went right to the mine. There was no time to waste.

The lock on the gate of the chain link fence at the mine’s entrance was old and corroded.

Olive’s lock-picking skills made quick work of it.

She and Jason slipped through the opening and moved into the shadows cast by the twisted metal support beams that framed the mine entrance.

The contrast between the festival’s chaotic energy and the oppressive silence of this place was jarring—as if they’d stepped from one world into another entirely.

“Stay close.” Jason pulled out a small flashlight and shielded its beam with his fingers to minimize the visible light.

Rusty railroad tracks disappeared into the darkness ahead—twin lines of corroded steel that had once carried coal cars but now served as a path deeper into the mountain’s belly.

Water dripped steadily from somewhere in the darkness above.

Each drop echoed with a hollow ping as it hit the metal rails or pooled in the spaces between rotting railroad ties.

The wooden cross-beams that supported the tunnel showed signs of age and neglect—some sagged dangerously, while others had splintered entirely, leaving jagged fragments hanging like broken teeth.

Along the walls, old mining equipment sat abandoned where it had been left decades ago: rusted pickaxes, overturned coal cars, and lengths of cable that looked like dead snakes in the shifting beam of the flashlight.

But it was the smell that made the space feel most oppressive—not just the expected odors of abandonment, but something that suggested the mountain itself was slowly reclaiming this artificial wound, filling it with moisture and decay until nothing remained of human ambition but rust and shadows.

They’d advanced maybe twenty feet into the tunnel when Jason’s flashlight beam caught something that made them both freeze.

A body lay crumpled against the tunnel wall, partially hidden behind a rusted piece of mining equipment.

Even in the dim light, Olive recognized the weathered features and mountain clothing.

Her pulse raced.

It was the Grayfall Guardian.