Page 57 of Obscurity (Pros and Cons Mysteries #5)

“ N o . . .” Olive gasped, temporarily stunned.

Jason quickly scanned the area for immediate threats before moving closer to examine the body. The Guardian had been shot twice in the chest, the dark stains on his flannel shirt still wet enough to gleam in the flashlight’s beam.

“This just happened,” Jason said. “Maybe within the last hour.”

Olive’s stomach clenched with guilt and anger. The man had tried to warn them, had risked his own safety to give cryptic but genuine alerts about the danger they were walking into.

Now he was dead because someone had decided he knew too much.

“He was trying to help us.” Olive’s voice was thick with emotion. “All those warnings. He knew what was happening here.”

Jason examined the Guardian’s hands, and his expression suddenly changed. “Olive, look at this.”

The man’s right hand clutched something—a piece of paper that had been folded and refolded multiple times until it was barely larger than a business card. Olive carefully extracted it from the man’s grip, careful not to disturb any evidence.

As she unfolded the paper, Jason moved closer, standing partially behind her and looking over her shoulder.

The paper contained a hand-drawn map, sketched in pencil. It showed the mine’s tunnel system.

But it was the words written at the bottom of the map that made Olive’s blood run cold.

“SAVE THEM” was scrawled in dark letters that looked like they’d been written with the Guardian’s own blood, probably in his final moments before death claimed him.

Olive and Jason studied the map’s details. The chambers were all spelled out.

“He knew something was going on down here,” Olive murmured.

“He died to get this information,” Jason added.

“We can’t let his sacrifice be meaningless. We have to keep going.” Her voice shook as she said the words.

Jason looked at her with an expression that mixed admiration and concern. “We’re walking into an active crime scene with people who are willing to eliminate anyone who threatens their operation.”

“I know. But Chloe and Becca and whoever else they might be holding don’t have time for us to be cautious. If we wait for backup or try to work through official channels, more people are going to end up like him.” Olive gestured toward the Guardian’s still form.

Both of them seemed to feel the weight of what they saw. An innocent man, killed for trying to do the right thing. A team was probably on the way, ready to clean up the mess of his death.

That meant they didn’t have much time.

It wouldn’t surprise her if there was a string of dead bodies traced back to this location.

But why? That was the question echoing in her mind.

Why was someone doing all this? What made someone think human lives were expendable?