Page 9 of Obscurity (Pros and Cons Mysteries #5)

O live and Jason made their way upstairs in comfortable silence. But the moment Jason closed their room door behind them, awkwardness hit like a physical force.

One bed.

King-sized, covered in a handmade quilt, sitting there like an elephant in a room that suddenly felt much smaller than it had a few hours ago.

They had a lot to talk about, and their discussion made more sense here than it did behind the flimsy fabric walls of the tent they’d share later.

Olive had done the footwork for this investigation since Jason had been on another assignment. She needed to share what she’d learned.

Plus, talking about the case was much more appealing than talking about their relationship.

“We shouldn’t waste any more time.” She grabbed the notes she’d brought with her from her bag. “I need to catch you up.”

The two of them sat on the floor, their backs against the bed, and made themselves comfortable. She started by sharing with him the conversation she’d overheard Elias having.

She thought about telling him about the incident at the gas station, but she decided not to. That confrontation shouldn’t affect their investigation.

Next, Olive grabbed Chloe’s picture. She placed it in front of them.

In the lamplight, the missing woman’s photograph seemed to watch them—blonde hair perfectly styled, expensive jewelry catching the camera flash, a confident smile that suggested she’d never encountered a problem that couldn’t be solved with money or connections.

“Chloe Marie Kingston, twenty-four years old,” Olive read from the file. “Graduated from Vassar with a degree in art history that she’s never used. No employment history before Grayfall except for a brief stint at her father’s company that lasted exactly six weeks.”

“Let me guess.” Jason read through a printout of her social media posts. “She found the corporate world ‘stifling’ and decided to ‘find herself’ through travel.”

“Bingo.” Olive flipped through printed Instagram posts that told the story of a young woman who’d spent the last three years jet-setting across the globe.

Bali yoga retreats, safari adventures in Kenya, wine tours through Tuscany—all funded by Daddy’s tech fortune.

“According to her father, she never stayed anywhere longer than a few months. She was always restless, always looking for the next adventure.”

The posts painted a picture of someone who’d never learned to appreciate what she had because she’d never had to work for any of it.

Captions full of pseudo-philosophical musings about “authentic experiences” and “connecting with my true self,” interspersed with complaints about hotel service and flight delays.

“So why did she decide to finally get a job in West Virginia?” Jason asked.

“Apparently, she loves rockabilly music, as it’s called.

The man who’s organizing the festival—Brad Kellerman—followed her online and asked for her help.

I guess she decided to give it a shot, thinking the change would be good for her.

Plus, she had a good circle of influence. I’m sure it was a win-win.”

“Sounds like it.”

“Here’s the interesting part.” Olive pointed to more printed social media posts. “Two weeks before Chloe came to West Virginia, she went through a very public breakup with some British aristocrat named Tristan Pembroke. He was apparently cheating on her with her best friend.”

“Ouch.” Jason shook his head. “Where is this Tristan guy now?”

“I’m not sure. Tevin’s working on finding out.”

“He could be involved.”

Olive had thought the same thing. “He’s definitely someone to keep in mind.”

Tristan was one of her top suspects right now . . . Tristan and Brad Kellerman.

However, Olive had no idea if Tristan was even on this side of the ocean. She hadn’t been able to track him down.

In fact, it appeared he had disappeared also.

Olive continued studying the timeline. “After Chloe and Tristan’s breakup is when the tone of her social media posts changed.”

Chloe’s earlier posts had been bright and optimistic, full of heart emojis and gratitude hashtags.

But after the breakup, Chloe’s captions became darker, more introspective.

References to feeling “betrayed by everyone I trusted” and needing to “disappear from the fake people in my life” and “found a new opportunity.”

“Then there’s this.” Jason pointed to a post from three days before her disappearance. “Going off-grid for a while. Don’t look for me. Sometimes you have to lose yourself to find yourself. #nocontact #digitaldetox #newbeginnings.”

“Which is why the local police didn’t take her disappearance seriously,” Olive said. “They assumed she was having a quarter-life crisis and vanished voluntarily.”

“Except for this.” Jason picked up a sheet with her final text message, the one that had prompted her father to hire Aegis.

There’s more to Grayfall than you think. The trees are watching.

Olive stared at the words that had seemed cryptic before. But now, after hearing Elias’s presentation about mountain folklore and local legends, the message felt even more ominous.

“What do you think she meant by ‘There’s more to Grayfall than you think’?” Olive sucked on her bottom lip as she thought through the possibilities.

“Could be anything. A drug operation. Human trafficking. Maybe she had an argument with a colleague or made someone mad.” Jason rubbed a hand over his eyes, fatigue evident in his voice. “Or it could be the ramblings of someone having a psychological breakdown after her world fell apart.”

She studied his face a moment, reading him like a book. “You don’t believe that any more than I do.”

“No,” he admitted. “I don’t. Three people missing. We can’t ignore that.”

Olive gathered the papers back into their file, her mind already working through the logistics for this investigation. “We need to talk to more people, find out what they might know.”

“Agreed. But we’ll need to be careful. We have no idea what’s going on here or how deeply it runs.”

She swallowed hard. No, they didn’t.

But a bad feeling swirled in her gut concerning this entire investigation . . . a feeling she hadn’t felt in a long, long time.