Seductive Suspect

Day One

Chapter One

The cashier looked me over from head to toe when I approached his counter inside the gas station. “You heading up to the lodge in the mountains this weekend?”

“Yes, I am.” I fished my wallet out of my purse. “How did you know?”

“You’re not one of the locals. It’s a small town, but we get a lot of people like you stopping by to fill up before the last leg of their trip.” He took the bills from me. “The lodge is nice. Haven’t been there for a few years, though.”

Tired of both the small talk and the long drive, I simply said, “Glad to hear it.”

One by one, he pulled nickels out of the register drawer. “I bet you’re doing one of those murder mystery games.”

“Yes.” I stifled a sigh.

“I’d tell you to relax and have some fun, but you’d better be on your guard!” He let out a raucous laugh and passed me the handful of money. “But seriously, we’re in for some bad thunderstorms this weekend. Be careful up there.”

I turned around to leave. “Thanks.”

“I hope you catch the killer,” he called after me, still chuckling.

Outside, I climbed back into my car and peered through the windshield. Dull, gray clouds hung heavy in the sky. I took a swig of coffee from my travel mug and pulled out of the parking lot, hoping to arrive at the lodge before the rain started to fall.

The tree-lined road took me away from the outskirts of town into the mountains. As I followed its winding path, I recalled the conversation with my sister Trina that had led me out to the middle of nowhere.

“Come on, Veronica, it’ll be fun,” she’d said over the phoneseveral days earlier. “And it would be a shame to let the free ticket go to waste.”

“Are you sure this isn’t a scam, or somebody trying to sell timeshares or something?”

“Everything’s legit, I promise. I checked out their website and, when I asked around, it turns out one of my coworkers did a similar event there a couple years ago.” She sounded a little too eager, but otherwise sincere. “And I already replied saying I’d go, sosomeonehas to be there in my spot.”

An exasperated noise escaped my mouth. “Remind me again why you can’t attend?”

Trina giggled. “Shane invited me to his beach house this weekend, and of course I couldn’t refuse.” She paused. “Well, to be honest, I totally forgot I had this mystery thing coming up at the same time.”

I rolled my eyes. “Shane? What happened to Jacob?”

“Jacob? We broke up weeks ago. I thought I told you.” Before I could answer, she resumed her mission of convincing me to take her place. “Anyway, you should go. You’d enjoy a nice, relaxing getaway in the mountains.”

“I have been busy with work lately…”

“See? It’ll be perfect!” she squealed. “And it’s not like you have anything better to do.”

I shook my head. “Trina, insulting someone is not the best way to get them to do what you want.”

“Oh, I didn’t mean it like that. I just meant the whole mystery theme sounds exciting, and it’s something different from what you usually do in your spare time, and—”

“Fine.” I cut off her attempts at backpedaling. “I’ll go.”

“Yay! I’ll drop off the envelope with the directions and stuff sometime tomorrow afternoon.” Papers rustled in the background. “Even if acting out the mystery is, like, super cheesy, I bet you’ll be great. You might even solve it. You werealways so good at crossword puzzles and things like that.”

“Yeah, I’m sure being able to fill in crossword puzzles is going to help.”

The car bounced when I drove over a narrow wooden bridge. The lush scenery reminded me of how I hadn’t taken a break from my job as a graphic designer in a long time. I had to admit it was nice to be out enjoying natural beauty for a change, instead of staring at my computer screen for hours on end.

Beneath me, a bubbling stream rushed over pearly stones and pebbles. The road wound around the mountain, taking me higher and higher. About halfway up, the GPS lost its signal, but the paved path only led in one direction.

Steering along the narrow curves, I thought more about my exchange with Trina. I hated when she was right, but she might have had a point. Devoting myself to my freelance business left little time for anything else. Some days I had to force myself away from the computer just to get out of the house for a few minutes.