DEAD MAN'S TRAIL (HARDCOVER)

Chapter 1

Jasmine Moore had a lot of strengths, but patience had never been one of them. Ever since her long-time friend Brandon had suggested a camping trip, she had been preparing and counting down the days until she could leave. Things never slowed down for her for long, and there was a part of her that still worried a new crime would pop up and her investigation would keep her from going. It wouldn’t be the first time her job as a PI would get in the way of her plans.

“You’re leaving this afternoon,” her dog, a golden retriever named Luffy, reminded her. “Nothing is going to happen between now and then. You can relax.”

“I am relaxed,” Jasmine said, letting herself fall back onto her bed. She was still stiff even as she leaned back, and she knew Luffy noticed. She shared a special bond with her dog that allowed them to talk to each other, but Luffy wouldn’t need a psychic connection to see that she was tense. He jumped up onto her bed to sit next to her, and her eyes went to a charm that was hanging from her curtain rod. It was an old Italian good luck charm, and though Jasmine only had it because a friend from a recent case had wanted to stop wearing an old necklace, today she hoped it would work. She would need luck if she wanted a chance at a real vacation.

“Blackwood Cove is still a safe town overall,” Luffy reminded her. “And you haven’t even gotten any visions. You should be more worried about packing your sleeping bag than the possibility of murder before we leave.”

Blackwood Cove had definitely been a safe town when Jasmine was young, but in recent years that status had definitely been shaken up a bit. His point about her visions seemed accurate enough, though. When a crime happened near Jasmine, she was usually plagued with visions related to it, and lately they had a tendency to start up before the crime had even been discovered. If something was going to happen before she left town that day, she probably would have at least gotten one vision about it.

“You’re right,” Jasmine said, sitting back up in bed. “I’m letting paranoia get the better of me, and I shouldn’t do that. Let’s make sure we’re ready for the trip.”

Of course, they were completely ready for the trip. Jasmine had gone through her preparations half a dozen times by now. Her sleeping bag was rolled tightly and fastened to a big hiking backpack. She didn’t know if everyone who was coming along would be up for a hike, but she wanted to be prepared for it if they were. A few of them might even break away from the group for a hike—Jasmine tried not to linger on the possibility that it could lead to her being alone with Brandon. Feelings were just too complicated to tackle. Murder was more straightforward.

“Do you think I need a new flashlight?” Jasmine asked, pulling hers off the top of her pack. It was a fairly typical consumer flashlight, and exactly the sort of thing that someone would take camping with them. She couldn’t help but think of the heavy-duty flashlights that police officers and security guards carried. If nothing else, trying to track one down would kill a couple of hours until she needed to leave.

“You don’t need a new flashlight,” Luffy answered, and as he was speaking there was a knock at the door downstairs. Jasmine’s heart rate quickened, and she looked down at Luffy. It was too early for them to be leaving, and the building where Jasmine lived also doubled as the office for her PI business. If someone was calling on her this early, it might mean that something awful had happened.

Jasmine had half a mind to amble down the stairs and put off the conversation that was coming next, but she was as impatient for bad news as she was for good news. She hurried to the door and had it open less than a minute after she had heard the knock.

“I knew you wouldn’t be able to stand the waiting,” Brandon said with his signature goofy grin. He had a small backpack slung over one shoulder and didn’t wait to be invited in before stepping past her into the office space. They had been friends for years and were long past that sort of formality. “I called Donald Parks this morning, and he’s alright with us leaving early.”

Donald Parks was a quiet, agreeable man, and Jasmine was unsurprised to hear that he had been willing to change his plans. She never would have thought to ask someone to change their plan over her own impatience.

“That’s amazing,” she chuckled, though part of her still felt a little selfish for letting them change the schedule around her. “When are we headed out?”

“Henry is picking up Ruby now,” Brandon replied. “I thought I’d run over here and give you a heads up—you know how hard I’ve been working on my mile time.”

A glance at Brandon was all it would take to confirm his claim. After a run that must have taken him most of the way across town, he hardly seemed to have broken a sweat, and he showed no signs of being out of breath. He had always been muscular, but between his work hauling around books for the Book Nook and the recent running kick he had been on, he looked ready to handle just about anything. Jasmine tried not to think about the perfect muscles that no doubt rippled beneath his shirt with every move of his torso. There had been signs of feelings between them before, including a longtime crush on Brandon’s side when they were still in high school, but as it stood, the two of them were strictly friends. She needed to remember that, especially with the prospect of the relative seclusion of a campsite.

“You must have been quick to beat the car.”

“Ruby lives back over by your parents,” Brandon reminded her. “And she probably needed an extra couple minutes to load the car, since we’re leaving early. It was hardly a fair fight.”

Jasmine agreed it wasn’t exactly even, but she didn’t have time to say much more before Luffy was barking and drawing all their attention to him. Jasmine was expecting some kind of threat, or at least a new arrival—Luffy usually spoke rather than barked—but he was just looking up at Brandon with wide, pleading eyes. Like any other dog, Luffy loved treats, and Brandon almost always had some. Today, though, he shook his head.

“Sorry, buddy. I packed some treats for you, but I left my bag in Henry’s car. I can’t get to them just yet.”

Luffy whined a bit, but Brandon was willing to play with him, and that was the next best thing to getting a treat. As he chatted with Jasmine and tossed trinkets off her desk for Luffy to chase, she couldn’t help but think about how easy it was to be around him and how much time seemed to fly by when he was around. Her jumpy impatience seemed to disappear entirely, and the half hour it took for the others to show up at her door felt as though it had only been a couple of minutes.

Jasmine could hear them talking outside the door before she opened it, so this time at least she wasn’t worried that it would be a case to disrupt her vacation. Ruby’s voice was the sort that always sounded like she was smiling, and it chimed merrily around the deeper, almost reluctant voice of Donald Parks. Jasmine wondered how he had gotten drafted into the conversation instead of Henry, but her question was soon answered when she opened the door to only the two of them.

“Henry is in the car,” Ruby explained, anticipating Jasmine’s question before she had even asked it. When Jasmine had lived with her parents, Ruby had been her neighbor and she had made a point of dropping in as much as possible. They had shared many secrets and long conversations over tea, but when Jasmine went away for college, they had drifted apart. Since Jasmine no longer lived at home, they hadn’t had the chance to renew that closeness in a way that Jasmine would have liked.

“We probably shouldn’t keep him waiting then,” Jasmine acknowledged, but when Ruby opened her arms for a hug, Jasmine stepped into them. “It’s really nice to see you again.”

“You too,” Ruby smiled. “I know a National Forest isn’t exactly a late afternoon tea, but I’m looking forward to it all the same.”

“We should get back to that tea,” Jasmine suggested, and Ruby promised they would as soon as they got back home.

All this time, Donald Parks had been quiet. His old eyes were as slow as they were cloudy, and they drifted between the two speakers with no urgency. When Jasmine looked at him, he smiled and nodded at her. She thought about giving him a more verbal greeting, but settled on just returning the gesture.

“You’ve packed pretty heavy,” Brandon pointed out as he lugged her bags out to the car. “What exactly do you think is going to happen on this trip?”

“A girl needs space for a couple of costume changes,” Ruby defended with a chuckle. Jasmine joined in awkwardly, but Brandon had been closer to the truth. Even if she could get out of Blackwood Cove with nothing happening, there was no guarantee that she wouldn’t find some kind of disruption on the road.

“A proper gentleman wouldn’t ask a woman what she keeps in her bag,” Donald added. Ruby patted the top of his arm with a familiarity that Jasmine hadn’t expected, and he moved to help Brandon get her bags into the back of the car. It was an old beat-up thing with scuffs on the side where police logos used to be attached. Although Jasmine’s friend in the local police department, Sheriff Lustbader, hadn’t been able to come along on their camping trip, he had provided a retired police vehicle to get them up to the White Mountains trail. It was easy enough to get along without driving in Blackwood Cove, so it had been hard to source a vehicle with enough space for everyone to ride comfortably. They owed Lustbader big time for lending them the car.

“Do you guys need any help?”

As Henry Bolen spoke up, Jasmine was reminded of how far he had come under Lustbader’s guidance. Henry Bolen had been a young and relatively inexperienced cop when Jasmine took on her first case, and he had since grown in both experience and rank. Despite that, Jasmine still saw him as a rookie compared to his superior. If things went sideways, she figured she would have to rely on herself and her own invaluable experience, rather than draw on his help.

“We’re just about done,” Brandon said. “Just give us a moment to get situated, and we can head out.”
Henry returned to the driver’s seat—that was the real benefit of having him around. Jasmine didn’t drive for fear of a vision catching her off guard and sending her off the road. Brandon had been behind the wheel in a crash not too long ago and hadn’t been excited about the idea of making a drive like this with others in the car. Donald’s eyes would have made it difficult to take the wheel, and while Ruby could drive around town with no problem, she may not have had the stamina for a trip like this.

Even with an experienced driver, the ride was awkward. Henry Bolen was nice enough, but he didn’t seem too fond of Luffy, and that made it hard for Jasmine to get too deep into a conversation with him. Donald sat stoically in the very back of the van, tapping his fingers against his leg with no discernable rhythm. Ruby had insisted on sitting next to him in the very back, and Brandon sat alone in the middle row of seats, alternating between scrolling through his phone and entertaining Luffy. Jasmine could have made conversation with him, but she would have had to turn nearly all the way around in her seat into a position that would be as awkward as it was uncomfortable.

After way too many stops for as short of a ride as they were making and a lot of very long, awkward silences, the mountains were in sight. Excitement brought out the more sociable side of all of them.

“Good ol’ mountains,” Donald muttered, almost to himself.

“I can’t wait to get out there and begin the hike,” Jasmine chimed in. “I’ve heard like a million things about the White Mountain trail. With as close as the trail is, I’m shocked I’ve never gone before.”

“It’s way more fun with other people,” Brandon said, and there was a murmur of agreement from the people in the car with them.

“There’s still a bit to go before we reach the National Forest,” Henry pointed out, when conversation lulled again. “But we should be in the mountains soon.”