JJ hadn’t been on the front line of an op. He wasn’t a threat to anyone.
Tevin stood beside her, his face pale behind his glasses. He held a wool blanket but didn’t seem to know what to do with it. JJ didn’t need to stay warm anymore. But Olive didn’t want the innkeepers to see this.
She took the blanket from him and placed it over JJ.
“I was talking to him like—what, an hour ago?” Tevin murmured. “He said he was going to grab his gear from the van and go to his room to chill for a while. I just assumed that’s where he was.”
“Did he say what he was doing to ‘chill’?” Olive asked.
Tevin shook his head slowly. “Not specifically. I think he was going to text his girlfriend.”
They all gathered around JJ.
Jason crouched beside JJ’s body, his jaw set and eyes scanning as he pulled back the blanket. “I don’t see any obvious trauma. Could be hypothermia.”
“Could be.” Olive stepped closer. “But look at his wrist.”
Jason frowned and followed her gaze.
Beneath JJ’s sleeve, the skin around his wrist was raw, ringed with faint red marks—like someone had grabbed him hard.
“That’s not from a fall.” Jason’s tone hardened.
Olive didn’t like where this was going—but she wasn’t surprised either. Something criminal had happened out there in the pure, innocent-looking snow.
She squatted next to JJ and took in all the details. The dirt beneath his nails. A single loose button on his coat, torn thread dangling.
“What’s that?” she murmured.
Jason leaned closer. “What’s what?”
She pointed at the edge of JJ’s collar. “That—just under his coat.”
Jason pulled a small flashlight from his pocket—of course he had one—and clicked it on.
The beam cut across JJ’s jacket, catching on a faint indentation near his throat.
A bruise. Oval. Thumb-sized.
Olive’s stomach dropped. “He was strangled.”
Jason’s expression tightened. “Or close to it.”
Tevin straightened. “Let’s not jump to conclusions. We don’t know the full picture.”
Olive gave him a pointed look. “We know enough to stop pretending this was an accident.”
The room went quiet.
Mitzi finally spoke. “I realize you all know this, but if someone did this, then that means?—”
“It means that, most likely, JJ’s killer is still close,” Olive finished. “And there’s no one else up on this mountain except us.”
Tevin pushed his curls back away from his face as he seemed to analyze the situation. “Okay, so, hypothetically speaking, if one of us didn’t do it—because I’m not volunteering for a group murder—who else could it be?”
“That’s the question of the hour.” Jason covered JJ again.
“Do you think someone from a past case could have followed us here?” Olive asked as she stood over JJ’s body with her arms crossed. “Someone we made mad and who wanted revenge?”
