Page 44 of Only One More Lie

“I know you were here yesterday when Peppermint was found. Now you’re here today for this incident. It seems as if things are escalating.”

“Have there been more people injured or put in danger recently?” Duke was concerned for everyone here if that was the case.

“I promise you I’m following all the rules. I’m trying to do everything with the utmost safety of the guests in mind. But it seems like Tim is working against me. He wants me to fail. He wants me to think this is my fault. Maybe it’s starting to work.” Tears rolled down her cheeks.

“What are you talking about?” Andi cocked her head to the side. “If you want our help, then you need to tell us what’s going on.”

“I should just sell this place . . .”

“Who would you even sell it to?” Duke asked.

“I have a man—Dudley Something or Other—who keeps calling me and making me offers,” she said. “I keep turning him down.”

“So what’s been going on here, Juniper?” Andi waited for an answer.

Juniper grabbed some tissues from a nearby box and dabbed her eyes. “The truth is dangerous things keep happening here at the camp, and I almost feel as if someone is trying to sabotage us.”

Duke didn’t like the sound of that. “What else has happened?”

“Really, they’re things that seem simple at first glance. But when you add them all together . . .” Juniper swung her head back and forth before blowing out a shaky breath. “We had a small kitchen fire one day after a burner was ‘accidentally’ left on. One of our families got lost in the woods for five hours after the trail markers somehow got switched. A UTV flipped, and we discovered later that air had been let out of two tires. Thankfully, in each of those cases, everything turned out okay. But they were still scary.”

“It sounds like it,” Andi murmured.

“Then some of guests thought they saw people in the woods.”

Duke sucked in a breath. “What do you mean?”

“IT’s probably nothing.” Juniper closed her eyes and shook her head. “Just some hunters who didn’t realize where our property lines were. But it’s unnerved some people and made them feel unsafe. Maybe I should see if this Dudley man is still interested . . .”

Duke ran a hand over his face. The truth was, they could be dealing with multiple mysteries here: The mystery of who killed Pepper. The mystery of who was trying to sabotage this camp. And the mystery of who the December Dismemberer was.

These events may or may not be connected.

But they were all dangerous and posed a serious threat.

CHAPTER 20

Just like yesterday, the rescue squad came.

Andi stood outside of the lodge, her coat pulled close, and watched as they loaded the injured guest onto a stretcher and carried her to the ambulance.

As they walked by, she glanced at the woman. Andi sucked in a breath when she recognized the woman’s bluish face.

It was the woman Andi had seen in the dining hall yesterday, the one who’d been watching everyone.

Andi had been curious about her. The woman didn’t seem like the typical relaxed vacation guest here to have a good time. Instead, she’d appeared on edge.

Why was that?

A man and a teenage boy, probably family members, trailed behind the stretcher. They had to be worried sick.

How had this even happened? Had someone weakened the ice on purpose? Had this woman discovered something she shouldn’t have, and had someone tried to kill her in order to keep a secret?

And the even bigger question: Was that person Caleb? Tim? Or someone else entirely, someone they hadn’t even met yet?

Someone here had secrets. Secrets that may have gotten Pepper killed. Secrets that might even relate to the death of Calvin and Mary.

There was much more going on here than met the eye, Andi realized. They had to get to the bottom of this, and they had no time to waste.

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