Page 12 of Obscurity
Olive wanted to ask him about the photograph, about whether he knew anything about the Northwoods Investment Group.
But something in Elias’s demeanor warned her to wait. To observe. To gather more information before showing her hand.
“I’m ready to dive in,” she said instead.
“Excellent. If you’ll just follow me out to the?—”
Before he could finish, a scream shattered the air.
It appeared they didn’t have to look for trouble. Trouble was already here.
The raw, terrified scream echoed from somewhere outside the building.
Every conversation in the main room stopped abruptly, replaced by a silence so complete that Olive could hear her own heartbeat.
Then chaos erupted as guests rushed toward the windows, voices overlapping in concerned murmurs.
“Stay inside,” Elias barked, all pretense of hospitality abandoned. “Everyone stay inside until we know what’s happening.”
There was no way Olive was staying inside.
Instead, she rushed across the lobby and pushed herself through the lodge’s front doors. Jason stayed close behind her.
In the parking lot, a young woman with perfectly styled blonde hair stood beside a bright yellow Jeep Wrangler, her phone held high as if she’d been filming herself when something interrupted her.
She wore trendy hiking gear that looked like it had been purchased specifically for social media content, and her expression showed genuine shock.
“You guys, it just—it literally just fell right onto my windshield!” Influencer Maya Riggs stammered as other guests gathered around. Her voice carried the breathless urgency of someone used to narrating her life for an audience. “I was doing a sunset story for my followers, and this thing just dropped out of nowhere!”
Olive moved closer to get a better look.
A large crow lay across the Jeep’s hood, its black feathers stark against the white paint. Even from several feet away, she could see that its neck was bent at an unnatural angle.
“Now, now, Maya.” Elias’s voice sounded smooth and reassuring as he appeared beside the distressed influencer. “I know it’s startling, but birds do occasionally fly into windows. The poor thing probably just got disoriented in the changing light.”
Olive couldn’t help but think that something about his explanation sounded rehearsed.
“But it didn’t fly into anything,” Maya protested, lowering her phone. “It just . . . fell. Like someone dropped it.” She glanced around nervously. “This is so not the vibe I was going for in my festival preview content.”
“There are natural occurrences to consider also,” Elias added. “Birds sometimes suffer heart attacks, especially during seasonal migration patterns.”
Olive caught Jason’s eye and saw her own skepticism reflected in his gaze. Birds didn’t typically fall out of clear skies onto parked cars.
Connor Walsh, the videographer, stepped closer. “That’s definitely not like any normal bird behavior I’ve ever seen.”
“Why don’t we all head inside for dinner? We can do the briefing there.” Elias guided Maya away from her vehicle. “I’ll have Leif, my assistant, take care of this little situation, and by morning everything will be back to normal.”
As the group reluctantly moved back toward the lodge, Olive lingered to study the scene. The crow’s eyes were still open, reflecting the porch lights like black glass. Something about the bird’s placement nagged at her.
The crow’s positioning looked almost . . . deliberate. It was too centered on the hood, almost as if it had been precisely positioned.
Was Maya lying about it dropping out of the sky?
Or was Olive reading too much into this?
“Coming?” Jason appeared at her elbow, his voice low.
“Yeah.” Olive forced herself to look away from the dead bird. “Just thinking about what kind of person stages something like that.”
