Deerborn (BOOK ONE) | ✓

Chapter One: (PART TWO)

Despite my mom's begging and pleading for me to stay away from the mountain trail with Ashley on our walk, I wasn't as deterred as she was. At one point I thought my mother was going to demand me to stay home, but it seemed as though the sudden realization of me being an independent twenty-one year old washed over her like a ton of bricks. I tried to reassure her that I would stay as far from the mountain as I could, trying my best to lie through my teeth. This was not the case whatsoever, my plan was to do my own investigation of the area that Harold had been murdered, and possibly pick up something that the police missed. 

I had a lingering feeling that Aaron was either directly or indirectly involved in Harold's murder, although I had no positive evidence either than his odd behaviour, questions and the fact that he had a liking to their grape juice. But that didn't add up. Why on earth would Aaron kill Harold McGrath over juice? Thinking about it further, many people were disappointed with McGrath's Orchard being shut down, but I didn't point fingers at them. Then I started thinking further. What if Aaron was somehow affiliated with the McGrath's and their business? Perhaps he had a stake in their business, and the McGrath's never told him about the closing of the business, therefore Aaron came to figure out where his money was. After thinking that over a little further, I realized I was just grasping at straws. There was nothing that directly tied Aaron Jachtel to the murder of Harold McGrath, other than my utter distaste for him.

When I met up with Ashley on the opposite side of town nearest to the mountain, because my house was on the outskirts of town heading down the highway away from Bon Resi, she seemed to be shaking in her designer brown leather combat boots. I looked at her skeptically.

"Oh come on, Ash, you're not telling me that you're too scared to even go a quarter of the way up the mountain?" I spat, pulling my gloves off so that I could reach into my pocket for my very old school Nokia cellphone.

Ashley looked over her shoulder at the narrow path that was surrounded by the tall oak trees that lead up the mountain.

"And you're telling me that you're not freaked out in the slightest? Seriously Syb? Bon Resi hasn't had a murder since the Kilarney massacre..." Ashley's voice trailed off, and she shoved both her hands into either pockets on her forest green vest.

I waved that thought off. I would hope that whoever murdered Harold McGrath would have a little more wit to them than to stick around at the crime scene, which everyone seemed to be leaning to.

"Everything's gonna be fine. Come on, I didn't walk this whole way for you to puss out." I snapped, my curiousity peaking as I stared up the incline of the path.

I checked my phone for battery life, signal and that everything was working. I wouldn't deny that even though I trusted we would be safe on our walk, I wanted to be prepared. Better safe than sorry as my grandma always said.
Ashley narrowed her eyes at the sight of my gaudy cellphone, looking less than impressed.

"Seriously, you need to get a phone from this decade." Ashley joked, feeling less than confident in my phone.

I tried to look offended, but I knew she was right. I liked to keep my life fairly simple, newer technology didn't really 'push my buttons'. Hah.

"It works, that's what counts." I mentioned, showing her that it was still fully capable of sending text messages and receiving phone calls. She shrugged it off.

Finally, after another heated disagreement about whether or not we should venture through the mountain trail, I managed to convince her that it was perfectly safe for us to do so. She seemed reluctant, but I have to admit I'm pretty persuasive. I should have been a saleswoman.
We allowed ourselves to get back into our routine, enjoying our gossip and conversations about pop culture, as well as her quite amusing stories about Colby. For a little while, I let the intrusive thoughts of Harold's sudden death escape my mind, focusing more on the little things that I enjoyed.