Snake in the Grass

(Still drafting, so this blurb is less mc / stakes / choice setup and more backstory. Hopefully, it still entices. :0) )

Gus aims to save her family’s ranch from foreclosure using her husband Bill’s life insurance money. Her plan derails when investigators reopen his case as a murder and focus on Gus. With Gus now the prime suspect, the life insurance company withholds payment.

Devastated, scared, and at a loss for how to clear her name, Gus unpacks to distract herself. She’d dumped items out of Bill’s desk without looking when she packed the boxes. Now she finds hundreds of photos, receipts, diaries, printed emails, and love letters. Also present is a ledger listing deposits into an offshore account.

Each deposit has a number and a notation, both appearing many times. Gus suspects each number correlates to a lover, and the notes look like blackmail reasons. But she sees nothing connecting the numbers to the people.

Gus turns this information over to the investigators after making digital copies of everything. She thinks they now have a suspect pool to move the focus from her. They agree, with the first part, but also believe the affairs provide plenty of motive keeping Gus herself in the center of the investigation. She remains free, but not free-and-clear.

When she returns to the ranch, a new hand takes Gus hostage, looking for the missing key. Now Gus must fight for her life, her freedom, and the ranch.