Read Dead Ends (Main Street Mysteries Book 2) for Free Online

need to.
    ‘Sounds good,’ AnnaLise said, though the very thought of it shot acid into her stomach. Someone born and bred in the High Country should not be afraid of heights, but there it was.
    AnnaLise stepped on the brake to make the tight left turn onto Ridge Road, which would take them up the mountain without needing to cross the Sutherton Bridge. As with most things in life, though, there was a price: the narrow switch-back roads. They were especially a problem for AnnaLise's Spyder, which had an amazingly wide front-axle and long wheelbase for a car so small, meaning that while it held the road very well, the convertible had the exaggerated turning radius of a tractor-trailer.
    ‘You're going to have to give it some gas, you know,’ Daisy said, looking back at a shiny black panel truck emblazoned with the words "Scotty the Electrician" coming up fast behind them. ‘The road climbs about five hundred feet in elevation during this section.’
    Said ‘section,’ in AnnaLise's estimation, being maybe the equivalent of only eight city blocks. The grade was so steep she was afraid her poor Mitsubishi's twin tailpipes were scraping.
    But AnnaLise stepped on the gas and the little car leapt forward, just in time for another hairpin turn. She slammed on her brakes and was rewarded with a screech of tires behind her and the sound of a horn.
    Negotiating the bend, they continued to climb, the panel truck on their tail. ‘Back off,’ AnnaLise said into the rear-view mirror.
    ‘He's likely just trying to get to a job,’ Daisy said mildly. ‘You could jack up your speed to ten miles an hour.’
    ‘I'm going fifteen.' She rolled down her window. 'Jackass!'
    ‘AnnaLise Griggs, I will not have you talking that way. And the last thing you want to do is alienate the only electrician in town before that garage is wired. Though,' she squinted into her side mirror. 'I don't think that's Scotty himself.'
    'Back off, Jack,' AnnaLise muttered, putting the window back up. 'Or whatever your name is.'
    'If the tailgating bothers you so much,' her mother said in a reasonable tone, 'take the road up here on the left.’
    AnnaLise slowed to make the turn, the other vehicle nearly clipping her as he roared past.
    ‘Asshole,’ Daisy called after him.
    ‘Daisy Griggs, and you're scolding me for my – ’ She interrupted herself. ‘Did that sign say DEAD END?’
    ‘It did, but you've lived up here long enough to realize that some ends are deader than others. We can get through, you just have to know how.’
    AnnaLise glanced at her mother as they passed one lone round house that probably backed up to the ski hill, but from this side resembled one of those Sweet Tart lollipops that looks like a space ship on a stick. Except wooden and rustic, of course. ‘Are you sure this connects? Preferably to where we want to go?’ Which, increasingly for the younger woman, was down.
    ‘At least where I want to go,’ Daisy said. ‘Here, slow up so you can make this right.’
    ‘Onto what?’ AnnaLise asked, following orders. The little convertible's tires crunched. ‘Oh, goody. A gravel road, and this high on the mountain.’
    ‘More like a trail. We used to take this all the time when I was a girl. Just keep the car centered and we'll be fine.’
    The tailgating SUV was looking better and better by comparison. AnnaLise ducked instinctively when a low-hanging branch came into view, despite having left the car's canvas top up against the autumn chill in the air. Which brought to mind another problem.
    ‘With the convertible roof closed the sightlines in this car are obstructed enough, without having to trail-blaze our way through,’ AnnaLise griped. She'd slunk down so the top of her head was about level with the apex of the steering wheel. ‘Not to mention that the Spyder rides so low, we're going to get hung up. This car isn't made for off-roading.’ Nor was AnnaLise.
    ‘Honestly,’ Daisy said, ‘stop being such an old lady. We won't