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Chapter 1
Chapter One: The Package
The flash drive came in a plain envelope with no note and no return address. It rattled in my mailbox like a pill in a bottle. I put it on the kitchen table and stared at it, as if waiting for it to explain itself.
The apartment was quiet except for the radiator’s irregular clack. The night outside was wet and unapologetic. I hadn’t had a byline in eight months, not since my last story burned down around me and took two careers with it—mine, and a source who trusted me to keep them safe. In that silence, the drive felt like a dare.
I plugged it in, ignoring the old reflex that said not to. There was one file. No readme. No password prompt. Just a date-stamped video labeled with a string of numbers.
At first, it looked like any downtown parking garage, concrete ribs and peeling arrows. A fixed camera angle. A hiss of compressed sound. Then a black SUV rolled in and braked. A man stepped into the frame. A second figure emerged from a column’s shadow. I watched a fight that wasn’t much of a fight. The victim went down hard and didn’t move again.
My eyes moved to the timestamp burned into the corner. 21:17. Two days from now.
I played it again, slower, as if the answer might be tucked between the frames. It wasn’t. The light over the column flickered, then cut out completely. The killer leaned down, steady, methodical. The camera didn’t blink.
On the fourth watch, my stomach clenched. I knew the face on the concrete. It was Councilman Desmond Hale.
