The morning came grey through my hotel window.
I was up before the sun. Coffee from the lobby machine. An apple from the corner market.
The fragment with the Valerius crest sat on the desk. I looked at it while I ate.
Siver appeared on the windowsill.
"You going to call your grandfather today?"
"No."
"You found his family crest at a murder scene."
"I found a fragment of a container with a crest. That's not the same as proof."
He tilted his head.
"It's enough to ask questions."
I finished the apple and dropped the core in the trash.
"First I find Castell. Then I ask questions."
The bureau was already moving when I walked in.
Ayra Thorne was at her desk. A map spread across it. Her coffee untouched.
"Property records came through," she said without looking up. "The warehouse in District 7. Owned by a shell company. Took three layers to find the real owner."
I sat down across from her.
"Who?"
She looked at me.
"House Valerius."
I didn't react. Siver let out a low whistle behind me.
"The same family whose crest we found at Hale's lab," Ayra continued. "The same family that employed a records keeper who was about to meet Elara Vance the night she died."
"And now that records keeper?"
"No record of him after that night. Name was Lyle Corvin. Worked for Valerius for twenty years. Retired six months before Elara's death."
She tapped the map.
"His last known address is in District 7. Two blocks from the warehouse."
I studied the map.
"We go to the warehouse first, or Corvin's address?"
"Corvin's address is a dead end. I checked this morning. Building was demolished three months ago. But the warehouse is still standing."
"Then we go to the warehouse. But first—"
"Elias Vance," Ayra said. "I know. Voss gave us clearance to interview him. He's at Riverdark General. Cardiac wing."
Ayra was faster at all of this than I was. Being new here was a drawback, I guessed.
The hospital was a maze of white corridors and the smell of antiseptic.
Ayra walked beside me, her badge visible on her hip.
"They have him under guard," she said. "The theft charge is pending. He's not going anywhere."
We took the elevator to the third floor.
A uniformed officer sat outside room 312. He checked our IDs and let us through.
Elias Vance was propped against pillows. An IV in his arm. His face was pale, but his eyes were alert.
They fixed on me the moment I walked in.
"You," he said. "The one who gave me the shot."
"Yes."
He let out a breath.
"The doctors said I'd be dead if you hadn't been there."
"You'd be dead if you'd been three blocks farther from the airport."
Ayra stepped forward.
"Mr. Vance. I'm Detective Thorne. We're re-investigating your sister's death."
The color drained from his face. He looked at the monitor, then back at us.
"They said she killed herself," he said quietly.
"We don't believe that," Ayra said. "We need you to tell us what she was working on."
He closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them, they were wet.
"Elara was a journalist. Investigative. She was looking into deaths that got buried. People who worked for the families—dock workers, consultants, small people. They'd die, and the reports would say accident or natural causes, and no one asked questions."
"Victor Crane," I said.
He nodded.
"That was one. There were others. She found a pattern. Same medical examiner signed off on all of them. A Dr. Castell."
Ayra pulled out her notebook.
"What else?"
"She found someone. A source. A man who used to work for House Valerius. Records keeper. Name was Lyle Corvin. He said he had documents. Proof of something. She was going to meet him the night she died."
I leaned forward.
"Where?"
"A warehouse in District 7. She didn't tell me the exact address. She said it was safer if I didn't know."
His voice cracked.
"She was trying to protect me."
"Did she mention a notebook?" Ayra asked.
"She always kept one. Everything she found went in it. When they found her car, the notebook was gone."
He looked at us with desperate eyes.
"Someone took it. Whoever killed her."
I held his gaze.
"What did Corvin have?"
"I don't know. She didn't tell me everything. But she was scared. The night she went to meet him, she called me. Told me if something happened to her, I should find Castell. That he knew where the truth was buried."
Ayra and I exchanged a glance.
"Mr. Vance," she said carefully, "Dr. Castell has been missing for two days."
His face went grey. The monitor beeped faster.
"They got him," he whispered. "Like they got her."
"We don't know that yet," Ayra said. "But we need to find him before anyone else does. Is there anything else your sister told you? Anything that might tell us where Castell would go?"
Elias shook his head.
"She just said he was afraid. That he'd signed off on things he knew were wrong. That someone was making him do it."
The room felt colder.
I didn't need to turn to know she was there.
Elara stood at the foot of the bed. Her face was hollow, her eyes fixed on her brother. She didn't look at me at first. She just watched him breathe.
I could see her. I was exactly waiting for her.
Spirit things wouldn't go round and round now.
Then her gaze shifted.
You can see me, can you?
I nodded silently.
Will you help me?
I nodded again.
Castell has it. The notebook. He took it from my car before anyone else could. He's hiding.
I kept my expression flat.
Where?
She shook her head.
He moves. He's afraid. But he has the notebook. Find him, and you find it.
I looked away.
Ayra was watching me.
"You went quiet," she said. "Is something wrong?"
"Nope. Just thinking."
She didn't push. Not in front of Elias.
I stood.
"Mr. Vance, thank you. We'll find what happened to your sister."
He grabbed my wrist.
"You promise?"
"I promise to find the truth."
I had to find out what was wrong with my paternal family.
He let go.
In the hallway, Ayra pulled me aside.
"What happened in there?"
"Nothing."
"You went cold. Like you saw something."
I met her eyes.
"I told you. I have methods."
She studied me for a long moment.
"Castell has the notebook."
"That's what Elias implied."
"He didn't say that. He said Castell knew where the truth was buried."
I started walking toward the elevator.
"He took it from the car before anyone sealed the scene. He's hiding because he knows someone will come for it. And now he's been missing two days."
Ayra caught up.
"If he's hiding, we need to find him before whoever killed Elara does."
"We search the warehouse first. See if Corvin left anything behind. Then we look for Castell."
The elevator doors opened. We stepped in.
"Voss called while you were in the room," Ayra said. "Castell's house was searched this morning. No sign of struggle. But his personal safe was open and empty."
"He took something with him."
"Or someone took it from him."
The doors opened onto the lobby. We walked out into grey afternoon light.
Siver appeared beside me as we crossed the parking lot.
"She's getting closer, you know. Ayra. She's watching you."
"Let her watch."
"She's smart. She'll figure out you're not just 'thinking' when you go quiet."
I opened the car door.
"Then I'll tell her when I'm ready."
Siver laughed.
"You've never been ready to tell anyone."
I got in the car.
District 7 was a wasteland of abandoned warehouses and broken asphalt.
The river ran black along the edge, and the buildings seemed to lean away from it.
Ayra drove slowly, checking addresses against the property records.
"There," she said, pointing to a three-story brick structure with a collapsed loading dock. "That's it."
She parked behind a rusted dumpster. We got out.
The warehouse door was chained, but the lock was old. I took a tool from my bag and had it open in thirty seconds.
Inside, the air was cold and damp. Dust motes floated in the weak light from the windows.
Shelves lined the walls, most empty. A few pallets sat in the center of the floor.
Ayra pulled out a flashlight.
"Corvin met her here. She was supposed to get documents."
We spread out. I took the left side, Ayra the right.
The floor was concrete, stained with age. I found nothing near the shelves—just dust and rat droppings.
Then Ayra called out.
"Andres."
I walked over. She was standing by a column near the back of the warehouse. Her flashlight was aimed at the floor.
Blood. Dried. A pool of it, large enough to be fatal.
"Someone died here," Ayra said quietly.
I knelt beside it. The pattern was consistent with a body lying prone for some time. No drag marks. No signs of cleanup.
"Elara," I said.
Ayra looked at me.
"You think she was killed here and moved to her car?"
"The blood is consistent with a wound that wasn't immediately fatal. She bled out over time. Then someone moved her body to the car and staged the suicide."
"But the car was found in District 9. That's a twenty-minute drive."
"They had time."
I stood up.
"The question is what they took with them."
Ayra's flashlight swept the column.
"There's something here."
I moved closer. Etched into the brick was a symbol. Small, almost hidden behind years of grime.
Three symbols intertwined.
The same crest from the metal fragment.
"Valerius," Ayra said.
I ran my fingers over the etching.
"Corvin worked for them. This was their warehouse."
"He brought her here to give her documents that would expose his own family?"
"He was afraid. He said if anyone found out he was talking, he'd end up like the others."
I looked at the bloodstain.
"They found out."
Ayra was quiet for a moment.
"If Castell took the notebook from Elara's car, he knows what she found. He's been hiding for two days. Where does a man like that go?"
I thought about the file. Dr. Simon Castell. Senior medical examiner. Thirty years in Riverdark. No family listed. No close friends.
"Somewhere no one would look. A second property. A cabin. Somewhere off the grid."
Ayra pulled out her phone.
"I'll have Voss run a property search."
I walked the perimeter of the bloodstain, looking for anything else. A button. A scrap of paper. Something the cleaners missed.
Nothing.
But as I turned to leave, I felt the cold again.
Elara was standing in the center of the warehouse. Her hollow eyes were fixed on the bloodstain.
He was here. Castell. After I was dead. He came with the others. He took my notebook. He looked at me and said nothing.
I kept my face still.
Find him. He knows.
Then she was gone.
Ayra finished her call.
"Voss is running the search. She'll call if anything turns up."
I walked toward the door.
"Let's get out of here."
Outside, the rain had started. Ayra pulled her coat tighter.
"You went quiet again," she said as we walked to the car. "Inside. You were looking at something."
"I was looking at the evidence."
"No."
She stopped at the driver's side door.
"I've been doing this long enough to know when someone's lying. You see something I don't. You've been doing it since you walked into the bureau."
I opened my door.
"When I have something to tell you, you'll know."
She stared at me for a moment. Then she got in.
Siver slid into the back seat, rain dripping through him.
"She's not going to wait forever."
I didn't answer.
Ayra started the engine.
"Voss said they found Castell's car. Abandoned near the river in District 2."
"Anything inside?"
"Empty. But the registration was still in the glove compartment. He left in a hurry."
I looked out the window at the rain.
Castell had the notebook. He was running. But someone was hunting him.
We needed to find him first.
"District 2," I said. "That's where we start tomorrow."
Ayra pulled onto the main road.
"And tonight?"
I pulled out the fragment from Hale's lab. The Valerius crest glinted under the dashboard lights.
"Tonight," I said, "I make a phone call."