Chapter 63

Maya’s POV

Ellis-Town was a town of thieves—everyone knew it, and everyone lived it. Nearly every day, houses and shops would be rifled through while their owners slept. Sometimes, lone passersby even woke to discover valuables missing from their pockets. And almost every night, the streets echoed with the din of brawling drunks, looting robbers, and the distant wail of police sirens.

Tonight was no exception. Blue and red lights danced across the neighborhood’s façades. In their nightclothes, startled residents leaned over porch railings to watch the familiar scene unfold: Which house was next? What had been stolen? And, in the most dreadful cases, who had died?

Tonight, it was the latter.

Two body bags lay in front of a modest, unremarkable house. Captain Vance, precinct captain and the first-ranking officer