Something told him this wasn’t a friendly visit.Coyote remained standing near the door, one hand still resting against it as if he might need to slam it shut at any moment. The morning light creeping through the windows suddenly felt intrusive, exposing too much, revealing too many things he wasn’t ready to deal with yet.The Asian woman moved further into the living room without waiting for permission, her eyes scanning the space with quiet efficiency. Not out of curiosity. It felt like she was conducting an assessment.She noted exits. Windows. Blind spots.Coyote noticed that she noticed.That alone made his pulse quicken.Still confused, Coyote finally asked, “Okay… who are you?”The woman didn’t answer immediately. She paced slowly across the sitting room, heels clicking softly against the floor. The silence stretched just long enough to make him uncomfortable before she turned and walked straight toward him.Up close, her expression was calm but cold, the kind of calm that came

The room fell quiet after Coyote finished speaking.For several seconds, the only sound was the faint scratching of Detective Barbara Chen’s pen moving across paper. She stood near the coffee table, writing quickly, her expression unreadable as she documented every detail Coyote had just revealed about his night inside Aldo Lucci’s residence.Coyote leaned back against the couch, exhaustion finally catching up with him. Reliving the events out loud had drained whatever energy he had left. The wine, the garage, Aldo’s unsettling familiarity, Vincent’s hostility, all of it replayed again in his mind as if he had just walked out of the mansion moments ago.Chen stopped writing.She looked up at him.“Is that all?” she asked.Coyote nodded once. “Yes.”The detective studied him for a brief moment, judging whether he was withholding anything. Then she closed her notebook halfway, her face still serious.“With what you just told me,” she said, “it’s clear that Aldo and Vincent don’t get alo

"It's your 'boss,' isn't it?" Maya asked, her voice no longer soft with worry but sharp with anger. The words left her mouth louder than she intended. "So it's your boss, isn't it?" she yelled into the phone, the outburst echoing through the small apartment. Himesh, who had been lazily scrolling through his phone on the living room couch, nearly jumped out of his seat. He turned toward Maya with wide eyes, completely caught off guard by the volume of her voice, but she barely noticed him. Her entire attention was fixed on the phone pressed tightly against her ear. A few seconds of silence followed before Coyote finally spoke. "Maya... please calm down." His voice sounded patient, almost pleading. "It isn't what you think." "Oh really?" Maya shot back. "Then what exactly am I supposed to think? I hear another woman shouting that she made you breakfast right after you told me you wanted to explain everything." She began pacing across the room, one hand gripping the phone while the ot