The dance floor was crowded and warm, string lights swaying gently overhead, and Silas found himself moving through the steps with an ease that surprised him, some old memory of formal training resurfacing without conscious effort, Marielle's laughter carrying easily over the music whenever he spun her a little too sharply."You're better at this than you let on," she said, breathless and smiling. "Most men your, whatever mysterious background you're not telling me about, usually step on my feet at least twice by now.""I had a mother who insisted on proper dancing lessons," Silas said, and something in the admission surprised even him, a small true piece of himself offered without calculation. "Said it was one of the few things worth doing correctly if you were going to do it at all.""She sounds like she had strong opinions," Marielle said."She did," Silas said, something softening briefly in his expression before old habit pulled it carefully back under control. "She's not, she's

The two hours ended faster than Silas wanted, and by the time he pulled up outside Reyes's car parked two blocks from Thaddeus Rourke's office building, the warmth of the wedding had already burned away into the familiar, cold focus of the work still waiting for him."You look different," Reyes said, studying him as Silas climbed into the passenger seat. "Not bad different. Just, different.""Don't," Silas said, though there wasn't much heat behind it. "What do we know.""The file's still sitting on his desk, as far as my source inside the building can tell. Nobody's touched it yet, which means either Thaddeus doesn't know it's there, or he does know and he's frozen, trying to figure out how to make it disappear before anyone else sees it." Reyes handed over a folder of his own, photographs taken from a distance, grainy but clear enough. "Security's been doubled since this morning. Whoever planted the file wanted it found, but they also wanted Thaddeus scared enough to make mistakes t

"You're insane," Thaddeus said, voice climbing toward something desperate. "You understand what happens to me if that reaches the DA. Not disgrace, not embarrassment. Prison, Silas. Real prison, for the rest of whatever life I have left." "You should have thought about that twenty years ago," Silas said, "before you decided a murdered man's investigation was worth burying for the sake of protecting the people who killed him." "I didn't kill him." Thaddeus's voice cracked, something raw finally breaking through the panic. "I voted the way the room voted, because saying no meant ending up like the one man who did, and even that didn't save him from having to live with it. I never touched my father, I never... I only made the paperwork disappear afterward. That's all I ever did." "That's all you ever did." Silas's voice stayed flat, merciless. "You voted for it, same as five others, and then you buried the one thing that could have given my father justice, so that six murderers could k

"Don't touch anything," Reyes said, already moving through the wreckage of Thaddeus Rourke's study, weapon holstered but his whole body coiled tight. "Whoever did this left in a hurry, or wanted it to look that way."Silas stepped through the doorway behind him, Marielle's apartment, the warmth of her, the candle burning lopsided on the table, already feeling like something that belonged to a different life entirely. The study smelled of copper and something worse underneath it, and Thaddeus lay sprawled behind his own desk, eyes open, the same desk where two nights ago he'd sat cornered and terrified, negotiating for whatever time he had left.He didn't get much of it."Time of death," Silas said, voice flat, professional distance sliding over him like armor."Coroner's not here yet, my source says maybe two hours ago, give or take." Reyes crouched near the body, careful not to disturb anything. "No struggle. Look at his hands. No defensive wounds, nothing under his nails. Whoever di

Silas was on his feet before he'd fully processed the message, every trace of the softness from a moment ago burning away instantly into cold, controlled focus."Stay away from the windows," he said, already moving toward Marielle's front door, checking the lock, scanning the small apartment for anything useful."What's happening," Marielle asked, alarm plain in her voice now, though she followed his instruction without argument, backing away from the glass."Reyes spotted someone outside," Silas said, phone already pressed to his ear, calling back. "Reyes. Talk to me.""Car's been parked at the end of the street for almost twenty minutes," Reyes said, voice tight and low. "No plates visible, engine off, driver hasn't moved once. Could be nothing. Could be exactly what we're worried about.""Can you see the driver.""Not clearly. Tinted windows, and he's angled away from the streetlight." A pause, tense. "Silas, I don't like this. Twenty minutes of stillness outside her building, the