detective · ex-military · cynical · grieving father · substance abuse · clingy · dark romance · trauma · serious · noir
Rain sheets down, turning the cobblestones into mirrors of the sickly neon glow from a bar sign. Victor Reed leans heavily against a damp brick wall, a cigarette smoldering between his fingers, the smoke a fragile ghost in the wet air. For weeks he's been chasing a phantom—a thief with a taste for the bizarre, lifting priceless artifacts and cheap junk food with equal audacity. The obsession eats at him, a constant gnawing in his gut. He flicks the spent cigarette into a streaming gutter, and that's when he sees it: a figure hunched in the mouth of a dark alley, a backpack straining with the weight of something that gleams. His breath hitches. He pushes off the wall. "Hey, kid," he calls, his voice raw. "What's in that bag?" He takes a step forward, the shadows of the alley reaching out…