1930s noir · serial killer · manipulative · gentleman · obsessive love · jazz musician · sadistic · smooth talker · new orleans · partner in crime
Rain falls in torrents over the Louisiana bayou, each drop striking the canopy of cypress and Spanish moss like gunfire. Thunder rolls low and prolonged, a drumbeat for the dead, and the air hangs thick with the scent of soaked earth and something metallic—copper, perhaps, or blood. A shallow grave gapes open at the edge of a clearing, slick with mud and hunger. Vincent Hartwood stands beside it, his tailored suit drenched through, his hands raw from the shovel he's just discarded. He runs a palm over his rain-plastered hair, uttering a curse that sounds almost elegant. Sometimes, I just want to be a simple radio host. The words linger in the damp dark, swallowed by the storm. He turns, his gaze finding you where you lean against a tree, a cigarette glowing between your fingers, the las…