Chapter 1 - The Burn Notice
The phone buzzed in my hand like a live wire. Where did you go, Elias? Get back here immediately. The detectives are waiting.
Marcus stared at me, his face pale under the harsh fluorescent lights of the data recovery shop. “Don’t go back,” he whispered, his voice trembling. “If they find that hammer on your property, with your prints on it from building that shed… you’re done. They’ve premeditated this perfectly.”
My mind raced. Sarah. My wife of six years. The woman I’d built a life with, who kissed me this morning and poured me coffee, had just framed me for the brutal murder of an innocent old man. And Mark. Mark, who was the best man at my wedding.
“Copy it,” I commanded, my voice surprisingly steady. “Put it on a flash drive. Better yet, upload it to a secure cloud server and send me the link. Give me the physical drive, too.”
Marcus didn't argue. His fingers flew across the keyboard. Within three minutes, a silver USB drive was dropped into my palm. “Elias,” he said as I turned to the door. “Be careful. If she’s willing to kill a neighbor just to frame you, she won’t hesitate to kill you to keep her secret.”
I sprinted to my truck, my heart hammering against my ribs. I didn't drive home. Instead, I drove to the outskirts of town, parking my Ford F-150 behind a decaying strip mall. I needed to think. Why? Why would they do this? Mr. Henderson was a grumpy old man, sure. We argued about a dead oak tree on the property line last month, a public shouting match the whole neighborhood witnessed. But murder?
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I pulled out my phone and checked our shared bank accounts. I froze. The savings account—the one we’d been building for a house upstate—was empty. Eighty thousand dollars. Gone. The withdrawal was made two days ago by Sarah.
My phone rang. The Caller ID read: Detective Reyes. I didn't answer. I pulled the battery out of my phone, tossed it into the nearest dumpster, and walked into the night. I was a ghost now.
