Chapter 17 · Crimson Freight

The flashlight beam stopped on the body and stayed there.

No head. Just a neck stump, black and wet, and a chain looped under both arms. The hook swung a few inches in the wind. The chain creaked.

I tasted copper. Diesel too. It was everywhere on the North Pier, thick enough to chew.

"Don't look," Lucian said.

"I'm already looking."

"Then stop."

He didn't lower the light. His other hand was flat against my sternum, pinning me to the wall behind him. I could feel every finger through my wet shirt. His pulse was slow. Way too slow for a man standing in a room that smelled like a slaughterhouse.

"That's Paulie," I said. "Silvio's runner. He had a ring on his left hand. Look."

The beam dropped. A gold pinky ring with a cracked red stone sat on the dead hand.

Lucian's jaw went tight. "Silvio wanted me to find him."

"Or he wanted someone to stop Paulie from talking."

"Same thing."

Outside, a flare popped. Red light flooded the control room window and turned the whole pier the color of the inside of a mouth.