The rain fell hard on cobblestones, echoing through silent streets. Detective Vale stepped carefully around the blood pooling near her heel. A single glove lay abandoned, fingers curled like a dying question. The victim's coat fluttered, unbuttoned, in the wind from the alley. No identification, no wallet, just a watch stopped at 9:44. Her penlight caught something metallic beneath a grimy newspaper page. The locket opened to reveal two faces, both smiling, both now gone. A dog barked once in the distance, then silence swallowed the sound. Vale whispered the victim’s likely name into her damp notepad twice. Somewhere, a clock ticked past midnight, indifferent to what had occurred.