Run: 2026-02-20-01KHXQ6DCFKFJESKHRRANKS5JN

The rain hammered against the cobblestones, turning the gaslight’s glow into a hazy, golden smear. Detective Harlow adjusted his hat, watching the water pool around his scuffed, leather boots with quiet disdain. A scream sliced through the night, sharp as broken glass, freezing him mid-step near the alley’s mouth. The body lay sprawled beneath the flickering streetlamp, limbs twisted like a discarded marionette’s strings. Blood, black in the dim light, seeped into the cracks between the stones, tracing a macabre map. Harlow knelt, gloved fingers brushing the victim’s coat—fine wool, now ruined by the storm’s cruel touch. A playing card, the ace of spades, rested near the corpse, edges curled from the damp air. The victim’s face was frozen in surprise, lips parted as if to whisper a final, unheard secret. A shadow shifted at the alley’s end, just beyond the reach of the sputtering, dying lamplight. Harlow’s hand drifted to his revolver, eyes narrowing as the figure melted into the downpour’s relentless curtain. The air smelled of wet iron and something sweeter—perfume, perhaps, or the ghost of a lie. A distant clock tower chimed midnight, its hollow notes swallowed by the storm’s hungry, howling breath. The victim’s pocket watch had stopped at 11:47, its hands locked in a moment stolen by violence. Harlow exhaled, his breath curling like smoke, as the first clue whispered its silent, deadly promise. Somewhere in the city, a door clicked shut, sealing the killer’s escape into the storm’s embrace.