Related Cases (10)
Related Novels (2)
Related Chapters (8)
Deadlock at the Slaughterhouse
Words: 2995 · Source Novel:: The Luck of Shadows
The shadow finally materializes at the old Ashwick slaughterhouse, a place of rust and bone. It is Marcus Anderson, calm and unarmed. He reveals he did not kill Wilson; Wilson drunkenly slipped on a wet balcony, and Anderson simply watched. He then meticulously removed the evidence of a fall, letting the police's laziness and a series of lucky breaks—a malfunctioning street camera, a bribed coroner who forgot to look for liver alcohol—create the myth of an unsolvable murder. The perfect crime was just a vacuum filled by coincidence and official torpor. Anderson then asks Cole: "Now that you know, will you bury it, or die?"
The Watcher's Snare
Words: 2992 · Source Novel:: The Luck of Shadows
Cole attempts to trap his shadow by using himself as bait in the derelict financial district. The plan backfires. He is lured into the underground archives where the Wilson v. Anderson evidence is stored, and finds the case file already open on a table, a single annotation in red ink: "Nothing is perfect, only convenient." The stalker's footsteps echo, but when Cole turns, he sees only mirrors—hundreds of them, reflecting his own weary face.
The Widow and the Tail
Words: 2973 · Source Novel:: The Luck of Shadows
Vincent Cole takes on a case from the widow of tycoon Joseph Wilson, who fell from a balcony the night before he was to testify against Marcus Anderson. The police ruled it suicide. Cole begins shadowing Anderson through the foggy streets of Ashwick, only to feel a cold, unshakable sensation—someone, or something, is trailing him in turn. The first anonymous note left under his windshield reads: "You follow the wrong man. I follow you."
Chronic Wound
Words: 3011 · Source Novel:: Kister v. Wilson
The jury returns an ambiguous verdict: Wilson is cleared of medical negligence, but the trial has already destroyed his career. Kister disappears from public life, his corporation crumbling under the weight of his obsession. The epilogue follows a new generation of Ashford students scrolling through archived news of the case, callously dissecting it on social media as entertainment, while another lonely scholarship student watches silently from a corner. The cycle refuses to end. The novel closes on a sealed court document listing "Kister v. Wilson et al.," a reminder that the true et al.—society itself—remains unindicted.
Mirror Incisions
Words: 2976 · Source Novel:: Kister v. Wilson
Kister's meticulous plan unravels. Evidence surfaces that he staged his own injuries to mimic the exact pain he felt decades ago, and that he has already ruined two other former classmates through financial sabotage. Wilson, shattered, chooses to confess on the stand—not to malpractice, but to his sins as a teenager—renouncing his defense and accepting the judgment. In a haunting private meeting between the two men, the victim and the bully face each other, their roles now indistinguishable, as Wilson begs forgiveness and Kister realizes his revenge has left him as hollow as his tormentors once were.