Red tossed her keys onto the counter and dropped into the chair by her desk, rubbing at the ache in her temples.

  Too many questions. Not enough answers.

  The Wolf had escalated. The bloody paw print at the last crime scene wasn’t just a message—it was a declaration.

  She leaned back, eyes drifting toward her wall of weird.

  The board was a mess of newspaper clippings, crime scene photos, red string, and scattered notes—a map of every mystery she hadn’t cracked yet.

  One in particular caught her eye.

  An old article pinned in the corner:

  “THE MONSTER OF EAST WOODS: MYTH OR SOMETHING MORE?”

  A local legend. A creature lurking in the trees, whispered about for decades. Some people swore they had seen it—something tall, something wrong. But no solid proof had ever surfaced.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  Red had always meant to dig into it.

  But right now, she had a real monster to catch.

  She exhaled and reached for her laptop. Time to go over her notes again.

  But before she could start—

  PING.

  Her phone lit up with an alert from one of her business news trackers.

  “GEPATO TECH ACQUIRED BY PI ROBOTICS IN HIGHLY SECRETIVE DEAL.”

  Red frowned.

  She clicked on the article, scanning the details.

  Greg Gepato’s company had been struggling for months. Investors had started pulling out. Then, out of nowhere, PI Robotics swooped in and bought them out completely.

  No press conference. No leaks.

  Weird.

  Red tapped her fingers against the desk, tempted to dig deeper.

  She’d covered corporate corruption before—backroom deals, hidden patents, entire companies being erased overnight.

  Something about this acquisition felt off.

  She was about to open another tab—

  Then her stomach growled.

  Red sighed.

  She’d barely eaten all day.

  Pushing her curiosity aside, she grabbed her jacket. The Wolf came first.

  But she’d be coming back to this.

  Soon.