Red Ivy

ke ink, bourbon, and a kind of ob

ck you could pop with a credit card. Vex stood in the doorway, letting the silence crawl around

but not from struggle.

ripts, news clippings, photos with red circles and slashes, Post

ing connecting names and places, some circled, others crossed out

OWS. BUT WHO'

a strange twist in his gut, admiration? Guilt? He w

scanned t

photo from their wedding day, had been pinne

y talking to a man outside a building Vex didn't r

Women, mostly. Missing, dead, or officially erased by accident or

me jum

Age seventeen.

e girl who ran into

a Gr

cide

didn't beli

e nightstand, half full. Her laptop was open, humming faintly. He knelt beside it,

l unlocked. A file

P: UNSAFE A

rds that don't match city zoning. Entire acres bought in cash by shell companies. And every

aptop was a v

resse

ame through, r

e was asking the same questions I am. There's something in the ivy. Something old. It's

ording

d at the

lant growing in a cra

color as the stu

was m

n pelting the windshield like angry fingers. He stared down at the small vial he'd

pul

microsc

were br

hone

as R

to the field. We found

" he

or at least wha