Chapter 1.7 — The Promotion
📍 Willow Creek
Saturday arrived quietly.
Autumn light filtered through the windows of the precinct, soft and golden, as if the day wanted to pretend nothing was wrong.
Lorenzo was called into the office before his shift officially began.
The words came easily. Congratulations. Recognition. Promotion.
Hands shook his. Smiles were offered. Someone clapped him on the shoulder.
Lorenzo smiled back, polite and distant.
The badge felt heavier than it should have.
Later, alone at his desk, he returned to a case he had almost finished filing. Old notes. Familiar names. A location he hadn’t questioned before.
Until now.
His fingers stopped moving.
The place where the incident occurred— he knew it.
Not from the file.
From memory.
It was there. Outside official reports. Outside duty hours.
The first time he had truly spoken to Iván. Not as supervisor and intern. Just… two people standing in the same place.
The realization settled slowly, uncomfortably.
Too precise to be coincidence.
Across the room, laughter echoed briefly. The precinct carried on as usual.
But Lorenzo no longer felt part of the celebration.
Somewhere between the promotion and the case file, he understood something clearly for the first time:
This wasn’t just about StrangerVille anymore.
It was already personal.
To be continued…