A Finger in the Mail

[Elias’s Apartment – 7:12 A.M.]

There’s a knock at the door.

Elias is already awake. He hasn’t slept. Coffee sits untouched on the table, cold and forgotten. The letter from Riley is folded neatly beside it. His pistol—loaded, safety off—is within reach.

He peeks through the peephole.

No one.

But a small package rests on the welcome mat.

Elias (inner monologue):

“No return address. No courier van parked out front.”

“Which means… he was here.”

He lifts the box carefully. It’s light. Wrapped in brown paper. Tied with twine.

No ticking.

No scent.

Just… silence.

He opens it.

Inside is a ziplock bag.

And inside the bag… a severed finger.

Female. Pale. Nail polished pink.

Wrapped around it, like a ribbon: a bracelet with the initials N.G.

Elias’s breath catches.

He recognizes it.

Nora Greene.

A retired profiler. One of the best in the city. Used to work cold cases. Elias had consulted with her a few years back. She was smart. Cautious. Lived off-grid in the hills.

And now?

He checks the box again—beneath the bag is a photo. A blurry trail cam shot of a cabin, mid-snowstorm.

Behind the trees:

A man with a mask.

Watching.

[Scene Shift – Elias’s Car | En Route to Nora Greene’s Cabin – 9:03 A.M.]

The drive up is silent. The city fades into gray hills and cracked roads. Elias rolls past the Welcome to Ashpine sign, then up into forest terrain. It’s colder here.

Too quiet.

He kills the headlights early, parks a block down, and approaches on foot.

[Nora Greene’s Cabin – 9:38 A.M.]

The cabin door is open.

Inside, it looks like a storm hit.

Furniture overturned. Blood on the floor. Drag marks. A shattered laptop.

But no Nora.

What’s worse—there’s music playing.

A child’s lullaby. Warped and looping. Coming from a tape recorder set on the mantle.

Elias walks up, presses stop.

Taped beneath it is another message.

This one scrawled in handwriting he’s starting to recognize:

“You’re running out of time, Elias.

Just like she did.”

He finds the second finger on the windowsill.

It’s not Nora’s.

He’s not sure whose it is.

[Scene Shift – Elias’s Apartment, Later That Night]

He pins the newest evidence to the wall. Names. Photos. Strings connecting dates. Riley. Nora. Dead officers. False leads. Faked suicides. Missing witnesses. And at the center of it all—

The Architect.

But tonight, he sees something different.

A pattern.

Not in who’s been killed…

But what they represent.

All the victims were connected to old cold cases. Ones that never reached trial. All had testified… or refused to cover up the corruption inside the department.

And every one of them had ties to Captain Lorne Faulkner.

Elias’s former mentor.

And the man who disappeared six months ago.

[Final Scene – Unknown Location]

The Architect sits in darkness.

Gloved hands cleaning a knife. Classical music plays on vinyl in the background.

Beside him, a map of the city. Red lines. Blue pins. A spiral pattern closing in.

Then—he presses play on a security feed.

Elias in the cabin.

Touching the tape recorder.

Architect (to himself):

“Almost there, Elias. Just a few more bodies...