The Lapse Protocol
Axel Thane has spent two years hiding in the converted loft above a shuttered locksmith on Callow Street, surviving on encrypted dead-drop messages and cold coffee. But the message that arrives at 2:47 a.m. on a Tuesday isn't for him, it's evidence, and it names the Meridian PD sniper who killed two officers and walked free. When Vivian Calloway of the department's internal affairs shows up asking the same questions, Axel is forced back into the case that buried his career and cost him his partner. With his source Mara Quinn feeding him fragments from inside the department and a Calloway dynasty circling the wagons to protect its own, every hour spent digging puts another name on a sniper's list. Vivian's sister Lillian and her estranged husband Declan each hold a piece of a puzzle tied to a defunct biotech firm, a missing researcher, and a coroner named Dr. Yara Osei who knows how the bullets really traveled. As the rain traces crooked lines down Axel's window, the night's clock keeps ticking toward a single decisive moment: trust the cop who never believed him, or vanish into the static with the only proof that the shooter isn't a ghost, he's still on the force. When the final message arrives, it won't matter who pulled the trigger. Only who decided to look away.