Echo Hartley's Arc

Chapter 1 of 1

Echo found the bootprint in the mud outside the old theater in Tadpole Mire. Fresh. Maybe an hour old. She crouched down and traced the tread with her finger. Someone had been here, asking questions about a roadie who went missing three years back. The bartender two blocks over had mentioned it when Echo traded him a recording. She followed the tracks around back to the loading dock. The door hung open. Inside, wedged between two crates, she spotted a notebook. The cover was torn and stained. Half the pages were missing. She flipped it open. Names and dates, scratched out. Venue names she recognized from her brother's tour route. But someone had ripped out the last ten pages. Whoever dropped this didn't want her to see where they were headed next. Echo slipped the notebook into her purple backpack and moved toward the stage. If they'd been inside, they might have left more behind.