[Jake's POV]
Superintendent Valerie Cho was a creature of habit.
According to the location data Nia had pulled from her phone, Cho ran exactly five miles every morning at 5:30 AM, following a paved trail around the Guia Hill Municipal Park.
It was 5:15 AM when I got there.
The air was cool. It had that early-morning bite to it. The kind that goes straight to your lungs. Mist hung low between the trees. It smelled like wet earth, leaves, and the faint tang of the sea drifting up from the harbor below.
The park was quiet.
No cars. No music. Just birds. A few of them, sharp and loud in the trees. Somewhere far off, a dog barked once and stopped.
