The Lies We Bury

In the Vesperian Federation, the brutal killing of a young dockworker with a gun stolen from a licensed firearms shop triggers a cascade of conflicting memories. Inspector Alistair Redding navigates the contradictory accounts of the shop owner, a regulatory inspector, the victim's mother, and a neighborhood witness. As a lawsuit exposes the negligence of the Federal Arms Licensing Bureau, the investigation spirals into a labyrinth where bureaucratic arrogance, deliberate forgetfulness, and institutional self-preservation bury the truth deeper than the victim himself.