Harbor Glass

Walt Greaves tries to reclaim a box of harbor junk—and dies before he can explain which broken piece frightened him.

Cedar Harbor's heritage festival is meant to celebrate the working waterfront. Instead, the salvage Walt sold to Ollie Bradshaw turns an easy fall into murder. His cap lies in the wrong place. The railing is untouched. And the battered box holds a fire-damaged lantern tied to another death the town stopped questioning years ago.

Emma Chandler studies the old photograph displayed with the lantern. Everyone recognizes the boat in front. The faded vessel behind it is the one that matters. It leads toward missing repair records, money at the East Slip, and witnesses who flinch whenever the same names surface.

Now the festival has put every relic under public light. The harbor remembers in fragments—glass, paper, metal, lies. Emma needs only one sharp enough to cut the old story open.