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Sand and Smoke (chapt.23)

Author: Stone
last update Last Updated: 2025-07-11 19:04:10

Alessia’s POV

Marinella was super quiet in the morning. Too quiet, actually. You could hear kids laughing from a school up on the hill, but down by the beach, it was just the sound of the waves and wind. It felt nice and peaceful, but I’d learned that peace can be a bit sketchy, usually meaning someone’s hiding something.

So, we decided to split up. Nikolai went to the police station to dig up some records, while I headed to the fisherman’s village. It was a small place with families running little shops by the water—old guys smoking pipes, women drying tomatoes under the sun. Everyone was giving me these sideways glances, like I didn’t fit in.

They weren’t wrong. But I wasn’t there to fit in. I was there to find Luca.

At a small bar near the pier, I ran into a woman named Rosa. She looked to be in her mid-forties, pretty heavy-set, with salt-and-pepper hair tied back in a bright red bandana. She was pouring coffee without even glancing at me—until I pulled out the photo.

It was an ol
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