Murder Adjacent #16: Conflict of Interest

Quirky Sleuths. Big Murders. Very Bad Alibis. Six months after Bellwether County's first major institutional corruption scandal, the state returns for a follow-up review. Sheriff Lotte Carmichael has new procedures, new safeguards, a courthouse full of public-comment enthusiasts, and absolutely no desire to discover whether any of those reforms work under pressure. Then Evan Bellanger arrives intending to correct what he previously told Detective Eli Rook about the reopened Luz Del Valle case. Before he can complete the story, Evan is murdered inside the courthouse. Beside his body is a document derived from Rook's own earlier work, instantly turning evidence, history, and appearances against the people who would normally control the investigation. Captain Sonia Markham takes command. Rook becomes a material witness. Lotte is reduced to providing "institutional context," which she recognizes as the exact language she has used for years to keep civilians at arm's length. To solve the murder without contaminating it, Lotte and Rook must do something far harder than chasing a suspect: trust a system designed to keep them from taking over.