Chapter One

The Man Upstairs

The music started just after nine.

I had been sitting on the couch with my laptop balanced on my knees, the only light coming from the screen and the small lamp in the corner. The document in front of me was almost finished clean paragraphs, careful margins, the kind of quiet progress that usually settled my mind. Then the bass began bleeding through the ceiling in heavy, uneven waves, followed by the sharp crack of something glass hitting the floor above.

I stared at the ceiling as if it might offer an explanation.

The apartment upstairs had been empty for nearly two months. The landlord...