Part 1

Penny Dreadful

Chapter 1

A Penny for Your Thoughts

1.

Detective Jacob Sharp approached the crime scene completely oblivious to the fact that his life and the lives of those closest to him were to be undone by the single penny he discovered on the ice and pocketed absentmindedly before ducking under the yellow crime scene tape. Of course he was oblivious, though. Who saw malevolence in a mere coin found by happenstance? Who really believed one’s fate could be determined by something of as little worth as a single penny? Or a flip of a coin?

It was a typical January winter, numbingly cold with a fierce wind stinging like hundreds of long knives stabbing one in the face. The starry night sky shone like a bejeweled canvas billowing above, while a white, round moon glimmered brightly, perhaps more brightly than it should have, the opulent orb the focal point of this magnificent rendering of space above and time long gone.