Chapter 3
When the red and blue flashing lights of two patrol cars finally swept around the corner, painting the neighborhood in chaotic, strobing colors, the residents of Maple Street were already standing in a wide semicircle, bracing themselves for something terrible.
Sheriff Davis stepped out of his cruiser, planting his boots firmly in the middle of the road. He raised a gloved hand. There was no panic in his posture—he was a man who had spent thirty years de-escalating bar fights and domestic disputes—but his jaw was locked, his face hardened into stone.
The lead motorcycle sat just a few paces away. Its powerful headlight cut through the dusty evening air, turning the Ohio dusk into a swirling, golden haze. The lead biker did not flinch. He removed neither his heavy helmet nor his dark bandana. Behind him, the sea of leather-clad riders sat motionless, a silent, intimidating wall of shadows.
A man in a faded blue shirt—a neighbor who had lived next to the white house for a decade—stood nervously near the sheriff. His eyes darted frantically between the badge-wearing officer and a gray-haired biker near the front of the pack. This older rider, known simply as Baker to his club, possessed a face like weathered granite and eyes that were heavy with exhaustion.
Baker held himself with an eerie calmness, but beneath the stoic exterior, there was a visible, agonizing tension in his shoulders.
Sheriff Davis hooked his thumbs into his utility belt, sweeping his gaze across the masked crowd. "I'm going to need someone to explain exactly what is going on here," he demanded, his voice projecting clearly over the low rumble of the idling bikes.
The street became so profoundly quiet that the faint creak of the white house's settling porch sounded like a gunshot.
Baker slowly turned his head toward the white house. For a agonizing second, it seemed as though the words were caught in his throat. His thick fingers tightened around the grips of his handlebars, the leather of his gloves groaning under the pressure. His gaze darkened, unfocusing, as if he were no longer looking at the peeling white paint, but staring deep into a painful memory.