Chapter 1 - THE ROADSIDE RESCUE
The Florida heat was a heavy, suffocating blanket as three high school seniors—Cody Magrone, Brody Murray, and Logan Royer—cruised along Griffin Road in Cooper City, their tackle boxes rattling in the bed of Cody’s beat-up ’04 Silverado. It was supposed to be an ordinary Saturday afternoon dedicated to hunting largemouth bass in the quiet canal cuts near the edge of the Everglades. Instead, their lives pivoted the moment they spotted a dark metallic sedan stranded on the dusty shoulder, its front passenger tire shredded down to the warped rim. Slumped against the hot fender was an older man, his chest heaving, his fingers clawing at his collar in sheer agony. They didn't think twice. They pulled over, swapped the tire with mechanical rhythm, and quickly realized this was no ordinary flat. The man, sixty-five-year-old Arthur Vance, was dying right before their eyes. When the paramedics finally hauled him into the ambulance under screaming sirens, Arthur’s trembling fingers had locked onto Cody’s forearm, his watery, bloodshot eyes burning with unvarnished terror. What the world saw on the local evening news was a heartwarming tale of teenage good Samaritans. What the boys didn't know yet was that Arthur hadn't suffered a natural respiratory collapse. He had been poisoned, and the deadly secret he carried was now sitting in the bed of Cody's pickup truck.
