It began with a shoe — black canvas, white laces, a rubber medallion stitched at the ankle. The kind you’d expect to see on a swaggering sophomore pacing the halls of a local high school.

There was nothing unusual about it.

Except for the foot inside.

And there was nothing unusual about the foot, except that it wasn’t attached to a body.

That single, severed clue would point to three unsavoury figures, each scrambling to claim a world they believe should be theirs.