September 4, 2025

THE HAMMER FILES: The Cold Trail to Oakmont

Jack Hammer03 mins
A high-contrast, black-and-white, noir-style drawn image from inside a car. The view focuses on the rearview mirror, which reflects a gritty, fading city skyline. The rest of the windshield shows a long, empty rural road A high-contrast, black-and-white, noir-style drawn image from inside a car. The view focuses on the rearview mirror, which reflects a gritty, fading city skyline. The rest of the windshield shows a long, empty rural road
This entry is part 9 of 11 in the series Chapter 2: An Inheritance of Grief

Case Point: A New Perspective

The old city was a ghost in the rearview mirror. I watched it fade, the concrete towers shrinking into a hazy smudge of regret. For thirty years, I’d called those streets home, and in all that time, I’d never been more than a day’s drive from its limits. My world was a circle of gray, and I was its king.

But that was before.

The plane was an insult to the senses. It was too fast, too bright, too quiet. It didn’t smell of old paper and stale coffee, but of recycled air and new plastic. The flight to Milwaukee was a blur, a forced dream. I got off the plane and felt the world lurch. The air was different here, a clean, empty kind of cold that bit at my skin.

I rented a car and started driving. The road was a long, thin ribbon of black cutting through a world of white and green. It was nothing like the city. No sirens. No people. No buildings. Just trees, fields, and an endless sky. It was a world of ghosts.

My ghosts.

I thought about Jackie Angel, my daughter, and the way her message had been a desperate plea for help I was too blind to see. I thought about Angela, a girl from a world that was now just a memory. A girl who had become a ghost I was trying to find.

Case Point: Establishing a Base

I drove for what felt like a lifetime. And then, I saw it. A small sign on the side of the road. “Welcome to Oakmont, Michigan.” I slowed the car to a crawl. The city was a quiet, gray whisper in the middle of a scream of green. I found a small motel on the edge of town and rented a room. It was nothing special, just a bed and a desk, but it would be my office while I was here. This was it. This was where I would find her.

Series Navigation<< THE HAMMER FILES: The Oakmont LeadTHE HAMMER FILES: The Final Truth >>

Chapter 2: An Inheritance of Grief

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