The Western Auto Signal

When a quiet clerk at a downtown Western Auto store is found dead beneath the building, the police call it an accident. A misstep. A tragic slip from the roof. But Frank Stryker doesn’t buy accidents—especially not the kind that leave too many questions behind. The store had a reputation: late-night inventory, locked doors after hours… and a radio in the back office that never quite shut off. Customers whispered about strange interference—voices cutting through static, numbers repeated like a code, signals that didn’t belong to any station on the dial. They called it the Western Auto signal. As Stryker and his dog Bear dig deeper, they uncover a trail that runs far beyond a simple storefront—into backroom deals, mob pressure, and a clerk who knew too much for her own good. The signal wasn’t random. It was a warning. Maybe even a ledger. And someone was willing to kill to keep it from being heard. In a city where neon lights flicker over rain-soaked streets and every frequency carries a secret, Stryker will have to decide how far he’s willing to go… before he becomes just another voice lost in the static.