Rain fell in slow silver sheets over the small town of Briarwood Ridge, a quiet community tucked between rolling highways and aging brick storefronts. Most people hurried through mornings like this, rushing toward work with coffee in hand and eyes fixed ahead. Few noticed the woman kneeling outside the entrance of the Halbrook Business Tower, scrubbing gum stains from the sidewalk with a stiff brush and a dented metal bucket.
Her name was Allison Crane. She was forty one years old, a mother of three, and the building janitor who worked before sunrise so that office workers could step onto clean tiles without ever wondering who made them shine. Her pale hair was tied beneath a faded scarf, her hands raw from chemicals, and her knees sore from years of quiet labor. She hummed softly as she worked, a habit she had developed to keep loneliness away.