Eli Mercer can touch a discarded object and witness a few seconds of its last intentional use. It is a strange advantage for a salvage-yard owner. It is also a terrible substitute for money.

With ninety days to clear overdue taxes and loan payments, Eli needs to keep Mercer Salvage working. Then a locked job box at a storage auction gives him a glimpse of something he cannot explain—and a connection to the company reshaping Marrowgate's riverfront.

Following that connection brings awkward questions, costly distractions, and pressure from a developer who knows how little room Eli has to maneuver. Meanwhile, a hospital salvage contract could give the yard a future, if he and his crew can deliver.

The fragments can tell Eli where to look. They cannot prove what happened, pay his workers, or decide whose trust he can afford to lose. As the deadline closes in, the quickest way out may leave someone else paying the price.

The Salvage King is a standalone contemporary fantasy about precarious work, discarded things, and the people still responsible for them.