Chapter Thirteen: Chance Meeting:

Was that who he thought it was? A woman hurried past his car with her hands in her pockets. Daniel jumped out the car.

“Celeste?” he asked. The woman froze in her tracks. Daniel ran over to her.

“Celeste is that you?” he asked. The woman finally turned her head. The detective stared at the other detective with big eyes.

“Who are you?” she asked.

“It’s me, Daniel!” Daniel said, pointing to his chest. Celeste stared at him with a confused look on her face.

“No,” she said, shaking her head. She looked like she was going to run into the store. Daniel stood where he was despite wanting to set forward.

“You went to school with my brother,” he said. “He always protected you from Lanie. He liked Blue Oyster Cult.” At first, Celeste blinked.

“You mean Tony?” she asked.

“Yes,” Daniel said. The detective narrowed her eyes.

“Danny?” she asked. “Little Danny?” He flinched at being called “Little Danny” but he forced himself to smile.

“Yeah,” he said. “That’s me.” For the first time since stepping back into her hometown, Celeste started to relax. But not enough for a normal long conversation. Her body seemed to turn slight to head over to the glass doors. Despite this, Celeste tried to stay still and look normal. Her smile already started to hurt her face.

“How have you been?” she asked.

“Really good,” he said. “And you?”

“Fine,” Celeste said. This felt like their school years. Fine. Fine was always her default answer when she didn’t really want to talk to anyone.

“I heard you were a detective too,” Daniel said.

“Yes,” she said. He nodded, impressed.

“Good on you,” the younger detective said. “It suits you really well. You were always one of the smarter ones in Tony’s class.”

“What is your brother up to these days?” Celeste asked.

“Stationed in Okinawa,” Daniel said.

“Ah,” she said, nodding. By now, she looked ready to run into the store. Lucky for her, he was able to take a hint.

“Oh hey, you seem busy right now,” he said. “I’ll let you go now. Catch you later?”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” she said, nodding.

“See ya,” Daniel said. “Nice talking to you again.”

“Yeah,” Celeste said, nodding. She turned and walked into the Piggly Wiggly. Daniel smiled and waved at her. He turned and walked back to his car. That was a good break. But now he had to go back to work. Travis should be coming out on break from his shift at the flea market in a few minutes.