Jack Beale 00 - Dangerous Shoals

disappearing glance. Time seemed to slow as she stared in near disbelief. Daniel was standing on the opposite corner, waiting for the light to change. He seemed thinner, there was a tautness to his face, and gone was the confident self-assuredness that the Daniel she had known possessed. He kept looking around nervously. Despite the physical changes she knew that it was Daniel and that he hadn’t seen her yet.
    The light changed. She didn’t notice. Her heart was pounding. She sat there staring at him, as if paralyzed, until the sharp blast of a horn from the car behind snapped her back to the present. In reaction, she jerked her head around, getting a quick glance of the driver in the car behind gesturing and yelling. Flustered, she turned back and instinctively pressed on the accelerator too hard, which caused her car to jump forward into the intersection. As it did, she looked for Daniel. He was gone. Her vision tunneled as confusion turned to panic. She had seen him. She knew she had. She had to find him, to confront him, to … to what?
    Had he seen her? She didn’t know, but what she did know was that he was here and she had to find him. She jerked the wheel left and barely made the turn onto Islington Street. As she turned she saw some open spaces in the parking lot to her right. Without thinking, she yanked her wheel to the right, never seeing the car she cut off. Its horn blared at her. Another hard right and she turned into the lot, nearly hitting another car. She didn’t she care. She had to park and find Daniel. Almost before her car stopped, she jumped out and run back to the intersection, looking about for any hint that he had been there. Nothing.
    Dodging traffic she ran across to the health food store. In her frenzied rush she pushed the door open a little too hard, causing the door chimes to clang rather than jingle. A tall thin woman, her hair frizzy and pulled back into a sort of pony tail, looked up from the shelf where she was placing boxes of tea in perfect rows. Soft, tinkling music was playing on a small boom box and the clerk looked up. “May I help you?” she asked in an equally soft voice.
    Max gulped for breath then blurted out, “No, uh, yes. I’m looking for a man.”
    The woman gave Max a look of incomprehension.
    Max, realizing that what she had just said made no sense, took a deep breath and started again. “I’m sorry. There was a man, outside on the corner, a few minutes ago and I need to find him.”
    The woman continued to stare.
    Realizing that she still was making little sense she tried again, “He was an old friend. I haven’t seen him for quite a while and, well, did you see him?”
    The clerk brushed her hands on her apron and in that soft voice said, “I’m sorry. There have been no men in the store this morning.”
    Trying to not sound too desperate Max asked, “Did you perhaps see what direction he went in?”
    The clerk’s eye twitched slightly. “I was out back until just before you came in. I didn’t see anyone.” Then she started to turn back to the shelf she had been stocking.
    Max made one more attempt, “He was tall, with amber eyes. His face was thin …”
    The clerk turned back to face Max again. This time she had a look that said, “You poor misguided soul, no man is worth it, forget about him.” What she said was, “I am so sorry, but I didn’t see anyone.”
    “Thank you. I’m sorry,” Max mumbled as she turned and left the store.
    The clerk walked over to the window and watched as Max continued down the street, looking in other store windows, alternately running then walking, sometimes stopping and looking around.
    “Strange,” she said to herself and went back to her tea boxes.
    * * *
    Max didn’t find Daniel. What she did find was a parking ticket tucked under the wiper blade on her windshield. “Damn,” she said as she climbed into her car, tossing the ticket onto the dash. She sat there a moment and thought about what she had just done. She giggled when she recalled that poor confused clerk in the health food store and how crazy she must have looked. “I know I’m not crazy. I saw him. He’s here,” she said to herself before starting her car. She had to get to work.

CHAPTER 17
    THE BAR HAD been unusually busy, and Max hadn’t stopped from the moment she walked in. The dining rooms had finally closed and now only a few customers remained in the bar. When Courtney walked in, Max said, “Hey Court. Can you watch the