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“Did you like it?”

“I did, it had its own advantages. Free coffee every day, plus I could put on any song I wanted.”

My first safe adult job.

“You look sad thinking about it,” he says, tilting his head to the side.

A small smile lifts my lips as I think about the last few years I spent here with Hayzel. “Nostalgic. I’ll miss this place when I leave.”

Mister Caldwell’s eyes darken for a second before he speaks again, “You’re planning on leaving Seraphin Bay?”

“Yeah, once the year is over.”

He hums before putting both his hands on the table, lacing his fingers together. “Alright then we have a few months to close this case,” he says, colder now.

“Do you have anything more to let me know about this?”

“We’re going to use the old case files to create our new one. You have to understand what it means to work on this.”

I nod, trying to wrap my head around what I’m getting into. “I’m all ears.”

“You already know who we’re tracking. The thing is, something is making me think that he was either here or from here,” he showed me a picture from the envelope he carried with him. “This is what the old team missed.”

A keychain… St. Ellesta’s insignia.

“That’s from the academy?”

He nods before cracking his fingers, one by one, “The case is cold, yes, but he was never caught and it pisses me off to imagine him growing old and living happily somewhere.”

“Okay, but what makes you think he’s not dead after all these years of silence?”

“You know, Miss Vitelli, I have a strong belief that the worst people are always the ones who find a way to stay alive for way too long, building their lives on the lives of innocent people.”

“Bad seeds never die,” I say.

He laughs before agreeing, “Yeah we can say that.”

“How do we proceed exactly then?”

“Retrace it all, from the beginning. I need fresh eyes, I’ve been seeing cases like these for years, and having someone as intuitive as you is a plus.”

I lean closer, smiling, “You’re saying this as if I am a new tool to use.”

He smirks before taking another sip of his cup, “Aren’t we all?”

I nod before doing the same thing. My coffee is cold, and Heath tried to put some cream in because he said, ‘your date shouldn’t know about your caffeine addiction’, and I hate cream.

Mister Caldwell or should I say, Damien, laughs slowly before taking a napkin and rolls it between his fingers. His other hand sits under my chin as he pulls it toward him and wipes the corner of my lips.

“It’s funny. Every time I’ve seen you, you’ve ordered your coffee black. And today, you changed your mind.”

I don’t reply immediately, Heath is putting his thumbs up behind him, and I can’t focus on anything other than the feeling of his warm fingers on my skin.

“Miss Vitelli?” He says as his warmth leaves me.

“Sorry. My old boss likes to joke around, and I actually hate this coffee.”

He laughs fully before giving me his cup. “You can have mine.”