Page 17 of Starrily

Jessica stopped, and Callie let out a breath. Simon could’ve quipped and teased and mocked, but in this one case, he didn’t, and she was grateful he intervened.

“I should get back to work,” she said.

“Absolutely.” Jessica stood. “Meet again on Friday?”

Callie and Simon nodded.

“Perfect. I’ll bring my real camera, and we’ll get some photos. It’ll be fun!” She waved and bounced off.

“I suppose that’s my cue to leave,” Simon said. “Friday, Phoenix.” He put down the money for the meal, winked at her, and left.

Chapter 5

Simon cracked his neck to look at the top of the white-domed building housing the city observatory. A group of tourists had just entered the building, leaving the area relatively peaceful. A park stretched around the observatory, with a few blossoming cherry trees swaying in the wind. The park continued to a fence separating it from a drop and the city below.

Suddenly, Simon was thrust into shadow as Stan stepped close to him, arms crossed in front, assuming full bodyguard position.

“You know you don’t have to stand that close,” Simon said in a light, joking tone.

“Hmph.”

Someone called his name—Jessica, running toward him, a bulky camera around her neck, locks of hair falling out of her messy bun. Calliope trudged behind, and even though the sun still shone on those not blocked by Stan, her expression was anything but sunny.

“Thanks for meeting us here,” Jessica said as she approached.

“No problem,” Simon said. “What was wrong with the office?”

“Wasn’t vibing with it.” Jessica shrugged. “Every angle felt wrong. This is much better for a photo shoot.”

Simon didn’t think Calliope’s office was that bad—small, perhaps, but charming in its own way.

Jessica measured Stan from top to bottom with her eyes. “Wow. You’re big.”

“This is Jessica, our journalist and photographer,” Simon said. “And this is our scientist, Dr. Guidry.”

Stan nodded at Jessica, then at Calliope.

“Stan, my chauffeur and moonlighting bodyguard,” Simon explained.

“Mr. Montague’s personal driver was a man of few words but many muscles,” Jessica narrated out loud as she typed into her phone. “By the way, Callie, do you think they’d let us into the observatory? I could take a photo of you looking through the telescope.”

“It’s probably booked,” Calliope said. “And most telescopes nowadays don’t require looking through. If you wanted to show me at work, I’d be in the control room, looking at the pictures the camera in the telescope is taking.”

“Oh.” Jessica slumped her shoulders.

“It’s more convenient. The images store much more data. Looking up at the sky with your eyes might be … romantic, but hardly useful in our line of work.”

“We could still try for a few pictures in a control room when there’s an opportunity,” Simon said.

“That doesn’t happen often,” Calliope said. “I have an appointment for an observation a month from now on the Gemini telescope in Hawaii, but even that is in observer mode. I don’t go there; I only tell the people in the control room what I’d like to do. So you wouldn’t have anything interesting to take pictures of.”

A memory split Simon’s skull, more focused and painful than a headache.“Mr. Tate?” A child’s voice echoed. Simon stood in front of a blackboard in a sunlit classroom and turned to his student. “Could we go observe through a telescope?” the boy asked.

“Oh, I’m not sure they’d let us,” he said and, at the disappointed sighs of a few students, added, “But we can look through some pictures those telescopes had taken. Would you like to see a nebula that looks like a horse’s head? But first—who can tell me what a nebula is?”

Simon shook his head, forcing himself out of his memory. No, not his—Raleigh’s. Why did it resurface after all this time?

“Let’s get our job done here, then.” Jessica’s voice felt as if it was coming from far away, and Simon blinked and focused back on reality. “Come, Callie. We’ll start over there, with the observatory in the background …”