CHAPTER 6: Metal Against the Counter

He ate three bites standing beside the stall, then stopped.
The crowd resumed around them, pretending the moment had ended. Vanessa moved away to speak into her phone. Daniel turned back to the grill, but he kept watching from the corner of his eye.
The young man reached into his pocket. Not for a wallet. Not for a weapon. For something small wrapped in a scrap of cloth.
He placed it on the steel counter beside the register.
A key.
It was silver, old, and heavier than any modern office key. At the top was a tiny stag emblem worn smooth by years of fingers. Daniel saw it and felt the market noise fall behind a wall of silence.
Before he could speak, the young man stepped backward into the moving crowd.
'Tell him I came back,' he said.
Then he disappeared between the tents.