As he walked closer to one of the dressing rooms, he sensed something was wrong. Turning the corner, he immediately smelled smoke. The dressing room door was closed, but he could see bright orange and red flames flicker from the gap at the bottom and a cloud of smoke pouring out.
His adrenalin kicked into high gear and he yelled, “Fire!”
13
Harper wrung her hands nervously as she stared at the grainy black-and-white picture of herself lying on her desk.
Whoop! Whoop! Whoop!
She jumped out of her chair, startled by the screeching of the fire alarm. Bolting out the door she instinctively ran down the hallway towards Gertie’s office, yelling Gertie’s name out as soon as she burst through her door. She had to push some of the vases of flowers out of the way to see if Gertie was behind her desk and craned her neck to look in the corners of the office. She didn’t want Gertie trapped if there was a fire, but she didn’t seem to be in there.
“Gertie!” she yelled again as she stood in the middle of her office, looking around.
“Harper! There you are! Let’s go!” Veronica’s voice echoed in the office, and Harper turned to see Veronica standing in the doorway, motioning with her hand to hurry up. “Gertie isn’t back yet, let’s go! I don’t know what’s going on, but I know this wasn’t a planned test on the alarms!”
Harper ran quickly out of the room and down the stairs, right on the heels of Veronica. Had Veronica specifically come looking for her to make sure she got out? Maybe she'd won a few points with her by looking for Gertie as soon as the fire alarm had sounded. It was a small victory, but she would take it, it felt good to know that maybe things had turned a corner with Veronica.
She stopped suddenly as they rounded the last set of stairs, her heart lurching. What about Logan? She should go check his office!
“Come on!” Veronica yelled, grabbing her arm, and pulled her down the rest of the steps and out the side door as the fire alarm continued to wail inside. They hurriedly walked away from the building and towards the parking lot where the other employees were standing. In the distance she could hear the fire engines approaching, their sirens getting closer by the second.
“Veronica!”
Harper turned to see TJ rushing towards Veronica, the two of them hugged. She looked away, feeling lonely suddenly. She felt a bit jealous of TJ’s obvious concern for Veronica, no one was worried about Harper making it out safely that was for sure. Well, Veronica had been, but she meant someone who would have the same lovey-dovey look in their eyes as TJ had right now.
“Are you okay? What’s going on?” TJ asked, looking at the two of them as the fire engines roared into the parking lot and screeched to a halt near the building.
The firemen jumped out of the bright-red fire engines, and Harper watched as Logan ran up to them, seconds later they all raced into the building.
Everyone stood in silence for what seemed like hours, Harper finally breaking the silence.
“What the hell happened?” she asked out loud to no one in particular as they all stared at the building.
“There was a fire in a dressing room downstairs.” They all turned to see Logan walking up to them from the side of the building, his clothes and face covered in soot. “Are you okay?” he asked Harper, reaching out and touching her arm. Harper nodded, taken aback by his genuine concern for her.
“Were you in the fire? Are you okay?” Harper asked him, brushing some of the black off his forehead.
“Yeah, I’m okay. I grabbed one of the fire extinguishers and was able to put the fire out, but not before it pretty much ruined everything in the room.”
“This is horrible!” Marly cried, running around the parking lot like a mad woman, her hands in the air. “The clothes were all hand-sewn. We’re going to have to work nonstop to get them made again for tomorrow! What a bad time for an accident!”
Harper, Logan, and Veronica all exchanged looks. Marly was right, it was bad timing, but it was also not an accident.
Big T crouched down in the overgrown grass across from the loading dock and patted the cat. After he'd helped that dimwit Logan put out the fire in the dressing room he'd come out of the building through the loading dock door and looked around for the cat. There was so much commotion going on he'd just wanted to make sure it was still okay and hadn’t gotten hurt in all the hoopla.
The cat meowed as it rubbed up against his leg and lightly batted at Big T’s arm which had a streak of soot. He rubbed it off and stood, watching as the cat ran through one of the holes in the chain-link fence, turning and looking at him before it scurried off, disappearing through the thick weeds. For a minute Big T felt as though the cat might be judging him, almost like it knew he'd been the one who set the fire. But that would be impossible, it was just a damn stray cat.
He walked to the parking lot and headed towards the huddle of employees. Marly was talking about how all the clothing was ruined by the fire and she didn’t know how they would ever get them all made again by tomorrow’s show. He struggled to force himself not to smile when he heard that. Mission accomplished, clothing ruined.
“What the heck is going on? Is everyone okay?” Gertie emerged, her face showing panic. Big T watched as she wheeled herself over to every employee, asking them if they were okay, grabbing their hands and patting them. When someone mentioned the clothing was ruined, she barked out she wasn’t worried about the clothes, only about her family, the employees.
For a split second Big T felt a stab of remorse over what he was doing. No. Don’t start getting soft and ruin what you’ve started, he told himself. Gertie was a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Always making people think she was so kind. Well, he knew better. He knew something none of these people did. Gertie had done something bad in her past, and now she would pay for it.
Karma was a bitch.
14
The firemen started to trickle out the building, giving everyone the okay to go back inside. Apparently, there had been no structural damage as the room was mostly brick. It was pretty much only the clothing damaged from what Harper heard as she walked past the firemen who were talking to Gertie. She was insisting they stay for some food, telling them she would have the chef make something nice for them.
Logan had insisted on walking her back up to her office and Harper didn’t mind. His protectiveness over her felt nice, it was comforting. Even though she knew the fire was over, she was still a little jittery, especially when she thought about the picture. Was there any relation between the person who left the picture on her desk and the fire? She assumed there was, and it scared her.
They entered her office and she walked over to her desk and reached for the picture, looking at it again to make sure she was right, and it was indeed her in the picture. Positive it was, she handed it to him without saying a word and sat in her chair.
“What’s this?” he asked, squinting his eyes while holding the picture close to his face. “Wait a minute, is that you? Who took this?”
Harper could tell he was upset by his tone, it was more of a demand than a question.
“I have no idea. Whoever it was, left it on my desk earlier. Shortly before the fire.”
“What? That’s creepy.” Logan looked disturbed. “This isn’t good.”
“Tell me about it.”
“I think you should leave the snooping around and investigating to me from now on. Obviously, this person is on to you, and they are dangerous, they just tried to burn the place down, for crying out loud.”
“What?” Harper asked, surprised at his reaction. “Of course I’m still going to investigate, don’t be ridiculous.”
“I’m serious, Harper. Leave it to the expert—me—to get this guy, okay?”
Harper couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Only yesterday he was all about them being a “team” and working together to find the person. Now he wanted to just drop her and find the person himself. It reminded her of her ex-boyfriends: especially her ex-fiancé, always so e
ager in the beginning to work together then, boom! They want to do it on their own and she was left out, alone. Well, not this time. Logan wasn’t her boss, even if he was “the expert.”
“The expert, really? Well you might want to think again since this has gone on for a while, and your list of suspects is the same as mine. You’ve gotten no further in your “investigation” than I have! So, excuse me while I go do some work. I have an actual job to do here besides just “snooping around!”
With that, she stormed out of her office, leaving Logan staring at her open-mouthed.
She marched into the break room and grabbed a can of tuna from one of the cabinets, then took the back stairs to the loading dock. She'd started keeping a stash of tuna for that stray cat. Feeding it always gave her some comfort. Plus, she wanted to make sure it was okay after the fire.
She walked out of the stairwell into the basement and could see the area around where the fire had occurred was all taped off with bright-yellow caution tape. There were some policemen and another person standing there talking. She walked towards the loading dock area slowly, still looking back at where the fire had happened.
“Coming through!”
Harper turned to see Sarah, who was rushing towards her with a cart full of food in plastic containers. The food must have all been ruined in the fire! Wait. That wouldn’t make sense. The fire had only happened in one of the dressing rooms, and the kitchen is located way down the mill at the opposite end of the building.
“What’s that for?” she asked her, leaning over, and peering into one of the large containers.
“The giant walk-in fridge broke, and everything inside it spoiled. We’ve had to replace it all! That fridge was brand new, too!”
“Wait a minute, you started here already?” Harper asked, suddenly realizing Sarah wouldn’t be doing this unless she'd gotten the job.
“Yes! Today, actually. Take it from me, don’t ever get a job working with your boyfriend. Boy, was that a nightmare. I’ve only been here a few hours and I already know I made the right decision.”
Harper nodded her head, recalling the previous conversation in the break room she'd had with Sarah about Raffe. It only made her feel stronger about keeping Logan at arm’s length now, strictly on a professional level. Which kind of stunk, because there was no way the fridge breaking was a coincidence. Gertie bought brand-new equipment for the kitchen and made sure it was always maintained. Someone had messed with that fridge on purpose, and she would like to tell Logan about it. But, since he was the expert as he'd pointed out to her, he would just have to find that out on his own.
“Well, I’m glad you’re here. I think you’ll like it. I know you’re in a hurry, so I’ll let you go, but if you need anything just give me a yell.”
“Thanks, Harper, I appreciate it.” Sarah took off down the hallway towards the kitchen.
Harper continued down the hall and out the loading dock door, pulling the tuna can from her pocket. She peeled the top off and placed it on the ground, calling out to the cat as she looked around for it.
Behind her she heard the door open. Crap! She stepped in front of the can as she whirled around to see …
Veronica was standing in the doorway, her face registering surprise at seeing Harper as she quickly tried to hide something behind her back.
“What are you …” Veronica’s voiced trailed off as she craned her neck to see what Harper was hiding.
“Are you …” Harper craned to see what Veronica was hiding.
Meow!
The cat jumped up onto the loading dock and greeted the two of them, rubbing up against both of their legs as if to say hello, then turning its attention to the open can of tuna behind Harper.
“Are you feeding the cat, too?” Harper figured with the way Veronica’s face had lit up when she saw the cat, it was a sure bet that’s why she was out here.
Veronica laughed and pulled a tuna can out from behind her back. “Guilty. I saw him my first day here and I’ve been feeding him ever since.”
“I was worried something might have happened to him, you know, with the commotion from the fire and everything,” Harper said as she watched Veronica lay down the second can of tuna.
“Me too. I’m even more worried about what’s going to happen next. I think we can all say the fire was no accident.”
“Yes, I agree that was no accident. But who could want to do all this? Whoever it is started it at Marly’s reception. They obviously want to put Gertie out of business. What I can’t figure out, is why?” Harper said, bending over to pick up the empty tuna can as the cat moved on to the next one.
“What do you mean, whoever it is started it at Marly’s reception?” Veronica asked.
Harper hesitated for a minute, then explained about the lanterns at Marly’s wedding. She knew by saying this she was opening herself up to more judgement by Veronica, since some of the things that had happened at Marly’s reception were done by her and Tanner.
“Wow, and to think I assumed it had been your Uncle that pulled that stunt,” Veronica said in an icy tone as she stared at Harper.
Harper’s eyes dropped. She could feel her cheeks start to burn from embarrassment.
“Veronica, I’m sorry. I did do some of those things, too. My Uncle had totally convinced me to do them, and while it’s no excuse, he’s all I have for family. I felt like I should do whatever he said to help him. But I didn’t do everything that happened. I absolutely did not move those luminaries! And, that’s why I’ve been trying to figure out who is doing this. I want to right the wrong I did and catch this person.” Harper couldn’t resist the tears welling up as she spoke, she felt horrible and knew she'd probably just sealed her fate. Veronica would fire her for sure.
“It’s okay. I get it, actually. I don’t really have any family either.” Veronica put her arm around Harper. Harper was shocked. “And I know about wanting to right wrongs, turning over a new leaf. Trust me. I’ve done some pretty crappy things in the past and I know people can change. I’m living proof!”
Harper looked at Veronica with new eyes. No longer did she see that hard-as-nails boss. She saw the vulnerability in her and felt a small bond forming.
“Thanks.” She wanted to say so much more but didn’t know how to form the words. Instead she tried to do one good deed. “There’s something else.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah, I just saw Sarah, TJ’s sister, running around trying to make sure the food doesn’t spoil. Apparently, there was some fridge incident.”
“You think it was this person? The same one that messed around with the invitations?”
“Maybe.”
Veronica sighed. “Okay, I’ll go find Sarah.”
Harper smiled as she watched her boss walk away. Since Veronica was in a consoling mood, she hoped that would spill over to Sarah. And if she could help bring Veronica and Sarah together, then at least something good would come of this whole mess.
She hurried back into the building. She wanted to do more than just bring people together, though. She wanted to stop the one person who was determined to ruin it all, never mind what the “big expert,” Logan Carter, wanted. She could do this. And she didn’t have much time.
15
Logan crouched down to pet the cat, who was licking his paws. There was a can of tuna on the ground, most likely left by Harper he assumed. He knew she was mad at him for telling her to stop playing Nancy Drew and trying to find whoever was sabotaging things, but he also didn’t want her in any danger. The fact the person had left that picture on her desk was really telling. He'd seen a lot of sickos when he was a cop, and the ones who taunted people were the worst. There was no way he would let Harper get near this guy. Maybe he was being a little overprotective, but too bad, Harper was starting to become important to him and he wasn’t about to let her get in harm’s way.
He stood and looked around, thinking about how he was going to catch the person. He'd scanned the crowd in the parking lot when th
e fire happened, and George had been missing. It didn’t necessarily mean he'd set the fire, Logan knew a few people had exited towards the back of the building during the alarm, and it was totally possible George was one of them. Harper had also mentioned Ben, he'd been in the parking lot. Then there was Noah, he'd been in the smoking area and seemed kind of sketchy.
George and Ben both had access to the room where the lights were, as well as the rooms where the runway had been staged, and the makeshift dressing rooms. But he'd done extensive background checks on them both, and for the most part, they were clean. Minor problems in their past, and they'd worked together before, but that wasn’t unusual. Coworkers often recommend friends or people they worked with in the past to be hired. He'd noted each of them must have had hard times financially based on their addresses and poor credit scores. It even looked like each had been homeless for a while. But did that have anything to do with this case? Logan couldn’t figure out how it could.
Maybe the dressing room was the best place to start. Maybe, whoever it was that had set the fire, had left a clue behind.
He made his way to the dressing room, lifting the yellow caution tape up so he could walk under it.
“Sorry, only authorized … hey, Logan! Long time no see!”
Logan shook hands with the burly cop, someone he'd known for years back on the force. After some small talk he looked inside the room.
The brick walls were smattered with black soot. The ceiling was the original high exposed one with no ceiling tiles and just the metal ductwork. That had been good, because if everything had been wood or Sheetrock the place would have completely lit up and spread outside the room. Instead, it was just the clothes that had burned, their charred remains scattered all over the floor.
Careful What You Wish For (Corporate Chaos Series Book 4) Page 9
