the last of her reports before glancing at the clock, glad to see her day had ended. The wind whipped around her as she walked to her car. Ugh, the heat has been turned off in my apartment. She drove to the nearest coffee shop and bought a large coffee, wrapping her hands around the welcome warmth.
Arriving at her building, she hurried into her apartment, bypassing Daniel’s door so she could go through her items alone. She set the coffee on the kitchen counter and opened the first box. It did not take long to look through the remaining boxes, double-checking to make sure she was not giving away anything she had wanted to keep. She hesitated over the waffle iron, embarrassed at how few times she had used it. I wonder if Sean likes waffles? The idea of making waffles for him was strong, and she set the appliance to the side, deciding to take it with her.
Re-taping the two boxes, she walked over to the counter and took a sip of the warm brew as she cast her gaze around the room. Memories flooded her as she emotionally said goodbye to the first adult home she had lived in.
The shrill sound of a smoke detector cried out and she jumped, knocking her cup of coffee over. Damn! She watched the coffee with its sticky caramel creamer spread across the counter and drip onto the floor.
She heard Daniel’s door open and his fussing. “Crazy Mrs. Marsden... bet she burned the cookies again.” She rushed to the door and threw it open to let him know she was there, but only the stomp of his boots moving down the stairs met her ears.
Turning back, she was dismayed at the mess the spilled coffee had made. Damn, I’ve got no paper towels or cleaner. The sound of the smoke detector from the apartment below was still blaring. Grumbling, she wondered if Daniel would mind if she grabbed a few paper towels from his apartment.
Daniel always closed his door, but she tried it and was surprised when it opened. His apartment was the mirror image of hers and she moved immediately to the kitchen on the left. Grabbing a wad of paper towels from his counter, she opened the pantry to borrow whatever cleaner he had available. Like her pantry, it was lined with shelves but held no cans of food. Instead, it was mostly filled with all the things he would need for work in the apartment building.
One shelf held a stack of newspapers and a box that contained rags. Another shelf was filled with cleaning products, including drain cleaners. A smile slipped across her lips as she thought of a few of the women in the building always calling him to complain that their kitchen drains were clogged.
The shelf directly in front of her contained several glass jars filled with clear liquid, chalk resting at the bottom, with white labels on the front. Recognizing the name Hartfield Chemicals, she reached out and turned the nearest jar around so that she could read the label more clearly. P Atomic No. 15 Phosphorus
Her nerves heightened as her breath caught in her throat. There were several amber-colored glass bottles next to the phosphorus on the same shelf, the same white Hartfield Chemicals labels on the front. Her hand, now shaking, carefully turned the bottle, showing the warnings for flammability and poison, as well as what they contained. Carbon Disulfide CS2
Heart slamming against her ribs, she stepped back and closed the door as gently as she could, terrified of making any noise or excessive movement. Her hand reached into her pocket for her phone to call Sean when she turned toward the apartment door and stuttered to a halt. Before she had a chance to move, pain exploded against the side of her head, and she crumpled to the floor.
Daniel’s face held sadness as he looked down at her, slowly shaking his head. “Oh, Harper. You should have never looked in there.”
33
“It sure as fuck isn’t like on TV, is it?” Jonas asked, drawing Sean’s attention from the lists he was comparing. “The last girl I dated wanted to know which job on NCIS I had. When I told her I was an Arson Detective, she got all excited thinking that I was either at fire sites or in the lab analyzing everything.”
Choking back a snort, Sean shook his head. “On TV, everything’s done with a few taps on the computer, all labs come