arsons. Sean did a double take as he watched her pull out the small pushpins and replace them with much larger ones decorated with stars.
“What the hell are you—”
She laughed and glanced toward Jonas. “Do you want to tell him?”
Sean shot a look toward his partner, who was slouching in his chair. Leaning back in his own seat, he crossed his arms over his chest and waited.
“I need to get new glasses,” Jonas groused. “I made the comment the other day that I couldn’t see the pins from here.”
Beth finished replacing the pins and put the container of star pins on the tray below the board. “He asked if we could order some, but you know what ordering is like around here. Our budget for office equipment is practically nil. But I remembered my daughter had some at home, and she no longer uses them, so I thought I’d bring them in.”
Sean looked up at the map, now adorned with large, star-shaped pushpins and shook his head. “You gotta be kidding me. That’s what we need to use now?”
With her hands on her hips, Beth said, “I don’t want to hear any complaining. Just be glad I brought these instead of the ones that were shaped like unicorn heads.” Still smiling, she walked back to her desk, leaving Sean glaring at Jonas, who refused to meet his partner’s eyes.
“Perhaps we should have gotten the ones with unicorn heads,” he quipped. “Then maybe we could get some more office supplies.” As he continued staring at the papers on his desk, he occasionally looked toward the board and realized how much easier it was to see the arson sites with the large pins. But he decided to keep that observation to himself.
Harper’s hands shook with anger as she stared at her phone, attempting to calm herself before dialing Sean’s number. She had walked outside and stood near her car in the parking lot, not wanting her coworkers to overhear.
Frustrated when his voicemail message reached her ears, she hesitated, wondering if she should wait until she could see him. Filled with irritation, she spoke. “Sean, it’s Harper. When you get this, don’t bother calling me back because I need some time to cool off. I just got a very angry phone call from John. It seems that you now think he might be the arsonist or at least has been training them. He blames me! I didn’t even know he had the nickname Firestarter, and yet he now thinks that I gave you that information. I know you asked about him, but I didn’t even let him know that you’d done that. Now I just feel used, which might seem ridiculous, but it’s what I feel! I don’t expect to be interrogated about my friends. So, like I said, don’t call back. I need a little space to work through my anger.”
She disconnected, then leaned her back against her car, dropped her chin and stared at her feet for a moment. A cool wind sliced between the cars in the parking lot and she shivered. She was so upset when she got John’s call she had rushed outside, forgetting her jacket. Shoving her phone back into her pocket, she headed back inside her office.
28
Harper was halfway through her second glass of wine when she heard a knock on the door. She had come home from work, changed into comfortable clothes, nuked leftover Chinese, and poured a large glass of wine. Her head ached as well as her heart, and she second-guessed the angry voicemail she left for Sean.
She thought about ignoring the knock, not in the mood to talk to Daniel. Another rap sounded, and she sighed heavily. She pushed herself off the sofa and walked to the door. “I’m coming, I’m coming.” Throwing open the door, she was shocked to see Sean standing there.
His hands were jammed down into his pockets, his always-neat hair was ruffled, and his expression was guarded.
“I… I thought you were Daniel. Who buzzed you up?”
“Daniel was just leaving when I came to the building. He let me in.”
They stood and stared at each other for a moment. If she thought her heart hurt earlier when she was drowning her irritation in her wine, it was nothing compared to what she felt staring at his face.
“Can I come in?”
She stepped back and waved her hand toward the living room, closing the door behind him. Turning, she said, “Sean—”
“Harper—”
They spoke at the same time, then both stopped. He hesitated,