another go at Miss Harmony.” Strangely, he looked forward to seeing her again.
As he ascended the steps, the ring of women’s laughter caught him by surprise. Grace’s door stood wide open to the warm, spring air. When he reached the top of the steps, Dolores and Grace were sitting on the couch.
He paused, eavesdropping on their conversation. About him. Dolores recounted how they met.
“I’m sure Miss Harmony has no interest in our personal life,” he said before she could go further.
The two women looked at him as if he were an alien. Grace sported a ponytail. Wisps of her light hair framed her face, bringing out her emerald green eyes.
Zach moved into the one room apartment, navigating around boxes. “I was looking for you.”
He sounded possessive and wanted to kick himself. The last thing he needed was to give Dolores the impression she had a shot with him.
“Oh? I was giving Grace, here, a hometown welcome. We
had dinner together. If you want something, I can heat up some stew.”
“Just heat up the Chinese,” Grace suggested.
Her gaze hadn’t stayed on him long as if it pained her to see him. She hid something, some huge secret, and he hoped to God it wouldn’t blow up in his face.
“No, Grace, that’s for you.” Dolores stood. “I’ll get something for Zach. Won’t take a moment.”
“Lors, don’t get up. I didn’t come by for you to feed me. I’m not hungry anyway.” He raked a hand through his hair. This was not working out. “I just wanted to talk to Miss Harmony.”
Dolores looked at him then back to Grace. “I think you’ve interrogated her enough.”
“I didn’t interrogate her.”
“I know you Zachary Holten. You have no soft touch when it comes to your job. Let her be. In fact, I’m going to leave her to her unpacking now that I’ve fed her.”
Dolores brushed past him. Grace stood and opened a box as if he weren’t there. “We’re not done, you know.”
“I wasn’t charged with anything,” Grace said, still not looking at him.
“That doesn’t mean you didn’t do something wrong.”
Her eyes flashed at him. “I haven’t. And if you harass me I will file a complaint.”
He nodded. She doth protest way too much.
“I don’t trust her.”
Dolores chuckled. She spooned stew onto a plate then put it into her microwave to heat. “You don’t get a say. Not anymore.”
She leaned against the cracked counter that desperately need replacing. Now that he knew a child would grow up in this place, he looked at it with new eyes. The house remained shabby. He’d have to do some renovation before the baby came.
“Right. Not since I walked out. I’ve heard this before. And I’m supposed to argue that you forced me out by sleeping with my partner. Yada, yada. I’m not being baited into an argument. Dolores.”
He folded his frame to sit on the old chair in her old kitchen. Some of the appliances were still in Harvest Gold. Once they were flush with cash and could have bought new ones, but his pride hadn’t let her spend her money.
Now she didn’t have it anymore. It had gone up her nose.
“So what shall we talk about?” Dolores asked, pulling a beer out of the refrigerator.
His favorite brand, he noticed. After opening the slim green bottle, he took a swig before answering. “She’s hiding something.”
“Aren’t we all.”
He let that remark go. Dolores’ secrets weren’t his concern anymore. “Something big.”
“Stop. I’m not kicking her out.”
“I should have some say since you’re carrying my child.”
She stiffened for a moment. “Yes, I am, but you don’t get a say. Not on this issue. She’s all alone and I’m not getting rid of her.”
“She isn’t a stray kitten.”
“I think she is.”
Frustration ate at the edges of his sanity. Something about Grace Harmony exuded danger. She held herself as if she had no idea the depth of her beauty. That alone could make him wary, but his ex-cop instincts told him he’d have to look deeper.
“Just be careful.”
The microwave dinged. “For once, Zach, trust me.”
He laughed. He would never trust any woman again and Dolores knew that. She’d been the one to break his trust.
“Trust is a funny word coming from you.”
She shrugged. “One can hope.”
Grace lay in her new bed in her new apartment and couldn’t sleep. Her curt conversation with Zach still had her blood boiling. Dolores had turned her queries about him into a trip down memory lane.
She hadn’t found out their relationship. He was key somehow. She didn’t feel it in her bones, but, as a suspect, he made the most sense.
Shrugging off the sheet, she climbed out of bed. The moon shone in making the room seem to be lit by some surreal daytime. One of her windows looked down on the neighbor’s property. No one stirred.
She crossed to the window facing her landlord’s house. No lights. A movement caught her eye. A man stood at the end of the driveway. She stepped back since she didn’t have on a stitch of clothing.
When she looked again, he’d moved down the driveway as if he owned the place. He didn’t look like Zach, but she didn’t really know him well enough to say.
With a speed she didn’t know she possessed, Grace jumped into her discarded clothing. She flew out the door before she could change her mind. Halfway down the steps, she realized she had no weapon. Instead of turning around, her anger at Zach moved her faster.
The man disappeared before she reached the driveway. Tiptoeing, she circled the house. A dog three doors down barked. Then she heard a car start then drive away.
Her heart pounded in her chest as she caught her breath. “I left my door open,” she said to the nighttime.
No place to hide in her apartment, so she went back in confident that the intruder disappeared. At least adrenaline had exhausted her enough to sleep.
She fell into slumber, fully clothed.
Too early in the morning for his tastes, Zach walked around, coffee cup in hand, and surveyed the remains of an apartment. The appliances were black. The acrid smell of smoke wrinkled his nose. He should be used to it by now, but the scent meant death to him. Not in this case.
“Madame Zola was right.”
The firefighters ignored him. He usually talked to himself during an arson investigation. Despite not being here in an official capacity, the detectives from the Centre County Prosecutor’s office let him on scene. Most knew that he’d been the best.
Detective Ed Bauer, his best friend, had called him in.
“The same,” Ed said.
Zach nodded. This fire looked the same as the last case he’d had before being asked to resign from the Prosecutor’s Office. The one that had been his downfall.
“Luckily the tenant moved out. The place was empty. I don’t have her name, yet.
Zach nodded. He’d talk to that person when the time came, but he doubted she would know anything. “I saw her.”
“Who?”
