'We're done then,' Gretchen said with relief. Charlie's obsession with death, culminating with her own, was disturbing. Gretchen closed the cover. 'The police must have seen these when they investigated.'
'What would a few mutilated dolls mean to them?' Caroline said.
'It would be interesting to discuss them with the police,' Gretchen said, deciding to take the dolls along with her.
'I'll get photos of the room boxes for Charlie's brother,'
Caroline said. 'Without the dolls.'
After her mother had taken the promised photographs, Gretchen helped Nina pack up dog supplies.
A window shopper stopped in front of the shop. Enrico the Enforcer lunged at the window, snarling and showing his teeth. The pedestrian took one look at the foaming, frothing creature and moved on.
'Poor Enrico,' Nina said.
'Poor Enrico?' April said, incredulous. 'He seems to have the upper hand.'
'The poor little orphan.'
Gretchen groaned silently. She saw it coming before April did. 'Enrico is looking for a new home,' Nina said as if on cue.
Her aunt couldn't resist taking in abandoned canines. That's how Gretchen had ended up with Nimrod. Not that she was complaining. The tiny pup was a perfect match for her. But Enrico and April?
Nina looked sadly at April, then peeked at Enrico, who still guarded the window. 'His owner can't get used to-'
An explosion drowned out Nina's next words. Gretchen saw the shop window blow apart. One second, it was there. The next second, it was gone. Shards of glass flew everywhere. The noise was deafening. Gretchen moved as fast as she could, but it still felt like slow motion. She lunged for the space where the tiny Chihuahua had stood a moment before and saw only emptiness. She frantically turned left and right. Nothing. Enrico was gone.
Another explosion.
Gretchen dove for the floor as the display case filled with recently furnished room boxes tipped toward the women.
'Get down,' she screamed. The other women crouched down behind her in a tight embrace.
Gretchen covered her head with her hands and curled into a ball. Some of the miniature doll furnishings shot across the room, others rained down on them. She stayed on the floor until the air assault ended.
She saw April's feet, encased in white socks and sandals, move past, glass crunching underfoot. Gretchen lifted her head and wiped off loosely embedded glass from the side of her face that had been against the floor. Blood oozed from small puncture wounds on her arms. Flames licked at the room boxes, and a line of fire also ran along the windowsill. She caught the strong odor of gasoline and sprang up in time to see April pull off her sundress. Stripped down to panties and bra, April began to beat at the display case with her dress.
'Should we call for help?' Nina said through ragged sobs.
'Yes,' Gretchen shouted to her aunt. 'I'd consider this an emergency.'
Nina looked dazed. Caroline rose from the floor.
'The dogs,' Gretchen added, scanning the store, relieved that the women were on their feet and appeared to be unharmed. 'Mom, help find Enrico.'
That did the trick for Nina. Cell phone in hand, she sprang into action, pounding on its keys as she ran along the front of the shop searching for the tiny Chihuahua. With a breaking voice, she gave their location before scurrying off into the back room to check for the animals. Caroline was right behind her.
Gretchen looked for a fire extinguisher but didn't find one. She yanked a tablecloth from under a miniature display table and set about helping April smother the flames. Judging from the power of the blasts, Gretchen thought all of the women should be plastered with glass shards, but she had been front and center, and the cuts on her arms appeared to be superficial, sustained mostly during her lunge for the floor. 'Did a bomb go off?' Gretchen asked, beating at the fire with the tablecloth.
'That, or someone shot through the window,' April answered, winded from the physical exertion. 'You shielded us from most of the debris, Superwoman. Are you all right?'
Gretchen nodded. 'We're fanning the flames rather than smothering them,' she said. 'We better get out of the shop.'
'Help is on the way,' Nina said, hustling toward them with a bucket of water. 'The emergency operator said the fire truck will be here momentarily. Stand back.' Her aim was flawless. The flames died back a little. April grabbed the empty bucket and ran for the back room.
'Don't let the dogs out,' Nina called after her, watching the underclad woman charge away.
Gretchen tried to put out a line of fire along the windowsill with the cloth. It caught fire. She threw it on the floor and stomped out the flame.
April returned with the bucket and flung water on the remaining flames. 'We should join the fire department,'
she said. 'We'd be a great team.'
'Nimrod and Tutu are in the storage room,' Nina said.
'I closed the door so they wouldn't get hurt on the glass or run into the fire. But I can't find Enrico anywhere.'
Smoke still rose from the display case, but the flames along the window had been completely extinguished. Gretchen noted a thick, black substance where the fire had died away. April took another swipe at the display case with her dress.
'We'll have company soon. You better put on your dress,' Gretchen advised her. The street was already filled with people. Gretchen heard a siren approaching, a few blocks away.
April flung the dress over her head, lumbered to the open window, and spread her legs in a no-nonsense stance. Her sundress, covered with black soot and burn holes, wasn't white anymore. 'Everybody stay put right where you are until we figure out what happened in here. Did anybody see anything?'
A kid with a red ball cap raised his hand. 'I did. I heard a kaboom and glass flew all over the street.'
'Some guy threw something,' another observer said.
'He was wearing a do-rag on his head.'
'Anybody out there hurt?' April called, sliding a knowing glance at Gretchen. She had thought of Ryan, too. No one spoke up. 'Okay, then. I'm taking that as a 'no.' Anybody see a little brown dog?'
Gretchen stiffened, expecting someone to find Enrico's mangled body lying on the pavement. The glass shards would have acted like shrapnel, piercing the tiny dog's hairless body. And the fire! Had he burned alive?
A few people on the street shook their heads. Enrico must have been swept up in the force of the explosion and flung away. The poor thing. Nothing that small would have survived.
Nina cried into a tissue. Caroline wrapped her arms around her sister. 'Everything's going to be okay,' she said. 'Shhh.'
'We have to find Enrico. He has to be here somewhere.'
'We will,' Gretchen assured her. 'He could have jumped out the window and run away.' She didn't believe her own reassurance for one second.
A fire truck pulled to a stop outside, and the siren died away. Several police officers arrived at the same time. Brandon Kline was one of those who responded. Nina and April told the tale, while Gretchen barely listened to the officer's questions and the women's responses. The professionals went about their business. Gretchen stared at the window, or what was left of the window. All their work ruined. But did it matter anymore? The whole point of the exercise was to prepare the room boxes for display at Charlie's funeral, and they had already abandoned the idea after finding the macabre dolls.
Why attack the shop window and destroy the display?
What if the answer was inside the room boxes? Not in the intricate details they had so lovingly constructed, but in the simplicity of one of the boxes-the unfurnished kitchen. What if the kitchen and the miniature peanut butter jar held the solution to Charlie's and Sara's deaths?
Gretchen felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to see an expression of concern on Detective Kline's face.
'Detective,' Gretchen said. 'We meet again.'
