Page 34 of Say Yes to the Death

“All right, fine. At least let me walk your dog,” Mrs. Dodge said, extending a hand for Rosie’s leash.

Claire happily released the leash to Mrs. Dodge and helped her down the remaining three flights of stairs and then outside.

A handful of stars were scattered across the inky black of the night sky. The temperature had once again dived sharply into the fifties. A breeze bit at Claire’s calves, still coated in small beads of water. She retreated to the far end of the walkway in front of her building, shivering and drawing the robe more tightly around her. A crowd of neighbors grew, most of them retirees with bifocals and fuzzy slippers.

A fire truck pulled up to the curb, siren blaring and lights flashing. A handful of firefighters leapt off the truck and entered the building. Claire blushed as one glanced at her. She hadn’t even had a chance to wash the shampoo out of her hair. She sat on the low brick wall that lined the entrance to the apartment building, crossing her legs at the ankle and sitting erect, as though someone was going to come by with a ruler and judge her posture.

Doozer, a neighborhood English Mastiff who weighed more than Claire, lumbered up to her and Rosie. His owner, Chuck, was infamous for never leashing him. Rosie recognized her friend and play bowed, tiny stub of a tail wiggling. The dogs circled repeatedly, bounding after each other and barking. Rosie gently nipped at Doozer’s ankles.

“Rosie—don’t.” Claire sighed. She eased the backpack off and set it on the wall next to her. If this leash broke, Doozer’s owner certainly wasn’t going to be any help tracking the dogs down. Chuck was thirty yards down the sidewalk, smoking a cigarette under a streetlight.

Doozer had somehow looped a leg through Rosie’s leash. Claire stood and bent at the waist. A gust of wind descended, and her robe flapped in the wind. Doozer grabbed the end of her robe and tugged.

“Doozer, no! That’s not a toy!” Claire cried, but it was too late. He ripped at the robe, tearing it from her body and darting off across the front lawn. Claire shrieked and lunged for it, but she had forgotten about the low wall. While Doozer and her robe cleared it easily, Claire slammed her shins into it and tumbled, completely naked, through the frigid night air. She landed in a holly bush, sticks jabbing her in a number of unmentionable places.

“Ow,” she said breathlessly, stunned by the impact. For a moment, she simply looked at the night sky. What had she had done to piss off the big guy upstairs? She had just wanted to get through the hearing without any issues. Instead, Luke’s mother had publicly slandered her, her mother had nearly been arrested, and she had screamed at her lying boyfriend in the front yard like she was auditioning for an episode of Jerry Springer. Now she was lying naked in a bush while her apartment building might be on fire. Where could she go from here?

There wasn’t time for more introspection. Claire flailed her way out of the bush, cheeks hot. Rosie’s leash was still wrapped around her wrist. At least she hadn’t escaped and started a colony of feral, cheese-loving Corgis. Claire ripped her backpack from the wall and slung it over her front, covering what she could and crouching behind the wall.

“Claire, dear, are you all right?” Mrs. Dodge asked, clearly holding back laughter. “That damn dog. Here, take my dressing gown.” She struggled to untie her sash.

A black SUV with a Sanctum Security logo pulled up behind the fire truck, and Sawyer Goulding emerged. Oh, good. Another person to witness her humiliation. He slammed his door shut and strode toward the building like he was preparing for battle.

Oh, hell. Claire tried to duck behind the wall again. But Sawyer, a good foot taller than the other nosey nellies who had gathered, spotted her easily.

“Claire, are you okay? Why are you hiding behind—oh,” he said, visibly doing a double take. He stepped in front of her, obscuring everyone else’s view. He shrugged off his jacket and held it out in front of her, craning his neck to look behind him rather than at her naked body. Should she be grateful or insulted? Sure, she hadn’t made it to her hot yoga or core crusher class this week, but she hadn’t completely dissolved into a shapeless puddle of wine and pizza. He waited for her to drop her backpack and crawl into the jacket. He zipped it up for her, thumb accidentally grazing the side of her right breast.

“Sorry,” he said before quickly patting Rosie on the head and leaping back over the wall.

“Thank you so—” Claire began, but Sawyer had already disappeared into the building.

The sleeves of the jacket dangled almost to her knees. It smelled like Sawyer, citrusy and bright. She zipped Rosie into it with her, allowing her furry face to poke out the top. She had a feeling Sawyer wouldn’t mind.

After what felt like hours, the firefighters filed out of the building, signaling an all clear to the residents. Claire rolled her eyes, accepting that she was correct in her burnt popcorn assessment.

She ran into Sawyer as he was leaving the lobby.

“Oh, Sawyer,” she said, gently dropping Rosie to the floor. “Thank you so much for this. Tonight wasn’t exactly an opportune time for burnt popcorn. If you don’t mind, uh, following me back to my apartment, I can give you your jacket back.” Her robe, which Doozer’s owner had finally returned, was slung over her shoulder, now dirty and frayed from the dog’s wayward adventure.

Sawyer looked around for a moment and leaned down to pet Rosie.

“Sanctum manages the fire alarms in this building. It wasn’t burnt popcorn. Someone pulled an alarm on the second floor,” he said quietly as they walked to the staircase. He held the door open for her.

“Oh,” she said, eyes widening in surprise. “Is everything okay?”

“Everything’s fine. They didn’t find a fire. It could have just been a punk kid pulling the alarm,” he said as they climbed.

Claire tilted her head. She hadn’t seen any children outside. “I don’t think many young families live here.”

“My thoughts exactly.”

“I didn’t know Sanctum was in the fire alarm business,” she remarked as they climbed the stairs.

“These are not ordinary fire alarms.” Sawyer gestured to one on the stairwell wall. “They’re Bluetooth and Wi-Fi enabled and can be monitored from anywhere with the Sanctum app. They also have a pinhole camera that records for ten seconds after the alarm is pulled. My own design. We’re strictly business-to-business right now, but someday I hope we’ll be able to sell home systems for consumers.”

“That’s amazing. So there should be footage of who pulled the alarm?”

He frowned. “Someone covered it with a piece of electrical tape.”

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