Page 32 of SapphicLover69
The next thing I knew, Winter flung herself into my arms. I hugged her with fierce emotion, secure and tight against my chest, our bodies humming and quivering from the near-death ordeal. My nostrils were still full of smoke, but my delirious mind overflowed with the scent of Winter. We clung to each other like vines to a tree, neither willing to let go. I felt the beat of her heart and the rhythm of her breath line up with mine until our bodies were in perfect sync with each other. I liked how she felt in my embrace and reveled in the sensations she aroused in me. Her nearness made me feel safe, and holding her made me feel strong. It was a moment I’ll never forget.
Nestling her face into my neck, she said, “Thank you for saving us, Aspen.”
The shock of hearing that thrust me back a few inches, pushing away so I could look her in the eyes. Still gripping her shoulders, unable to take my hands off her, I searched her face withincredulity. “I didn’t save us—you did. The hinges were your idea, and you did the MacGyver thing. All I did was follow your instructions. Besides, it’s my fault you and Elaine were in danger to begin with.”
A sour pill dissolved in my gut at the thought and my expression must have laid my guilt and regret bare. Winter moved gentle hands to my blistered cheeks, brushing them with a tender touch, and peered straight through my plain, brown eyes into my soul. “This was not your fault.”
She touched her lips to mine with affection and assurance, like sealing a vow she would never break. My eyes closed as I savored the moment, still trembling—or maybe trembling again for a different reason. For an instant, nothing and no one else existed in the whole world, and I felt truly cherished.
“We insisted on coming,” Elaine added from her seat nearby, reminding me the world still existed and we weren’t the only ones in it. Hearing her voice sound more normal made my heart leap with joy anew.
Winter’s lips eased away from mine, and a zealous desire to have them back overcame me. “Yes, we insisted,” she seconded.
“I wished you’d stayed safely behind,” I began, “although, if you had, I’d probably be dead by now. You saved us, Winter.”
“We saved each other.”
“Fire department, call out!” The shout resounded through the open doorway to the burning corridor.
“Out here!” I yelled as loudly as my scratchy throat would allow.
A fireman in his bulky suit wearing a mask and air tank swaggered onto the terrace with an extinguisher in one hand. “There you are!” he called and flipped up his face shield. “We’ll have this out in a jiffy. I’m sending the paramedics through.”
“Elaine has asthma,” I replied. “She needs an inhaler.”
“The medics will check you out. Was there anyone else?”
“No,” Winter answered, letting her hands slide away from me. “Just us.”
The fireman nodded and ducked back in to finish quenching the flames, and a man and woman in blue uniforms carrying bags and kits emerged to see to us. I exchanged a look with Winter as we both seemed to convey the same message—later.
Chapter 17
Privacy Issues
An hour later, Winter and I sat in a small conference nook on the second floor that someone had called the Kent Room. Detective Campbell and another policeman occupied seats across from us at an elegant walnut table shielded by a glass topper. The space had been designed for much more formal meetings or dining, with the brocade carpet, white wainscoting, ornamental wallpaper, and bygone-era paintings.
Upon the emergency team’s arrival, the EMT made us sit with oxygen masks for a half hour while she slathered our blisters with salve and pressed cold packs to the palms and backs of my hands. My knuckles were bruised from punching the glass but nothing that wouldn’t heal. The ambulance took Elaine to the hospital, but the paramedic said it was mostly as a precaution because of her asthma attack. He wanted a doctor to check her out and make sure she was breathing easy and hadn’t suffered complications from smoke inhalation.
Tammy had dashed up to her room and returned with shirts for Winter and me to put on, and we were grateful, no matter how much too big they were. Her forest green button-up fit me better than the tent-sized Dallas Cowboys jersey that swallowed Winter. However, Tammy had thrown a fit when she found out what had happened. No sooner than she’d wrapped us in hugs of joy, the scolding had begun.
“What the hell were you thinking to respond to a note from that psycho?” she bellowed. “And if you insisted on being stupid, you should have at least waited for me to come with you.” She had fumed and paced and muttered about the million ways she wanted to torture the woman who’d laid the trap. I wasn’t sure if I felt more comforted or disturbed by her violent musings. She and Beth wanted to join the meeting and give the detective a piece of their minds for being so slow, but Catherine wrangled her back from getting herself in trouble.
“Here are your cell phone and laptop, Ms. Wolfe,” Detective Campbell said as he laid my phone in front of me, and the other fellow pushed over my laptop sealed in a plastic bag. I instantly took possession of them, relieved to have my devices back.
“Thank you,” I replied. “Did you find anything useful?”
Scratching his head, he leaned back and studied me, as if deliberating on how forthcoming he should be. He pursed his lips, then sighed. “The texts came from a burner phone and can’t be traced to an owner or account. As for the online harassment—which is illegal—we didn’t get as far as I’d hoped.” Detective Campbell glanced at the other plainclothes officer whose slender physique, lax haircut, and general manner suggested he was the tech guy.
“I tried to discover SapphicLover69’s identity, to determine who the username belongs to,” he explained, “but ran into some privacy issues. The social media platform has the legal right to protect the personal information of its users, but we’ve drawn upa warrant to compel the data. It’s the weekend, and we won’t be able to get a judge to sign it until Monday.”
“We might can push the timeframe now felony arson has been added to this individual’s list of crimes,” Campbell assured me. “And I’ll have this note,” he said, lifting the lure in the same plastic baggie Elaine had secured it in, “to the lab tonight. They’ll check for prints, DNA, and perform a handwriting analysis.”
“So, we might know by Monday and can arrest someone,” I surmised optimistically.
Then Winter noted with concern, “The conference is officially over tomorrow night, though. Everyone will be going home on Sunday night or Monday morning. And after failing to kill Aspen, she might take off sooner.”
“We have a list of all the conference attendees, and Ms. Beech is meticulously scrutinizing who is where and if anyone checks out early or seems to disappear from the group,” he stated.
