Belle turned to find Mitch standing beside her. “It’s perfect. Between the work you and your guys have done and Jasmine’s decorating, it’s better than I could have imagined.”
“I’m glad you like it.”
“Now let’s just hope that nothing happens to it,” Belle said.
“You mean like the graffiti?” Mitch frowned. “I don’t think I showed you the security room yet, did I?”
Belle shook her head. “Was that a new addition?”
“Yep. After you agreed to the additional security measures, we managed to build an extra room on the second floor. It just meant the landing area is a bit smaller, but nothing too noticeable.” He held out his hand towards the stairs. “Let me show you.”
They walked up the stairs, standing to the side a couple of times as people carrying furniture moved past them. On the landing, Belle immediately spotted where the extra work had been done. Mitch opened the door and stepped back to allow Belle to enter the room.
“Wow. This is incredible,” Belle said, taking in the monitors, already bright with pictures. “So that’s from the cameras you installed?”
“Yes. We had a security guy come in and help us figure out the best angles and places to mount the cameras. There are none in the areas where you would be conducting business with clients, but there are a couple in the foyer. One out on the landing, and several on the outside of the building.”
Belle sat down in the chair facing the monitors on the wall above the desk and watched the people who were moving the furniture around. The pictures were clear—much clearer than she had thought they’d be. Hopefully, they were detailed enough to catch anyone who happened to try to damage the building again.
“Also, the feeds are stored on a drive here as well as a remote one, so if something happened to the building—like a fire—the feed would still be viewable.”
Belle glanced over at Mitch with a smile. “You’ve thought of everything.”
“Well, I wish we hadn’t had to go to this level for security, but who would have thought a bridal boutique would be the target of a deranged competitor?”
“The bridal business can be a cut-throat one, depending on the people involved. Bad mouthing a competitor is the best way to impact them. Every shop wants the people who have used their business to share their positive experiences because unlike other businesses, this isn’t one where you’ll have the same clients coming back over and over again.”
“I’m sure that’s true. No bride wants to be walking down the aisle thinking hey, they did such a bang-up job, I want to use them again for my next wedding.”
Belle laughed. “Exactly. What we do want is for bridal couples to have had such a great experience working with us that they share their experience with all their friends and family who are getting married. Good word of mouth is the best advertising for businesses like ours. And for us, we may not be the cheapest, but we are the best.”
“I would say you’re right.”
“You would?” Belle relaxed back in the seat, watching as Mitch leaned against the door jamb.
“I was bored one night,” he said with the shrug of one shoulder.
“And started googling bridal services?”
“Not in general. I was just kind of curious to see what people had to say about your boutique. And from what I could see on your Facebook page and other places on the web, brides have only good things to say about you, Jasmine, and the women who work for you.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t find the one horrible review from the bridezilla a few months back. She was mad when she came for her fitting and found out she wasn’t going to get to work with Jasmine.”
“Really? Why would she get that upset?”
“Well, when she’d first come to find her dress, she’d reduced Jasmine to tears.” Belle scowled at the memory. “Jazzy was getting ulcers at the thought of having to deal with her again when she came in for her fitting. When the bride realized she was going to have to deal with me instead of Jasmine, she wasn’t happy. I’m a lot harder to make cry.”
“That’s horrible. For some reason, I thought bridal stuff was all sunshine and roses.”
Belle laughed again as she shook her head. “No, you didn’t. I’m sure Maya has mentioned plenty of the stress she’s been under trying to balance pleasing her mom with what she wants for her own wedding. It’s definitely not all sunshine and roses.”
“And yet you try to make it as stress-free as possible for brides,” Mitch pointed out.
“In much the same way you do for your clients. And I should know since I’ve been one.”
Mitch stared at her for a moment before the corner of his mouth tugged upward. “Don’t tell my other clients, but you did get a bit more of my personal attention.”
Belle felt a swirl of warmth at the thought that he’d taken special measures for the renovation because of her. Would he always take care of her that way?
Even as the thought entered her head, Belle rejected it. She didn’t need anyone to take care of her. She was perfectly capable of taking care of herself. Hadn’t she proven that over the years since she’d left Andre?
“Well, I’m very thankful for all you’ve done for us on this job,” Belle said as she got up from the chair in front of the monitors. “I’m almost in shock at how close we are to the end of this whole process, and the fact that most of my mind is still intact.”
“Yep. We’re in the home stretch now.” The way Mitch said it didn’t sound like that was a good thing.
Over the past couple of weeks, their relationship seemed to have settled again. She wasn’t sure that Mitch had completely accepted that she wasn’t interested in a relationship with him since the flowers continued to show up. There was no message with them like there had been with the first, but there was no doubt at all who they were from. Belle had no idea what that meant, but she did enjoy getting flowers that didn’t create a frisson of fear every time they arrived.
Perhaps that’s what Mitch had hoped to achieve.
Just as they reached the main floor, Belle’s phone rang. Seeing Rory’s name on the screen, she immediately answered it.
“Did you hear the news?” Rory said when Belle answered.
“About what?” Belle asked as she stepped out of the way of a chair being carried upstairs. “What’s happened?”
“My cop friend just called me a few minutes ago,” Rory said. “Apparently emergency vehicles were called to Andre’s shop.”
Belle’s head spun, and she leaned back against the wall to keep her balance. “What happened?”
“Fire. My friend said it was fully engulfed by the time the fire engines got there.”
“It’s gone?” Belle didn’t have many happy memories of her time with Andre, but that shop had been her work home for several years.
“Yep. Burned to the ground. Fortunately, the fire didn’t spread to any other buildings, and no one was injured.”
Belle struggled to wrap her mind around the idea that Andre’s shop was no more. She’d been bracing herself for what would happen next to her or her business because of him, especially considering that things had been surprisingly quiet on the Andre-front lately. Even the bouquets had stopped arriving. Belle had been waiting for the other shoe to drop.
And now it apparently had, but not at all in the way she’d imagined.
After she got off the phone with Rory, Belle relayed the information to Mitch. He looked as perplexed as she felt at this latest turn of events.
“Do you think that means things are over?” Belle asked Mitch in a low voice.
Mitch shrugged. “Remember how you didn’t think it would be so easy for things to end?”
“Yeah, and you seemed to think it could end easily.”
Mitch scoffed. “Yep, I did, and now I think I was wrong.”
Belle crossed her arms and frowned. “You think this is too easy?”
“That, and it doesn’t make any sense. Like why, all of a sudden, does his place burn down?”
“So you don’t think it’s over?” The ache in Belle’s stomach only intensified when Mitch shook his head.
Mitch frowned and placed his hands on his hips. “I’ll be curious to see how this plays out, but I’ll be very surprised if this is the end of things.”
As it turned out, Mitch was right. Two days after the fire, Rory appeared in Belle’s office doorway, an intense look on her face.
“What’s up, Rore?” Belle asked as she rested her forearms on her desk.
“I don’t have long,” Rory said as she dropped down into the seat across the desk from Belle. “A couple of detectives are on their way over.”
“What? Why?”
“Apparently, Andre has been spouting that you had reason to hire someone to burn his place down.”
Belle stared at Rory in shock, waiting for her sister to reveal that her words were a joke. But when she didn’t, Belle had to swallow against the nausea rising in her stomach. “I don’t understand.”
“They found evidence of arson at the scene.” Rory paused. “A little too conveniently, I might add.”
“Should your friend be telling you any of this?” Belle asked, worried that her sister might get into trouble, even though she was grateful for the heads-up.
“He wouldn’t have said a word to me if he felt that Andre’s story was believable. But there must be something else going on that he’s not telling me.”
“Are you here as my lawyer?” Belle asked.
“Possibly. We’ll see what they say when they get here.”
“Wouldn’t it be better if we just cooperated?”
Rory nodded. “For sure. But I’m just going to be here in case things start heading in a direction I’m not comfortable with.”
The phone on Belle’s desk rang, making her jump. When she answered, Jasmine told her that there were a couple of gentlemen there to see her. After telling her to bring them back to her office, Belle took a couple of deep breaths to push the anxiety down and put on her professional face.
As Belle got to her feet, Rory moved off to the side. When Jasmine appeared with two men in her wake, Belle was as prepared as it was possible for her to be, considering this had been sprung on her only a few minutes earlier.
“Belle Jacobs?” the older of the two asked as they walked past Jasmine into Belle’s office.
Belle nodded as she held out her hand, drawing on years of experience with clients to keep a smile on her face. “And you are?”
“I’m Detective Hallorsen from the Winnipeg Police Service.” His grip was firm but not in a painful or dominating way. “Could we have a few moments of your time?”
“Sure. Have a seat,” Belle said, motioning to the two chairs in front of her desk. She circled around to her own seat, taking another quick breath while her back was to them.
Though she was glad to have Rory in the room with her, a part of Belle had a sudden fierce longing for Mitch’s presence. He hadn’t thought things were over with Andre, and it appeared he had been right.
The detective’s gaze went to where Rory sat in the corner on the loveseat Belle had there, but instead of commenting, he turned his attention back to Belle.
“We just have a few questions we’d like to ask you regarding a fire that occurred at the location of Andre Moreau’s bridal salon.”
“What is it you’d like to know?” Belle asked, surprised that she had enough moisture in her mouth to actually speak.
“You are an acquaintance of Mr. Moreau’s?” the younger detective asked.
“Yes, I am.” Keeping in mind things Rory had said in the past, Belle knew to answer their questions without elaborating.
“What is the nature of your acquaintance?”
“I am a former employee and ex-girlfriend.”
“How long has it been since you worked for him?”
With each question over the next half hour, Belle answered the men as succinctly as she could. Rory never stepped in, so Belle assumed that she wasn’t objecting to what they were asking. By the time the men were done, Belle felt like she was barely holding herself together.
What if her answers weren’t enough? What if they read something into them that wasn’t there? Was Andre finally going to have the last word?
“Thank you for your time, Ms. Jacobs,” the older detective said as he got to his feet. The younger man glanced up at him, his brows drawing together for a moment before he joined his colleague in standing. “If we have any more questions, we’ll be in touch.”
Belle was surprised her legs held her weight when she stood and took the hand the man held out. She prayed that her palm wasn’t too clammy and that her fingers didn’t tremble as they shook hands.
Once they were gone, Belle slumped back down into her chair. Rory came over and took the seat she’d vacated when the detectives had arrived.
“You okay, sweetie?” she asked.
Belle blew out a long breath, but it didn’t do anything to calm the butterfly storm in her stomach. “I’m fine.”
“I’m pretty sure that they don’t think you’re involved,” Rory said.
“How do you know that?” Belle frowned at her sister. “Some of those questions they asked seemed like they thought I was.”
“They wanted to see if you’d get defensive and let something slip, but you did fine. Those questions are ones they’d normally ask if they brought someone in for questioning. I don’t think they were interested in taking you in. Plus, you do have an alibi that is pretty solid.” Rory sounded more confident than Belle felt. “They had to interview you once Andre named you, but I’m used to reading people, and they didn’t act like they were viewing you as a suspect.”
“Well, I hope you’re right,” Belle said.
“I need to get back to work.” Rory got up and came around to hug Belle. “Are you going to be okay, sweetheart? I’ll give Jasmine a quick rundown on what happened.”
“Thanks for coming, Rore. I appreciate it,” Belle told her.
As Rory left the office, Belle was already reaching for her cell phone. Her agitation had her tapping on Mitch’s name without really thinking about what she was doing. She knew it probably meant something significant that she was turning to him right off the bat. However, at that moment, she justified her actions by telling herself that he deserved to know since he’d become a part of it all since the graffiti had first appeared at the building.
Finding that her hand was still shaking, Belle set the phone down on the desk and used the speakerphone while she waited for Mitch to answer.
“Belle? Is everything okay?”
Though Belle wished otherwise, she had to admit that just hearing the concern in his voice helped to calm the anxiety within her. She really didn’t want to need that from him, but there was no denying how his care for her made her feel.
Taking a deep breath, Belle said, “Well, the other shoe has dropped.”