Harper wrung her hands nervously as she stared at the grainy black-and-white picture of herself lying on her desk.

Whoop! Whoop! Whoop!

She jumped out of her chair, startled by the screeching of the fire alarm. Bolting out the door she instinctively ran down the hallway towards Gertie’s office, yelling Gertie’s name out as soon as she burst through her door. She had to push some of the vases of flowers out of the way to see if Gertie was behind her desk and craned her neck to look in the corners of the office. She didn’t want Gertie trapped if there was a fire, but she didn’t seem to be in there.

“Gertie!” she yelled again as she stood in the middle of her office, looking around.

“Harper! There you are! Let’s go!” Veronica’s voice echoed in the office, and Harper turned to see Veronica standing in the doorway, motioning with her hand to hurry up. “Gertie isn’t back yet, let’s go! I don’t know what’s going on, but I know this wasn’t a planned test on the alarms!”

Harper ran quickly out of the room and down the stairs, right on the heels of Veronica. Had Veronica specifically come looking for her to make sure she got out? Maybe she'd won a few points with her by looking for Gertie as soon as the fire alarm had sounded. It was a small victory, but she would take it, it felt good to know that maybe things had turned a corner with Veronica.

She stopped suddenly as they rounded the last set of stairs, her heart lurching. What about Logan? She should go check his office!

“Come on!” Veronica yelled, grabbing her arm, and pulled her down the rest of the steps and out the side door as the fire alarm continued to wail inside. They hurriedly walked away from the building and towards the parking lot where the other employees were standing. In the distance she could hear the fire engines approaching, their sirens getting closer by the second.

“Veronica!”

Harper turned to see TJ rushing towards Veronica, the two of them hugged. She looked away, feeling lonely suddenly. She felt a bit jealous of TJ’s obvious concern for Veronica, no one was worried about Harper making it out safely that was for sure. Well, Veronica had been, but she meant someone who would have the same lovey-dovey look in their eyes as TJ had right now.

“Are you okay? What’s going on?” TJ asked, looking at the two of them as the fire engines roared into the parking lot and screeched to a halt near the building.

The firemen jumped out of the bright-red fire engines, and Harper watched as Logan ran up to them, seconds later they all raced into the building.

Everyone stood in silence for what seemed like hours, Harper finally breaking the silence.

“What the hell happened?” she asked out loud to no one in particular as they all stared at the building.

“There was a fire in a dressing room downstairs.” They all turned to see Logan walking up to them from the side of the building, his clothes and face covered in soot. “Are you okay?” he asked Harper, reaching out and touching her arm. Harper nodded, taken aback by his genuine concern for her.

“Were you in the fire? Are you okay?” Harper asked him, brushing some of the black off his forehead.

“Yeah, I’m okay. I grabbed one of the fire extinguishers and was able to put the fire out, but not before it pretty much ruined everything in the room.”

“This is horrible!” Marly cried, running around the parking lot like a mad woman, her hands in the air. “The clothes were all hand-sewn. We’re going to have to work nonstop to get them made again for tomorrow! What a bad time for an accident!”

Harper, Logan, and Veronica all exchanged looks. Marly was right, it was bad timing, but it was also not an accident.

Big T crouched down in the overgrown grass across from the loading dock and patted the cat. After he'd helped that dimwit Logan put out the fire in the dressing room he'd come out of the building through the loading dock door and looked around for the cat. There was so much commotion going on he'd just wanted to make sure it was still okay and hadn’t gotten hurt in all the hoopla.

The cat meowed as it rubbed up against his leg and lightly batted at Big T’s arm which had a streak of soot. He rubbed it off and stood, watching as the cat ran through one of the holes in the chain-link fence, turning and looking at him before it scurried off, disappearing through the thick weeds. For a minute Big T felt as though the cat might be judging him, almost like it knew he'd been the one who set the fire. But that would be impossible, it was just a damn stray cat.

He walked to the parking lot and headed towards the huddle of employees. Marly was talking about how all the clothing was ruined by the fire and she didn’t know how they would ever get them all made again by tomorrow’s show. He struggled to force himself not to smile when he heard that. Mission accomplished, clothing ruined.

“What the heck is going on? Is everyone okay?” Gertie emerged, her face showing panic. Big T watched as she wheeled herself over to every employee, asking them if they were okay, grabbing their hands and patting them. When someone mentioned the clothing was ruined, she barked out she wasn’t worried about the clothes, only about her family, the employees.

For a split second Big T felt a stab of remorse over what he was doing. No. Don’t start getting soft and ruin what you’ve started, he told himself. Gertie was a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Always making people think she was so kind. Well, he knew better. He knew something none of these people did. Gertie had done something bad in her past, and now she would pay for it.

Karma was a bitch.