The next morning Logan’s stomach was in knots. He hadn’t been able to eat breakfast; his mind was too preoccupied, and he'd just wanted to get to the office, so he could nail the perp once and for all.

He knew whoever it was would likely choose to strike again tonight. They'd caused some damage with the fire, ruined some food with the fridge sabotage, tried to get the invitations sent to the wrong places, and sabotaged the runway. Yet, with all that, they still hadn’t been successful in stopping the event. Whoever, was most likely pissed off at that fact and would be looking to cause some major problem to stop the show, they would be almost desperate at this point, and Logan needed to ensure that didn’t happen.

He entered the bustling lobby and was greeted by people rushing around, getting ready for the show that was to be held later that night. Myrtle was standing in the middle of it all, directing the various employees around as well as telling the delivery people where to go. She was dressed to the nines, wearing a cobalt-blue dress that made her cranberry-colored hair pop. Her familiar quirky glasses were perched on the end of her nose, this time the frames were turquoise and black, and the eyeglass chain consisted of matching colored beads on them. She caught Logan’s eye and winked at him as he rushed past her.

“Looking more gorgeous than ever!” he threw out at her as he whisked by, catching the smile on her face as she heard him say it, then chastised a delivery boy who had flowers in his arms, reminding him not to crush the arrangement by holding it so close to his chest.

He rushed up the stairs, catching a glimpse of Harper and Veronica as they hurried past him with some clothing, neither one of them looking like they'd slept much. He knew Marly must have had her employees stay up all night to make new sets of clothing to replace what had been lost in the fire. As far as he knew it had been a total loss with the clothing, nothing could be saved.

He tried to catch Harper’s eye as she quickly passed by him, but he may as well have been invisible to her. She was mad at him and it sucked. He wished she realized he was just trying to keep her safe. Once this was all over maybe she would be more forgiving. He would make it up to her then, if she let him.

Walking by Gertie’s office he overheard her bickering with Edward, who was trying to change some of the show even though it was starting in just a few hours. She was suggesting to him that maybe he go jump in the river to cool his jets, and that she had everything under control and needed to leave for some interview. Logan chuckled at her sense of humor and sassiness.

He went to his office and sat at the desk, eager to review the footage from the various cams he'd placed throughout the mill. He impatiently tapped his pen on his desk as he watched the footage then stopped, leaning forward to be closer to the monitor. Was that George? He was walking around the runway slowly, he seemed to be looking at it for some specific reason. But George didn’t smoke, and Logan was pretty sure whoever was doing all this smoked. Then again, George had been the only one suspiciously missing when the building had been evacuated for the fire. Maybe George was trying to make it look like Ben was the perp when it had really been him all along.

Logan stood and headed downstairs. He needed to have a talk with them and check the final build of the runway to make sure it was safe and in no danger of collapsing tonight.

Harper ran around the building like she was on fire, checking all the various last-minute things before the show that evening. After taking the rest of the clothing downstairs with Veronica, she had double-checked every dressing room was set up correctly, then had gone back to her office to make some calls. She hung up the phone, happy she'd finished her calls to all the PR people. That was one more thing she could cross off her to-do list.

She hurried down to the kitchen to check on the food. She knew Sarah was an amazing chef, she'd heard nothing but positive reviews about her when she'd worked for Raffe at the restaurant. All the local food critics had given the restaurant the thumbs-up, and all had pointed out the unique menu items Sarah had created. It was just a formality for her to check the food, she had no doubt Sarah had it all handled.

Entering the kitchen through the heavy swinging doors she followed the sound of laughter to see Veronica and Sarah standing by a tray of desserts. TJ was on the opposite side of the stainless steel table talking to them while moving his arms wildly in mid-story.

“Wow, those desserts look amazing!” She glanced down at the pastries. Miniature éclairs, brownie bites, and teeny cupcakes. “I just came down to make sure everything is all set for tonight. Can I do anything, do you need any help?”

TJ stepped in between Veronica and Sarah and put his arms around them, squeezing them both close towards him.

“I think my two girls have it all covered, Harper,” he joked.

Harper noticed Veronica seemed thrilled with him calling them his two girls, but Sarah looked a bit annoyed. Veronica was giggling, and Sarah was just standing there, her smile looking forced.

“Actually, there is something you can do for me. Can you hunt Gertie down?” Veronica looked down at her watch. “She left almost three hours ago to do some interviews and I haven’t seen her since. She should have come back by now.”

“She’s probably in her office, lost amongst all those flowers,” Sarah chimed in, making everyone laugh.

“Sure, no problem, I’ll go find her and I’ll call you when I hunt her down,” Harper said, and left the trio in the kitchen to go back upstairs.

Her smile faded as soon as she was in the hallway. It wasn’t like Gertie to run late, and especially not before an event. She remembered Gertie had not been too thrilled about this interview being on the same day as the show to begin with.

She pulled out her phone and called Gertie, hoping there was some reasonable answer why Veronica hadn’t been able to get hold of her. Maybe Gertie had been too busy and found the phone calls annoying and shut her phone off. Harper knew she was grasping at straws, Gertie would never shut her phone off. The line rang several times and voicemail picked up. She called two more times. Still no answer. She had a strange feeling about this, and it wasn’t a good one.

Harper knew whoever the saboteur was would definitely try to mess things up today, and that picture they'd left in her office proved they were creepy and wanted to scare people. She still had a strong suspicion it was Ben.

She turned towards the other end of the mill where the setup crew was. If Ben was there, which he should be, she wanted to see how he was acting. And if he wasn’t there, well she would go tell Logan her suspicions and they would need to find Ben. She didn’t really want to talk to Logan, but this was too important, she would swallow her pride if she had to.

She could see Noah as she approached the area, stacking chairs to be brought outside for the guests.

“Hi, Noah. Have you seen Ben around?” she asked him nonchalantly, not wanting him to sense any urgency.

“Yeah, he left a while ago.” Noah eyed her up and down. “He’s probably outside somewhere, I’ve been down here doing something for Gertie so don’t really know what he’s up to right now.”

“Gertie? You know where she is?” Harper felt some relief Gertie was back and had been down here ordering people around. She remembered in certain areas of the basement cell phone reception was spotty so that would explain why she and Veronica hadn’t been able to reach her when they'd tried. Now it all made sense!

“Sure, she’s right over there.”

Noah pointed towards one of the storage rooms that had been turned into a dressing room, and Harper hurried over to it.

“Gertie?” she called out as she knocked on the door, unsure why Gertie would be in the room with the door shut. She didn’t need to be dressed for the show for a few hours still.

She knocked again, trying the door handle as she did and opening the door slowly. She stepped inside the dark room and yelled out Gertie’s name again as she took a few steps inside, asking herself what the heck Gertie would be doing in a dark dressing room. The ceiling fan whirred high above her, making a whooshing sound in the otherwise quiet room. Gertie wasn’t in here. Noah must have been wrong about which room she'd gone into. Harper turned around to leave the room.

“Hey, Noah, she’s not—” Before she could finish her sentence, her head exploded in pain and everything faded to black.