After her chat with Sarah, Harper grabbed her things and again made her way down to the lobby. Myrtle was seated at the receptionist desk, as usual. A sneaky smile crept across her face seeing Harper approach. Wait a minute, she knew that look …

Myrtle’s mischievous eyes drifted over Harper’s shoulder and she whipped around to see Logan walking up behind her. Was he following her or something? Had he overheard her conversation with Ben and the others earlier, or possibly seen her in the storage room that had the lights in it? Why did he always seem to show up in the same place right after her? Shouldn’t he be doing computer things? He was the IT guy, after all.

He continued to walk past them simply nodding his head instead of saying hello, then disappeared down the hallway.

“Well, it looks like you have a stalker!” Myrtle said in a singsong voice.

“Huh?” Harper asked, confused. Could Myrtle read her mind?

“Logan. Was he following you or something? First this morning and then now. And you did see how he looked at you, right?” Myrtle waggled her eyebrows up and down with a grin on her face.

“Yeah, right. Time to get your glasses checked.” Harper shook her head. If anything, he was looking at her with suspicion.

“Well, I still think you two would make a cute couple.” Myrtle tilted her head to the side, causing her spikey hair to sway to one side.

“I don’t want to be a couple with anyone, Myrtle. Really. I am fine being alone, with no one to bug me.” Or to lie to me and break my heart.

“Now, now dear, be careful what you wish for! I can sense you’ve been hurt, and I know how that feels, but you know the saying, when you fall off the horse you have to get back in the saddle! Besides, you’re much too young to be so jaded about love. Save that for when you’re ancient, like me.”

“You should listen to her, honey, you deserve someone nice.”

Harper spun around to see her Uncle Tanner walking towards her, holding a gigantic white and turquoise glass vase stuffed full of flowers. The arrangement was stunning, a mix of vibrant oranges, purples, and yellows, all nestled among greens and baby’s breath. As Tanner came closer, Harper could smell the floral scent and see there were also lilac-colored roses scattered throughout the arrangement.

“Oh my, what beautiful flowers, Tanner!” Myrtle exclaimed. “You’re here to see Gertie, I assume?”

“Yes, I am, and I hope she thinks these are just as beautiful as you do.” Tanner winked at Myrtle as he held the giant vase up.

The front door opened again, and Edward came walking in, his smile quickly turning into a scowl when he saw Tanner holding the giant flower arrangement.

“You! What are you doing here?” he demanded of Tanner.

“I brought Gertie flowers to wish her good luck with the show on Friday, not that it’s any of your business.” Tanner held the vase higher for Edward to see, as if he couldn’t already.

“Oh please. I am quite sure Gertie does not want your gaudy flowers.” Edward rolled his eyes.

“Let’s let Gertie decide that, not you,” Tanner said.

“That monstrosity looks far too heavy for you to carry, I’ll take it up to her.” Edward reached for the vase and grabbed it towards the bottom, trying to yank it away from Tanner’s grip.

“Hands off! I will take it to her!” Tanner yelled, his knuckles turning white as he tightened his grip and pulled the arrangement back towards him.

“Boys, boys! No fighting! Jeez! I will bring the flowers up to Gertie myself for crying out loud!” Myrtle had come out from behind her reception desk and grabbed the arrangement, setting the vase on her desk then turning around to face them both, giving them an over-the-glasses stare.

“Now, is there anything else, Eddie? Tanny?” she asked them, hands on her hips and eyebrows raised.

Harper knew that look meant both Edward and Tanner had better not say yes.

Edward’s face was red with fury. He opened his mouth to say something then snapped it shut again.

“No, thank you very much, Myrtle. I’m sure Gertie is very busy,” Tanner said, earning a pointed glare from Edward.

Edward immediately grabbed his phone, placed it to his ear and rushed out of the lobby door like the building was on fire.

Harper and Myrtle exchanged a look Harper knew meant “men.” Tanner turned and walked towards the door after Edward, saying goodbye to them over his shoulder.

Harper was smiling at their foolish shenanigans, but her smile quickly faded as she gazed over at the abundant arrangement. Flowers to wish Gertie good luck with the fashion show on Friday. It was now past five o’clock and she only had three days left to prove Logan was the culprit, or if he isn’t, to figure out who is. She had a lot of thinking to do and it was best done at home in her lonely apartment where she wouldn’t be interrupted.

“Hey, Uncle Tanner! Wait up, I’ll walk out with you.”

Logan walked back through the lobby, glancing outside to see Harper leaving with Tanner. Hmm, that was interesting.

That Tanner was her uncle, and he’d tried to ruin things for Gertie before, didn’t sit well. Sure, Tanner made things right in the end, and, according to him, Harper had not been involved, but it gave one pause.

Could Harper and Tanner possibly be trying to work together to destroy the fashion show? Maybe, what happened at the reception had been practice runs, and a way for them both to feel things out here, before they did something big. He needed more details on exactly what happened at the last event, specifically, what Tanner had done to try to ruin the wedding reception.

While he was at it, he also needed to find out what Harper had been doing down in the basement earlier. She'd briefly gone into the room that held the lights for the show again, and he'd also seen her talking to Ben, Noah, and George.

The giant vase of flowers sitting on top of the reception desk broke his thoughts, and he stopped to look at them, rising on his tiptoes to peek over at Myrtle, who was sitting down behind them.

“This is quite the flower arrangement.” He reached out and touched one of the vibrant orange lilies. “You must have an admirer.”

Myrtle laughed. “Ha! It’s not for me. You could help me out by delivering it to Gertie though, I’m pretty busy with these new invitations.” Myrtle barely looked up, her polished nails clacking away on the keyboard.

“Of course I will.” Logan reached out to grab the heavy vase.

The lobby door opened, and a delivery person walked in, holding another humungous vase filled with flowers, this one even bigger than the one Tanner had brought in.

“Gertie O’Rourke?” The delivery man raised a brow at them as he placed the flowers on Myrtle’s desk, making a thud then wiping his brow.

“Yes, I’ll take them. Thank you.” Myrtle reached out for the card nestled inside the flowers and nodded her head grinning.

“Yup, just as I thought, from Edward. He called the florist when he was rushing out of here, to order flowers that would outdo Tanner’s arrangement. There’s no flies on him, that’s for sure.”

“Oh, so that arrangement is from Tanner?” Logan pointed to the other arrangement.

If Tanner had come here to drop off the flowers for Gertie then maybe he wasn’t trying to plan something bad with Harper at all, Logan thought with relief. Then his cop instincts kicked in. Maybe the flowers were part of Tanner’s plan.

“Yes. That one is from Tanner, now this one is from Edward, and the overwhelming floral scent is starting to make my head spin and my allergies flare up!” Myrtle stifled a sneeze, the motion causing her red, purple, and silver beaded eyeglass chain to clatter.

“I’ll take them both upstairs to Gertie for you.” Logan tried to maneuver the giant arrangements in both arms as he shuffled towards the elevator, tilting his head to the side so he could see the buttons for the elevator.

“Whoa, need some help there?” someone asked him from behind.

The flowers were so high Logan struggled to see around them, but he knew the voice was TJ, and he was more than happy when TJ grabbed the larger of the arrangements from him as they both stepped into the elevator.

“Thanks for the help.” Logan pressed the button for Gertie’s floor.

“No problem. These are probably the biggest flower arrangements I’ve ever seen,” TJ said, laughing as he parted a few of the flowers with his hand so he could see Logan. “What’s the special occasion?”

“Yeah, they are huge. One is from Edward and the other is from Tanner, wishing Gertie good luck for the show this week.”

“Wow. Looks like Gertie has quite the fan club,” TJ said.

“Those two definitely seem to like her, especially Tanner. Speaking of which, can I ask you something? About Tanner, I mean. I heard a rumor he tried to sabotage Gertie’s last event, do you know anything about what happened?” Logan asked TJ casually, brushing some baby’s breath out of his face.

The elevator came to a stop and the doors opened. TJ stepped out into the hallway, then used his shoulder to hold the elevator door from sliding shut so Logan could get out.

“Let’s drop these monstrosities off at Gertie’s then I can fill you in in my office,” TJ said, the two of them walking down the hall.

Gertie’s office door was open so they both walked in and looked around. She wasn’t there.

“Should we just leave them on the conference table?” Logan asked, already setting his down on the large crystal clear glass table, the vase making a clinking sound as he did. TJ did the same.

They walked down to TJ’s office, both taking a seat at the small round meeting table inside.

Just as Logan was about to speak TJ’s office phone rang, and he excused himself to answer it.

Logan watched him briefly as he spoke and could tell he must be speaking to Veronica, simply based on his sappy smile and the way he relaxed his shoulders as he spoke quietly into the phone. After a few minutes TJ came back to the table.

“Sorry, that was Veronica.”

Logan nodded his head in acknowledgement and didn’t say anything. His last girlfriend hadn’t worked out well for him. They'd also worked together like TJ and Veronica. They'd been partners. She'd been a risk taker and had always kept him on his toes at work. Then one day things had gone bad, real bad. She'd been shot during a robbery and that had changed everything for him. He hadn’t been able to protect her, and the guilt had ended up killing their relationship. Heck, it had killed his career, too. He ended up quitting the force over it eventually.

“So, you wanted to know something about Tanner?” TJ’s voice pulled him out of his thoughts.

“Yeah, if you don’t mind. I heard some rumors about him messing around with the wedding reception and I wanted to hear the story from someone who might really know what went on. You were working here when it happened, right?” Logan asked, hoping TJ would spill the beans.

“Yes, I was working here. There were a few things Tanner messed around with that I heard about. First, he had the wedding gown made way too small, then he had the cake topper which was custom-made ruined, and then he tried screwing around with the tent poles.”

“Tent poles?” Logan asked, not sure what TJ was talking about.

“Yeah. We used one of those huge tents set up outside, you know one of those big white ones. And Tanner tried to swap out the good poles for bad ones, which would have caused the tent to collapse. You know Gertie, she’s kept everything that came with this place as well as any inventory lots she bought. So, there’s some junk included, and she never wants to throw anything away, it’s always donate, donate, donate. So, the old poles were supposed to be donated or something eventually.”

Logan laughed. Gertie was known for making sure every little thing was used and never wasted.

“But, how did he get away with these things if he wasn’t working here, then?” Logan asked, trying to put the pieces of this sabotage puzzle together.

“I’m not sure about that. He wasn’t working here, you’re right, but I guess he could have snuck in or something?”

“Was Harper working here then? Do you think she was maybe doing it for Tanner?”

“Yeah, she was working here, and there actually was a rumor she was involved, but at the end of it all Tanner confessed, and he said Harper didn’t know anything about any of it. He actually made things good, he fixed the tent poles, and the reception was a huge success. Everyone was happy.”

Logan mulled over what TJ was telling him.

“Harper doesn’t exactly fit the bill when it comes to someone who would sabotage things, does she? She’s always pretty helpful as well as being kind of on the quiet side,” TJ said.

Logan thought the same about Harper but knew better than to eliminate someone as a suspect just because they seemed nice. Or looked good, like she did. He still couldn’t cross Harper off his list, even though he basically felt the same way TJ did.

“No, I was just curious. I don’t even know what someone could do to try to ruin a fashion show anyway,” Logan replied, shrugging.

“I guess the worst thing someone could do would be during the actual show so that the press and everyone would see and ruin Gertie’s reputation. Now that I think about it, whoever tried to ruin the wedding could still be here. They could have been doing things all along, exclusive of what Tanner was trying to do. Someone moved luminaries around at the wedding reception, and they could have set the tent on fire. But I know that wasn’t Tanner.”

“Hmm.” Logan pieced some of the puzzle together as he spoke. “So, basically Tanner caused some issues, but none of them were anything that could have hurt or killed anyone. Well, the tent pole thing, yes, but that’s when he stopped and ‘fessed up and fixed it from what you’ve said. So, in theory this person has been working here since Gertie opened the place.”

“When you put it like that, yeah, I guess so,” TJ replied.

“And you’re positive Tanner didn’t move those luminaries at the reception?” Logan asked.

“If Tanner moved the luminaries, then he would have wanted to die in the fire they would have caused. So, yes, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t Tanner. Unless he wanted to die in the fire himself.”