I hoped she hadn’t suffered, maybe slipping away in her sleep. “Okay. I have time. Do you want me to come pick her up?”
Since Lake and Jamie had come home with us, we hadn’t had any guests. I’d been getting bids for renovations in the mortuary to begin after the first of the year. We still needed to repair the human-shaped drywall break from a scuffle with the dark side about a year ago. I wanted to update some of my equipment as well, but I still had everything in working order, so I could do one more funeral before the renovation began.
“I’ll bring her out to your place, but here’s the catch. She didn’t have life insurance to pay for her funeral and no surviving relatives. Right now, she’s an unclaimed body, but she has a final resting place at Quiet Haven, where her husband and twin daughters are buried, according to her neighbor. Do you think you could embalm and prepare her for burial as a courtesy? I know we hit you with these requests more than we’d like, but you’re a good soul. We might be able to get the county to chip in for expenses.”
“Save it for next time. It’s not that expensive to prepare her. Does she have clothes to be buried in, or should I order a shroud?” I currently didn’t have many on site. It would depend on her size whether I could accommodate the woman from existing stock.
“I’ll give the court-appointed administrator your information. I’ll bring her out tomorrow. Thanks, Keir. We appreciate your generosity.” Jonas and I said our goodbyes and hung up.
I went about doing a quick inventory to ensure I had what I needed for Mrs. Blount’s prep. I didn’t want to order anything right now because I’d just have to pack it up before the reno. I’d already put out calls to other funeral homes in the area that I’d worked with in the past to alert them we were closing on the fifteenth and wouldn’t be reopening until probably April. Thankfully, my husband had money from his brother’s estate to tide us over.
The door at the top of the stairs creaked open, but no one came down. I rose from my stool and went to the bottom of the stairwell to look up, seeing Jamie standing at the top, her mouth opening and closing with no sound forthcoming. “Hi, sweety. What’s going on?”
All she could do was point up. That was when I heard the smoke detector blaring from the apartment. Dash was at the store, so I raced up, two stairs at a time.
I handed Jamie my cell phone when I reached the top. “Take a deep breath, go outside, and call 9-1-1. I’ll get your mommy and come out in a second.”
Jamie ran through the funeral home as I hurried up the stairs to the apartment, seeing smoke everywhere, the smoke alarms continuing to blare. Why hadn’t my phone gone off in warning? The security system should have— Had Dash not engaged it when he’d left earlier?
Still, though, it should have notified me of a fire. I turned the knob at the top of the stairs, but the door was locked. I pulled my keys out of the pocket of my scrubs and tried to find the right key, but my hands were shaking so badly I couldn’t get it into the lock. I didn’t remember locking the door when I’d gone downstairs that morning.
“No, I couldn’t have. Jamie came down through here, right?”
“Keir, Lake’s inside. Hurry.” It sounded like Jo’s voice, but I couldn’t see them anywhere.
I put my shoulder forward and crashed against the door, only for it not to budge. Of course, my muscular husband wasn’t around when I needed his brute strength. Finally, on the third thrust of my shoulder against the door, it gave way and popped open.
Smoke had engulfed the top floor, so I wasted no time. I hurried to check the bedrooms, unsure where or how the fire had started, just that it was getting worse by the moment.
When I got to the galley kitchen, Lake was on the floor and a skillet on the stove was blazing. The fire had spread to the range hood and along the cabinets and counter.
I didn’t waste any time trying to find the extinguisher. I crawled into the room and touched Lake’s throat, praying I felt her heartbeat. It was fast, but it was there, and I had a moment of relief before I formed a plan of action.
The bite of the fire against my cheek and neck as it ate up the bottom cabinets next to the stove was doing painful damage, but I wasn’t giving up. I would get Lake out of this damn fire if it cost me my life.
Since I couldn’t stand and risk being overcome with smoke, I grasped Lake’s ankles and dragged her with me away from the stove and into the dining room, where I could gather her in my arms and get the two of us out of there. We were headed toward the stairs to the funeral home when a huge explosion from somewhere below knocked me on my ass.
What in hell was happening, and would the two—three—of us survive?
Chapter Twelve
Dash
I stopped at The Mystical Palm to say hi to Trent and Amelie, who had just returned from their honeymoon in Japan. I was unusually anxious to hear all about their trip. I parked behind the shop and walked around to the front door, heading inside.
Amelie was behind the counter with a large cardboard box on a chair beside her. “Welcome to The Myst—Dash! Hello!”
My friend came around the glass counter and hugged me tight. It was good to have her back. Without any funerals at Dearly & Son, she hadn’t been coming to work, so we hadn’t seen Amelie or Trent since their wedding.
“How was Japan?” I knew that question would get her going. I wouldn’t have to say another word for probably an hour.
Amelie whipped her phone out of her pocket as fast as an old west gunslinger in a dusty street at high noon. Before I could take a breath, the slideshow began.
I was never one to get excited about someone else’s vacation, but this time I was enjoying the play-by-play of their trip. The pictures of Mt. Fuji from the balcony of their hotel room were amazing.
Once I got the lowdown on all their vacation fun, I checked the time on my phone. It was almost noon, and I needed to head home. I still had to stop by the store and pick up some things from the list Keir was supposed to send me but hadn’t. I decided to call after I talked to Trent.
“Where’s your husband?”
