Seeing the Light (A Marie Jenner Mystery Book 1) by E. C. Bell

fingers seemed to be in the right places, which was a good sign.
    “Are you sure you should go back to work?”
    “Yes. I want to figure out what happened down there. A water spigot shouldn’t blow apart like that.” He shook his head, then glanced over at me. “Thanks, again. That was fast thinking on your part.”
    “If I’d thought a little bit faster, I could’ve convinced someone in the building to give us a ride there—and back.” I tried to laugh, and almost succeeded. “But any UPS van in a storm, I guess.”
    “I guess.” James stared out the side window, then glanced over at me again. “Listen, I’d like to thank you properly. How about supper? Tonight, maybe?”
    All right, so he was cute, and I liked sharing a sandwich with him out in front of the building and all that, but there was no way in the world I was dating the guy. There was no dating in my future. I slapped my “let’s be friends” smile on my face. “No can do. Sorry.”
    “Oh.” James looked disappointed. “Tomorrow night?”
    “Nope.”
    “The weekend?”
    He wasn’t taking the hint, so I decided to put him out of his misery, quickly. “I think it’d be better if we don’t go out on a date.”
    “Oh.” James looked positively wretched. “I wanted to thank you. What if we didn’t call it a date? Just a supper? Two colleagues out for—”
    He was making this very difficult, and I sighed. “Maybe. Sometime. Not this week, though.”
    “All right.” The smile was back on his face, and I felt like kicking myself. I’m supposed to be strong about stuff like this. Then, I really thought about what he’d said about the spigot.
    “James, do you think I could see the spigot? The one that cut you?”
    “Sure. Why?”
    “Oh, I’m interested. Remember Farley Hewitt, the guy who died down there? Maybe the spigot had something to do with his death.”
    “Doing a little sleuthing?” He grinned.
    “Maybe a little.” I grinned back. I couldn’t help it. His smile was infectious. “So, what do you think?”
    “I’ll get it for you when we get back.”
    The silence between us was comfortable. I glanced over at his handsome profile and wished, for a small moment, that I could bend the no dating rule. It could have been fun—but I wasn’t willing to take the chance.
    The cab pulled up to the Palais and we got out, walking into the main foyer.
    “Give me a minute,” he said, and disappeared through the door to the furnace room. He was back in moments, his good arm wet to the elbow. He held a shard of the spigot in his hand.
    “Watch it. It’s sharp.”
    “Thanks.” I carefully took the piece of metal, and tucked it in my sweater pocket. “Are you going to be all right?”
    “Yes.” He looked embarrassed. “It was the blood.”
    “I know how it is. I lose it over spiders.” I grinned at the look of relief that flooded his face.
    “Really?”
    “Yeah, really. I act like a real girl, screaming, the whole bit.”
    “I have trouble seeing that.”
    “Well, it’s the truth.” I pointed to the elevator. “I have to get back to work. Thanks for the cab ride.”
    “You’re welcome. When we can talk about that supper?”
    “Next week.” As I turned away, I tried not to sigh. I’d deal with it when Farley had moved on, and I felt stronger.
    “Good.”
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

Marie: The Hero, Back at the Office
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Mr. Latterson and Farley were both waiting for me when I walked into the office.
    “You do know you only have a half hour for lunch,” Latterson started.
    “Just tell me you left the idiot at the hospital,” Farley growled at the same time.
    I didn’t know who to look at. Decided to deal with the living first, and turned to Mr. Latterson. “There was an accident, in the furnace room,” I said. “James—you know James?”
    He shrugged, but didn’t stop me.
    “James Lavall, the caretaker for the building. He cut his hand, and the furnace room