Chapter V

It was as if some bond had snapped between them. They continued their investigation together, but gone was the camaraderie replaced by a dull absence. Anna felt as though her heart wasn’t in it anymore. She no longer cared about the toaster oven, the office had a new one anyway and there had been no further incidents. They no longer looked each other in the eyes, Anna risked only sideways glances at him and Sean’s eyes always seemed to be directed at something else. She noticed that Sean and Connie left together; he had ruled her out of the investigation based on the fingerprints found on the oven. In fact, they had ruled out almost everyone in the office. Everyone’s fingerprints were on the toaster and there was no conclusive way of determining which hand had perpetrated the mysterious crimes. Their investigation gradually ground to a halt with them meeting less and less frequently.

Anna found herself seeking out a new friend in Steve. Despite his imposing figure he radiated a calm and reassuring presence, they began having lunches together, then dinners, and finally breakfasts. Anna could never have imagined an outcome like her dating Steve, but he had an absurd fascination with her. She ordered him around imperiously and he complied like a docile lamb, a grateful lamb at that. She was unsure if she was actually happy, but hadn’t her life always been like that? Her silent dinners with Steve, he rarely spoke unless to answer some question of hers, left her at peace. She almost forgot what staring into Sean’s eyes felt like.

However, Steve’s calm demeanor could not completely quench the fire of the toaster mystery. Since Sean seemed uninterested she continued her investigations alone. She once thought about including Steve, but the idea was abhorrent to her. She couldn’t say why. She would plan surprise stakeouts of the kitchen, telling Steve she had to work late to try and surprise the criminal. She came into the kitchen at odd times during the day trying to catch someone at something, anything. Her obsession with the mystery deepened and grew until she barely noticed her surroundings. She didn’t notice that Mary and Sheila had grown cool to her, though always so talkative they no longer spoke to her. She stopped noticing that her boss Jerry was becoming increasingly dissatisfied with her work, especially since the matter of Mr.Brisnell was as yet unresolved. For a time she even stopped noticing Sean and Connie. She stopped noticing that he was almost always at her desk. She stopped noticing that they ate lunch together, that they couldn’t stand not to be around each other. She stopped noticing Steve too, which may have been why events began to spiral out of her control, if she had ever been controlling anything in the first place.

It was a normal day at the office for Anna. She pretended to work at her desk, when really she was listening for even the tiniest sound from the kitchen. She planned to go in at quarter past as part of her random searches. The smell of toast had almost faded from the office, and on this particular day after weeks of waiting Anna began to lose hope. She began to think this mystery would never be solved. As she turned to her computer to actually do some real work she smelled it. Burning toast. She practically overturned her desk to get to the kitchen. She wasn’t prepared for the sight that greeted her. The toaster oven wasn’t exactly broken, but it was overturned on the floor. It wobbled slightly from a large dent in its side. The body of Sheila Tompkins lay at an angle facing toward it. Her head pointed in its direction as if to accuse it. Blood flowed toward Anna, two pieces of toast floating toward her. She stared down at her shoes, the two slices bounced against her toes and then moved backward as if carried by some unknown current.

Anna screamed.