Page 74 of All I Feel

I twisted my neck to look at the men, and when they had my attention, the guy who wasn’t the officer asked, “When was the last time you cooked?”

A crease formed between my brows. “Pardon?”

“Did you use your stove this morning for breakfast?”

I shook my head. “No. I popped a bagel in the toaster.”

“And you live alone?”

That question came from the officer. “Yes.”

Ace, whose body I noticed had tensed with each question I’d been asked, interrupted. “Can you explain what was found?”

“Miss…”

“It’s Tessa,” I said to the guy from the gas company.

He jerked his chin down. “Right. Well, Tessa, I’ve got both good news and bad news. The good news is that it doesn’t appear there’s a dangerous gas leak that went undetected.”

“And the bad news?” Ace pressed.

“The stove was on. The burner wasn’t completely on,but enough that it was dispelling gas into the home.” He sighed. “Did you think about cooking this morning before making a last-minute decision to use the toaster instead?”

Shaking my head, I explained, “My best friend was on her way to pick me up, so we could go shopping. Cooking anything on the stove this morning didn’t cross my mind. I never even went near it.”

“Tessa?” Ace called as he gave me a squeeze.

“Yeah?”

“Does Hastings have a key to your place?”

I hated that Ace’s mind went there immediately, especially after what had just happened with my car at the end of last week. “No. No, he doesn’t.”

“Who’s Hastings?” Another question from the officer.

“My ex.”

“They broke up about a month ago,” Ace added. “And he hasn’t exactly been thrilled about it.”

Curiosity turned to alarm on the officer’s expression. “Has he threatened you?”

“Beyond telling me that he intends to win me back after cheating on me with his ex for the last six months of our relationship, no. He was a horrible boyfriend, but he was never violent with me.”

“So, with no signs of forced entry here, perhaps this was a simple oversight. Maybe you nudged the knob on the stove before you left and didn’t realize it.”

“Someone ran her off the road on Friday,” Ace shared. Both men were stunned by this bit of news. “We assumed it was a random road rage incident, but now I’m not so sure.”

“Was a report filed?”

“Yes.”

The officer considered what to do, his eyes scanning thearea. “I can see what we can do to put a man on looking into your ex, if you think this is something he might’ve done. But I can’t make any promises that we’re going to figure anything out.”

I parted my lips to respond, but Ace said, “Family friends own Cunningham Security. I’ll talk to them about doing some private investigation work.”

Tension eased out of the officer’s shoulders. “We’ve got limited resources in this town, so without any concrete evidence that this was intentionally done, it’s difficult to allocate time to what could wind up being just a mistake on Tessa’s part.” His eyes met mine. “I’m not suggesting you did anything wrong, Tessa. In fact, it’s good you took the steps that you did when you went inside and realized something wasn’t right. We’ll still write up a report, so there’s a record of this.”

Jerking my chin down in understanding, I said, “Thank you.”