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Nothing.
She was out of it.
It was safe to remove the ties and duct tape.
After tossing the gift wrap into the trash, I quickly dispensed with the restraints.
Now to finish up and get out.
I zipped the top of my gym bag, picked it up, and set the candle, on its side, in the waste can.
For a moment, the flame flickered. Then the paper caught fire as the hand sanitizer did its job. I also held the lighter to the edge of the comforter until flames began to lick along the saturation line.
Before I was finished with that task, the table drape was ablaze.
Excellent.
Everything would progress fast now, thanks to the open window, the wood and upholstered furniture, and the other combustibles in this room. But on my way out, I stopped to open the door of the double closet to help accelerate the carnage. Fabric also burned well.
Aww. She’d kept all her husband’s clothes.
How sweet.
But he didn’t need them. And soon, she wouldn’t need hers, either.
I exited the bedroom, closed the door, jogged down the hall, and slipped out the back door, into the darkness.
No one had seen me come. No one would see me go.
Gym bag gripped in my hand, I edged along the shadows at the back of the house and peeked around the corner.
The street was deserted.
Not surprising. Most people didn’t hang around outside after dark in late April. Even on balmy days, temperaturestended to dip once the sun set. And this was a quiet neighborhood, anyway, based on the drive-throughs I’d done in preparation for tonight.
Besides, it would be difficult to spot smoke seeping from the house in the darkness, should anyone pass by or look out the window of an adjacent home.
And once the flames were visible, it would be too late.
At the corner of the property, I paused to give the small contemporary structure a final once-over. Nothing appeared to be amiss—yet. The bedroom was in the back, overlooking the shrub-enclosed yard. No one would be able to see the glow behind the blinds.
The location of the room couldn’t have been better.
I started forward again, heading toward my car in the parking lot of the neighborhood quick shop less than three short blocks away.
It was a shame I couldn’t hang around to enjoy the show, though. There was nothing like a fire to juice a person’s adrenaline.
But successfully pulling off a risky job produced its own high.
At the street corner, I glanced back.
Still no external sign of the blaze, but at this point it would be raging inside the bedroom. It wasn’t necessary to wait for visible confirmation of the inferno.
I knew how to set fires.
Smiling, I turned my back on the house and picked up my pace. This one had gone like clockwork, as had the others. It was time to enjoy the moment. Bask in the exhilaration.
And think about the final release to come, when the purge would be complete.
