FICTION
Harriet Otis Regrets She’s Unable to Lunch Today
The untold tale about the Mudwater incident
As soon as Harriet entered the building, she headed to the seventh floor. She used a trashcan from the corridor to block the elevator from going down and checked her handbag for the keys. The emergency door next to the elevator opened outwards and would need something like a rope or a chain, but seven floors through narrow stairs would take them a while, so Harriet ignored it, unlocked the door to the office, and went inside. She’d already prepared a chair she knew would fit under the door handle, so she locked it, bolted it with the chair, and checked the time.
The police would need eight to nine minutes to get here. But, they still wouldn’t do anything until the area is secured, which is easily an extra fifteen minutes, maybe more. That would give her at least twenty minutes before anyone even attempted to break through the front door, which was more than enough.
The combination to the safe was the area code to Mr. Basque’s summer house. He was simple in those matters. As most men in his position who’re vain enough to be paranoid but daft enough to believe they are smart. In his world, Harriet and her peers were the untouchables, those who obediently stayed on the other side of his invisible borders…
