Ali directed the officers to the barn and showed them what happened inside the barn, highlighting the damaged table and items beside the wrecked light switch.

All the while Mr. Harper listened in the background while looking around the building and taking notes.

At this point Ali still wasn't quite sure what she thought about him but with the situation as it is, having help was always a good thing.

While she finished explaining what happened from her perspective the firemen arrived at the house.

Ali found herself retelling what happened again to the firemen as Mr. Harper walked off twoard the farmhouse while waving at Mary Tipton in the doorway, Ali also pointed out the blown up object under what was left of the light switch.

At that point the police officers wanted to talk to Bryan while the firemen got on their radio to call for a fire Marshal to come investogate the wreckage left in the barn.

This was fine with Ali as it left her time to find out why Will Harper was snooping around unexpected places of her farm after arriving with the other police officers.

When Ali finally found him, he was just coming out of the farmhouse holding a steaming cup of tea and holding a few of Mary's scones which were all but dripping with butter and jam.

"Miss Thornhill", Will said smiling after noticing Ali's presence, his mouth filled with a big bite of scone, "again i must apologise for the intrusion, especially with what has just occurred, but when we received the call it became a bit of a shock that we'd be meeting again so soon."

Ali barely heard anything as she realized she still hadn't had breakfast yet.

"You'll have to excuse me, I'm famished and a bit knackered from all this, please give me a moment to get my feet down and I'll be back with you." Ali said excusing herself as she passed him on her way to the kitchen to have her breakfast warmed up.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

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Ali ate her full English breakfast with joy and a savagery that she didn't know she had, which included three extra pieces of toast.

No one had bothered her for the whole meal. Not even Bryan.

Something was wrong.

Ali reluctantly got up and stretched out for a moment to get back her balance, she then proceed outside to where it looked like the police and the firemen had doubled. Some of the people were going in and out of the barn.

Ali watched as warning tape was erected all around the front of the barn. She no longer had any doubt that what she saw when she blacked out had really happened.

It was one thing waking up to find something horrible had happened that you couldn't prove and another to have people actually looking into something that was a waking dream just a few hours ago. The warning tape blowing in the wind made it real, far too real.

"Hey Ali, me dad always said that if dung rains down it still means you got fertilizer." Mary said walking to Ali's side "Bryan moving the crates means they're not part of that mess and we just sold all our stock to the inns and bars in the area."

"Shawn went to old man Williams's with the tractor to start on the fields early while things are shut here." Mary said before raising her hand to stop Ali's response. "I know you want to wait until the bank gives us the okay but it's just busy work that will save us trouble in the long run."

Old man Williams's farm was next to hers but with most of his family gone from the area he and his wife were looking at houses in Spain or tropical places like Barbados to retire.

Ali and the other neighbors got first notice and after haggling over the price it would put her further in the hole but with a bigger shovel to dig out with. At least if the bank gave her the loan.

Things were moving forward, so both Ali and Mary watched what was happening in and around the barn for a bit longer before getting back to work.

The other bit of news that Mary had told her was that the mechanic had called and the delivery van which was painted to look like the mystery machine passed it's evaluation and was good until next year so Bryan had gone to collect it.

Ali finally thought the day was turning around when she suddenly got a knock at the door.

It was Will Harper, she felt good enough to talk to him now and she went out to meet him.

"Miss Thornhill, I have news about what happened this morning." He said with a grave face.

"What happened in your barn wasn't an accident or a prank miss, you were targeted by the arsonist the media have been calling 'firebomber'."