Briana left their house and drove the short distance back to her apartment. Walking in the front door she was surprised to find a package inside her apartment until she remembered Pete Davis, her next-door neighbor. He probably put it in there for her. Pete was a friend of the first order. He didn't ask questions, didn't judge anything you did or said and would help you, if asked, without complaint.

Briana met him when she first moved in but didn't say too much at the time so it came as a big shock when, two months later, another opportunity to talk to him in the hallway arose and he revealed he was from Wales and a photographer. Their friendship grown slowly but steadily and Briana thoroughly enjoyed their occasional lunch and talk together. She poured her thoughts and feelings out to him and trusted him more than any other man in quite awhile. He was also incredibly attractive. His rugged smile, Celtic eyes as black as night and shaggy hair and beard hid a passion that made for some very interesting dreams when her libido needed an outlet. But he never so much as made a move to hold her hand. Their friendship was one of the reasons Briana liked living here, in spite of her family's objections.

After dropping her coat on the couch, Briana stooped to pick up the package and was surprised to find it so heavy. It wasn't big but it took some real effort to get it to the countertop. Grabbing a short knife from the rack, she slit the brown paper and peeled the top off the box.

The first thing that came to mind was, What kind of sick mind would think this was a funny joke?

Until her brain finally started functioning enough to absorb the fact that what lay in the bottom of the box was real. Her tongue froze to the top of her mouth in reaction.

How in the world do I explain this to the kids?

"What a stupid thing to think of now," Briana muttered to herself, shocked she could actually speak.

In what seemed slow motion, she reached for the phone and dialed 911. When the operator came on Briana calmly told the woman that a box in her apartment contained a human body part. Without waiting for the woman to respond, Briana hung the phone up, collapsed into a chair and waited for the police to show up.