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“I guess—” His brow furrowed.
“What?”
“She always finishes it. Every day. And she seemed surprised to find a half in her purse.”
Heidi didn’t like where this was going. “Do people know what brand or what flavor she likes? And would it be possible for someone to get access to her purse?”
Blake groaned. “Two weeks ago.”
“What happened two weeks ago?”
“One of the guys has a granddaughter with a peanut allergy and he asked Caroline about her granola bars during a shift-change meeting. I only remember it because she borrowed my phone and pulled up the website she orders from to show him. They were talking about the brand, which flavors she likes, stuff like that.”
His Adam’s apple bobbed. “Mark was there.”
Heidi closed her eyes and tried to pull the events of the past thirty-six hours together. “Pure speculation here, but let’s run with it. Markos buys one of Caroline’s favorite flavors, opens the package, breaks off half and then, what? Puts peanuts in it? Wouldn’t she have noticed?”
Heidi pictured the scene in the elevator. The conversation, Caroline looking through her purse, finding the granola bar. Heidi continued to reason, “No, not tonight. She didn’t even look. She pulled the wrapper back an inch and took a bite. But he couldn’t have known she wouldn’t look at it. If he wanted to be sure she wouldn’t notice, he would have used something fine—peanut dust, tiny flecks of peanut, maybe he even used peanut oil, and dipped the granola bar in it and then slid it back in the wrapper. Would she react to an amount that small?”
Blake nodded. “It would be enough. She’s so sensitive to peanuts that we can’t eat in a restaurant with peanuts on the table or shells on the floor. The oils in the air will make her face tingle.”
“So he contaminates a bar and puts it in her purse? How did it get in her purse? Does she leave it out at work?”
He grimaced and nodded again. “We’ve never had a problem with theft. She leaves her purse in her office most of the time. Sometimes she brings it with her to the shift-change meeting if she’s leaving for an appointment or something.”
“What kind of appointments?”
“Any kind.”
“Personal or professional?”
“Either. Caroline is our Chief Financial Officer. The way our organization is structured, the sales and accounting staff all report to her. So she could be meeting with anyone from the people who service our printers to the clients who buy our finished product. Or she could have a dentist appointment. She doesn’t have a standing appointment on any one day, if that’s what you’re asking. Every day is different.”
“So maybe she brought her purse to a shift-change meeting and he slipped the contaminated bar in there?”
Would Caroline have noticed? Heidi didn’t know. She had to remind herself that the average American didn’t walk around assuming people were trying to kill them. An extra half of a granola bar wouldn’t look like a weapon. It would look like a snack.
“Did she leave early any day this week?”
Blake leaned back and rubbed his neck. “Maybe? I can’t remember.”
Heidi didn’t push him. Sometimes memories eluded people when they were stressed or fatigued, and Blake Harrison was both.
“Thursday,” Blake said after a few moments.
“What happened Thursday?”
“She had a hair appointment. I remember because I was annoyed that she was leaving.” He shook his head and Heidi could see the remorse on his face.
“Hey, don’t beat yourself up.”
“I need to tell her I’m sorry.”
Heidi didn’t know what to make of this guy. Smart. Strong. Stubborn. And a sensitive family guy? She’d always thought guys like this were an urban legend. Or a fairy tale.
Not that it mattered. She didn’t have time for fairy tales.
“You can apologize later. I think for now, we need to focus on why on earth someone is trying to take out your family. Because there’s a strong possibility that whoever put the granola bar in her purse also took her EpiPen. If that’s true, then we’ve got a bigger problem than we thought.”
“Which is?”
“They weren’t trying to scare her or distract her. They were trying to kill her.”
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