Eden took a couple of deep breaths using the oxygen mask the paramedics provided. Her thigh ached where she’d gotten the epinephrine injection, but she ignored the pain. Max’s quick thinking, the way he’d instantly understood what needed to be done, had saved her life.
God had been watching out for her.
“Your heart rate is still very fast,” the paramedic with an ID tag indicating his name was Weston said. “We need to get you to the closest emergency department to be evaluated.”
She moved the face mask to the side so she could speak. “My pulse is up because epinephrine is a stimulant. As soon as the medication wears off, I’ll be fine.”
Weston scowled. “Maybe, but we still need to take you in.”
She shook her head, took one last deep breath of oxygen, then handed him the mask. “I’ve been through this before, and promise I’ll be fine.”
“You’ll have to sign a waiver,” the second paramedic said. She couldn’t see his name. “And make sure you read the risks of not going in to be evaluated, including the possibility of death.”
“I know the risks, but as I said, this isn’t my first allergic reaction. And I only took a small bite of my salad.” She took the clipboard from the paramedic’s hand and signed the waiver. “Thanks for coming.”
The two paramedics looked at each other, shrugged and packed their equipment up onto the gurney.
Eden sat next to Sam, watching as Max spoke to one diner customer after another in an attempt to understand what had happened. There were several cops there from other precincts who joined in. From what she could overhear, the answers weren’t helpful.
No one saw anyone doing anything near her salad.
Joe Best, former cop and owner of the diner, limped over, his brow deeply furrowed with concern. They all knew that Joe had been seriously injured on the job, forcing him into early retirement. He opened the diner after. “Officer Santelli? I just heard what happened.”
Max shook hands with Joe, then gestured to her. “You remember our technical specialist, Eden Chang. Someone doused her salad with peanut oil in a deliberate attempt to harm her. She’s allergic. I’d like to interview your kitchen crew.”
“Of course.” Joe stepped back. “You know I’ll always cooperate with the police.”
Eden slid off her stool, her legs still a bit shaky. Max told Sam to stay. She followed Max into the kitchen, unwilling to be left out of the investigation.
The interviews didn’t take long. Each of the kitchen staff adamantly denied having anything to do with the peanut oil incident and based on the fact that Joe was a former cop and would vet his employees carefully, she was inclined to believe them. After taking each staff member’s name and phone number, Max searched the kitchen for the source of the peanut oil.
There was nothing to find. No bottle of peanut oil lying around that might be used by mistake. Even the peanut-butter-cup ice cream came prepackaged and was not likely to be a cross-contaminant.
“We need to get back to the precinct,” Eden said as Max tucked his notebook into the pocket of his uniform. “We might find something on the cameras surrounding the building.”
Max nodded. “Okay, fine. But you’d better be prepared to answer to Gavin about refusing to go to the ER.”
“I’m fine. Not sure why you don’t believe me.” Eden didn’t appreciate his lack of support. She wasn’t an idiot. She’d know if she needed additional medical attention.
Thankfully, she’d only taken one bite of her salad, or her reaction could have been much worse.
“Hold on.” Joe came out with two to-go boxes. “Replacement meals on the house. I made them myself. And I’m putting up a five grand reward for anyone who helps solve this crime.”
Max lifted a brow. “That’s a lot of money.”
Joe scowled. “I take this attack on Eden personally. I won’t tolerate this type of criminal behavior in my diner.”
“Once a cop, always a cop.” Max smiled.
“Thank you, Joe.” Eden took the boxes from him.
Max put Sam on his leash and together they walked outside. Once they were alone, he glanced at her. “I’ve never been so scared.”
His frank admission surprised her. “You did great. I appreciate you saving my life.”
He shook his head. “They teach us to do this kind of thing but the reality is far different.”
“I know.” She patted his arm. “But you were amazing.”
Max fell silent as they made their way back to the precinct. He and Sam accompanied her to her workstation, where she quickly pulled up the video from the streetlights closest to the diner.
“Are you hungry?” He glanced at her. “You only ate a couple of fries.”
“Not really,” she answered absently, her gaze never wavering from the screen.
Max set her salad on the edge of her workstation. She chose to eat yogurt from the mini-fridge instead, while watching the video feed.
By the time she’d finished, she still didn’t have any inclination of who had tried to harm her. She sat back in her seat and sighed.
“I just don’t get it. Where could he have gone?”
“He?” Max had eaten his cheeseburger while watching the video, too. “You think Tayron Lee did this?”
“He knows about my peanut allergy.”
“Don’t your friends know, too?”
She glanced at him. “Yes. But Tayron is the only person I can think of with an ax to grind. Not just because I repeatedly refused to go out with him, but because I attempt to keep my brother away from him.”
He nodded. “Who knows you’ve moved to Sunset Park?”
She thought about this. “My roommate, of course, but she’s in Colorado. My Geek Quad friends helped me move in. I honestly haven’t told Ricky about our new place, because I didn’t want Tayron to know.”
“The Geek Quad helped you move.”
“Yes, so what if they did?”
“I just think that whoever did this is someone very close to you.” He gestured to the screen where there was no one remotely suspicious-looking going in or out of the diner. “You recently moved, haven’t told Tayron Lee or your brother where you live, and this guy definitely knows your address since he left bomb residue on your apartment doorknob and seems to know where every camera in the area is located.”
She frowned, not liking where this was going.
“It makes me wonder if Tayron Lee is sophisticated enough to elude the authorities like this. Whereas your Geek Quad friends are very smart, tech savvy enough to hack into the cameras, know where you live and know about your allergy.”
“I can’t believe it.” She couldn’t imagine any of her friends being involved. But working around cops, she understood it was just as important to clear people from suspicion. Darnell Hicks and Bryon Avery were both average height and weight. Darnell had dark hair, and Bryon’s hair was light brown. Tom Gellner was taller than the other two and wore his red hair short. They were computer nerds, like her. She couldn’t imagine they were involved. “I’ve known Darnell, Tom and Bryon for nearly a decade. I get they have amazing tech skills, but they have no reason to hurt me. Go ahead and check them out. I’m sure you’ll be able to clear all three of them, especially since they all work for the government.”
“Working for the government doesn’t mean incapable of committing a crime.”
Max’s light blue eyes bored into hers. He was right, of course. But she still didn’t want to believe it. “I know.”
“When is the last time you’ve seen these guys?”
“Just last week. We get together often, mostly for gaming competitions, sometimes in person, sometimes online, but generally every two weeks or so to keep up our tech skills.”
“Gaming, huh?” He looked surprised by that, but she refused to be embarrassed. Maybe she wasn’t the most athletically inclined person in Brooklyn, but she was smart. And gaming helped hone her tech skills. “You physically met in person just a week ago?”
“Yes.” She waved a hand. “We often meet at a place called The Center. It’s a gaming store that caters to serious gamers.”
He frowned. “And what, the store has a large room where gamers can get together?”
“Exactly.” She shrugged. “It’s neutral territory and Chris, the owner, sets up tournaments and stuff.”
“I see.” When Max rose to his feet, Sam did, too. “I need to do some digging into their backgrounds. Will you please stay here and wait for me? I don’t want you to go anywhere alone.”
With a grimace, she reluctantly nodded. “I’ll wait.”
“Thanks.”
She watched as Max and Sam left, then thought back to the last time she’d gotten together with the Geek Quad. That day, she hadn’t noticed anything out of the ordinary. They’d all been intense about the game, eager to knock each other out of the competition. They played to win, and frankly, she’d always appreciated how the guys treated her like one of the guys, and not a girl they might be interested in.
It just didn’t make sense that one of them would turn on her to the point of trying to hurt her.
To nearly kill her.
She forced herself to focus on the video. The real culprit had to be Tayron Lee. It was entirely possible she and Max weren’t giving him enough credit.
Tayron and Ricky had attended three years of college. They weren’t stupid. Misguided, yes, but not stupid.
She felt certain Tayron Lee was involved. And that once he was found and questioned, the danger would be over.
Leaving her to go back to her dull life. One in which Max wasn’t with her every minute of every day.
Max kenneled Sam, then went to his cubicle. He wrote up the report about what had transpired at the 646 Diner. Once that was finished and sent off to Gavin, he began investigating the three members of Eden’s Geek Quad. It pained him to think someone she called a friend would do something like this, but he wasn’t about to overlook any possibility.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t much to find. Each of them had squeaky-clean backgrounds. Nothing remotely close to indicating a predilection for criminal behavior. He made a note to ask Eden about other techy friends she might have, other than the Geek Quad.
“Max?”
He glanced up as Gavin Sutherland approached his cubicle. “Yeah, Sarge?”
“My office,” Gavin said, leaving Max to follow.
Gavin waved him toward the chair, but he didn’t move. “I prefer to stand when getting chewed out.”
Gavin flashed a crooked smile. “Who said I was upset? I just finished reviewing your report on Eden’s allergic reaction. Are you sure this was done intentionally?”
“Absolutely certain.” He didn’t hesitate. “As I indicated in my report, there was no peanut oil in the kitchen. I don’t see how this could be anything but a targeted attack on Eden.”
Gavin nodded slowly. “Still nothing on Tayron Lee?”
“No, and that’s a problem. It’s seems as if the guy is hiding from the police. He didn’t show up for his scheduled shift at the warehouse today and hasn’t returned to the apartment he shares with Eden’s brother, Ricky.”
“No sign of Eden’s brother, either?”
“No.” Max knew it was likely the two guys were hiding out together. Because of the attack on Eden? Or something else?
Unfortunately, anything was possible.
“I don’t like it,” Gavin said with a deep frown. “It’s odd that someone would have known Eden was going to the diner for lunch today.”
Max straightened in his seat as Gavin’s point hit home. “You’re right. We didn’t make lunch plans ahead of time, only just decided to head over there this morning.”
“Which means the perp is following her or watching from someplace nearby.”
“Yeah. And that would explain how the perp knew when she’d walked away from the precinct last night. The video shows the guy in black leaving the bomb for her, then catching up to her at the subway.” He sprang to his feet. “I need to check out all the businesses nearby, see if I can pinpoint a potential stakeout location.”
“Let me know what you find.”
“Will do.” Max returned to his cubicle.
There were times police work was tedious and pulling up information on the adjacent properties to the precinct was exactly that. But he managed to identify two distinct possibilities. Each were brown brick buildings, one had a real-estate business and fast-food restaurant on the main level with apartments up above, and the other had a coffee shop and drugstore on the main level, also with apartments above.
The fact that there were so many apartments was depressing. It offered far too many possibilities. But he was leaning toward the fast-food restaurant and drugstore as the likely source. They were public places where anyone could linger without drawing attention. And they were open until 11:00 p.m.
The coffee shop closed at nine o’clock, so he didn’t think the perp had been there that first night, but certainly could be rotating the places he used to observe the precinct.
Armed with this new information, he rose, stretched and glanced around, surprised to note the time was well past five o’clock and many of the cubicles around him were empty.
He went down to get Sam out of his kennel. After taking his partner outside and working with him for a few minutes, he headed up to Eden’s workspace.
She was leaning on her desk, rubbing her temples.
“Are you okay?”
She startled and turned to face him. “Yes. Just battling a headache, a common side effect of epinephrine.”
He nodded. “Sorry to hear that. Find anything?”
“Not much.” She let out a sigh and began to scroll through her various video feeds. “I was able to find an image of a man in black leaving the restaurant from the back door roughly six minutes before my salad was set in front of me. The quality of the camera is lousy, though. I’ve been playing with it to sharpen the image but without much success.”
He leaned over to see the figure she indicated. The camera was awful, and the guy on the screen kept his head down. “Doubt we’d get a good look at his face, even if the image were clear.”
“I know. And he goes two blocks, then disappears from view. I haven’t been able to pick him up, yet.”
“I’ll question the staff again. Someone must have seen him.” He lightly rested his hand on her slim shoulder. “Hang in there. We have another potential lead. What if this guy has been watching you come and go from either the fast-food restaurant, coffee shop or drugstore? It’s clear he’s been following you.”
Eden’s eyes widened as the realization sank deep. Within seconds she was pulling up the closest camera footage.
They watched in silence as various people went in and out of the fast-food restaurant next to the K-9 Unit. Then a familiar man dressed in black arrived. She hit the pause button. “There! That’s him.”
“Yeah, it sure is.” He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and gave her a quick hug. “Now that we know he’s watching the front of the precinct, we’ll use the rear exit.”
“Yeah, but I want to record him following me first.” She played with the controls, and then ran snippets of the video feed, saving them to another location. It wasn’t easy to concentrate with her warm, spicy scent teasing his senses.
“I have him leaving the fast-food restaurant just ten seconds after we walked toward the 646,” Eden said with satisfaction. “I can track him following me to the diner and to the subway the evening before. This will be key evidence when we finally get him.”
“Trust me, we won’t stop until we have him behind bars.” Max spoke with confidence.
“I know.” She smiled when Sam pressed his nose against her.
The phone on her workstation rang, and she hit the speaker button so Max could hear, too. “Chang,” she answered.
“Eden, it’s Darcy from the crime lab. I just wanted to let you know we did not find any fingerprints on the snow globe or the package.”
“Darcy, this is Max Santelli. What about the bomb itself?”
“We’re still working on that with the bomb squad. They believe the device was armed to detonate from a remote trigger.”
There was a long moment of silence before Eden spoke. “Thanks, Darcy.” She disconnected from the call, and her shoulders slumped with dejection. “Back to grainy images of our perp.”
“We’ll get him. But right now, you need to take a break.”
She nodded, pushed back her chair and stood. When she swayed a bit, he lightly grasped her shoulders. “Whoa, are you all right?”
“Fine.” Her voice was soft, breathless.
“Eden.” He drew her slowly into a warm embrace. “I’m here for you.”
“I appreciate that, Max.” Rather than pulling away, she tipped her head back to gaze up at him. For long moments neither of them spoke, the air shimmering with awareness.
The urge to kiss her was incredibly strong. He forced himself to release her, his mind whirling.
The close call struck deep. In the year since losing Jessica, he’d never wanted to kiss a woman the way he longed to with Eden.
And he had no idea what to do about that.