Hidden Legacy

She huffed and righted an orchid that had been dumped on the floor. “Fine. No issues at work. I handle the finances, and I’m taking on more of the personnel responsibilities as Dad is turning over more control to Blake and me. But we haven’t fired anyone in years. Everyone is getting paid on time. No one is complaining. I can’t fathom anyone from HPI doing something like this.”

Harrison Plastics International had always been the place everyone in town wanted to work. Didn’t sound like anything had changed there.

“What about suppliers? Clients? Anyone unhappy?”

Caroline rolled her head from one side to the other. Was there someone unhappy? “What are you thinking?”

She placed the plant on the end table. “We’ve made a few changes recently. A new paper product vendor. A new printer lease. Blake changed a major raw material supplier. But nothing that would cause anyone to try to shoot me.”

He’d talk to Blake. Caroline’s brother had always been protective of his little sister. Which was probably why he hadn’t been particularly fond of Jason. But he might have a different perspective than Caroline on this subject.

“Where is Blake? For that matter, where is everybody?”

“What do you mean?”

“Your parents? Blake, Heidi and Maggie? I’m surprised we don’t have an entire contingent of the FBI here.”

Caroline scooped a handful of books from the floor. “Mom and Dad are on a mission trip to a refugee camp in Greece.”

“Didn’t your dad have a stroke a couple of years ago?”

“He did, but he’s made a full recovery.”

“That’s great.” He heard the wistfulness in his words. There would be no happy ending for his own dad. ALS would take his life, one agonizing piece at a time. “That explains where your parents are. What about Blake, Heidi and Maggie?”

“Blake and Maggie are on a father/daughter mission trip. They support a family in Haiti and went down over spring break with a group from the church. They’ll be back next week.”

“And Heidi is off doing something mysterious?”

“Exactly.”

He studied a family photo on her mantel. “Tell me about your new sister-in-law.”

“Heidi does a lot of undercover work. That’s what brought her here last year. That’s how she and Blake met. So sometimes she’s gone. Not as much as she used to be, and usually not for more than a day or two. I don’t know if Blake even knows what she does or where she goes.”

She brushed some fingerprint dust off the upright piano. “I’m going to need to try to find her, though. She’s the only one who understands the security system.”

“Why her?”

“When we had that trouble at the plant—I’m assuming your mom told you about that?”

“Oh, yeah.” His mom had bent his ear for three hours that night. After he’d joined the sheriff’s department, he’d learned the whole story. The one that had somehow never fully been told in the press. Heidi’s team, with Blake’s assistance, had prevented a nationwide anthrax outbreak.

“Heidi revamped all the security systems here and at the plant. We have motion detectors, cameras, safe rooms and probably a bunch of other stuff I don’t even know about. It’s not an out-of-the-box system. It doesn’t have a local monitoring station, although it is monitored somewhere. Maybe in DC? It has Department of Defense–level encryption. Very hard to hack.”

“Is it possible you forgot to turn it on before you left this morning?”

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive.”

“How can you know? I forget stuff all the time.”

She smirked at him. “I remember because Henry was screaming his head off and I was singing to him as I punched in the code.”

That sounded like a solid memory, unfortunately. The idea that this highly advanced system had been on when the intruder arrived worried him because it meant the intruder knew how to turn it off. So either they were dealing with a tech expert way beyond the typical, garden-variety thief, or the intruder was someone she knew and trusted. He wasn’t sure which possibility was worse.

But either way, she deserved to know what they were dealing with.

“From what you described to me,” he said, “it doesn’t sound like the security system was on when you got home. Who else knows the code? A housekeeper, maybe?” He took a deep breath. “Boyfriend?”

She shot him a withering look. “I have a full-time job and a baby. Romance isn’t a high priority these days.”

Jason didn’t bother to process why her words sent a wave of relief crashing through his soul.

“What about Julia? Does she still clean for you?”

The Harrisons’ housekeeper had always been gracious to him as a kid.

“Yes, but I change the code every week. She calls me when she gets here, and I give her the new code.”

“You change the code every week?”

“Heidi is a stickler about it. I change it every Sunday night.”

The weight of her words hit him hard. “Caroline, whoever this guy is, he was able to come inside and disable your security system. We have to consider the possibility that he is highly skilled and he’s been watching you and your family and knew you were up here alone tonight.”

Caroline’s hand shook as she reached for her glass and took a sip. “So this wasn’t a random attack. You think he was targeting me on purpose.”

“Right. And he may not be done.”

THREE (#u6fc7dc54-6373-5bd8-b88a-1e8a31c54c99)

The knock at the door startled Caroline. The way Jason’s hand flew to the gun at his waist told her it had caught him off guard, as well.

“Open up.” Hearing Michael’s voice put Caroline at ease, but Jason didn’t remove his hand from his weapon.

“You didn’t answer your phone, man,” Michael called. “We had the guys grab sub sandwiches, and if you don’t like what’s on yours, you have no one to blame but yourself. Open up.”

It was almost ten o’clock. He hadn’t eaten? Her cheeks burned with the realization that coming to her rescue had interrupted his evening plans. “I’m so sorry. You should have told me.”

He waved her off. “I had a candy bar. I’m fine.”

He opened the door, and Michael held out a cellophane bag. “Got you a club. There’s a bag of chips in there, too.” He smiled at Caroline. “Don’t worry about anything tonight. Dalton and I will keep a close eye on things.”

“Wha—”