that have not been FDA tested, which could be harmful to people’s health. He wants to interview us on the claim, but he’s going to run the story either way.”
“Jason, that—”
“Prick,” he finished the sentence for her, and she nodded. “We should meet this guy, turn it around, Jodie. The pheromone formula doesn’t need to be FDA tested—it’s much like a vitamin or an herb. But I can show him my real data, which indicates there is no harmful effect.”
“This could still be enough to scare people away. Dammit!”
“Maybe it would do the opposite, you know? Create a stir, bring people in to find out for themselves? You know what they say, no publicity is bad publicity,” he offered but it didn’t comfort her. Businesses were too competitive in this current economic climate for her to take those kinds of chances.
Dan had put on his clothes, as well, and walked over to her, pulling her into a hug. “We’ll deal with this together. Okay?”
She nodded and hugged him back though, in her gut, she had a nasty feeling that things were only going to get worse.
DAN WAITED until Jodie was on her way, and put his plan into action.
The department secretary was out for half of the day, and he happened to know, having peeked at her master schedule for the faculty, that Jason Kravitz was involved in a meeting until three.
He also knew where one of the master office keys was kept. Making his way toward Kravitz’s office, he intended to find out whatever it was that Kravitz had on Jodie, to take any copies of the pheromone formula. It would be, of course, evidence that he was the person who had broken into the store. Dan could call the police, but he doubted that it would stand scrutiny, especially since he’d have to admit to breaking into Jason’s office to get it. That would cause more trouble than it was worth. His goal was to minimize any damage to Jodie or the bakery, and to get Jason Kravitz out of their lives so that he and Jodie could focus on each other.
Stopping by the office, he didn’t hesitate, sliding the key into place and then locking the door behind him.
Looking around, he blinked, taken aback for a moment. He’d never been in Kravitz’s office—they certainly weren’t friendly—and he couldn’t believe what a mess it was. Paper, books, stacks of…everything were everywhere.
How did the man work this way? Dan needed order, needed things in their place, had to be able to concentrate.
This would also make it much harder to find anything, but he started in the most obvious spot, the computer on the desk. Dan took a few stabs at cracking the password, but who knew how Kravitz’s demented mind worked?
Password protected, of course. But he had to have some hard evidence somewhere, some lab reports or something indicating what he’d found when he had analyzed the cookie icing—that had to be the evidence he was showing the Sun-Times.
The way Jodie’s face had fallen when she heard that news had broken Dan’s heart, and he was determined to protect her in any way he could. Still, his plan to find the evidence in Jason’s office wasn’t bearing much fruit, he thought in frustration, searching through papers and drawers.
“Yes!” he said aloud to the empty room as he finally found a stack of lab reports, not completed here at the university, but tests conducted at an outside lab, off site. Dan scanned the report, nodding. This was his formula, all right.
Just as he was folding the report and putting it back in his jacket, the door opened.
“Kravitz,” he said, sounding calm, though he had obviously been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
“What are you doing in my office?” Kravitz said, his eyes narrowing to slits as he closed the door a little too hard. “Never mind, I can guess. Find what you were looking for?”
“I did, actually. Might be interesting for the police to find you in possession of lab reports on the items stolen from the bakery—and how much do I have to stretch to guess you’re the one who contacted the paper, trying to ruin Jodie’s business? What’s your deal, Kravitz? Do you always react to rejection this way?”
Jason stood, as if pondering, and pursed his lips. “Well, I’m not rejected very often, but no. And I have no idea what you’re talking about. I didn’t steal anything. I could probably produce a credit card charge