Save Me - Lisa Scottoline [122]
“How do you know all this?” Kristen asked, bewildered.
“Doesn’t matter. What did you hear them say, that didn’t make sense to you?”
“Something about peanuts and foreign countries.”
“What do you mean?” Rose asked, her senses on alert.
“They were saying something about peanuts and Jamaica, Latin America, Chile, like a bunch of foreign countries. I asked him what they were talking about, and he freaked.” Kristen threw up her hands, upset. “That’s why it’s so crazy. I had no idea what they even meant.”
“I do. Modjeska killed Bill Gigot.”
“Amanda’s father?” Kristen’s eyes widened. “But I thought he died years ago.”
“He did. He worked at Homestead and was killed in a forklift accident, but I think it was murder. Joe Modjeska was Director of Safety at the time. Only one thing, I don’t know why. I just can’t put my finger on it.” Rose looked through the windshield into the darkness. She flashed on the beach, when she’d looked into the darkness for answers, and she’d let her mind run free. Then suddenly, it came. “Oh my God. I think I know.”
“What?”
“I found out tonight that during this time, Bill Gigot was transferred to the peanut plant, but the peanut business went bust. They wanted to convert the machinery to chocolate products, but it took time because the machinery had been used for peanuts and—”
“People are allergic to peanuts, like Jason.”
Rose blinked. “Jason who?”
“Jason Gigot. Amanda’s older brother. He has a severe peanut allergy, and Eileen told me this incredible story about how they found out.”
“How?”
“They didn’t know he was allergic, but their dad worked at Homestead and they switched him to making peanut-butter crackers or something like that. He came home one night, picked up Jason, and the little boy went into shock.”
Rose listened, spellbound. It was the last piece of the puzzle, and she could feel it falling into place.
“Jason’s throat swelled up, he couldn’t breathe, and they had to rush him to the hospital. He almost died, and they didn’t even know he had the allergy. He was, like, six years old. Amanda was a baby at the time.”
Rose remembered what Juanita had said, and spun out a scenario. “If a production line isn’t working at Homestead, it costs the company a hundred thousand dollars a day. During that time, the peanut machines weren’t working for almost six months. That’s millions, and Homestead had lots of orders for chocolate-filled nuggets. So they must have used the peanut machines to fill the chocolate orders, at night.”
“That’s terrible!” Kristen shook her head, incredulous. “Children would die. Would they really do that?”
“For that much money, yes.” Rose thought about it, and it made sense. “They ran the machines in secret, making chocolate crackers and chocolate-filled nuggets on the peanut machines. Nobody would know the difference, only the skeleton crew at night and the Director of Safety.”
“Modjeska?”
“They called him Mr. Peanut because he was around so often, and now we know why. The night shift knew, but that was only a few people, and they kept the secret. They were probably paid off, too.” Rose could visualize how it all went down, having seen the plant and the peanut building herself. “I bet Bill Gigot was with them until his son Jason almost died, then he wanted to put a stop to it.”
“What about Eileen? You don’t think she knew, do you?”
“I doubt it. She would have known that he’d gotten transferred to the peanut plant, but not that they were running chocolate on the machines. He wouldn’t risk telling her that.” Rose thought of something else Juanita had said. “Homestead got a lot of orders for the chocolate products from Latin America and the Caribbean, so I’m thinking they filled the orders for export, only. Maybe that’s what you heard when you interrupted that meeting.”
“I see.” Kristen nodded, grimly. “They were talking about countries where they sent the contaminated snacks.”
“Right.” Rose felt breathless at the depravity of the scheme. “It’s sick, but