The Clue at Black Creek Farm (Nancy Drew Diaries #9)(15)

“Message?” Lori looked totally confused. “What kind of message? ‘I hate plants’?”

“No,” I told her. “Someone wrote out ‘Kill the farm!’ with dirt.”

Lori lifted her lip in a sneer. “Kill the farm?” she asked. “Seriously?”

I nodded. “Seriously.”

Lori let a breath out through her mouth. “I don’t even know what to say,” she said. Then her eyes darkened. She frowned, looking up at us. “Wait—do you guys think I did it?” she asked. “Is that why you came over here?”

I sighed. “Honestly? Yes, it’s why we came over here. But I don’t really think you did it anymore, after talking to you.”

Lori pinched her mouth to the side, thinking that over. “Good,” she said after a few seconds, “because I would never do something like that to Sam. Gosh, especially now . . .”

Especially now? I guessed she must mean so soon after the disaster of the buffet dinner. I remembered what Sam had said at the time, that Black Creek Farm needed more CSA members and higher sales. This must be a super-stressful time for the whole Heyworth family.

“Do you know who would?” I asked. It had been a minute or so since Lori last spoke, and she looked at me blankly, clearly not sure what I meant.

“Who would what?”

“Who would do something like that to Sam,” I clarified. “You know, wrecking his greenhouse. Who would hate an organic farm enough to write ‘Kill the farm!’ in dirt on the floor?”

Lori shook her head. She was looking off into the distance, thinking hard. She wrinkled her nose slightly, like she could just sniff out who might be that crazy, and didn’t like it at all. Then her gaze returned to me, and her expression was blank again.

“I’m really not sure,” she said.

She’s hiding something. “But if you had to guess?” I prompted.

Lori glanced at her shoes and sighed deeply. Then she looked up at me, meeting my eyes with her serious brown ones. “I don’t really know anyone who I think would do this,” she said, “but . . .”

“But?”

Lori crossed her arms uncomfortably. “But there’s been some weird tension with Jack, ever since he arrived,” she said finally.

I glanced at Bess.

“Yeah, we’ve noticed,” Bess said in a confidential tone. “He seemed kind of upset this morning. Sam had tried to serve some vegetables from the farm at breakfast, I guess.”

Lori nodded. “Yeah, that’s not surprising. I saw him yesterday, and he was really upset about what happened to Julie. He kept talking about the farm like it was a joke, and the produce was poison or something.”

“Well, to Julie it was,” I pointed out. Not that I condoned Jack’s mean behavior—but I could understand his worry about his wife.

“It’s not just that,” Lori said, shaking her head. “He’s always talking about what a bad investment the farm was. He seems really mad that it’s losing money.”

Hmmmm. “Why would he care?” I asked. “It’s Sam’s money to lose, right?”

Lori looked really uncomfortable. She glanced down at her hands and brought a finger to her mouth to nibble on the nail. “Well,” she said, “with Sam being sick, you know . . .”

What?

“Wait,” I said, holding up my hand. “What do you mean, Sam being sick?”

Lori dropped her hand and looked at me, surprised. “Sam has cancer,” she said matter-of-factly. “In his throat, I think. He starts chemo in July. Which has made him even more determined to make the farm work now, this year, in case . . .”

Her voice faded out.

Everyone was quiet for a minute as I tried to absorb this information. Sam . . . was sick? It made a horrible sort of sense, but it still stunned me.

And Jack’s worried about his inheritance, I realized with a shock. That’s what Lori thinks.

My stomach flipped over. Suddenly the argument in the kitchen this morning seemed much nastier than I’d first assumed.

“Wow,” Bess whispered finally, and I looked at her and nodded.

“Wow,” I echoed. “Well, one thing’s for sure. This case is even more important now. Whoever’s sabotaging Black Creek Farm had better watch out . . . because I don’t care what it takes. I’m going to find them!”





CHAPTER SIX





One Man’s Dream


“DO YOU STILL WANT TO go home?” I asked Bess as we walked back up the road toward Black Creek Farm. “I’m going to be here for a while, I think. Maybe it was silly of me to try to get you to come with me to talk to Lori. I could drive you home and come back. . . .”

Bess put her hand on my arm, stopping me. “Don’t be silly, Nancy,” she said. “Of course I’m going to stay. I’m invested now.”

She smiled at me, and I smiled back. “I really want to solve this,” I said softly, knowing that I didn’t really need to say it.

“We will,” Bess said, looking like she didn’t doubt it for a minute. “Of course we will, Nancy. When’s the last time Nancy Drew didn’t solve her case?”

I nodded but let out a little sigh. It was true, I had a good track record. But it wasn’t like I never screwed up. And I can’t afford to screw up this one, I thought.