The Clue at Black Creek Farm (Nancy Drew Diaries #9)(4)

“Oh my gosh,” George whispered in a hiss, and I pulled my eyes from the buffet to follow her concerned glance.

“Ohhh. . . .”

I felt my stomach clench again, this time with concern, as I spotted Julie, Jack’s pregnant wife, stumbling from the kitchen. Her face was slick with perspiration, and she grabbed the door frame to steady herself.

Holly was just coming out of the kitchen with a big basket of bread, and she looked, stunned, at Julie. “Are you okay?” she cried, putting the basket on the floor and leaning closer.

“I don’t think so,” Julie whispered, her words slurring. “I feel . . .”

But before she could finish her sentence, she lost her grip on the door frame and went down—tumbling to the ground and splaying on the floor.

“Oh no!” Holly cried, kneeling and turning Julie over. “Jack! Where are you?!”

I heard running and turned to see Jack sprinting over from a table near the edge of the room. “What’s happened to her?” he yelled. “Call an ambulance!”

Holly dug into her pocket for her phone, and in the confusion, the young girl who’d been helping set up the food ran out of the kitchen and surveyed the scene, her face paling in horror. She turned toward the buffet, where people were eagerly grabbing plates and piling them with vegetables.

“DON’T EAT THE FOOD!” she cried, running over and grabbing the spoons out of people’s hands. “IT’S NOT SAFE!”





CHAPTER TWO





Dangerous Vegetables


“NOT SAFE TO EAT?” GEORGE asked out loud, her brow furrowed. “What does that mean?”

The girl was pulling the food back, out of the reach of the people who already surrounded the buffet table.

“Julie just finished eating,” she said quickly, shooting Holly a concerned look. “It seems like she’s having a reaction to the food.”

“Oh no,” Holly whispered, her gaze going blank. But then she seemed to shake herself and ran behind the table. “Yes, EVERYONE BACK UP! We won’t be serving dinner until we get this figured out.”

Together, Holly and the other girl, who was wearing a handwritten name tag that read LORI, packed up the food that had been placed out and carried it back to the kitchen. The people gathered around the buffet table made little murmurs of disappointment, but most everyone’s eyes were on Julie, still sprawled on the floor, now with her head in her husband’s lap. He fanned her with a folded napkin, but she remained unconscious.

I looked from Julie to Ned, standing next to me. He looked as worried as I felt. “A bad vegetable can make you that sick?” he hissed to me under his breath. I shrugged; I’d been wondering the same thing.

It was only minutes before the paramedics arrived—running into the community center with a stretcher and heading right to Julie’s side—though it seemed like hours. They used smelling salts to revive Julie, who blinked at them, confused.

“How are you doing?” the female paramedic, whose name tag read ERICA, asked her.

Julie frowned. “Not so good,” she murmured. “I feel like—I—”

Erica seemed to read her thoughts as she raised Julie’s head and turned it to the side. I heard the sounds of vomiting and glanced uncomfortably at Bess and George, who looked horrified.

“There, there,” said Erica, looking back at her colleague and making a gesture that looked like a shot. “Get it out, and then we’ll give you something to stop the vomiting.”

The male paramedic—his name tag read JAMES—produced a small vial and injection needle. He swiftly injected the needle into the vial, sucking up the clear liquid, then pulled it out and stuck the needle into Julie’s arm. “This will make you feel much better,” he said, “so we can get you to the emergency room.”

Jack looked like he wanted to jump out of his skin. “Will she be all right?” he demanded as the paramedics worked together to load Julie onto the stretcher. “Will the baby?”

“This looks like a pretty intense case of food poisoning,” Erica said seriously. “Since she’s pregnant, we need to be careful to keep her hydrated, or it can make things difficult for the baby.”

She and James strapped Julie in. “We’re going to get her the best of care, sir,” James said. “Once we stop the vomiting and get her hydrated, she’ll feel much better.”

Sam and Abby were standing close by, watching the action with concerned faces. “You said ‘food poisoning,’?” Sam said, a questioning look on his face.

Erica nodded. “Of course we won’t know for sure until we can get her to the hospital and run some tests. But to me, this looks like salmonella, listeria, or E. coli. The effects are more intense on pregnant women.”

Sam still looked confused. “But all Julie’s eaten today is food from my farm,” he said. “We’re a small-scale, organic facility. You’re telling me she got food poisoning from my vegetables?”

Erica looked from Sam to Julie, one eyebrow raised. “Sir, we won’t know anything for sure for a few hours,” she said. “But in the meantime, I wouldn’t serve those vegetables to anyone else.”

Sam’s face fell as Erica and James worked together to hoist the stretcher into the air and carry Julie toward the door. Jack followed his wife but stopped short as he passed his father.