Page 74 of Cisco

Hilly bit her lip. “He’s…at the hospital with Bailey.”

“What?” It’s the last thing Cisco expected to hear. His brain went into overdrive. The entire camp had been scheduled to hike that morning…

“She had a fall?” he guessed.

Hilly shook her head. “No. Bailey suffered an allergic reaction while we were on our excursion. She went into anaphylactic shock.”

Holy shit. “Stung by a bee?”

Cisco was flying blind. He needed details so he could wrap his head around what Hilly was trying to impart.

“No. She has a peanut allergy, and we believe that somehow a peanut based product got into her snack bag.”

“How could that happen?” Cisco asked, suddenly on alert.

“All the kids picked up their labeled daypacks in the dining hall this morning that Mrs. S had filled with snack bags, but they were left unattended numerous times after that.”

“She’s okay, though, right?” he asked, appalled.

“Yeah. Crash called a few minutes ago. Bailey came out of it without any residual effects, but when I talked to her parents who just arrived, they were furious. Bailey won’t be coming back to camp.” Her face grew even darker. “They told me I’ll be hearing from their attorney.”

Cisco couldn’t believe this was happening. Of all the…

Damn. This couldn’t have been an accident. He’d seen the allergy protocols Hilly had put in place. Cisco’s gut roiled. Bailey being targeted sounded like either revenge from someone she’d pissed off, or sabotage by one of Hilly’s nemeses. Someone either hated Bailey with a passion, or wanted to put Hilly out of business.

Since his attention had been mostly on Hilly while he was at camp, it escaped him who besides Carter might have it out for Bailey, but as for Hilly’s enemies? He could think of a few people who’d relish the camp being shut down.

“This isn’t your fault, Hilly. We need to do an investigation and find out how this happened.”

Mrs. S was wringing her hands. “I swear I double and triple checked the gorp that I packed this morning, Cisco. I specifically used brands that were labeled safe for allergies, which includes dairy, soy, gluten, and nuts being out of the mix.” She held out the ingredients list to him that she’d cut from the package.

Cisco took it, and looked it over carefully.

Ellen was right. There was nothing remotely suspect in the snack she’d provided. His brows came together.

How, then, did?—?

“Now look at this,” Hilly interrupted his thoughts.

She turned to her doorstep, stooped, and pulled two paper bags out of her backpack before walking toward him, holding the pair where he could inspect them. “This one is Bailey’s.” She shook the one in her left hand. “And this one,” she thrust the other forward another few inches, “is an example of every other bag we provided.”

“Damn.” Cisco didn’t have to handle them to see that one had grease spots on it while the other had none. Realization hit. “Someone spiked her snack.”

Hilly looked grim, before tossing the bags back to her pack. “It certainly looks like it.”

“Have you talked to your campers and staff, yet?”

Hilly shook her head. “We thought we’d wait for you. That maybe it would make a bigger impression on them if you spoke as a police officer; let them know this could have ended in a much worse scenario. That if someone thought to do this as a joke, it could have ended up killing Bailey, and with them being charged with manslaughter.”

Cisco agreed.

“Where are the kids, now?”

“We confined everyone to quarters until it was time for your demonstration. Not that that will be happening today. Crash is still sorting things out at the hospital; attempting to placate Bailey’s parents, so I doubt he’ll be back for a few more hours.”

Cisco moved closer to Hilly, took her face gently between his palms, and looked down into her troubled visage. “We’ll get this sorted out, Hilly. I promise. I’m not letting you lose this camp. I’m going to help turn over every stone until we find out who’s behind this.”

“Ditto,” Buffy stated, moving in to hug Hilly from behind.

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