Pick Your Poison Part 5

Jeri snapped her .ngers. "They're at the riding ring most days. When I was photographing Dallas, some kids across the ring were watching. Afterwards, when I was car-rying water, several girls asked me why Dallas was riding Show Stopper."

"Maybe they're in the background of the pictures," Rosa said. "Where're the photos?"

"Upstairs. I printed off a few." Jeri's face . ushed hotly. She'd printed out some of the photos of Dallas to keep for herself. Rosa grinned but said nothing.

Jeri ran upstairs for them and then spread them out on the coffee table. Together, they studied each photo.

"Hey!" Rosa said, pointing. "Isn't that Janeen Jenkins? She was in my swimming cla.s.s last semester. She's on the equestrian team."

Jeri leaned closer and squinted. "Is she the eighth grader who always comes in second? I bet she'd love it if Nikki couldn't compete."

Dallas plopped back down on the couch. "But how could this eighth grader get into your dorm to poison Nikki's food?"

Rosa peered closer at the last photo and squealed. "Scottie!"

"What?" Jeri asked.

"The delivery boy! Look!" Rosa jabbed the photo with her long nail. "He was in the crowd watching too. I've seen him with Janeen before. That's who he was visiting when he was late with Abby's delivery last weekend."

Dallas leaned forward on his thighs. "The delivery boy's girlfriend is this Janeen?"

"Yes. And remember that blue bandana I found in the stall? Look here." Jeri pointed at Scottie. "There's something dark tied around his neck."

Dallas slapped his knee. "Didn't Nikki say Show Stopper wouldn't eat yesterday? Maybe Scottie tampered with the horse feed while I was jumping. It'd be easy-no one was in Show Stopper's stall for over an hour."

"Makes sense." Jeri tried to stay calm. "Rosa, are you sure his girlfriend is Janeen?"

"One way to .nd out." Rosa tossed her hair over her shoulder. "Give me half a minute. I'll call Shauna. She knows everything about who's dating who." Rosa ran upstairs and was back in .ve minutes. "Bingo. Scottie and Janeen are a couple. Now what?"

Jeri jabbed the photo. "Then he must be trying to help her win by knocking out the compet.i.tion. Then Janeen wins the scholars.h.i.+p and comes back to Landmark next year."

At last! Things were falling into place. Nikki didn't need the scholars.h.i.+p money, but she was the most likely one to win. She had a string of blue ribbons taped around her mirror upstairs from previous compet.i.tions this year. Jeri could only remember one contest where Nikki and Show Stopper hadn't walked away with the top prize. What if Janeen and Scottie were that desperate for this .nal win -and the scholars.h.i.+p?

Jeri's head was spinning. "Could Scottie really tamper with our dorm food so many times?" she asked. "The food for the birthday dinner would have been easy, but the left-over pizza Monday night?" She looked from Rosa to Dallas. "And even if Brooke and Emily bought the trail mix at the grocery store, could Scottie have messed with it?" She shook her head. "I don't see how. They would have noticed if the package was opened."

"But it doesn't come in sealed packages," Dallas said. "The dried pineapple and nuts and stuff are in these bins with lids. You scoop out how much you want, and then they weigh it."

"So that's when Scottie added something to the trail mix?" Rosa asked.

"That must be it!" Jeri shuddered involuntarily.

Rosa grabbed Jeri's hand. "Call the police. Let them handle it."

Jeri bit her lower lip. "They'd never believe me, not without some proof." But some serious snooping on my own might provide that evidence. If she could discover who was be-hind the poisonings, it might also provide the investigative report she needed to win the media fair scholars.h.i.+p. G.o.d, is this what you want me to do? If it is, show me what to do.

Just then the front door opened, and Miss Barbara and Brooke were heard in the entryway. When they pa.s.sed by the living room, they were supporting Emily between them. Brooke was as pale as Emily, but Jeri couldn't tell if it was sickness or fear for her roommate.

"Emily, are you all right?" Rosa asked.

"She will be after a good night's rest," the hefty a.s.sis-tant house mother said. "We need to get her tucked into bed now though."

As Brooke pa.s.sed, Jeri whispered, "What'd they do to her?"

"Pumped her stomach," Brooke said with a shudder, "but there wasn't anything left." They slowly climbed the stairs while the trio watched from below.

Dallas cleared his throat. "Jeri, you want to ask Nikki if she needs me to exercise Show Stopper again? I still have time before I go back."

"Sure. I'll ask." She ran upstairs and was back in a minute. "Nikki says no thanks. She practiced this morning already, before breakfast. And she'll be well enough to do it tomorrow." She grinned then. "She also invited you to come, if you can, to her compet.i.tion Sat.u.r.day afternoon."

"That'd be great," Dallas said. "Tell her I'll be there."

Rosa walked with him to the front door, cute as a model in her short shorts and tank top. Jeri watched and prayed, G.o.d, forgive me for envying girls who dress for atten-tion - and get it. Was her mom right? Would Jeri be at-tractive to boys someday for her good character traits and being friendly? Jeri sure hoped so.

All during cla.s.ses on Wednesday, Jeri couldn't con-centrate. So much had happened since Sat.u.r.day night, and her mind reeled as she tried to make sense of it. Three incidents in four days-it had to be poisoning of some kind. Was it accidental food poisoning -or was someone poisoning their food on purpose? And if so, why?

And if the poisoning was on purpose, who was doing it? Her gut instinct said it was Scottie. He had a motive-help-ing his girlfriend win by knocking out the compet.i.tion. He also had the opportunity-delivering food to Hampton House and hanging out at the barn. Most incriminating was that blue bandana found in Show Stopper's stall the day before the thoroughbred got sick. And he could have tampered with the trail mix at the grocery store.

Yes, Jeri admitted, she really hoped it was Scottie. Otherwise it might be Mr. Petrie, and she didn't want that. He'd always been nice to her and Abby.

And yet . . .

What about the gardener's own reasons? He sounded mad at Nikki for letting her horse run through his gardens. He was also irritated with The Head for buying so much food at the grocery store. He'd said the stuff he grew was better. Was that enough reason to poison the food from Howard's? He'd had the opportunity when he was at the dorm delivering daffodils before Abby's party. He also had weed killer poisons in the greenhouse. Plus he had the knowledge about common plants that could poison people.

No matter how she arranged the puzzle pieces, something ugly was going on. It seemed most likely that someone-either living in their dorm or nearby -was s ystematically poisoning the girls who lived there.

She couldn't help wondering if she and Rosa would be next.

When Jeri returned to her room after school, it looked like Rosa'd opened a store. "Where'd all this stuff come from?" Jeri asked. "Not the grocery store!"

"Nope." Rosa sat cross-legged on her bed, sorting through a mound of food: packages of crackers and pea-nut b.u.t.ter, bags of miniature candy bars, chips, and small jars of salsa. "I went to the Gas-U-Up mini-mart on my bike after school." She picked up an empty chocolate cupcake wrapper, threw it toward the wastebasket, and missed. "I'm keeping this stuff in my closet."

"You're not supposed to."

"You're the one who warned me not to eat the food in the kitchen!"

"I know, but this looks like a lot of junk food for someone trying to lose a few pounds. What about carrots or apples?"

"What do you want me to do? Starve?" Rosa ripped open a package of peanut b.u.t.ter crackers, bit into one, and sprayed crumbs all over her bed.

"Shees.h.!.+ Don't make such a mess." Jeri picked up the wrappers and tossed them in the wastebasket. "I don't want ants and roaches crawling all over."

"Yes, boss." Rosa saluted. "Whatever you say, sir!"

Jeri sighed. "Sorry."

Rosa popped another cracker sandwich into her mouth. "You don't seem to like anything about me lately -not my clothes or my food or anything."

Jeri took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. "I guess I'm just nervous. My project is due, but it's too boring to win the scholars.h.i.+p. And with our friends getting poi-soned, it's pretty hard to concentrate!" She grabbed her denim shorts and changed out of her school uniform, then scooped up her project papers. "I'm going downstairs to work. See ya later."

Brooke was already in the study room, her books and laptop spread over one of the tables. Jeri took the table by the window.

"What're you working on?" Brooke asked, stretching her arms behind her back.

"My article for the media fair. I need to write up my interview with Mr. Petrie yesterday."

"I'm surprised he talked to you."

"Why? Do you know him?"

"No, I only saw him Sat.u.r.day when he delivered the .owers for Abby's dinner." She shrugged. "I thanked him, but he just stomped off without answering. Mean old man."

"He's usually not like that. I wonder what was bugging him."

"I don't know." Brooke mimicked his voice. "When he left, he was muttering, 'What goes around, comes around,' or something like that."

Jeri raised one eyebrow, but said nothing. Her grandpa up in Iowa used that expression lots of times. It meant you'd reap what you sowed, that there'd be consequences to pay for your actions. It could be taken as a threat, al-most like Mr. Petrie intended revenge on somebody. Who? Nikki?

Jeri hated to believe that Mr. Petrie could be like that, but if they weren't dealing with a virus, then it had to be somebody, didn't it? Accidental food poisoning might hap-pen once-and it might even affect lots of people - but it wouldn't keep happening.

After working hard on her outline before supper, Jeri wrote her rough draft after she ate. By the time she'd re-vised it into shape hours later, Rosa was asleep and snor-ing softly. She'd left Jeri's desk light on.

Rosa's snacks were on her desk, and Jeri was ravenous.

One chocolate cupcake with frosting was left in an opened cellophane package. She knew Rosa would let her have it if she were awake. Jeri took it and bit into it. Ahhh . . . heaven.

However, on the second bite, a scary thought occurred to her. It would have been so easy for someone to sneak into their unlocked dorm room while Rosa slept and tam-per with the open package of snack cakes. Regretfully, Jeri tossed the rest of it into the garbage.

Still hungry, she dropped into her purple beanbag chair. She'd done her best on the article, but she knew it wasn't spectacular. Not enough to impress the judges at the media fair anyway. As she reclined on the beanbag, her mind drifted and she half dozed in the quiet room.

Then her arm tickled. The skin p.r.i.c.kled, and she jerked. "Ick!" she whispered, brus.h.i.+ng at her arm.

She peered closely in the dim light of her desk lamp, but couldn't see anything. Then she felt the same crawly sensation up the back of her bare leg.

Covering her mouth, she suppressed a scream.

7.

caught in the act.

Jeri scrambled up from the beanbag and dashed for the brightly lit hallway. She crouched down and spotted two brown ants marching up her leg. "Yuck!" She brushed them off and stomped hard on them. Jeri sighed in exasperation. Rosa's cupcake wrappers and cracker crumbs were an open invitation to ants and other bugs.

Back in the room, she removed and shook out her T-s.h.i.+rt and shorts, then put on pj's. First thing in the morning, she'd make Rosa get rid of the food or store it in a tight plastic container. Crawling under the covers, Jeri snuggled down and muttered a quick prayer for G.o.d to kill the ants and then dropped off to sleep.

Over Mexican food for lunch in the dining hall Thursday, Jeri and Rosa argued about keeping food in their room. Finally Abby interrupted. "I'll have a good surprise for you after school if you stop . ghting."

"We aren't .ghting." Rosa stood abruptly. "See you later. I'll only be around a few minutes after school though."

Jeri looked up from her taco in surprise. "Why?"

"I'm going shopping with Shauna," she said casually.

"Really?" Abby asked. "Ms. Carter said you can go shopping on a school night?"

"I ran out of some stuff I need for my art fair project." Rosa shrugged and then grinned. "Can I help it if the art supply store is next to the pizza place?"

Jeri knew Shauna was old enough to drive. "Why does a girl that old want to go shopping with a sixth grader?"

"Because I'm fun," Rosa said, bristling. "Some people think I have a great sense of humor."

"I think you're funny," Jeri said, stung by her tone. She forced herself to smile. "I hope you have fun tonight," she said. "Really."

Rosa paused and then .ashed a huge smile. "Thanks. I will. Anything you want me to bring you?"

Jeri gave her a playful punch on the arm. "How about some bug spray?"

That evening after supper Jeri worked at her computer. She was trying -without success-to make her article exciting when Abby stuck her head in the door.

"Hey, mate, fancy a brownie?" she asked. "They'll be done in two minutes."

"You don't have to ask me twice!" Jeri shoved back from her computer and followed the blonde British girl downstairs. "Another home ec project?"

"No, Ms. Carter just said I could make some."

"So you're feeling okay now?"

"Just tired. I hate being sick." She smiled. "Brownies just sounded really good today."

Jeri grinned. "Chocolate always sounds good. A choco-late brownie doeth good like a medicine," she said, misquot-ing one of her mom's favorite Bible verses.

She followed Abby into the kitchen where Abby handed her a warm brownie on a paper napkin. She took a small bite. "This tastes so good," she said. "I hope you made enough."

Abby .nished cutting the brownies, placed them on a plate, and grabbed a handful of paper napkins. She led the way to the living room. There .ve girls sat on the . oor around the large coffee table, creating sc.r.a.pbook pages. Jeri leaned over Emily's shoulder to see. The photos were mostly silly shots taken in the dorm of girls making goofy faces. A bowl containing a few popcorn hulls was on the .oor near them.

Abby stood in the doorway. "Anybody hungry?" she asked, holding out the plate of warm brownies.

"Yum!" Brooke said, reaching for one.

Abby handed her a napkin. "I made them from scratch."

Brooke's smile faded and her hand dropped. "Actually, I'm not that hungry. I'm full of popcorn. Thanks, though."