“I’ll call,” Buffy said, removing her phone from her pocket, while she addressed Hilly. “You find the bag Bailey was eating out of. You might want to get it tested to see what she ingested.”
While Hilly listened to Buff give details to the dispatcher in town, she laid a hand on Farah’s shoulder. The little girl hadn’t left Bailey’s side. “Sweetie, first of all, you did good, coming to get us. But now can you tell me which bag she was eating from?” Hilly probed gently.
The child sniffed and nodded. “That one.” Farah pointed to a discarded snack tote on a nearby rock. “We were sharing because I finished mine already.”
If Hilly wasn’t so focused on the well-being of her counselor, she might have felt elated that Bailey had been interacting nicely with one of the campers. The little girl certainly seemed to like Bailey, a lot.
“Thanks, Farrah. Try not to worry. Bailey’s going to be okay.”
The girl nodded, then ran to accept hugs from her friends.
Hilly walked over and retrieved the bag, which was oddly oily looking. Funny. The sacks Hilly and her friends had been eating from hadn’t had anything leaching through the brown paper. Hilly stuffed the suspicious thing into her daypack. She was pretty sure Cisco could have some kind of analysis done on it.
The big question was, had this been a simple peanut oversight, or was this a deliberate attempt by someone to harm Bailey. Hilly knew there weren’t many counselors who liked the girl. Maybe someone thought it would be funny to see her get sick; not knowing the seriousness of what could happen.
Hilly would try to keep an open mind until such time as they found out what was in the bag. Then, if peanuts were found, she’d interrogate every person who’d had the opportunity to handle the snack satchel.
Crash picked Bailey up, keeping his casted wrist safe while doing so. The girl had to be extremely shaken, because a normal-feeling Bailey would have reacted smugly to the muscly arms supporting her.
“I can make it to the bottom with her faster if I don’t wait,” Crash informed Hilly.
“Go,” Hilly urged without hesitation. “We’ll take care of everything here.”
Crash nodded as he began to walk away. “I’ll also accompany her to the hospital, and stay with her until she’s in the clear.”
Hilly nodded. “I’ll contact her parents, and we’ll send someone to pick you up once Bailey is released.”
Crash gave a chin lift, then took off at an extraordinarily rapid pace. It was a good thing he’d come along, and even better that his firefighter training made him capable of carrying people over long distances.
“Okay kids.” Hilly drew everyone’s attention back to her. “We’re headed down. Bailey’s going to be okay. She’s being taken to the hospital.” Hilly tried to speak with confidence. She could only hope her assurances were correct.
She began gathering trash when Buffy knelt by her side.
“Do you think this was an accident?” her friend asked quietly.
Hilly sighed.
“I don’t know,” she replied grimly. “But I’m certainly going to find out.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Upon parking his bike, Cisco walked into camp, whistling. His excitement over seeing Hilly again bubbled through his veins, and he hastened his steps.
He rounded a stand of trees, and the tune in his throat dried up. A glum looking group stood outside Hilly’s cabin, and none of them brightened at his arrival.
His mood turned hyper vigilant.
Something bad had clearly happened.
“Hilly?” he questioned, coming up to where she stood with Buffy, Adeline and Coco, and Mrs. S.
Nel was whining, pasted smack up against Hilly’s thigh as Hilly patted her dog absently on the head.
“We had an incident today,” she told him, her eyes full of worry.
Cisco’s first thought was that Cottins, that asshole, had done something to cause Hilly the amount of angst she was exhibiting.
Un-fucking-acceptable.
“Someone did something to you? Are you okay? Where’s Crash?”
If that bastard of a developer had hurt Hilly or the camp, Cisco was going to go ballistic.
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.
