Free Sorority Sister by Diane Hoh Page B

and she drew her knees up even closer to her stomach.
    “No. I’m not. But … ” Maxie was too confused to think straight, but one solid thought slipped into her mind … “but I didn’t eat anything at dinner. Everyone who’s sick did. I remember Nita and Dennie especially saying how good it tasted, and Erica and Candie taking second helpings.”
    “Dinner?” Mildred paled. “The spaghetti?”
    Maxie nodded.
    “Well, it couldn’t have been that,” Mildred said. “I made it myself. The meat was fresh, and so was the sauce. There couldn’t have been anything wrong with it.”
    “Any of it left?” the policeman asked.
    “Yes. I put the leftovers in the frig.” Mildred led him out into the kitchen. Maxie followed them to wet a cloth for Erica’s forehead.
    The officer took the plastic-covered bowl off its shelf. He lifted the plastic wrap and sniffed.
    “Any objection if I take this with me, ma’am?” the officer asked, holding up the bowl.
    “Oh, heavens,” Mildred murmured, “if there’s anything wrong with something I cooked, if that’s what made my girls sick, I … ”
    “It probably isn’t, Mrs. B.,” Maxie said hastily. “But he should check it anyway, right? Just to prove that it wasn’t the spaghetti. It’s probably just a flu bug or something, really.” But as she went upstairs to check on Tinker and Candie, she knew she hadn’t meant a word of it. She didn’t really believe it was a bug. What kind of “bug” would hit so many people at exactly the same moment, or do so much damage?
    Tinker and Candie were in bad shape.
    It seemed to Maxie that it was hours before the ambulance came shrieking up the driveway. And even more hours before a doctor came into the emergency waiting room at the hospital to tell Mildred and the girls who hadn’t eaten dinner that they had stabilized all of the patients.
    “Looks like botulism,” he told a hand-wringing Mildred. “They must have eaten something that was spoiled. Home-canned, maybe?”
    “No, no,” Mildred said frantically, “that’s not possible! That meat was fresh, the sauce was fresh … it couldn’t be botulism!”
    “What’s botulism?” a girl named Nancy, who hadn’t eaten, asked.
    “Comes from home-canned foods that go bad, usually,” the doctor said matter-of-factly. “You didn’t can the tomatoes yourself?” he asked Mildred.
    “No. The tomatoes were fresh”
    “Didn’t let the meat thaw on the counter?”
    Ashen-faced Mildred answered firmly, “No. I always thaw meat in the refrigerator. I know what I’m doing in the kitchen, doctor.”
    The doctor nodded absentmindedly, seemingly unaware of Mildred’s anxious state of mind. Telling them he was keeping everyone overnight, adding that they should know by the following day what had made the girls sick, he left, a puzzled frown on his face.
    The two police officers, who had accompanied them to the hospital, approached the worried group.
    “Couldn’t help overhearing,” the male officer said. “If it isn’t what that doctor said he thought it was, botulism, any idea what it might be?”
    They all shook their heads no.
    “Had to be in the food,” the female officer said. “The ones who ate dinner got sick, the ones who didn’t are okay. Doesn’t take a genius to figure out that it was the food, all right. But,” she added kindly, addressing her comment to Mildred, “that doesn’t mean it was something you did wrong. Could be someone added to your seasoning, if you get my meaning.”
    Mildred looked at her as if she had just stepped out of a spaceship. “Excuse me?”
    Maxie held her breath. She wasn’t going to like what the officer was going to say, she could feel it.
    “Well, ma’am, we came to your house in the first place tonight because someone landed in the hospital, right? We haven’t had a chance to check things out yet. But if it wasn’t an accident …well, all I’m getting at is, if someone sent that girl to the hospital, maybe