09 The Clue at Black Creek Farm (13 page)

He was. In fact, I'd said good-bye to him less than an hour before.

“I don't believe you,” I said quietly.

Julie smiled again, a cold smile. “How
much
do you not believe me?” she asked, pulling a phone from her purse. “Enough to stake your father's life on it?”

I lost my breath.
No
—and Julie knew it.

Without thinking, I turned and looked into the café to see if George was watching. She was—in fact, she'd moved out of the kitchen and was standing just inside the dining room, headphones on, holding the tablet. She was looking at me like I'd lost my mind.

“Your friend had better come too.” Julie's voice was low, threatening. “I know she's in on this with you.”
I turned back to her to see that she'd seen me look at George. And worse, Holly was glancing between us nervously. I saw something in her eyes that looked like genuine fear. “If either one of you screams, I'll make that call to Jack. I'm sure he could make a visit to George's house too. Understand?”

I swallowed hard and gazed desperately at the squad car. It was still empty. George stepped out of the café, and I squinted past her into the dining room, hoping to see Lydia watching—but she must have still been in the kitchen/office. I looked at George, trying to put all the
I'm so sorry I looked back
I was feeling into my frantic expression. We were about to get into a car with a total maniac, and nobody would know.
How did this all go so wrong?

Julie stood, and Holly slowly got to her feet too. “You're going to walk calmly to the car,” Julie said, “like nothing is wrong.”

George looked at me, her eyes glassy with fear, and gave a slight nod, as if to say,
Let's do what they say
. She left the tablet and headphones inside the café and
met us outside. Together, we walked slowly to Jack and Julie's gray sedan. Julie followed, smiling like we were all going on a picnic, and unlocked the doors, encouraging us all to “Climb in—don't be shy!”

George and I settled ourselves in the backseat. Julie and Holly slammed the doors, and there was a loud
click
as they locked. I reached instantly for the handle on the inside of the door, but it wouldn't budge;
Child locks,
I mouthed to George. We couldn't unlock the doors and get out—even if we were willing to escape a moving car. We had to go wherever Julie wanted to take us.

I glanced out the window just in time to spot Officer Bailey leading two teenage boys out of an alley down the street. I recognized the teens as Toby Farelly and Steve Minerva, two boys who were known throughout River Heights to have a rather colorful history with the law. Each of them was holding two cans of spray paint.
Of course,
I realized; Officer Bailey must have seen an actual crime being committed and decided to go after the vandals. It only made
sense, since he hadn't exactly been excited to be keeping an eye on me to begin with.

I tried the door handle one more time, then the electric windows, but neither worked. Finally I gave up and just pounded on the window.

“Officer Bailey!”
I screamed as loud as I possibly could. “Help us! She's kidnapping us!
Officer Bailey!
”

Our car peeled out of its space just as a hand smacked me hard across the face. I blinked and looked up front; Holly had hit me. Julie had both hands on the wheel.

“You'll pay for that,” Julie said darkly, anger seeming to emanate from her body.

I didn't doubt that I would. But I had only one chance to get Officer Bailey's attention.

I looked back at him. He was watching our car speed off.

Did he see me?

“WHAT DO WE DO WITH
them?” Holly asked hesitantly. She shot a nervous glance at the backseat, where George and I were watching them curiously.

“What do you think we do with them?” Julie spat. “They know everything, Holly. We can't just drop them off at their parents' houses.”

“Maybe . . . ,” Holly said slowly. “Maybe we could take them somewhere and lock them up? My grandparents have a summer cottage I don't think is being used right now. It's about an hour away, but . . .”

“That's not enough, Holly.” Julie's voice was as
sharp as a knife. “They can't be out there, knowing what they know.”

I looked at George in alarm.
They're going to kill us.

She looked at me and said nothing, but a tear escaped from her left eye.

I felt like my heart might explode. To keep sane, I decided to do the only thing I knew how to do in this situation: get the criminal talking.

“What exactly happened, Julie?” I asked in as gentle a voice as I could manage. “I mean, there must be a reason you did what you did.”

Julie let out a rueful laugh. “Oh, there was a reason,” she said. “I lost my job last year, as you know. It was a very lucrative, high-paying job. Losing it was a pretty huge blow. Jack's a lawyer, sure, but half the cases he works are pro bono. We burned through our savings really fast. We started having trouble paying the mortgage on our apartment. We couldn't afford the payments on our cars and had to give one up.” She paused. “Meanwhile,” she said, “my wealthy father-in-law—who, back in the day, had more money
than Jack or I could shake a stick at—helped one sick girl's family and decided to pursue this cockamamie organic farm idea, sinking half his net worth into it. Did I mention that Sam had left Jack half his estate in his will? Jack and I watched our inheritance dwindle for more than a year. Then I got pregnant, and I decided I had to do something about the farm.”

George cleared her throat. I could tell she was scared. “But isn't this kind of . . . extreme?” she asked. “I mean, if your ultimate goal is just to get him to sell the farm. Now you're kidnapping us? Maybe . . .”

Hurting us,
I finished for her. But George's voice was gone. She couldn't say it.

“It wasn't meant to go this far,” Julie said with a sigh. “I mean, the farm was already struggling. I thought Sam would only need one really disastrous year to realize what a big mistake he'd made. Hence, the contaminate-the-vegetables-with-E. coli plan. I wasn't exactly thrilled about the idea of giving myself E-coli. But I had my family to think about. I figured once word got around that Black Creek Farm
was selling vegetables that could actually
make you sick
, that would do it. But the thing is”—Julie let out a crazy laugh—“Sam didn't give up.”

“He loves the farm,” I said, wanting to keep her arguing with me.

“He does,” said Julie. “And he kept fighting, and got you and your friends involved. I realized the stakes had to get higher, faster. I knew that Sam was a softie. I knew he wouldn't put up with danger to his family.”

She suddenly pulled into a parking lot. I looked around.
Kepner Park.
It was a large park just outside River Heights that had a small pond and hiking trails.

“Anyway,” Julie said, turning back to face us with that same deranged smile, “now we're going to go for a hike.”

I looked at George.
She wants to get us out into the woods and do something to us,
I realized.
Maybe something so horrible that we'll never come out.

George looked like she had reached this conclusion as well.

“Come on.” Lifting her phone and giving it a little
shake, Julie herded us out of the car and onto the blue hiking trail. I looked around at the parking lot, heart pounding, wondering if this was the last piece of civilization I'd see. But then Julie shoved me along.

“Let's go.”

We walked down the trail for maybe half a mile. Then Julie stopped us. “Into the woods,” she commanded. I felt my stomach clench.
This is bad. This is really bad.
But for once my mind was blank. I didn't know what else to do.

George and I followed Julie's commands and left the trail, walking farther until we reached a small clearing.

“What are you going to do to us?” George demanded.

Julie smiled, pulling a long, sharp-looking knife from her purse. There was still red on the blade. Julie looked at it and laughed.

“Sorry, girls—there may still be some chicken blood on there,” she said.

I felt like I was going to be sick. I reached into my pocket, trying to dial my dad on the phone without
being detected.
Do I even have service?
I couldn't tell if my fingers were hitting the right buttons.

Julie moved closer to me and held up the knife, her hands shaking. “You're first,” she said, “since you're the sneaky one.”

I felt like I was in a nightmare; I wanted to scream or run, but my feet were rooted to the spot.

Julie held the knife high. It gleamed in the sun.

“No!” Holly's voice suddenly split the air. “Julie, don't!”

Julie turned and glared at her accomplice. “What's your problem now?”

“It's not worth this,” Holly said, and as she moved closer, I could see that her face was ghostly white. “Listen, I'm passionate about this CSA and the principles it stands for. So when I agreed to contaminate those vegetables at the buffet, I only did it because you're my best friend and you were desperate. But you swore no one would get hurt. And I'm not okay with hurting people, Julie, especially not
kids
.” She gestured helplessly at George and me.

Julie stepped closer to Holly and held out the knife. “Holly,” she said in a cool voice, “if I'm willing to get rid of two teenagers over this, why would you assume I'm not willing to get rid of
you
?”

I gasped. Had our last hope of making Julie see reason been defeated?

But then I heard the slightest bit of movement.

I turned toward the trees we'd walked through to enter the clearing and spotted Officer Bailey, creeping forward with a gun trained on Julie. I took in a breath, but he held his finger to his lips and I forced myself to look away.

“FREEZE! Drop your weapon!”

Julie turned around, startled, to face Officer Bailey and three of his finest colleagues, all with guns trained on her.

Relief washed over me like a hot bath on a cold day.
He did see me,
I realized with satisfaction. The ruckus I'd made just before Julie raced out of her parking space had worked.

Julie struggled, but eventually the police forced her
to drop her weapon. I was beginning to realize that Julie was seriously out of her mind; clearly, the woman had no idea when to give up. When the knife was down, I nearly collapsed with relief. I ran to George and hugged her as hard as I could.

“Please forgive me,” I cried. “Please, please, please, please, please, George . . .”

“Forgive you for what?” she asked, pulling back with an expression of genuine confusion.

“For looking back at you in the café,” I said, thinking it was obvious. “If I hadn't done that, they might not have made you get into the car with me.”

George shook her head. “Nancy, they saw me earlier. I waited on them.”

“But—”

“Shhhh,” she said, hugging me hard again. “I would have done the same thing. And honestly? I'm just glad we're alive to tell the tale.”

Once Julie and Holly had been handcuffed and led out to the police cruiser, Officer Bailey came back to lead George and me back to the parking lot. Just as we
got there, a familiar car squealed into the parking lot, stopping short. The door flung open, and my dad came running out toward us.

He grabbed me in a big hug, then pulled back and looked us both over. “Are you girls okay?” he asked. “Nancy, what on earth are you doing working a case this dangerous without my help?”

I shrugged, not sure what to say. “It didn't seem that dangerous at the beginning,” I said honestly. “I mean . . . who knew people could get this worked up about organic farming?”