You take a big spoon and taste the sauce. "It doesn’t taste as good as Steve’s," you mumble.

Mark glances at you from where he is poking around by the sink. "You find anything interesting?"

"I don’t even know what we’re looking for," you say and move your foot back as you turn around.

Your foot hits something, and Mark sees it skidding across the floor. He pulls a handkerchief out of his pocket and picks a small vial off of the floor. He sniffs at it and shrugs at you. "Maybe we should get this to Steve," he says.

"Might as well," you say. "I didn’t find anything else, did you?"

Mark shakes his head and waves a hand for you to exit first.

About two hours later while you and Mark are waiting for the results on the test for the vial, you begin to feel horribly sick. Anything you have eaten just before or since tasting the rival’s BBQ sauce comes up. Mark offers to take you to the hospital and you find that you have food poisoning.

"Maybe I shouldn’t have tasted that sauce after all," you say as you lay on the hospital bed after Mark takes you to CG.

"It looks like whatever was in that vial was put into the sauce," Mark explains to you. "The test came back and it’s Salmonella."

You groan. "How long am I going to be here?"

"A few days at least," Mark answers.

"I guess that takes me off the case, huh?" you say.

"I’m afraid it does," Mark says.

"I didn’t really want to help anyway," you say.

The End

Click here to return to the beginning