He took one look at her, nodded, gave her a half smile. “I hope there’s a lot. Everybody’ll be hungry today.”

  “There’s always plenty,” she said cheerfully, as she served him a big portion.

  Chef stepped up beside her and took over serving up the food for the CO’s plate and handed it off quickly. But the CO took the same food as everyone else, and she smiled at him. “Enjoy your breakfast, sir.”

  He nodded and headed right back to his own quarters. She was surprised at that. She turned to look at Chef and asked, “Is he okay?”

  “He is. He just hasn’t been feeling that great lately,” Chef shared in a whisper.

  “Then all this stress isn’t helping either.”

  He didn’t respond to that but turned and headed back to the kitchen and started cleaning up. She felt the tension emanating off Steven’s shoulders. Every time she glanced in his direction, he wasn’t looking at her though, which was probably a good thing.

  By the time the dishes were done, and she turned and looked at Chef, and he nodded.

  “You’re good to go. Take a couple hours.”

  She asked, “What about lunch?”

  He replied, “I’ve got a really big stew on, and some roast in the oven already. We’ve got it in hand, and you already did the spuds, so we’re all good.”

  She nodded, then smiled. “In that case, I’ll go grab a plate and eat.”

  “Didn’t you eat earlier?” Chef asked, stopping and looking at her.

  She shook her head. “No, I decided to wait.” He glared at her, but she shrugged. “Hey, everybody was eating and happy enough. So I didn’t want to go out there and disturb things,” she added, with an eye roll.

  He shook his head. “No need for you to feel bad. You didn’t do anything. Remember?”

  “I know. I know,” she said, “but you also know that some people don’t agree with you.”

  He shrugged. “That’s their problem.” Hearing half a snort from Steven behind him, Chef turned and asked, “Did you have something to say?”

  Steven shook his head. “No, I didn’t, but other people will.”

  “They’re welcome to say whatever they want, as long as they say it to me. This is my kitchen. If you don’t like it, you can go find some other place.”

  Steven flushed and shook his head. “No, sir, I’m happy to be here.”

  “Yeah, you’d damn-well better be,” he muttered. “But, if you don’t get over yourself real fast and accept the reality that she didn’t have anything to do with this and behave accordingly, then you’ll find yourself in a spot of trouble really quick.”

  And, with that, Chef turned his back on her and told Steven to work on the dishes. She quickly grabbed the food she’d set off to the side, warmed it up, and took her plate to her room. As soon as she stepped into her room, she felt everything sagging away in relief. Thank God. Some time for herself, for a few minutes to relax, except she didn’t get a few minutes. When a knock came on the door, she called out. and Sydney replied. Opening the door, Avalon let her in. “Hey, come on in. I was just trying to grab a few minutes and eat.”

  “You don’t eat with us?”

  She shrugged. “This morning was a little dicey, and I didn’t want to set anybody off.”

  Sydney gave her a lopsided grin and nodded. “Understood.”

  “So, what’s up? Did you need something from me?” she asked curiously.

  “I’ve talked to Chef, and I’ve talked to Steven about the vanilla in the kitchen,” she explained. “I just wanted to hear your side of it.”

  “Sure, but there’s not much to tell. I’ve never seen vanilla in the kitchen here. Of course I’ve used it myself many times but never here. Chef told me that we don’t use it here, when I asked about it the first time I made cookies. I didn’t have any reason to not follow his directions, and I’ve never worked in a commercial kitchen before, so I didn’t give it a thought.” She paused for a moment, then added, “I never went looking for it, so I didn’t see it, but I understood from Chef that it was up in the locked cupboard, which really doesn’t lock.”

  “A locked cupboard that doesn’t lock?” Sydney asked curiously.

  “Yeah, it’s kind of a joke, like every other lock around here. I mean, it’s not as if we have any strong precautions here that could keep anybody out who’s interested. All these trainees are well equipped to pick any lock around here.”

  Sydney laughed. “Everybody here is pretty capable of popping a lock, aren’t they?”

  “Exactly.” Avalon smiled. “So, it’s not exactly something that’ll keep anybody out. Just calling it the ‘locked cabinet’ is kind of a joke.”

  “But this isn’t a joking matter. The vanilla in this case was more than a prank,” Sydney said, “but, with everything else going on, it was a prank on the scary side, and we want to make sure that it doesn’t happen again.”

  “Oh, I agree with you there,” Avalon stated, “particularly since everybody’s looking at me over it.”

  “No, not everybody,” Sydney stated. “We firmly believe that you didn’t have anything to do with this, but it is possible that somebody is doing it on purpose to discredit you.”

  She stared at her. “That’s possible. I wondered if Ralph had done it to himself.”

  Sydney nodded. “I did ask him that, point-blank, and he got quite irate. I have to admit I believed him.”

  “Good enough. All I know is that I didn’t do it. … I know that my room was searched while I was at work and that other people had their places searched. Did the vanilla ever show up?”

  Sydney shook her head. “No, but it’s not as if it would be hard to dispose of.”

  “Not hard to dispose of, but, if you were to pour it out somewhere, you would think it would leave enough of an odor to make someone notice.”

  “Maybe,” she agreed, looking at her, “but not outside.”

  “Oh, now that’s true,” Avalon said, “and a small bottle would be easy to get rid of.”

  “That’s assuming,” Sydney noted, her tone hardening, “that whoever was only playing a prank and not wanting this as a prelude to something much darker.”

  Avalon stared at the doc and winced. “And that would imply that there could be a second attempt.”

  “Exactly. So Ralph has been told to keep to a very strict diet and to only eat in the kitchen. So, at the first sign of any illness, to come to me, so I can get his stomach emptied,” Sydney shared. “However, I’m really hoping that this is a one-off incident.”

  “Jesus, I would sure as hell hope so.” Avalon frowned at her, stumped. “I mean, does somebody have it in for Ralph, or does somebody have it in for me?”

  “Or is somebody out to get both of you?” Sydney asked.

  “Oh, great,” she murmured, “because I really, … I don’t know what to think.” She was completely dumbfounded that anybody would even consider making a joke out of this. But the alternative of it being deliberate and enough to cause more than a passing moment of illness was too much to even think about. “So, in Ralph’s case,” Avalon asked cautiously, “could it kill him?”

  “Could it? If he didn’t have immediate access to medical aid? Possibly. In this case, it just made him very sick, but I also don’t know how much he ate.”

  “But it would only be in a cookie, right?”

  “The cookie didn’t smell like it had any vanilla to me, but he ate the whole thing, except for one bite to give to his buddy.”

  “Oh, yeah. How is it his buddy got sick? Surely he’s not allergic to vanilla?”

  “Honestly,” Sydney shared, with half a smile, “I think seeing how violently ill Ralph was then combined with the realization that he’d eaten the same thing and made him feel quite nauseous. so he panicked.”

  “Oh, so it’s not as if he got sick himself.”

  “No.”

  Feeling better about that, she nodded. “That makes more sense. It’s amazing how quickly those ideas can fly through this place, isn’t it?”

  “It can happen pretty fast, so, yes. We just want to nip those things in the bud.”

  “I wouldn’t want it to be something people think about either,” she murmured. “Anyway, I don’t know what else to tell you. I don’t know where the vanilla is. As far as I know, it’s supposed to have been in that cupboard, but, because we don’t use it, I can’t say I’ve ever seen it.”

  “Right. That’s what I came to check on, so thanks.” At that, Sydney stood. “We’ll get to the bottom of it. Don’t you worry.”

  “It’s hard not to,” Avalon admitted. “Especially now that you’ve put an even more ominous thought in my mind.”

  Sydney smiled. “I didn’t tell you just to worry you,” she pointed out. “However, if you do sense anything or find or smell or in any way suspect the presence of vanilla, let me know.”

  “Again, it still shouldn’t kill him, right?” she questioned.

  “No, it shouldn’t, but I can’t say what a larger dose would do.”

  “Right, and I guess that’s the point, isn’t it?”

  “It absolutely is. A little bit can make him very sick, but a lot could be far worse. Plus we don’t have facilities for that here,” Sydney explained. “So, it’s the circumstances here and the fact that it could happen while he’s out on a training mission. … It’s all too possible.”

  “Great,” Avalon muttered. “Thanks for that.”

  And, with that, Sydney was gone.

  *

  Barret walked down the hallway toward Avalon’s room, when he saw Sydney step out. He waited for her to approach, then asked in whisper, “Is she okay?”

  “She is. I had already spoken to Chef and Steven, so felt that I needed to speak to her personally as well. She’s on her break and trying to get some food down right now.” Sydney smiled. “So good timing on your part.”

  “I do worry about her,” he said. “She’s quite distressed that anybody would even think she had something to do with it.”

  “Of course she is. Nobody wants to be accused of something like this. However, I’m more concerned that we don’t have the vanilla bottle, and I don’t know what a stronger dose would do to Ralph.”

  “And you’re thinking that’s a problem?”

  She gave him a lopsided look. “Have you gotten any indication that life here is normal and that it’s not something we should worry about?”

  “No,” he admitted, “not at all.”

  “Exactly, so, until we find that bottle, we can’t put the issue to rest. Once we find it, I’ll still have to figure out if some has been emptied into some other container for another purpose too.”

  “Great,” Barret replied. “I can see why Avalon’s not feeling terribly good about any of this.”

  “Nobody can feel good about it,” the doc said, “especially Ralph.”

  “And you don’t think he did it himself?”

  “I don’t know.” She shrugged. “He seemed pretty credible when I asked him, and I don’t think he would have intentionally made himself quite that sick on purpose. Maybe enough to start puking, but this went well beyond that scenario.”

  “That could have been exactly it though,” Barret pointed out. “Like Ralph thought he’d do it to make himself sick, so he’d have something to back up his ongoing accusations and could get other people looking at her sideways again—only it went too far.”

  “And that’s possible,” Sydney agreed. “It absolutely is possible. I just don’t know for sure, and so we’ll keep an open mind.” And, with that, she was gone.

  When he reached Avalon’s door, he knocked. When he pushed his head in, she asked, “What’s the point of living here if you still have to knock to see if you can come in?”

  He laughed and stepped inside. “I didn’t want to overstep my boundaries.”

  “Okay, good to know,” she replied sarcastically. “I’m not exactly sure what the boundary is, but, hey, it’s nice to know you didn’t want to overstep it.”

  He rolled his eyes at her mood. “I take it the talk with Sydney didn’t go well.”

  “She just pointed out that, until the vanilla is found, it’ll be suspect in any other accident involving Ralph,” she shared in a curt tone. “I wouldn’t wish that on anybody. I guess he’s taking it easy today because his stomach is sore from all the puking. And, of course, he’s feeling pretty rough and hard done by, and she doesn’t really believe that he would have done this to himself. She believed him when he told her that he didn’t have anything to do with it.”

  “Which is also why we did a full search of his room and grilled both him and his buddy to make sure that his buddy didn’t give it to him, just to cement whatever joke they were planning.”

  “Oh, that’s great,” she muttered. “Can’t say I would want to see that happen either.”

  “Nope, and yet it’s possible. It’s all possible,” Barret claimed, “so we’ll err on the side of being safe.”

  “Sounds good to me,” she muttered. “Of course Steven’s been an absolute ass too, though Chef shut him down pretty fast. I’m really glad to have Chef in my corner.”

  Day 10 After Dinner

  Dinner was over. Avalon was tired, but it had been a good day, although she wasn’t sure that Steven’s presence had helped much with the workload. She wanted to mention it to Chef, yet, at the same time, she wasn’t sure it would be prudent. As she looked around to see what else needed to be done, Chef pointed at the doorway.

  “Go,” Chef said. “You’ve done a ton of work today. Get lost.” She glared at him. He sighed. “Look. You can’t just work away your troubles.”

  “Are you sure?” she asked, with an eye roll. “I thought I was doing a good job of it.”

  “No, it’s called avoidance,” Chef clarified, “and you still have to spend some of your evening with other people. They need to see you out there, being one of them.”

  “Not if I stay in here and keep working,” she noted cheerfully.

  “Nope, not allowed.”

  She glared at him and shrugged. “Fine. I have to get up early in the morning anyway.”

  “I wanted to suggest that Steven can do the early morning shift, and you can come in a bit later. You’ve already done a ton of work.”

  “I won’t say no to sleeping in for a change,” she admitted. “It’s been a long time since I’ve had a chance to do that.”

  He nodded. “Good. So, sleep in tomorrow,” Chef ordered, “and I’ll see you sometime after breakfast is served. Show up on the other side of the counter and eat first. Then we’ll talk and see where we’re at for the day.”

  “Good enough,” she said, then unexpectedly gave him a hug, then quickly dashed away. She heard him chuckling behind her, so she figured that at least she hadn’t insulted him in any way.

  With that, she walked away, feeling a sense of joy. Several other people caught the smile on her face, but, instead of waiting for her to explain, they quickly dodged out of her way, as if to avoid her, and her smile disappeared.

  She mentally shrugged, knowing that she couldn’t really blame them, not when everybody was thinking the same thing, but it still hurt. It hurt in ways that she hadn’t really expected. She headed to her room, determined to have some time to herself and to forget everybody else’s ugly behavior. As she came down the hallway, she found herself face-to-face with Ralph.

  He glared at her.

  She shrugged. “I’m sorry about what happened, but I had nothing to do with it.”

  He didn’t say anything and just continued to glare and didn’t get out of her way.

  She sighed. “Look. I’ve said all I have to say. So, if you can just let me get by, we can both go about our business.” She stepped to the left, but he stepped up in front of her, blocking her path. She took a deep breath, stared at him. “Seriously?”

  He nodded. “You’re the bitch who tried to poison me,” he snapped.

  “And what if I’m not the person who tried to poison you?” she asked, looking at him.

  “What do you mean? Of course you are.”

  “What if I’m not? Just consider the possibility for the moment. What if I’m not the one who tried to poison you? For all I know, you did it yourself to make me look bad. I mean, you’ve been on this campaign to shit on me all along, and this is just more of the same damn thing.”

  “You really think I poisoned myself?” he asked in shock.

  “Why not? Somebody poisoned you, but it sure as hell wasn’t me. And let’s not forget the fact that this was not poison. This was vanilla.”

  “Yeah, and I’m allergic to it. It makes me really sick.”

  “I understand that, but it’s not as if it was arsenic or something,” she said.

  “Who’s to say that you won’t do that next time?” he spat back at her.

  “Look. As I already told you, I didn’t do it the first time,” she stated, determined not to lose her temper. “And it would be really nice if you would stop making such innuendos in my face. Or behind my back for that matter because I didn’t do anything to you.”

  He glared at her.

  Avalon added, “I sure hope they searched your room for vanilla, just as they searched mine.”

  He stared at her, incredulous. “I didn’t poison myself. That is ridiculous.”

  “I didn’t do it either. So, it looks as if we’re back to the same problem. If I didn’t do it, and you didn’t do it, you might want to spend some of that energy considering who else might have.”

  He shook his head. “Nobody else gives a damn enough to try to do that to me.”

  “Maybe not,” she agreed, “but what if you had a conversation with somebody and implied that maybe things would be better if I was out of here, if only there was some way that you could make that happen?”

  He stared at her, and, if she hadn’t been watching so closely, she might not have seen the jolt in his eyes.