Page 29 of Wild Fever

"Good to know," JD said.

"It's a little more than food poisoning," I said.

"What do you mean?" Selene asked.

"Did anybody approach you about tampering with her food?”

Her brow lifted with surprise. "No.” She paused. "You think somebody messed with her food on purpose?”

I shrugged. "You mentioned other people had gotten sick. Has anyone else reported an illness in the last two days?”

"No. Not that I know about. The last time somebody got food poisoning was a few months ago.”

I asked Selene for her last name, and she volunteered it. I sent the information to Isabella and asked her to run a background check.

Selene surveyed Kara. "You don't look so hot. Are you okay?"

"Not really.”

Kara looked weak and feverish.

"Maybe you should sit this out," I suggested to her.

"No. I'm not sitting anything out.”

"You don't have the flu or anything, do you?" Selene asked with a twisted face.

Kara shook her head. "No."

"Good. I can't afford the downtime. I can barely pay rent as it is.”

"Who else has access to the food besides the cooks?”

"Just the waitstaff, runners, and the manager. I guess the busboys.”

After what we learned about the food, we decided not to eat.

Isabella texted me back a moment later.

19

Isabella texted:[She's clean. But that doesn't necessarily mean anything. I'll dig deeper into her phone records and bank transactions to see if anything funny pops up.]

[Thank you.]

I thanked Selene for her cooperation. She went back to work, and we interviewed the kitchen staff and the busboys, then talked to the manager. Either they didn't have any involvement, or everyone played dumb. I gave Isabella the names of the staff to run background checks on.

Everybody turned up clean.

By the time we left the restaurant, a thin mist of sweat had coated Kara's brow.

"Are you sure you're okay? Maybe you should lie down."

"I'll rest when I'm dead," she said.

We walked to the parking lot, and Kara squeezed into the backseat of the Porsche, which was no easy task. But at her size,she could fit back there a lot easier than I could. The classic sports car was not designed for more than two adults. It was a good thing Kara was on the petite side.

"Where else did you go in the time before you met Mr. Yan?"