Model Crime 1 by Carolyn Keene

stand it!”
    “Easy, Kinnie.” Candy looked distraught too, though she seemed to be holding it together a little better than the other model. “Vic’s going to be okay, remember? Freaking out isn’t going to help anyone, including yourself.”
    Akinyi shuddered and waved her slim hands as if pushing away her friend’s words. “You didn’t see it, Candy!” she cried. “You were outside. It was horrible! Horrible!”
    Pandora got up and hurried over to Akinyi, looking concerned. “Please, darling,” she said soothingly, rubbing Akinyi’s back. “Don’t do this to yourself. Gather your spiritual energy and resist the negative forces. I can already see that your aura is in crisis….”
    Bo and Dragon were just staring at Akinyi, not seeming to know what to say as she melted down in front of them. I knew how they felt. I remembered Akinyi joking around about being neurotic earlier; maybe that wasn’t such a joke after all.
    I turned to Candy. “That’s right, I almost forgot you and Syd went outside before it happened,” I said. “Did you see or hear anything weird while you were out there?”
    Candy bit her lip and shook her head. “No, and I’m really glad we didn’t. Syd’s pretty shaken up about this. I can’t even imagine how she’d be taking it if she’d witnessed it all.”
    Pandora nodded. “The poor thing. I hope she can recover her joyous spirit of love after this. Maybe I can help by doing a reading for her—does anyone know where I can get some tea leaves?”
    Deciding I wasn’t likely to learn much more from anyone in that group at the moment, I quietly extricated myself and wandered off. Spotting Bess and George, I hurried over to rejoin them.
    “Hi,” I greeted them, quickly filling them in on the little I’d learned. “You guys find out anything interesting?”
    “Not really. George and I got stuck for most of the time talking to Syd’s friend Deb,” Bess said. “She’s all aflutter.”
    Despite the serious situation, I smiled. Only Bess could get away with using a word like “aflutter.” But I had to admit it suited Deb’s usual demeanor perfectly.
    “Yeah,” George put in. “She kept babbling about how she couldn’t believe something like this could happen right here in good ol’ River Heights.”
    “If she only knew!” I joked, thinking back over the countless criminals, wrongdoers, and assorted bad guys I’d busted over the years right there in our sleepy little Midwestern city. “Anyway, from talking to Terrence I think it’s safe to speculate that the punch probably got poisoned while it was waiting off in that little side room.”
    George shrugged. “Okay, but what does that tell us?” she said. “Anyone at the party could’ve sneaked in there, either through the catering prep room or by going outside and then back in the other door.”
    “Yeah, I know. Doesn’t help us much.” I shot a look at the closest camera, which was being wielded by a burly man with bushy eyebrows, a gleaming bald head, and a grumpy expression. “Although if we could check out the footage and see who might’ve left at an opportune time…”
    My voice trailed off as I heard a commotion from nearby. We were standing at the edge of the waiting area, very close to the arched doorway leading out to the hospital’s main entrance. Stepping closer, I peered out and saw Deirdre there talking to someone with a camera.
    However, that someone wasn’t part of the Daredevils crew. The familiar logo of one of the local news teams was plastered all over the camera.
    “…and it was just such a near-tragedy,” Deirdre exclaimed, a single tear wending its way down her cheek. “Just imagine if everyone at the party had taken a drink of that stuff—the carnage! The horror! What kind of terrible person would do something like that to a bunch of innocent people?”
    Uh-oh. One glance at the reporter holding the microphone up to Deirdre’s face told me that he was eating this up. If the