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I gripped my pint glass as Trevor pushed a plate of popcorn in front of Johnny and me with his flippers. His face came out of the costume where the seal's mouth should be, causing the upper jaw to almost sit like a baseball cap on his forehead. It was all so grim, I couldn't even bring myself to give him a hard time about becoming Seaside's latest mascot.
"Sorry the bakeoff is going so bad," Trevor said.
"Thanks," I replied. "Sorry you're still stuck in that seal costume."
"Madison says I can take it off if the bakeoff is canceled. Said we'll have to rebrand. She's talking about clams." He shook his body, because his neck couldn't bend in the costume, in disgust. "I mean, not even a shark or a dolphin or something. A clam."
"A fish is more than his flippers." Johnny reached out his fist. "Keep clam and carry on, dude."
Trevor gave Johnny a floppy bump of solidarity and then walked away, looking as miserable as I was feeling.
Nate left the table with the judges and sidled into the booth beside me. He looked worn out. He reached out for a couple kernels of popcorn and I used the excuse to brush my hand up against his. He gripped my fingers and gave me an appreciative squeeze.
"So... like... what's the deal?" asked Johnny. "Like, are things done or are we still doing the dealio?"
"For now?" Nate said, leaning his elbows on the thickly veneered tabletop, "It looks like things are going forward."
I let out a huge exhale. Part of me had been thinking how nice it would be for the whole mess to be canceled, but I didn't realize until he said it was moving forward how much I, in fact, wanted to keep going.
"Any word what made people so sick?" I asked.
"Syrup of ipecac."
"What?" I said, making sure I heard him correctly.
"It was in the frosting of Bryce's brownies. He used what he thought was maple flavored extract to kick the flavor up a notch, but looks like someone switched the bottles."
"That's awful!" I said.
"Yeah, not cool ruining good brownies," added Johnny.
Nate shrugged. "Hopefully this will be the end of it, though. Whoever was out to take him down had done double duty. If the flyers didn't do it, the vomiting would. But now that he's gone and Sheila's gone... Well, hopefully everything will be back to normal tomorrow."
I grimaced. "But what about the island?"
Nate shook his head. "We gave vouchers for a free night at the Grand Hotel to everyone who was sick and refunded their ferry money." He wiped his face with his hands. "Maybe I should have just sold the island to the cruise ships."
Johnny reached across the table and socked Nate in the arm. "Don't even joke about something like that. As your newly minted co-owner founder cousin, I'm saying that's not ever a possibility ever."
Nate laughed ruefully and rubbed his bicep. "Johnny has spoken. Case closed."
"Darn tootin'," said Johnny, picking up his water glass and guzzling it down.
"It's a relief that it might all be over," I said. "To just be able to bake and not have to worry about anything?"
"It still makes me wonder who has this vendetta. They went to a lot of trouble."
I snuggled against his shoulder. "Well, I shouldn't say this but I, for one, am not actually too heartbroken about Bryce and Shelia being taken down a peg."
"Yeah?" replied Nate, putting his arm around me. "Should I put you down as our prime suspect? Get Stan and Fred to grill you?"
"Bryce was always trying to get into people's heads and make them doubt themselves. And then to find out that he and Shelia were in cahoots? Not that Kylie is such a great human being, but for years she has placed second to Bryce and felt like she was doing something wrong. And it wasn't her!" I paused for a moment. "I wonder if Richard or Victor ever suspected..."
We all sat in silence and contemplated the idea.
"I mean, Victor probably wouldn't have cared. In fact, I think he was going around making all sorts of promises to the lady contestants last night."
"Really?" asked Nate. "Did he say something to you?"
"He's a total creeper," I replied. "Nothing overt, but it sure felt like he was coming on a little too strong." I then thought some more. "And Richard is so noble. He even refused to serve as a judge when his reputation was impugned by Madison. I can't imagine him hanging around if he knew something like this was happening."
"Yeah, he quit just before everything went down. Did he get lucky or what!" exclaimed Johnny.
The thought had never occurred to me. Nate and I looked at each other.
"He did leave just before everything started happening," Nate pointed out. "And his sense of honor is pretty black and white. Do you think he would ruin the bakeoff if he found out the whole thing had been rigged for years?"
I thought of Richard with his sweet, white mustache and plaid bowties. He seemed like such a nice guy. And Granny liked him so much. And then I thought back about our conversations. He had been a chemist. He knew where I lived and where Bryce was living. He probably could have even gotten into the baking room without raising any red flags because he was still, technically, a part of the judging team, even if he had excused himself.
"Oh," I said, shaking my head, not even wanting to consider it. "No. No, there's no way he could be..."