So instead I went to Land. He wouldn’t be my first choice for a sounding board, but given that he typically helped me with these investigations, he’d be more likely to lend a listening ear than anyone else would.
I stood outside of Land’s door, having not called or texted to let him know I was on my way. I was honestly concerned that he wouldn’t want to hear my story, and I needed to share this with someone I could trust.
He opened the door. I was a bit surprised. He was shirtless, and I could see the lean flat abs that I’d only caught glimpses of before, and the flat pecs with the dark brown nipples. I was definitely distracted for a minute.
I tried to process my thoughts for a few moments. He had to know that I was at the door, and yet he’d opened it wearing less than I normally saw him wearing at work. Had he wanted me to see him that way, or did I just look so bad that he took pity on me and opened the door regardless of what he was wearing.
“Hold on,” he said. He went into the other room and came back with a t-shirt on. I was still puzzled, but I knew my brain was just trying to avoid dealing with the issues of my father’s business. “So what’s up? You look like someone ran over your dog.”
That was Land all over for you. I came to talk and sort things out – and he gave me a grisly image that I didn’t want in my mind.
I explained the situation to him in detail. He seemed to have no problems understanding derivatives. I figured that he’d probably worked with them in yet another career that I had no idea about. The man had more hidden parts of his life than I had parts in total of my life. I’d once described him as an onion that was peeled to reveal more levels than before.
When I was done, he didn’t say a word. He walked to the refrigerator and got two beers. He took off the caps and handed one to me. From what I could tell, this was some type of Basque beer. It had in tiny print that it was an India Pale Ale, so I took a swig. It wasn’t bad. “So this is your sound advice? Get drunk?”
He twisted up his lip. “I’ve heard worse advice, and for the record, no, it’s not my advice. I’m just cooling you down a bit. You seem pretty distraught over this matter.”
“I feel like I’ve brought on this mess myself. If I hadn’t gone snooping, then I wouldn’t have discovered this about my dad, and now he’s going to report himself in a week, if I don’t do something.”
He sighed and sat down on the sofa. “First, you didn’t bring this on yourself. Someone shipped the dead body to you for a reason, and a good guess is that they wanted to compromise your position before you even started on this investigation. What better way than to make a family member a suspect in another disappearance. Even if you went to the police as soon as you found out, they’d still suspect every piece of evidence and every deduction you’ve made.”
“Yeah, but now I’m holding back on what I know.”
“You’re not suppressing evidence. You drew conclusions based on information that the police could easily have found too. They could have interviewed these people. They could have gotten a warrant for Longhill’s computer. They could have come to the same conclusions you did, if they’d put the time into it.”
“But I know things that they don’t.” I felt a cry coming on, but I held back. I wasn’t sure how Land would feel about me crying, though given the circumstances, I suspected that he would be forgiving.
“Listen, you only beat the police to the same conclusion. They’ve already submitted the dead guy’s DNA to the lab, so it’s only a matter of time before they would have come to the same conclusion about his identity.” Land took my hand in his and patted it. I was a bit shocked by the move.
Still I wasn’t placated. “Not if he’s not in the system. Then he’d still be a mystery. Someone didn’t want him recognized for a reason.”
Land nodded. “That’s true but you’d be surprised how many people are either fingerprinted or DNA sampled today. It’s not a surprise to find a match if not on that person, at least a close relative. You figure that someone in the family has likely been tested, so any family member can give away the whole crew. If my brother or mother were tested, they’d find a partial match with me and know that this person was a relative.”
I wanted to ask more about his brother and mother, who I’d never heard much about before, but I didn’t want a lecture on DNA testing. “So you think they’ll find a hit?”
Land paused a second before responding. “If not on him, then a close relative, yes. Then it’s just a matter of time before they ask who benefited from the disappearance – and your dad’s name would appear. And Danvers would know all about how the freezer was delivered to you.”
“So what then? I should just stand back and let the inevitable happen?” I felt desolate. I’d lost my aunt to a crime, which was how I came into possession of the food truck. I didn’t want to lose my father to another crime. The thought made me ill.
“No. I wish you’d get over this pity party and start thinking like Maeve. She would not put up with Jax Danvers getting the better of her. Ever. She’d get up and fight for her family. I’ve seen her do it before. I like that Maeve. I even admire her.” He stood up and looked me in the eye.
I stood shocked. I don’t think I’d ever heard Land talk this much in his life, and certainly never about me and what he liked about me. Usually he just grunted and kept to himself.
I looked up at him. We were only a few inches apart, and all I could think about for that second was the sight of Land shirtless and how I’d felt flushed and excited. I leaned in and kissed him firmly on the lips. I was surprised at the ferocity of his response. Before I could even realize what a bad idea this was, his tongue had slid into my mouth. The kiss embodied our pent-up desire with the heat of our mouths. I shivered slightly as he pulled me close.
After what seemed like an eternity, he broke off the kiss. He looked at me for a long moment before speaking. “You’re upset now. You don’t know what you’re thinking. Come back when this is over and kiss me like that – and then we’ll talk.”
I felt like I was going to come apart at that moment, and Land must have sensed it. He held me close, hands in very appropriate places and held me until I felt more like the Maeve he’d described, the one he admired.
We pulled apart, and Land smiled at me, which was a rare sight indeed. Usually he only gave me a blank expression or one of animosity. He licked the corner of his lip, and the thought of what we’d done came flashing back through my mind. I smiled back at him. He walked me to the door. “I’ll see you tomorrow. We’ll talk and figure out the next steps to figuring out how to solve this mess, okay?”
I nodded. At least my hasty actions hadn’t cost me a friend and business partner. Instead he’d given me an idea that my actions had been welcomed.
Chapter 7
The alarm came far too early the next morning. I hadn’t slept well at all. Between my father’s dilemma and Land’s kiss, my thoughts had bounced all over the place. I still dragged myself out of bed. I made it to the food truck before Carter and texted him to let him know that he could meet me on Elm.
I had started to do the morning routine work when he arrived. He thanked me again for the computer. “I was able to sign up for a class on-line that should improve my cooking skills. I can’t tell you how happy I am to have it.” He stopped talking for a second and just stared at me. “What happened to you last night? It had to have been a doozy, because you look done in.”
I just smiled at him. While kissing Land was one thing, given the weird dynamic of partner and employee, there were no such boundaries with Carter. He was an employee, pure and simple. While I now trusted him enough to give him keys to the food truck, it was another thing to share the secrets of my love life, such as it was, with him.
“I have a lot on my mind,” I said, thinking back to the conversation with my father. After talking to Land last night, I had made some phone calls. With only six more days remaining until my father went to the police with his information, I had to act q
uickly to solve this case. I’d called Zed Tucker, the hipster from 362. I couldn’t do anything about his girlfriend, because Wayne and his wife had only remembered her first name. I hoped that Zed would fill in the missing information, and I could talk to her as well.
Zed had arranged to meet me at the food truck around 1:30. I thought this would work well, because I’d have a few minutes to talk after the rush for the day was over. Danvers sometimes stopped by, but he was usually gone before that time.
The workday went fast. I had nearly lost track of time when Danvers showed up at the food truck. He ordered a cup of coffee, and I comped him for it, since I was in a good mood.
“What’s up with you today?” he asked suspiciously. Many times, I charged him full price just because he was being an ass.
“Nothing. Just being nice.” I smiled at him to let him know I could be nice.
“Still no word on the body in the freezer. The captain called the lab, and they’ve agreed to hurry up the DNA testing, but of course, it could turn up nothing too. He’s not in the fingerprint database, so we struck out there. This is about our last chance.”
I nodded, feeling glad to hear the words. I knew it was probably wrong, but I’d rather have one unsolved murder than have my father suspected of killing someone and arrested for the crime. “Any other leads on the freezer?”
He shook his head. “Nothing. It’s a fairly standard freezer so there’s nothing on it to identify it from a million others.”
I thought about Murray Longhill and asked. “I talked to a coworker of Murray’s a couple of days ago. He indicated that Murray had worked with the FBI on some financial case that dealt with some bad people. Is there any chance that any of those people did him in?” I wanted this to be true. It was the best possible scenario for me and my father. An outsider had killed Murray for revenge.
Danvers sighed. “That the best that you’ve got? We asked the FBI about that just after the disappearance. There’s nothing to it. The guys were pretty shady, but they walked away from the indictment. No jail time. They were definitely white-collar types, and I doubt that they would know how to find a hitman to do away with Longhill. But it is nice to see that you’re covering all the bases here.”
I told him that I was expecting one of my former neighbors to stop by shortly to talk about Murray, but I wasn’t specific. I didn’t think he’d like me blurring the investigative line and questioning Zed about the freezer with his apartment number on it.
Sure enough, just as Danvers was sauntering over to visit with Land, a young man with a beard, dark, oversized glasses and a porkpie hat walked toward us. “That has to be him,” Carter said out of the corner of his mouth as he rolled his eyes.
He walked up to the food truck and looked in. “Cool place you have here. I like it.” He stuck a hand over the counter, a move that I didn’t encourage because it could result in sticking that hand in the register, which had to stay close to the counter.
Still, I was asking for a favor, so I shook his hand. “I’m Maeve. I’m glad you could come by.”
He gave me a grin. “Sure thing. Now what’s going on about the old apartment? You said something about dead people there? Granted the neighbors were on the old side, but they were still moving when we left.”
I explained the situation to him, not leaving out any details save the ones I knew about my father. He nodded a few times as I spoke, more I think to acknowledge that he understood what I said more than anything else.
His mouth fell open when I got to the part about the body in the freezer. “What exactly do you want from me?” he asked. “I’m not sure what help I can be.” His posture showed that he didn’t want to get involved with a murder case.
“I wanted to know if you had a big freezer or if you knew a man who was balding and in really good shape,” I said. It was a long shot for either, but I wanted to cover all the bases. I wanted all the information I could get my hands on and then some.
“Are you trying to pin this on me?” he asked. Zed looked like he might sprint off in the opposite direction, and I wasn’t sure how to stop him.
Carter walked up to the window and smiled broadly at him. I remembered what Wayne had told me about Zed’s affair with another man and hoped he might stick around for Carter’s obvious charms. “She’s not saying that at all. She’s just wondering who might want to embarrass you by using a freezer you’d owned or sending it to your old address.”
Zed smiled back at Carter. So far he hadn’t bolted, so I dared to hope for an answer. “Not really. I mean Arianna was pissed at me – you know, the way things ended and all, but even she’s not up to trying to frame me for a dead guy. When we lived there, we tried to eat fresh. Organic vegetables and stuff. No meat, so no real need for a big freezer. Bald and musclebound is not my type – I like them young and wholesome,” he said, practically leering at Carter.
“So you don’t know anyone like that?” I asked. I thought about dropping the man’s name that my father had given me, but I hadn’t told Carter that I’d gotten that far, so it would involve explaining how I knew it.
Zed shook his head. “No, sorry.”
“Did you know Murray Longhill?” I asked, hoping to find something that would help me. I felt a little desperate to learn more information.
“The guy in your old apartment?” he asked. “Yeah, he was a weird dude. He spent all his time in that apartment on his computer. I don’t think he ever went out. His car would be in the same space in the parking lot for days sometimes. It was sad.”
“Did you ever talk to him?”
Zed rolled his eyes. “Yeah, it was creepy. He had a flat monotone voice. That’s why I was so surprised when I heard him scream like a banshee before he disappeared. I thought that any inflection in his voice would have been a huge surprise to everyone in the building. I mean, it sounded like a movie scream.”
I made a note of the comment. It seemed to point toward a set-up instead of a real disappearance. “Did you see anyone come in or out that day that might be related to his disappearance?”
“Well, I told the police this when they showed up, but his car had been moved. Like I said, that was a major deal in itself. When it occurred at the same time of the disappearance, it seemed huge, but they never made a fuss about it. As far as I know, they never found anything wrong with the car and its location. You had to know the guy to understand why it was such a deal.”
I nodded. From what he’d said, I was starting to get an idea about the case. It would be a long time to get the evidence that I needed, but I’d get further now that I had a rough idea of what I thought happened.
Before he left, I got his former girlfriend’s name and number, and Zed tried to get Carter’s information as well, but was shot down. He trotted off, looking a little despondent at striking out.
*
On the way home, I bought some batteries for the speaker that had been found in the wall. I had a few ideas that I wanted to try out with the neighbors. I pulled out the old batteries and stuffed new ones in their place. There was a hole for an electrical cord, but Land hadn’t pulled one of those out of the wall. So I was stuck with the batteries. I turned it on. There wasn’t any sign of a radio or phone attachment to it, meaning that it only picked up the Bluetooth of the devices around it.
I put it near the wall, so that I could conduct an experiment as to which neighbors it would pick up. Nothing happened. I realized that it was still early so I opted to fix myself a quick dinner for something to do while I waited.
I ate a bowl of soup while going through the rest of the files from the old computer. The flash drive hadn’t been disturbed, and no one had tried to ransack my apartment, which made this a major step up from my last place.
I continued reading about the derivatives, but it really seemed like Murray had been trying to learn all he could about the investments before making any decisions on what he would do. I wondered again if the $50,000 had been an indication of what he had been planning �
�� making back the money he’d lost in his divorce and then some.
I read through dozens of pages where he’d asked a question or two about them, only to come back later and ask another. He’d been nothing if not thorough in his investigation. Longhill had asked specifically about the role of the external accountants for the company, which made my stomach hurt a little. The thought of my dad being involved was just about more than I could take. However, it made me wonder about Mr. Carr. The timing seemed off since his disappearance had occurred years before Murray had become involved. I felt that pointed to Murray more as another victim rather than being involved in the scheme.
Finally, I finished the message boards in his browser history and started looking at the rest of his history. It was bland. Mostly it consisted of tech news and a few other sites – nothing that would indicate a master plan to disappear and nothing to indicate that someone had it out for him. I found the history where he’d bought the speaker, and the timing – a few weeks before he disappeared – was somewhat suspicious, but I rationalized if everything he bought before he disappeared was questionable, I’d soon be looking at his grocery choices leading up to his disappearance.
I finished up the history and called it a night. I didn’t have much more to go on than before, but from what I’d seen and read so far, Murray had planned to make a major production out of the announcement about the derivatives. Either something had scared him off, or someone had put an end to him before he could tell his story.
When I awoke the next morning, it was almost 6 o’clock. I had overslept. I reached for my phone and realized that it had gone dead overnight. That was a curious thing, since I thought I’d charged it at work, but I thought nothing of it. I plugged it in and checked messages. Carter had picked up the truck. I texted him to tell him the situation and dressed without a shower. My hair went up in a ponytail, and I was out the door in less than 15 minutes.
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