FOOD TRUCK MYSTERIES: The Complete Series (14 Books)

by Chloe Kendrick

  I wasn’t expecting any visitors, so I nearly jumped when the buzzer announced someone at my outer door.

  I hit the button to admit the person. The security cameras had showed me that it was Detective Jax Danvers at the door, and I wasn’t afraid of him or whatever news he’d be bringing to me.

  I opened the door to him, and Danvers looked around the entrance to my apartment before coming in. He’d been here plenty of times during a previous investigation at my place, so I wasn’t sure why he was trepidatious suddenly.

  “Is Land here?” he asked, looking around some more, like I might keep him the closet when I didn’t have a use for him.

  “No, he’s pretty upset, so he’s staying home. Somebody arrested his sister today, and he’s taking it hard.” I didn’t bother to mask my sarcasm tonight. Danvers, who had been avoiding me like week-old hot dog buns, wanted something from me, and I wanted this discussion over with.

  “Yeah, about that…” he started.

  “I don’t want to hear it. You’ll be the upset one when I solve this case.”

  “You’re already too involved in matters you can’t handle,” Danvers said. “You need to back off.”

  “Did you come here to warn me?” I asked. I wasn’t sure what he could want from me. I felt like I’d gotten nowhere in this case. Emma Creech had been killed by someone who didn’t want her snooping around. I wasn’t sure why her manager had been killed, or why Emma had been taking money from the food truck. None of this was making much sense.

  However, I had weeded out many of the false clues, so that I had a clear story. Emma had been pestering the guards for access to the other vehicles in the lot, which we now knew included Big Tony Borelli’s corpse. Had she been looking for his body, or had she found clues that something was going on at the lot? Bryson had indicated that she’d mentioned a smell. Maybe she’d realized that something dead was in the area. A killer might have killed again to keep her away.

  Danvers interrupted my train of thought. “No, I need your friend’s name. The one with the bloodhound.” He pulled out a pad of paper and a pen. He looked at me expectantly.

  “What’s up? You’re asking me to give you her number so you can go out with her or something?” I was perplexed. Did Danvers really think that I would give him a dating recommendation to a friend? That wasn’t likely to happen. He’d arrested the last woman he’d flirted with, so I didn’t think he was a good risk for Gina.

  “No, I just need her contact information. Something has come up, and I need to be able to reach her.” His face was impassive, but I could tell that something strange was going on. This was an official visit, not a personal one. I tried to run through the possible scenarios in which they would need to talk to Gina again. She’d merely provided the dog for the discovery of the two bodies in the secured parking lot. Her role had been limited. Her story had been nearly identical to mine, and the police had let her go.

  “What this about then” I asked. I could be just as intransigent as he could. If I was providing information, he could give a little in return.

  He sighed deeply. “I really don’t want to go into detail with you about this yet,” Danvers replied, but I could see signs of him weakening. His use of the word “yet” meant that I’d be hearing about it at some point.

  I just waited. Land wasn’t coming over this evening. Tonight was just going to be me and the television, so I had all the time in the world.

  By the clock in the kitchen, it only took three minutes to break Danvers. “Fine. There was a reward for the recovery of Big Tony or his body. You and your bloodhound friend will split the reward money equally.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Are you serious? Just for finding his body?” I thought that the reward seemed like overkill. Who would want to keep a corpse around once they found it? Anyone would turn it in.

  “It’s being administered through the police department, but a lawyer set up the fund. Of course, the money is mob-donated, though I’m sure a team of forensic accountants couldn’t prove it. They’re pretty upset about the killing,” Danvers replied. “At least now, they can have an autopsy and learn what happened to Borelli.”

  I nodded. I could understand wanting to be able to put closure to a death, especially a violent death that cut a life short. I’d done that as well for my aunt, though I hadn’t offered any money to people who helped me.

  “Well, it was an accident.,” I pointed out. “We were looking for Emma Creech, remember? Does intent count for anything?” While the money would be nice, I was leery of getting any more involved with that case.

  “That was explained to the lawyer who made the contribution to the reward fund, but he read the police report and agreed that you two should share equally in the funds.” Danvers shoved his hands in his pockets, as if the statement pained him.

  “That’s nice. I can take Land out for dinner,” I replied, thinking of a few nice treats I could provide for myself with some extra cash. I’d seen a few things on my shopping trip that I wouldn’t mind going back for.

  “In Navarre,” Danvers replied. “We’re not talking a $50 tip here. We’re talking a reward from the mob for information leading to the discovery of the remains of a mob boss, Anthony Borelli. They paid well.”

  “How much are we talking?” I asked. I had assumed it would be change, but now that Danvers was talking, my curiosity was piqued.

  “Thirty thousand. Fifteen for you, and fifteen for Gina. Just for taking a dog for a walk.” Danvers practically spat the words.

  I wasn’t sure if Danvers was more annoyed that he hadn’t earned the reward, or that I had. His petulance was palatable.

  On the other hand, my mind was racing. I had fifteen thousand extra dollars to spend. My mind went back to the comment from Carter, when he’d suggested purchasing the secured parking lot, which might be up for sale now. The money would be a great down payment on it. The parking would pay the monthly fees and then some, though I knew it was uncharitable to think of the business after the death of the owner.

  “So you didn’t know?” Danvers said. “You had no idea that finding that body would net you a good few weeks’ worth of pay? I’m expected to believe that?”

  “I told you before,” I said again with emphasis, “that we were looking for Emma Creech. I wanted to find out who was strangled in the food truck. If you’d believed me, there wouldn’t have been a need to look around the lot. I have no idea about the mob in Capital City – and I don’t want to.”

  Danvers raised an eyebrow. “Does that mean you don’t want the cash?” he taunted.

  I laughed. “Don’t be stupid. Of course I want the cash. You don’t think they want something in return for the money, do you?”

  Danvers rolled his eyes. “You’re amazing, you know that? If you mean, do you have to become a hit man just because you took their reward? No, mainly because you’d be a crappy hitman. The lawyer was pretty certain that you were not involved in the killing. He did get a chuckle about you solving so many crimes though. He made more than a few comments about that to me.”

  “So when do I get it? I don’t suppose you have it tonight?” I asked. I doubted that he did, but I was anxious to get moving on the next expansion to the business.

  “It’ll be a few weeks, but here’s a statement from the lawyer and the police committee on rewards.” Danvers passed across a packet of letters to me, which I scanned. It stated the same thing that he’d said earlier, just in nicer, fancier words. The police committee letter talked about taxes on rewards, and frequently asked questions.

  Based on that, I handed over every detail of contact information I had for Gina to the man. He wrote it all down and left. I thought she would get a kick out of getting a reward for helping out.

  I thought about calling Land or Carter or perhaps setting up a three-way call, but in all honesty the news did not change anything for us at the moment. It was all speculative, depending on when I got the money. I decided to keep it to myself for the momen
t and mull over what to do.

  Chapter 10

  After Danvers left, I made myself a cup of tea and sat down at the table. I had some thinking to do.

  I had a strong idea about what had happened with the murders. I knew the why and the how, but I was still unclear on the who, though I had some suspicions. I contemplated who I should talk to about the matter. Danvers was out of the question, since he’d always thought I was holding something back from him and would resent my interference. Land was preoccupied with Sabine’s arrest, and frankly I worried that he’d want to rush to announce what I’d learned, even though the analysis wasn’t fully formed yet. I wanted to have all the evidence I needed before I presented it to the police. I didn’t want to destroy any chance of getting Sabine out as soon as possible – and keeping her out for good.

  That left Carter, and while I liked my chef, I wasn’t sure that he was mature enough to help out on something this important. I needed a certain level of professionalism, and I was going to work with a guy who wagged his eyebrows at me to suggest romance. However, I wasn’t sure what else to do.

  I gave him a call an hour after Danvers had left. We arranged to make an appointment one hour after we finished work on the food truck the next day.

  The next day flew. While both of our minds were on other things, we worked well together and finished the day without issue. The money count was perfect again, and I was done with the financials and some of the cleaning by the time we had to leave.

  I’d made an appointment with the widow of the parking lot’s owner about buying the lot. She hadn’t seemed shocked, and she quickly agreed to the idea of a meeting. While I was interested – and impressed with Carter’s ability to spot a potential investment – I had ulterior motives in calling. I wanted to validate my ideas about the lot and wanted to see if they were correct.

  When we arrived, the owner’s wife was waiting for us. Not many people ever just hang out in a parking lot, so the rather tall, gangly woman dressed in a pair of black jeans was easy to spot when we pulled in. I had told Carter of my ideas, but I hadn’t told him what exactly I suspected.

  She was carrying a manila folder, which I hoped contained the information that I needed in order to solve the case. She greeted us formally. I asked a few questions about the lot and its capacity as my pretense for meeting, but in all honesty, I’d already found out this information from the wonders of the internet.

  She gave me a tour, directing her comments to me while Carter lagged a few steps behind, inspecting the fence and the perimeter of the lot. She gave me the folder grimly. “I was never in favor of owning this place,” she confided. “I found it rather mercenary, selling services for a piece of asphalt. My husband disagreed.”

  I thanked her. “Thank you for meeting us. I’ll take a look at these figures and get back to you.”

  She nodded at me. “I’d rather not stay here, if you don’t mind. I feel that this lot brought about my husband’s death, and I’ll be glad to be quit of it.” With those words, she headed to her car.

  Carter and I decided to take a look at the information here, while at the lot. I was anxious to see if my theory was correct, and he was always wanting to get involved in a case.

  “There aren’t any openings big enough to squeeze an adult through,” Carter told me when we were alone. “They fixed that hole the police made. It has wiring wrapped around each set of links, so it would take hours to make an opening large enough to squeeze through.”

  I nodded. I scanned through the list of clients. I was the only one with multiple spaces, but the lot was fairly full. I scanned down the names again, but none of them were familiar to me. I closed the folder.

  Before I could speak, though, the door to the food truck opened.

  “Did you have more information on the lot for us?” I began to ask, but the words fell to a whisper.

  Bryson stood in the doorway with a gun.

  Chapter 11

  I hadn’t expected such a rapid or deadly reaction from Bryson. I had expected him to want to learn what I was doing with the paperwork, but I hadn’t predicted an immediate or potentially violent response.

  “What are you doing, Maeve?” he asked. The gun didn’t move, but it seemed to be trained on me alone. He must not have seen or heard Carter, because his focus was on me.

  “We’re looking at buying the lot as a new venture,” I said, not making any sudden movements. I did point at the folder on the counter.

  “That’s it?” he asked me. His eyes were alert and darted around the space. “You’re not adding up the facts and seeing that it would have been difficult to move the body into the lot, break into a car, and move the body without being spotted by someone? That it would take a considerable amount of time and familiarity with the lot to do that?”

  I wanted to be honest that I had deduced just that – along with the fact that the security booth kept keys of the various cars. I’d realized that when I was told the story of how Emma had wanted the lot attendants to move the cars. The convenience of the Corolla’s owner being out of town for months had been another clue that someone knew the people in the lot personally. I suspected that the police were thinking the same thing when they arrested Sabine. However, I decided that discretion was the best course at this point.

  He continued. “The list of customers would tell you that no one has more than one spot besides you. So moving the body would involve having it in one car and moving it to another. I can’t think that many killers would want to do that. They would want as little visibility of the body as possible. Plus Big Tony was named that for a reason. The guy’s body is heavy.”

  I nodded. The rest of the disappearance and execution of the mobster seemed to have been well-planned. It was hard to believe that they would have just hoisted a body from one vehicle to another at random. There had to be a reason for this lot, and a reason for hiding it in the trunk of a car.

  “I have some gambling debts,” Bryson explained. “They asked me to do them a favor after I brought in a bunch of things to one of the pawn shops. They knew I couldn’t say no. I owed too much.”

  “So you gave them the keys to the Corolla and let them in after another car at the lot,” I added, knowing that I’d seen this done a few times there. “You just had to look the other way.”

  Bryson vigorously nodded. “I didn’t have anything to do with the killing. Nothing.”

  “But Emma–” Carter blurted out.

  Bryson was suddenly aware of the other person in the food truck. The gun now swiveled back and forth between us. “She saw them move the body. She was in the lot, probably trying to rip off some cars, and she saw the whole thing. The guys who dumped the body told me it was my problem. I had to deal with it.”

  “But what about her house?” I asked. “Did she have documents or evidence that she’d seen you?”

  Bryson nodded. “After they found her body, the owner called me and told me that they’d found Emma’s body and Big Tony. I had to get rid of the evidence before the police found it.”

  “And then you had to get rid of the owner when he determined that he’d likely told the killer about the bodies – which made him an unwitting accessory.” I was looking around for a weapon, but of course, I’d been on a cleaning kick and had put everything where it belonged. I would have to reach in a drawer to fight back, and I wasn’t sure that I’d get that opportunity. Bryson was looking too anxious to use the gun and remove his latest problems.

  “It wasn’t my fault. The mob shouldn’t have made me help. It all started because of them.” Bryson looked like he might burst into tears, which seemed ironic since Carter and I would be the ones getting hurt.

  I looked at my phone on the counter with the file. Land could find me, if he wasn’t too distracted by Sabine’s arrest. However, I wasn’t sure that he was. I had come here without informing him, so I was on my own. I would have to come up with my own way to solve this issue.

  However, before I could do anything, th
e door to the truck flew open. Aaron, Carter’s sometimes boyfriend, was standing there. “We were supposed to meet an hour ago,” he announced.

  Bryson swung around to see who was speaking. I grabbed at a knife, but Carter was faster. He snatched up a cast iron skillet that he loved and swung it as hard as he could. The cookware connected with the back of Bryson’s head. He crumpled to the floor in an eerie replay of Emma’s last moments.

  Chapter 12

  It took a lot of convincing for Danvers to believe that Bryson had actually confessed to us. It might have been the concussion that we gave him, or the fact that Carter and I both had reasons to want Sabine released.

  Yet, in the end, the police started checking the details of the story and found supporting evidence for each fact. Bryson had indeed been in debt to the mob. He couldn’t account for his whereabouts during the time of the arson. His DNA was found inside the trunk of the Corolla.

  Danvers did not believe for a minute that some mysterious mobsters had done away with Big Tony. The “hit” had been too sloppy and unprofessional. Bryson was charged with the murder of Big Tony, along with those of Emma and the parking lot owner.

  Land and I are discussing the purchase of the parking lot. He’d rather put the money towards another truck in our growing “fleet,” so I’m looking at the numbers until we decide...

  ~ END ~

  JUSTICE is SERVED

  Chapter 1

  I had to watch Gina’s wedding from the food truck window. She and I had been hanging out again since I’d involved her in my last investigation, which had been about six months ago.