FOOD TRUCK MYSTERIES: The Complete Series (14 Books)

by Chloe Kendrick

  Even if I had been entirely in favor of this relationship, I would have been slightly put out by someone else ordering a cocktail for me. Land didn’t even presume to do that. He knew that my tastes varied, and my mood drove what I wanted to eat. Right now, I wanted carbs, but that was because I’d been force-feeding myself salads for two days. I hadn’t even eaten a hot dog for lunch.

  The loaf of bread that came to the table looked delicious, and I helped myself to a single slice – no butter. “Well, Jax and Land have known each other for years, and I just thought it would be nice to get to know you.” I tried to be sweet, but she was making it very difficult.

  “He’s told me stories about you,” she said, and for a moment, I wondered what he’d said about me. Given all of our time as rivals to solve a case, I doubted that he’d shared many good memories with this woman.

  “How nice,” I replied, leaving it open. I had hoped to swoop in and find out more about this woman. However, she kept tossing the ball back into my court. I had promised my mom a quick dinner, so I could help, but I could see that this was going to be a delicate operation that involved a longer period of time.

  “So tell me all about the wedding?” she asked before I could find an opening to question her.

  I spent a little time in telling her about the wedding and the plans. In a way, it helped because I was able to articulate all of my desires for the wedding, so the time with my mom would be more productive. I mentally took notes about what I was saying, so I could remember that for later.

  “So how did you meet Detective, er, Jax?” I asked, finally getting a word in. The appetizers that she’d ordered without consulting me had arrived, a seafood dish that I would never have tried on my own. It wasn’t the type of thing I liked, and of course it was breaded, which made me think of my calorie intake for the next two days.

  “I was a witness to a crime. He was at the scene. He interviewed me, and then later came back to ask me out. He was very sweet about it.” I tried not to sneer, thinking of him mixing his professional and personal boundaries. He’d always put his job first, no matter what, and it was amusing to think that he was trying to meet women at crime scenes now. What next, asking out the corpse?

  “What was the crime?” I asked, wondering if it was related to the messages and the disappearance of Carona. That would make me even more suspicious of this woman.

  “A hit and run accident over on Main Street. This car just ran down this woman, like he didn’t even see her.” She shuddered as she spoke of it.

  “He? The driver was a man?” I wondered how well she’d seen the driver. Traffic accidents moved at such a fast rate of speed that it was easy to miss something or misinterpret what you did see.

  “Definitely. He was driving a sports car.” She went on to describe a car that looked something like Land’s car, but a different color with stripes along the sides. For a second, I had thought that her intent was to implicate Land in a crime, but given that she’d already told the story to Danvers and he hadn’t made any moves on the matter, I knew my fears were unfounded.

  I still had to wonder if the hit-and-run had anything to do with the espionage that was occurring. Maybe I was just too worried about the wedding to think logically. Nothing had been learned that pointed in that direction. Yet I couldn’t get the idea out of my mind.

  We finished dinner and went our separate ways. Lenora had not said nor done anything that made me think she was involved, but I still felt something was off about her. I couldn’t put my finger on it, though. It was just a niggling feeling.

  I looked up and realized that I’d passed my parking spot. I turned around and looked down the block for the old Buick. I couldn’t find it. I ran back through my head what had been going on when I arrived. I took myself through the steps of the early evening. Yes, I had definitely parked on this block on the right. However, there was no Buick here now.

  I had a hard time getting my head around the idea that my car had been stolen. The Buick was definitely a beater, an old car that still ran well, but would never win any beauty pageants. Someone had been desperate enough to want that car. I was surprised. I could much more easily see Land’s car being taken with its shiny wheels and sleek design.

  I pulled out my phone and began making calls. I called 911 first and reported my car missing. They said an officer would be right there. I just hoped that it wasn’t Danvers. The downtown station was only a few blocks away, which meant that I would likely be seeing someone from that precinct.

  Then I called Land and told him what had happened. After he finished laughing, he asked if I needed a ride. I told him maybe, and then called my mother. She too found this to be hilarious, but she kept her amusement to a snicker. She still wanted me to come over and help with the wedding details.

  “What was in there for the wedding?” she asked, keeping her focus on the big day.

  “My shoes,” I said glumly, realizing that I’d have to go shopping again for shoes. I had liked those shoes and had no real desire to repeat my chores for the wedding. With only two days remaining, I was a bit stressed by the thought of others getting involved with my wedding to screw things up.

  My mother agreed to pick me up, and I called Land back to ask him to drive me home. By that time, the police had arrived. Fortunately for me, Danvers had either not heard of this crime or decided not to take it. The absolutely last thing I needed was a sarcastic interview with him, especially since I’d just had dinner with his new girlfriend, who I had thought might be a spy.

  The man took my information, but seemed to offer little hope that the car would be found. “If they’re taking a car like this,” he shared, “it’s likely for parts. Someone they know must need parts for the same make and model as your car.”

  I gave him all of my information and thanked him. My mother had cruised down the block while I was talking to him, and she’d now driven back up on the side of the road closest to me. I got in and headed to her house.

  The trip was a litany of questions about the car and the wedding. We jumped from flowers to keys to music to the now-missing shoes. She must have had a list that she’d been keeping for just such an occasion.

  “How are you going to get to work?” my mother asked, which was her way of asking the biggest question—can you pay for this?

  I pointed out that Sabine could pick me up, or I could borrow Land’s car. I was still planning on working up to the last minute, and a little grand theft auto wasn’t going to stop me.

  That notion made me wonder. The parties involved in this attempt on the ambassador had done several things to slow us down, but no one had really resorted to killing us to stop our investigation. Either they weren’t concerned about our efforts, or they were the most pacifistic assassins I’d ever heard of.

  We arrived home, and my dad gave me a long hug, more because he knew how I’d struggle over the figures on a new car and what I could afford. My mother broke off the commiseration, and we sat at the dining room table for two hours going over the details of the wedding. Except for the new shoes, I felt confident about the ceremony and reception. Things had finally come together.

  Land picked me up around nine. We drove home in silence. He was waiting for me to express my thoughts on the theft or the wedding, and at the moment, I really couldn’t articulate either.

  I was furious about the car, but I didn’t expect Land to understand. He saw cars as a luxury item to be enjoyed. The car had belonged to my aunt, and I wanted to keep this small piece of her memory with me for as long as possible. Her memory was important to me, and the car was a physical memento of her.

  We pulled into the apartment complex. I couldn’t believe my eyes. The Buick was sitting in my parking spot. I took a deep breath and looked at Land. “You did this?”

  He shook his head. “Don’t look at me. I wouldn’t have dreamed of stressing you out in that way. What would be the purpose?”

  “What’s the purpose in stealing my car and bringing it back
to our place?” I asked. I tried to think about what could be accomplished by the theft.

  “Someone has been through the car, looking for something. It’s the only thing that could explain the theft. They took it somewhere private, searched it, and brought it back.” Land pulled into the spot next to the Buick. We got out and walked carefully to the car. I pointed to the backseat where my shoes sat in their bag. This was certainly no ordinary robbery. The only thing of value had been left inside.

  “So did they find what they were looking for?” I asked, walking around the car.

  Land got down on his hands and knees, then lay down and slid under the car. The Buick was far enough off the ground for him to slide underneath it easily. He stayed there for several minutes and came back out. “Nothing there.”

  “What were you looking for?” I asked, fearing the answer.

  Land dusted the dirt from his pants. “Mainly a tracking device of some kind, but also a bomb. It’s hard to know what they wanted or what they did. The only thing we know is that it didn’t take long. The explosive device is harder to believe. The car would have been driven here and then tampered with. That doesn’t make much sense, because there’s probably more traffic on this road than Main Street at this time of night.”

  Before I could ask another question, Land pulled out his phone and dialed a number. I waited while he left a quick message for someone to call him back.

  After he hung up, I looked at him. “What was that about?”

  “I have a friend who is coming out tonight and looking for tracking devices on the Buick.”

  I looked at my old trustworthy car. “Is he doing your car too?” I asked, wondering why the Buick had been picked by these people for such treatment.

  Land paused a second. “Yeah, I’ll have him do that too.”

  I stopped what I was doing and paid attention. Land had decided to include his car. Why? I knew he wouldn’t tell me the reasons why, but I thought it likely that he’d considered the fact that Carona had been in his car’s backseat waiting for us. No telling what kind of mischief she got into back there.

  “Land, do you suppose that what these people were looking for was in your car this entire time? They’ve been following your sister, and now they stole my car, presumably to search it. Do you think that they could be looking for something that Carona had and they wanted?”

  Land smiled at me. “You may be up to your ears in wedding details, but I have to tell you that you’ve still got the mind of a detective.”

  I stepped closer to him. “In a few days, the wedding will be over. I’m willing to bet I’ll be better focused after that.”

  “Yeah, but the ambassador gets here tomorrow, so after the wedding is too late for him.”

  I took his hand in mind. “We don’t have to wait for your friend,” I said, dragging him to his car. “My bet is on a flash drive. They sent one in the wedding gift, just to tell us what to look for. Things would not be what they appear to be, and they’re small enough to fit almost anywhere.”

  It took us about ten minutes to find the device. A small black flash drive stuck in a small slit in the seam of one of the bucket seats. Carona must have made the slit, knowing that Land would never have allowed the car to be sullied as such, and pushed it inside of the seat while she waited for us in the parking lot. I could easily understand why the thieves had thought that we’d gone to the Black Cat in my car. Land felt it inside the seat, but my fingers were smaller and coaxed it out of its hiding spot.

  I wanted to run upstairs and start the drive immediately, but Land had other ideas. Apparently detecting was foreplay to him, and we spent several minutes making out in the back of his car. I had to admit that I found it romantic, but awkward since there wasn’t enough room for either of us, much less both of us. Still it was nice to know that we could still find time for just us in the chaos of the week.

  We went inside. My first act was to make a duplicate of the flash drive, which I then opened and started opening documents.

  Land called Detective Danvers and left a message for him. He came over to where I sat and looked over my shoulder. “What have you found?” he asked.

  “Information on the ambassador’s visit mostly. An itinerary, a list of guests to the dinner he’s attending. That sort of thing.”

  Land laid a hand on my shoulder. “So we were right. They are going after him.”

  I nodded. “So it would appear. This looks like some sort of manifesto. It’s a three-page rant about the ambassador’s country, his politics, and the crimes they’ve committed against the people. This looks pretty serious.”

  The doorbell buzzed. Land started to leave the room and then turned back and looked at me. “Look for a map or a layout of a building. Something like that. If they’ve got the list of attendees for events, they probably have an idea of how to get close to him. We need that.”

  The doorbell buzzed again. Land left the room. The next two documents were floorplans for different buildings. I cursed under my breath, because the buildings weren’t labeled in any manner, but each had marks where the ambassador would be and the various entrances and exits. I printed both of them and then skimmed the documents. Nothing else stood out for me. I saved the contents of the drive to my computer quickly, and then pulled the flash drive from my computer. I had a hunch that Danvers would come looking for me and possibly even the duplicate flash drive, so I was going to bring it to him—though I’d pretend I’d been caught with the goods and not let him know that I’d saved it again.

  Sure enough, Danvers and Land were standing in the entryway. Danvers had the original flash drive in his hand, flipping it over and over. He must be feeling some stress. I greeted him and stood next to Land.

  Danvers didn’t even bother with a greeting. He just held out his hand, but not for a handshake. I fumbled around inside of my pocket and fished out the second flash drive. He snatched it away from me.

  “I knew that you wouldn’t leave well enough alone. This is too dangerous for you,” he said. “We have people working on this night and day, trying to make sure that the security for the ambassador’s visit is what it needs to be. The last thing that the CCPD wants is to be known as the city where the ambassador died.”

  I chose to ignore his comments. “Have you found the link between the warehouse and this attempt? There has to be a link.”

  Danvers pulled open the notebook. “Yeah, you were right about that. There were shell companies inside of shell companies, but the forensic accountant that we use traced it back. We found that the warehouse is owned by the same company that owns the restaurant where you almost got shot, and a few other places in town. He hasn’t got to the reasons for all the secrecy, but we’re working on it.”

  I personally felt that I should have been given the job as forensic accountant for the CCPD. How many times had I learned things about businesses and their operations, which I’d duly passed on to the police. This case was just one more example. If I’d had the police resources, I could have found out this information days ago and could have made a plan for finding where this assassination attempt would be made.

  “What other places in town?” I asked. So much of the action had occurred at the two places we knew about. I wondered if any of the other businesses could play a part in this mystery. Since I hadn’t identified any of the buildings referenced in the blueprints, I wanted a bit of help if possible.

  “A restaurant out in Piketon, a shopping mall out of town, and the Lemarchand building.”

  It took everything that I had not to sprint back to the other room and look at those plans again. The Lemarchand building sat next to the building with the police precinct in it, right on the perimeter of Government Square. The ambassador was supposed to make a speech on the square tomorrow at lunch, followed by a private affair for the town’s wealthy after that. We had debated either staffing up to feed the crowd, or not working because the crowds would be focused on something other than our food. While the man might be
walking from place to place on his tour, he would be standing in one place during a short speech, making him a perfect target for a killer to make good on his promises. With Carona apparently out of the picture, other people would have to protect the man.

  Land must have sensed my emotions, because he gave me a long sideways glance. I could see Danvers also looking at me, but I tried to ignore him. I wanted to think about what I would do.

  Danvers waited a few seconds, but it was obvious that I wasn’t going to share my thoughts with him. He said, “See you tomorrow at the rehearsal.” Then he added, “Don’t do anything stupid in the meantime.”

  With that, he left.

  I waited until I was sure that he wasn’t going to return, and I looked at Land. “It’s going to be at the Lemarchand building. I know it.” I went through my reasons why I knew the location.

  “I believe you. It makes sense, but we need proof to show Danvers. He’s not going to allocate resources to your hunch. Maybe there’s something in those papers.”

  I went back into the spare room and began looking through the floorplans and other documents. It was all too pat. Carona had worked at one of the holding company’s businesses and had used the address of another firm owned by that same company. These had been yet more clues to the mystery she had been here to solve.

  The trouble was that I had never been in the Lemarchand building, so I had no idea what the floors looked like. Unless the papers were conveniently marked with the building’s name, I would have no idea of what I was looking at.

  I kept reviewing the papers and other documents throughout the evening. I didn’t even go out when Land’s friend, the one who could search for tracking devices, came and went.

  Land came into the room and threw down two tiny devices on the desk. “He found these,” he said, pointing to the devices. “Both of our cars were tagged.”

  I picked one up and looked at it. “I think we should put them on other cars in the lot tonight. That way, they won’t know they’ve been found out until later. The devices will still work, and they’ll think that we’re moving around.”