A THIEF OF ANY MAN (Food Truck Mysteries Book 6)

by Chloe Kendrick

  A few hours later, we were cuddled up on the couch, watching the video feed for the day. Nobody had come near the register. I fast forwarded through the feed until I got to the point where I took the cash out to count it for the day.

  Land raised an eyebrow at me. “Apparently you’re the thief. You’re the only one who touched it all day. Case solved. What do you want to do this weekend?”

  “You want to be funny, but you’re not,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Why would I want to steal my own money? What happened to that great idea you had?”

  “Give me a minute,” Land replied. “I want to show you something.” Land had brought some baking supplies with him. Nothing like a man who likes you even after he stuffs you with cupcakes. I had started an occasional run in the afternoons to counteract the effects of his cooking on my waistline. He clattered in the kitchen for a few minutes and then called me out. He was stirring the batter and making a small mess on the counter and his shirt. He distracted me by taking off his shirt and wiping the counter with it. Not the most sanitary of moves, but I wasn’t paying attention. Land had a solid six-pack and flat pecs that felt so good pressed against me. I was having a bit of trouble focusing. “I have another one in my bag with the cooking supplies. Will you get it?” he asked calmly.

  I walked back into the living room, realizing that he’d thrown me out of my own kitchen. I returned with his shirt, though I’d thought about seeing if we could get some batter on his pants too.

  When I returned, he pointed to the oven. “The first ones are done. Would you take them out?”

  I walked to the oven, feeling very confused. The oven wasn’t even turned on. Even I knew the basics of baking. There was no heat generating from the appliance. Still, he had been firm about it, so I opened the door and found two perfect cupcakes inside. They were cool to the touch, obviously, and I pulled them out without a mitt.

  “Nice magic trick, but it’s easy to see through,” I said. My mind was racing through possibilities to the best solution. While he was amusing me like a circus magician, Land didn’t do these little logic problems without a reason. He was trying to let me come to his possible solution to the money issues.

  “So is this problem you’re having,” he said with a smile. “You’re focused on finding who is taking the money during the day.” He stretched the last word out, making it a clue.

  I nodded, realizing the misdirection for what it was. I had naturally assumed that the fault rested with my accounting practices or that someone was taking money from me while the register was open. However, the cash drawer money was also stored somewhere for the rest of the day. “You’re saying that the theft isn’t occurring during the day, but in the evenings after I return the truck. Someone is either already in or is gaining access to the secured lot and taking small sums of cash from the register.”

  Land smiled. “If this person is taking small amounts from all the vehicles there, they could be making a great deal of money.” Land took the cupcake and popped part of it into his mouth. A small piece of icing was smudged on his lip. He was still shirtless and looked more appetizing than the baked goods.

  “So how do we prove this theory of yours? Run the cameras all night long?” Cupcakes and surveillance tapes weren’t all bad, but it wasn’t the way I wanted to spend a free evening with Land.

  Land looked at me, apparently trying to gauge my attitude. “I think that a little stakeout is in order for us tonight.”

  “You certainly know how to show a woman a good time – cupcakes and stakeouts!” I grabbed a jacket, and we were on our way.

  Land had me drive, since he thought that his sports car would likely draw more attention than my old Buick. He was probably right, though I didn’t want to admit it. The secured lot had a watch guard on duty, and I’d come up with a lie to cover our activities.

  However, I had wasted the time. My life always seems to be that way. When I get ready for a particular event, something different happens. We pulled up to the guard shack next to the closed gates and blew the horn. The action was necessary, because there was no guard at the gate. So my excuses were for naught.

  Land opened the door to the Buick and stepped out. While the neighborhood wasn’t the best, no one would have been scared of walking past here in the evening. I doubted that the guard had left the post to pursue a felon.

  I left the lights on and the motor running, and I stepped out as well. “Hello,” I shouted. I wasn’t sure what I expected to hear, but the silence enveloped us.

  “So this is not what I expected,” I said, peering between the links in the fence.

  “Me either,” Land replied mysteriously. I wondered what he had thought would happen, but I knew that if I asked, he would be unlikely to give me a quick response. Land still held his cards very close to his chest, even if we were dating. For the most part, I didn’t mind. He was open about his feelings towards me, the business, and his life, but thoughts, especially thoughts that didn’t directly impact me or the business, were still his alone.

  Land grabbed a handful of chain-link fence, stuck the toe of his shoe between some links, and pushed himself up. He repeated this process until he was at the top of the fence. There was some barbed wire around the top of the fence, but somehow he managed to climb over it without any damage to himself. He quickly dropped down on the other side.

  Looking around for a latch or a gate release, he shook his head. “Park the car. Get a towel or something and then come back. You’re going to do the same thing I did.”

  I didn’t argue because I didn’t see any other way around what we needed to do. We had every right to inspect our truck, day or night, so I doubted that we’d be in trouble for hopping the fence. More likely, the lot would have some explaining to do since the gate was being left unguarded.

  As I walked back to the gate, I wondered if this was how the thief was getting into our truck. I had never locked the truck, since it was supposed to be behind multiple levels of security here. The lot had locked entrances and video camera security. I threw the towel over my shoulder and tried to follow the same steps Land had maneuvered a few minutes before.

  I didn’t have the same upper body strength that Land did, so my progress was measured in inches rather than feet, but I finally got to the top of the fence. I rested the towel over the barbed wire and made it over the top. I went down in small steps again, but in a matter of minutes, I was standing next to Land looking at the Buick parked across the street.

  “Not bad for a first timer,” he said. “Any rips or cuts?” He looked over me, but apparently I passed muster. He lingered for a few seconds on my body, which made me blush.

  “So what now?” I asked, looking around. I’d been to this lot multiple times a day for nearly two years, but tonight, with the missing guard and the complete silence, it was downright creepy. I walked close to Land, though we didn’t touch. I didn’t want to appear frightened, but I certainly felt the need to be under his protection – if circumstances came to that.

  We walked to the original food truck first, since the missing cash had come from that truck. I wondered again why Basque in the Sun had not missed any cash, even though it sat a few feet away. I unlocked the door and stood aside for Land to enter first. It was a matter of chivalry and anxiety at work.

  He turned on the lights. I stepped inside and came up behind him. Inside the truck, I felt less concerned. After all the violence that had happened in there, I should probably have rethought that peaceful feeling, but the space felt like a second home.

  I walked to the register, pulled out the till, and began to count. I always kept an even $400 in the drawer for the next day. It only took a few minutes to count because most of the coins were in wrappers and I’d banded some of the cash. We were $42.15 short.

  I told Land what had happened. He nodded. “I knew it had to happen here. There was no other explanation.” He looked grim as he spoke. Given that it was annoying, but nothing near grand theft, I wasn’t sure why he look
ed so concerned. In total, I’d lost a little over $300 in the past week.

  I started to turn off the light when Land caught my hand. “If the theft happened tonight, it’s too late for today. Switch on the cameras Monday afternoon before you bring the truck back, and then we can find out who is behind this.”

  I look at him. “You don’t think we’ve tipped the thief off that we’ve figured out what’s going on?”

  He shook his head. “No. I am thinking that the guard has to be involved in some manner. It just plays out that way.”

  I nodded. I wasn’t sure that I agreed with that, because my own devious brain had come up with at least two other ways to commit the crimes, but Land had been right once this evening, so I let it slide.

  On the way out, I wanted to lock all the doors, but Land shook his head. “If we lock the doors now, then we’ll never find out who was responsible for the thefts. You don’t have any cameras on the outside of the truck. If you put one out there now, either they’ll steal that too, or get the hint that you’re on to them. This only works if we play dumb.”

  I grumbled, but kept the doors unlocked. I did use a piece of hair on the drawer, sliding it between the tray and the wall like I’d seen in so many old movies. Land wanted to laugh, I think, but he kept it to a smirk. I felt better for the action.

  We had to go back out the way we came in, over the fence. There was still no guard at the gate. We headed back to my place after that for a more traditional date.

  On Monday morning, even though I’d had late nights the last two evenings, I made sure that I was the first one to the truck. I had to see if the hair was still there. Sure enough, when I checked the register, the dark red hair from my head was still in place. Nothing like being a ginger to reduce the odds that someone can fake your hair. I thanked my Irish heritage for my ability to spot a break-in.

  I managed to get the truck to Elm Street and start work. I didn’t need to count the cash since it hadn’t been touched since my totals last night. I started on the coffee and made a note to tell Land we were almost out again. I paused for a second to ponder this. I was fairly certain that I’d just had a coffee delivery from Land last week. I doubted that we’d gone through all of his normal batch in just under a week. Our coffee sales weren’t high enough to support that. When inventory doesn’t match sales, that typically means that someone has either taken the coffee itself or is selling coffee without ringing it into the register.

  Great – now we could add coffee to the things being stolen around here. Nobody could be ringing up the register or filching cups of coffee in Dogs on the Roll without me noticing, but of course, coffee could be stolen after hours just as the cash could be taken. I was even more frustrated by the time I opened the window for business. Carter could tell my mood, but he kept to his work and left me alone.

  We managed to get through the shift without difficulty. I wasn’t sure what to tell Land about the coffee, though I walked across Government Plaza as soon as I had the money counted and the truck cleaned. I had to vent to someone, and I didn’t want Carter to think that I was blaming him for this in any way.

  “This doesn’t bode well. What happened now?” Land asked. He didn’t even look up from his work as he spoke. I knew that he was busy and focused, but I needed to talk this out with someone. My dad would only be concerned about the bottom line in the situation, and my mother would worry that I was getting involved in another police investigation that might put me in danger.

  “I think someone is stealing our coffee too,” I said without preamble. “We’re low on coffee, and it’s only been a week since your last delivery.”

  This did get him to pause. He looked far more concerned about the coffee theft than the money. “When did you find this out?” he asked, eyes focused only on me.

  “This morning. I just noticed we’re running low, and I don’t think the coffee sales support the amount of coffee used.” I shrugged. “Do you really think someone is stealing coffee too?”

  He didn’t blink, but continued to stare at me. “As much as I believe that someone is stealing ninety dollars from you, yes. Weird things happen to you.”

  I nodded and looked down at what he was doing. He had been chopping fish, but even though his knife continued to move, the fish had long been cut. He was now just chopping the cutting board with nothing under the knife. Land was usually so calm and collected that even a minor mistake like that told me that he was dealing with an emotion or situation that he was unfamiliar with. I didn’t know what, but I knew something had affected him. Given that I didn’t have much experience in this matter, I stood there in silence, hoping for a cue from someone.

  I waited a few seconds, hoping that he’d talk about it, but he didn’t speak. So I just began helping him get prepped for the evening rush. I knew that when he was ready I’d learn whatever was on his mind, but I also knew that I’d better get ready for something big. Land was not the type to chop without a food item underneath the knife.

  I finished working with him in about thirty minutes. He gave me a smile and a hug before opening the window. “I’ll be over around 9pm to see the action,” he said, giving me a bad imitation of Carter’s famed eyebrow wiggle. I rolled my eyes, thinking that it was not a good thing that Carter was rubbing off on Land.

  I smiled at him and left. I drove the truck back to the secured lot and spent some time working on the cameras to get the best vantage points for the register. Big budget movies spend less time on setting up their lights. The cameras had a battery back-up, which is what I set them to. I didn’t want to arrive in the morning and find the truck’s battery drained.

  On the way out, I stopped to talk to Bryson, the day guard at the lot. He and I had exchanged pleasantries over the past two years, but we rarely spoke more than few words to each other. The most he’d ever said to me was that I was the lot’s only multiple spot lease. Apparently most people only had a single parking space to their name. However, today I wanted to learn more about what he saw at the lot. I explained that I’d put a new security system into the food truck because of some issues with theft.

  He shrugged as I finished my little speech. “No worries on first shift. No one is going to come in here during broad daylight and rob people. That’s probably the best part of my job,” he said, keeping one eye on his phone, which was playing some movie.

  “So no signs of anything funny going on around here?” I asked. I only had about half of his attention, but I was hoping it was enough to get some ideas.

  “Nah. Kristoff, the night guy. He said something about a ruckus the other night, but that was it.”

  “I don’t think I know him,” I said honestly. I knew Bryson, who worked about the same hours that I did, 5am to 3pm. I had no idea about the guards who worked the other shifts. I had respect for them because I wasn’t sure how brave I’d be here in the middle of the night. This wasn’t a bad neighborhood. However, it was mostly industrial with a few homes around the perimeter, which meant it closed down with the end of the business day. It was just me and the street lamps when I arrived each morning.

  “You’d know him if you saw him. He’s about five foot five and all muscle. Short, but built. No one would mess with him.”

  I thanked him and made a note to visit Kristoff by coming in early one day. I went home and tried to find something to occupy my time. I ran the accounts on coffee sales for the past week, and my suspicions were confirmed. We should only have been about one-third of the way through the supplies we’d received. We were missing several pounds of Land’s special blend. I worried for a moment, thinking that perhaps the competition had taken the coffee to have it analyzed, but that didn’t explain the situation with the small amounts of missing cash.

  I had to assume that both thefts were coming from the same person. While it was not inconceivable that we would have multiple thieves attacking the food truck, I didn’t want to face the idea that multiple people were coming through the truck at night to take what they wante
d. I could park the truck on the street and have less traffic through it at night.

  Land showed up just before 9pm, and I gave him a long kiss. “I don’t know what that’s for, but I’m glad,” he said with a smile when I broke off the kiss. He was more like himself. The pensive behavior from earlier tonight was gone without a trace – or an explanation. Somehow, between closing the truck and going home to shower and change, he’d also found time to bring a huge bag of ready-to-eat popcorn. The snack had been drizzled with white chocolate, and I wasn’t sure if I was gladder to see him or the treat.

  I had already cued the video from the website and watched a few minutes of the video feed. Of course, I’d seen nothing in the food truck at all. I’d stopped when I realized that Land would be expecting to watch it with me. I rewound the video feed so that Land wouldn’t know that I’d already checked out some of the footage.

  We sat down on the sofa, and I snuggled in close to him. He gave me one of those looks that meant he suspected I might be cuddling just to get closer to the snack, but he didn’t comment on it.

  We had talked about what to do with the feed. We had decided to start the viewing at the end of the shift and move on, so that we wouldn’t miss a minute or a penny. I took the remote and began to speed through the footage. The image didn’t really change over time, since it was focused on the register, an inanimate object. Any changes would represent a movement in the food truck where none should be.

  We were probably about four hours in when I saw some motion. We watched the section twice, but the images looked to be shadows. I wondered if it could be one of the guards walking around the lot that had caused the change in lights. The time suggested that the sun would be setting, and the automatic parking lights would be turning on. The movements stopped after a few minutes and the tedium began again. We didn’t find any images of people at the register, so I continued on. We were nearly at the six-hour mark, where the feed would turn to live viewing, when I saw another motion.