I rifled through the drawers in the desk to no avail. Everything was gone. I turned to look into the filing cabinets, the five metal sets of drawers that stood on the far wall. There were a few files that had been missed in each drawer. I scanned through them quickly, hoping to get something that could bring a solution to this case. In the third filing cabinet, I found a printout of the company’s books. I practically squealed with excitement as I pulled the thick folder from the drawer and threw it on the desk.
If Pohler’s business had been used to launder money, we just needed to find out whose accounts had deposits that closely matched Pohler’s cash withdrawals. Since Danvers had called it child’s play, I thought a quick scan might give me a hint. Just as incriminating, I found entries that indicated withdrawals from this company’s funds that corresponded to the money deposited in Pohler’s account, which had allowed him to purchase the three new trucks. This company, whatever it was, had been involved in Pohler’s business. He had allowed another organization, presumably one that was illegal, to use his company as a front for money laundering. In return, he’d been rewarded for his efforts with the money necessary to expand quickly. I was thrilled that I had at last come up with a scenario that made sense.
I heard a noise behind me and turned. In my hurry to get through the cabinets, I’d totally forgotten that Thomas was here with me. The thought of someone coming back and finding us here, rooting through the drawers, would be hard to explain.
When I turned, Thomas was standing behind me with a gun in his hand. It was pointed at me. “Don’t point that at me,” I said, failing for a second to realize what was going on. “It could go off.”
Thomas laughed. “Even now, you’re used to giving the orders. Nice try.”
At that moment, the reality of the situation hit me. I’d been operating under the assumption that the mysterious fifth person was the mastermind behind the operation for all that time. Then, when I found out there was no fifth person, I should have known that the mysterious organizer had to have been one of the four people I’d already talked to in the investigation. Bernadette was dead. Ruschman had left town. Mrs. Pohler was clueless, which left only Thomas as the logical suspect.
I cursed myself for feeling sorry for people and for my own stupidity. I’d not wondered why Thomas was not included in the list of people investigated. I’d just assumed Pohler didn’t need to investigate Thomas because he’d already figured out the man’s deception.
Thomas stood watching me puzzle this out. He didn’t speak for several moments, and then he said, “Have you finally come to the right conclusion? It took you long enough.”
“You were behind this. You worked for Pohler, set him up with the cheap suppliers, fed him cash to buy more trucks, which meant more food to buy from your people, and then you got him into the counterfeit market.”
“For starters, yes,” he said with a smirk playing on his lips. “I’ve been a bad boy. However, I can’t take all the blame here. Pohler took to the food scam without any kind of incentive needed. He was a natural.”
“What kind of ‘incentives’ did you have?” I asked, wondering whom Thomas had used to find out information on the food truck owner.
“For starters, he and Bernadette were an item. Just goes to show you that you’re never satisfied with what you have.”
I thought that the maxim applied equally well to him, but I didn’t speak, since he had a gun pointed to my chest. “So how did you find that out?” I asked, wanting to keep this conversation going for a good 10-15 minutes.
One of the business deductions I’d taken this year was buying new cellphones for Land and me. We shared a cloud account, and as a result, he can track my phone and vice versa. So I wasn’t as scared as I might have been. I had my phone in my pocket, turned on, and knew that he’d look for me. The way I had left without a word to him would raise his suspicions, especially since I left with my new food truck worker. As I’d said before, I was entirely too suspicious of new employees to do such a thing.
“I just happened to be getting food at the Curry in a Hurry truck one day. The door was open, and I saw him kiss her. Trust me; it was not a kiss that married people give each other. I’d been looking for some new business possibilities, and food trucks looked like a good way to go. So I took a job there and got him interested in the food suppliers. Pretty soon, he’d made enough to think about new trucks. I kicked in part of the money, and the business grew.”
“Then you blackmailed him into the counterfeiting?”
“After I told him that the first beta testing would be at your food truck, he was in. I didn’t have to use much persuasion.”
I was weirded out that a business word was being co-opted for use in the counterfeiting scheme. It sounded far too sophisticated for a guy merely printing twenties in his basement. I began to have a bad feeling about this. I’d brushed up against the mob in Capital City before, but they’d never directly opposed me. Now I had someone likely a part of that mob pointing a gun at me. I gave him a long look. “Your name isn’t really Booth, is it?” I asked.
“No, it’s Borelli. You might remember that from the time you found Big Tony’s body?” he said, finger tightening slightly on the trigger.
“I do,” I said. I wanted to say more—to keep the conversation going—but my mouth was dry now, and I was afraid that the conversation was coming to a close. “That’s how you could afford the trucks and had access to the printers and materials for the twenties.”
“Absolutely correct, but Pohler wanted a bigger share of the business, as if ten percent wasn’t enough for him. So he had to go.”
I tried not to gape. Pohler’s share was far less than what I’d expected. No wonder he’d been cheap with employees and other parts of the business. He could barely keep afloat on ten percent.
“I can tell you think that’s not much, but it was more than I was willing to pay. I’d seen him talk to the police a few times, and it was time for him to go—just like it’s time for you to go, too.”
A loudspeaker crackled to life. “This is the police. Come out with your hands up.”
I took a deep breath, but didn’t move my gaze from the gun pointed at me. I didn’t want to die now that I was so close to being saved. I kept perfectly still watching him. I knew that Thomas was playing a game of odds. The longer he stood there, the better the chance that he’d be apprehended. However, he didn’t want to leave a witness who had heard him confess all. Yet shooting me and making sure I was dead would take a few minutes that he didn’t have. He’d be charged with murder, and there might even be eyewitnesses to corroborate the charges.
Finally, after what felt like hours, but I knew was only a minute or so, he made a break for it. He slammed the office door shut on me, which was okay since I had no desire to chase an armed man around a warehouse.
He didn’t make it very far. Apparently, he had been fooled by Land’s approximation of a police speaker. I knew from experience that police don’t use that type of stereotyped announcement. If Danvers were here, it’d be far more likely he’d have a SWAT team in place before making any sound.
Land wasn’t alone, and I was surprised by his companion. It was Sabine, who was armed with two pistols and an assault rifle over her shoulder. Apparently she wasn’t afraid of some work after all.
Thomas raised his pistol, but he was too slow. Sabine fired twice, hitting him in each knee, so that he crumpled to the ground. The pistol went off, missing everything, and then skittered across the floor as Thomas hit the ground hard.
Sabine used her foot on Thomas to make sure he didn’t have any other weapons. Then she took a plastic zip tie and handcuffed him. She yanked him up only using one arm and sat him down on a chair where she used another, larger zip tie to secure him to the chair.
Land grabbed the handgun that Thomas had used and then grabbed me. “Are you okay?” he asked, before kissing me hard on the mouth. It was probably one of those kisses Thomas had talked about, but I sus
pected that we would continue the hot kisses long after the wedding was over.
When he was good and satisfied that I was all in one piece, he used his phone to call Detective Danvers. He would be pleased to wrap this up before the Secret Service arrived.
Chapter 12
Though I’d been slow on coming to the correct conclusions about Thomas, I knew immediately a few things about Land. He’d suspected a long time ago that one of Pohler’s workers had also been the source of the phony twenties. Since Thomas had told us a story about being blackmailed over a relatively minor lie, Land immediately suspected him of being the culprit. Hence, he’d deliberately had Sabine fake a walkout at the business so a spot would be open for a new cook.
I wondered if he really doubted her abilities to work a steady job, but given her proficiency with weapons, I suspected that she too had followed a similar career path to her brother. Though, given her age, I wondered how that could be. Sabine had kept away from me, knowing that I was far too suspicious to be fooled by an act. She was afraid that she couldn’t convincingly portray a woman with a broken heart, so it was easier to have Land meet with her instead.
So, with only weeks left until the wedding, the food trucks would again be sufficiently looked after as we went on a honeymoon, which had been a major worry for me.
Land and I discussed what to do about Ryan Pohler’s food trucks. Mrs. Pohler had been ecstatic with us when she learned that Thomas and the mob had no claims on the trucks. They couldn’t admit that they had bought the trucks for Pohler; that testimony could be used against them in the money-laundering case. It was easier to say good-bye to the money than to tack another few years onto a sentence.
As a result, she gave us our choice of trucks. She was selling the rest through a food service dealer, but we took Curry in a Hurry post-haste. At the moment, we’re renovating the truck to make it up to Land’s standards. We’d discussed getting another worker, but we weren’t sure that we could handle another former employee of Ryan Pohler. So we’ve been talking to Paula Reyes about possible hires. She had some candidates who were not part of the Pohler team.
Detective Danvers was incredibly happy with the resolution to the case. When the Secret Service arrived, he’d had Thomas Booth/Borelli all wrapped up and ready for delivery. He took full credit for the bust. I didn’t much care. I had what I wanted at this point, and despite Sabine’s subterfuge over quitting, she apparently was done with the detective.
After this, I knew nothing would go wrong with the wedding. How could it?
~ To be continued ~
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FOOD TRUCK MYSTERIES
Murder To Go
Murder In The Spotlight
Leftovers
The Real Gyro
Dead Giveaway
A Thief of Any Man
Justice is Served
A Grave Concern
FIVE WILL GET YOU TWENTY (Food Truck Mysteries Book 9) Page 12
