Hercules had been right and wrong. A body rested in the trunk, but it was the body of a man who had been shot at close range – not a woman who had been strangled. We looked at each other, just as Land’s sister approached us with a bottle of pepper spray and told us to stay right where we were.
She took one look at the body in the trunk and let out a string of words that I couldn’t translate, but I bet that Land could.
Land could indeed translate. He’d been the second person I’d called about the body in the trunk. The first had been Detective Danvers, who had been less than thrilled to speak to me. He wrote down a few details, swore that he’d jail me if I didn’t have a real corpse for him this time, and hung up.
When Land arrived, his sister made no pretense of not knowing him. He strode into the area, and she threw herself into his arms, crying and saying something that I didn’t understand. Except for a few epithets when I’d first taken over the truck, I didn’t recall Land speaking Basque. My Spanish was rudimentary, but I knew enough to know that this language wasn’t Spanish. Land had told me on occasion that he liked making the food of his country because he was concerned that the old ways would die out, so I presumed that he spoke the old language as well.
Land kept shooting glances at me, but since I already knew the general outline of the story, I didn’t feel a need to intervene or interrogate him.
Danvers had no such compunction when he arrived. He took one look at the sister and asked, “Sabine Mendoza. What are you doing here?”
The woman looked up at Danvers and forgot the screams and cries. “Jax Danvers,” she said with a slight accent. “What are you doing here?”
“You know damned well I’m with the police force in Capital City. A better question would be, what are you doing here, and why are you mixed up in a murder case?” His face looked perturbed, and even in the semi-darkness I could see the redness of his cheeks. Since he had barely looked at me, I thought that I likely wasn’t the source of aggravation, even though we both knew I was going to chide him later for not performing a thorough search of the parking lot the other night.
“I work here,” she said plainly. She was nearly as talkative as her brother.
Her response answered my question. Sabine had obviously known when I was going to arrive at the lot during her shift, and she’d conveniently disappeared. Only one person knew what my schedule was – and that was Land. He’d been deliberately hiding his sister from me, but I couldn’t yet fathom the reasons why. Was he concerned about what I’d think of Sabine? Or perhaps he was worried what his family would think of me?
Land looked uncomfortable, since I knew he could read my expression and see that I’d come up with more than a few answers. “So who’s the in the car, if it’s not the woman who was strangled?” Land asked, pushing the focus and speculation from himself to the murder.
“Big Tony Borelli. He’s been missing for two months. We’ve bene trying to keep it out of the press, but in the last few weeks, stories have begun to pop up, questioning when he was last seen and why he’s not been involved in some recent events. Officially the police weren’t notified of the disappearance, but the word on the street is that someone else was looking to loosen his grip on the pawn industry in Capital City, and especially some of the outlying areas.”
I groaned. Not only had I not solved the mystery related to the strangled woman, I’d managed to put myself in the middle of a mob war. Big Tony was known throughout Capital City for his exploits. When I was younger, he’d completed a hostile takeover of the pawn industry. He hadn’t completed his merger like they did in business school. He’d shoved any pawn shop owner who didn’t pay him kickback over the side of a building. When some witnesses stepped forward, they were run over by a U-Haul truck on the way to testify. The driver, who had never been located, had been a comedian, because the truck had been rented in the prosecutor’s name.
Now someone who was even more dangerous than Big Tony had killed him and shoved his body in the trunk of a black late-model Corolla.
The corpse had been in the trunk for a while, since there were signs of decay, including thousands of bugs, all over him. I wasn’t squeamish about the aftermath of death. For some reason, it didn’t affect me like that video feed had.
“And how did you find the body?” Danvers asked, finally turning to look at me. I had been dreading this, and the tone was about what I’d expected. He was short with me, rude and condescending.
I decided to play it honest with him. I explained my train of thought regarding the missing woman. I told him about Hercules and the idea of using a cadaver dog. I was out of breath by the time I finished speaking.
“Well, you got your wish, because the captain already told me to get two dogs out here pronto. If your video corpse is here somewhere, these dogs will find her.”
I looked around the lot, wondering if Emma Creech was still here or if the killer had managed to get her body out later. I had no cheer in me that the police would finally be taking this crime seriously, given that a more dangerous crime had now happened.
After a lengthy interrogation, he let Gina and Hercules leave after determining that they were just friends who had been dragged into my investigation. Gina patted my arm as she walked by and whispered, “Call me. I want to hear what happens.”
Danvers excused Sabine as well, but she made no move to leave. She stood to the side and listened.
Land and I were still expected to stay, and at several points, I thought Detective Danvers was going to take us to the station for questioning. I think Land would have preferred that to my inevitable questions about his sister and why we hadn’t met. He kept waiting for them, but I already knew the outlines of the story. The rest could wait for a better time, when Sabine wasn’t standing next to us watching our every move.
In the end, Danvers went back to work and ignored us.
Chapter 6
Danvers had no sooner left than Land opened his mouth to talk, but he was interrupted by his sister. “Maeve, finally. Land has been making me hide like a dirty secret. I’ve been dying to meet you. I want to learn all about you.”
So apparently Land had been the one to keep me away from his family. I had to wonder if his reasons included the fact that I was American while he was Basque. Perhaps his family wanted him to be involved with someone from his own culture? Or perhaps he was equally secretive with his family as he was with me.
She grabbed me in a bear hug before I could answer her. “Wait until you meet the rest of the family. They’re going to be so thrilled.”
Okay, so maybe it wasn’t a desire to have him date someone of the same culture. Maybe it was just Land being his usual self.
I wasn’t sure about being a part of a huge family immediately. For most of my life, family had meant me, my parents, and my aunt. After my aunt passed away, the definition narrowed to become just our immediate family. So holidays and other events were always small and intimate. The idea of being a part of a larger family freaked me out a bit.
“So do you live in Capital City?” I asked, wanting to drop back and get the basics. I’d only just learned Sabine’s name an hour ago. Now she was inviting me into the family, and I was hoping to find out her name and age.
Sabine laughed at my question. “Just like my big brother. Yes, I’ve been here about three years. I finished college six months ago, and got a job at the parking lot when I couldn’t find something in my field.”
“What’s your field?” I asked, trying to keep things interesting but shallow.
“Business management with a minor in marketing,” she replied. My mouth nearly dropped open. That had been my major and minor as well. Land knew that Sabine and I had this much in common, but had still kept us apart. I wondered what he was worried about.
The most amazing part was that she’d been in Capital City throughout the entire time that Land and I had known each other. In all of the exploits and dangers we’d encountered, he’d never once seen fit to mentio
n a sister in town. How could he keep a secret like that? I made a note that I’d be checking to learn about other family members in town. I hadn’t even bothered to look up the name “Mendoza” in the directory to see if there were others in the Capital City metro area.
I shot Land a glance that spoke volumes about how we’d be talking later, but for now, I asked questions, and Sabine kindly answered them. She asked a few questions of me, and I returned the favor.
Just as I had talked with Gina about the finances and the marketing of a food truck, Sabine was fascinated by the small business I’d built. It would have been a pleasant experience, except for the fact that we were at the scene of a murder.
“I hope you don’t mind, but I’ve been in your trucks a few times. I’m fascinated by this whole eating out of a vehicle thing that’s going on here. Meals are more of an event where I come from.” Sabine gave me a smile, but Land was frowning. Apparently he hadn’t known about these forays into the trucks.
Sabine looked over the police, who were starting to pack up their things. “I have to get back to work. The police are already asking questions about why I wasn’t at the gate that night you were all here before. Thanks to my brother, I could end up losing my job. It doesn’t look good when the guard disappears the night of a murder.”
“I told you that there might be contingencies when you took this job,” Land stated blandly. Of course, it would make sense that he would try to get his sister a job where we did business. I was still surprised that no one had mentioned this to me in the years we’d been here.
“So what now?” I asked, not sure of what to do about this family social event, or the fact that we’d discovered the body of a notorious criminal.
“I thought we could hang out here,” Land said. “I want to make some coffee and wait for the results.”
“Of what?” Sabine asked.
“The cadaver dogs. They’re only kept in Merriville,” Land said. Merriville was only thirty minutes out of Capital City, which meant they could be quite close to arriving by now. “Want to stay for coffee, Sabine? I know how much you like the recipe.”
I was surprised by the invitation from Land. He’d spent two years keeping me away from his sister, and now he was inviting her to hang out with us. I was still puzzling it out, when she said, “Yeah, that was me. I took the coffee.” She had the grace to blush slightly, which gave her tanned complexion an almost rosy glow. It made for a beautiful contrast with her dark hair. The Mendoza family had definitely produced gorgeous children.
Land rolled his eyes. “I knew it was you as soon as Maeve told me that coffee was missing.”
The pieces fell into place. Sabine had taken the missing coffee, and Land had figured out his sister’s crime before I had.
Sabine laughed. “I knew you would, but damn. No one else has ever been able to make grandpa’s recipe like you do. It’s like a trip to Navarre without the plane tickets. Make me a cup and bring it up to the guard shack. Please.” She stretched the last word out into about six syllables.
She went back to work, and Land went into the food truck to make coffee. He started prepping one of the coffee urns before he looked at me. “Go ahead and say it. Ask all those questions that you’ve been dying to ask,” he said. “I know I’m going to get peppered with them.”
“Nope,” I said serenely, watching him work. “This answers a few questions – like who stole the coffee, but you’ll talk about the personal aspects more when you’re ready. You obviously weren’t ready, so why would I bug you about it?”
Much to my surprise, he rushed to me, pulled me into his arms and kissed me. Not just a peck, but the type of lips-meet-lips that could have cooked the food without turning on the oven. My knees went weak as I closed my eyes. He stepped back and looked at me. “Thank you,” he said quietly. “That means more than you can know.”
Who knew that killing curiosity could lead to a passionate embrace? I wondered what I would get if I gave up on investigating altogether. “Happy to help,” I said with a slight smirk on my lips. I wasn’t sure why the secrecy meant that much to him, but apparently it meant a lot – enough to stoke passion in him. I knew that I wouldn’t cross Land’s personal barriers until he was ready to let me in.
“We can talk more later, but just know, it’s them, not you. They’re a lot to handle individually. In a group, it’s like a tsunami. I was trying to spare you.”
I nodded in understanding. I wasn’t in a rush to be swamped with family. “So besides solving the case of the coffee thief, what do we have here? Is the murder of Big Tony related to the woman in the food truck?” I asked.
Land shook his head and looked at me. “I don’t see how the two crimes can be related. Strangulation is a passionate crime. It indicates that the two are involved in a personal relationship of some sort, and the personal aspects to choking someone are what make it so intense. It would be an odd murderer who liked to strangle strangers.” I shivered as Land spoke. His voice was quiet, but the emotions he was evoking gave me the chills.
“So one is a mob hit, and the other is a personal crime. I haven’t had any chance to look into Emma Creech. I stopped by her house, but no one was home. I don’t have any idea about her personal life.” I gathered the cups and packets for the coffee as he worked.
“I’m not thinking that he’s a mob hit,” Land said after a moment.
I started to ask why, but stopped. “Are you going to gross me out with details about the crime if I ask why?”
He gave me a grin. “Maybe. I thought that’s what you liked about me.”
“It’s not in the top ten,” I answered honestly.
“Let’s just say that I would have expected a mob hit to be an execution-style shooting, behind the ear, which usually means that the victim was on his knees. This shooting was a mess from a blood and guts perspective. Shot in the side of the head, and the bullet went right through. Too much splatter and mess for a professional. The last thing a professional killer wants is to wear the DNA of the victim.”
I grimaced. “That’s not good for us, since we’re not professionals.”
Land shrugged. “Unless you do something rash, we’re not involved in this murder case. We just found a dead body. The corpse was stinking up the place. It was only a few more days at most before someone would have reported it, and the body would have been found. We expedited that process only by a matter of hours.”
The coffee was done, and I poured three cups. “I have no desire to get involved with that case. It could prove too dangerous.”
Land kissed the top of my head. “When has that stopped you before?” he said with a smile.
We took the cups up to the guard shack, where Sabine sat filling in a crossword puzzle. “This is the closest thing to Heaven. I wanted to tell you that I took some of the ground beans, but I wasn’t supposed to bother Maeve with details – like my existence.” She took a long sip of her coffee, and I watched her as she did. She was beautiful in the same way that Land was attractive. The full lip, the dark hair, the perfect nose. I could easily have picked her for his family member.
“So what do you know about the car that the body was in?” I asked, trying to fill the silence with something other than talk about her brother.
“The Corolla? It’s been here for months. I checked the records when you started making a fuss here. The owner has one space, and the Corolla seems to have been here the whole time. No in or out notifications for it. If I remember correctly, the guy has been in the Caribbean for the last few months.”
I knew that the lot maintained records of the movements of the customers. Even though the lot kept a guard on site, the customers had to use a barcoded badge to enter and leave the lot. The badge triggered the gates to open. These scans were recorded and stored in their computer system. So ideally the records would show who had dropped off the body at the lot – if a time of death could be established. I knew that the range of potential times grew exponentially as the body decomposed.
Even so, hiding a body inside a secured lot seemed like a large risk for the killer to take. I could understand Emma Creech, who had likely been killed here, but moving a body in would be tracked by the gates and the cameras.
“So tell us about Emma Creech?” I asked, wanting to change the subject. I wanted to know why Land was keeping her a secret from me, but I’d already been thoughtful and gave him his time to tell me.
“Ugh,” Sabine said as she put down the coffee. “She was not a nice woman at all. She reported me for doing crossword puzzles during work. Yet I had to run her out of other people’s vehicles at times. And she wanted to complain about me.” She rolled her eyes at the thought.
I looked at Land. Sabine had just incriminated herself in the case. She had a motive for the murder, and of course, someone who worked at the secured parking lot had more than enough opportunity to commit the crime. Like Land, Sabine was physically fit. She could easily have strangled someone and moved their body if the need arose.
Land shook his head. I supposed that he was going off of family bias and a knowledge of Sabine’s character, but I hadn’t seen anything that had helped her case any.
“How tall is Emma?” I asked, remembering my deductions regarding the height of the killer.
“I’m 5 foot 8,” Sabine replied, “and she was a few inches shorter than me. So maybe 5’5”?”
So that wasn’t much help in reducing the pool of suspects. The majority of men would fit into that category. I wondered what else I could learn about the woman.
Emma did not seem like a nice woman, if she’d been stealing from the truck and trying to break into other cars. I wondered if Emma’s trips into other people’s vehicles meant that she was the thief, but I needed more information to be sure. It made sense for the thief to be the killer, not to have multiple felons running around the lot.
I tried to make sense of all the crimes going on, but my head hurt. I had expected a single murder to go with the theft, but now we had multiple murders and possibly multiple killers and thieves running around the lot. I took another sip of the coffee as we waited for Danvers.
FOOD TRUCK MYSTERIES: The Complete Series (14 Books) Page 77
