FOOD TRUCK MYSTERIES: The Complete Series (14 Books)

by Chloe Kendrick

I couldn’t be that sanguine about this problem with the politician, though. I felt like a snoop in one way, but in another, Land had pointed out that we were directly impacted by the actions of the city council. So my curiosity had a basis in my business, or so I told myself.

  The day went fast, and I have to admit that I threw a few extra hot dogs on the grill at about 1:30 so that I would have more than enough to feed the homeless around the square.

  Carter shot me an odd look, but he didn’t speak or ask questions. He’d started on some of his cleaning for the day, and he went back to it. He had begun a tad earlier than normal, but I put that down to wanting to get home to help with his mother. Most of our food business was done by then, so I hadn’t bothered to say anything about it to him.

  I was a bit surprised to see Detective Danvers again that day. He hadn’t been around often in the past few months. There had been no need for his presence since I hadn’t touched a murder case since May. However, this marked the second time in two days that he’d stopped by, which made me wonder if he knew something that I didn’t.

  I handed him a free cup of coffee. Carter hadn’t started cleaning the urns yet, and the rest would likely be thrown away. The gesture was akin to giving the hot dogs to the homeless, and I didn’t feel like he was begging in these circumstances.

  “What’s going on here?” Danvers asked, making it sound like we were old friends instead of frequent adversaries.

  “Not much. Just starting to get things cleaned up. We’re having a great fall. Profits are way up,” I said truthfully. I knew Jax Danvers well enough to know that he was leading up to something. I had no idea what it was, and so I was keeping all of my options open by being friendly and upbeat.

  “Have you noticed anyone hanging around here lately?” Danvers said, trying to sound blasé about the matter.

  “Just my customers,” I said, wondering what he was leading up to. Did it have anything to do with Hamilton Preston? Yet I couldn’t ask my question without giving away what I’d seen. I wasn’t ready to show my hand to Danvers. He would suspect that I was somehow involved with whatever was going on. If I were wrong, he’d laugh louder and harder than Land had.

  “Have you had any of the candidates around?” he asked, still trying to play it off.

  I shook my head. “We’re two people here, and small business owners. There’s not a lot of gain to be made in stopping by. I’m interested to see how Hamilton Preston does, though,” I added.

  The words had the desired effect. Danvers arched his back slightly, and his eyes widened. He wouldn’t be a great poker player. “Why is that?” he managed in a strained voice.

  “Family’s downtown. That sort of thing. What about you?”

  A moment passed in silence. Danvers seemed to believe that I had only mentioned the name in passing as someone he might know. However, it was fairly apparent that there was more to this story. He might know him far better than he let on.

  Danvers tipped back the cup and finished the rest of the coffee. He threw the cup into the trash can and walked off at a pace that was almost a trot. Since I’d provoked a reaction but not any information, I went back to my routine of giving a few hot dogs to the homeless. I finished putting the condiments on the dogs. Carter had used his recipe that called for bacon wrapping the dogs and then teriyaki sauce and pineapple. I managed to get the bacon without much trouble and had eight dogs by the time I ran out of condiments.

  I handed over the serving trays to Carter for him to wash, and I went outside to distribute food. There was a large crowd of customers today, so I wasn’t sure that I’d have enough to find Preston, but I wanted to give it a try. I was sure that he’d been the one I’d seen the other day.

  I gave Delores one, and she told me that her sister said thank you. I wasn’t sure if she had a sister or not. She often chatted with people who weren’t there. The young man with PTSD was also on the square, and he just smiled at me as I gave him the food.

  The last hot dog went to a man I hadn’t seen before. His eyes were bright and sparkling, not like the usual despondent gazes I received. He took the hot dog, and I paused a second. I may not be the best eyewitness in recorded history, but I knew hands. The hands that had taken the hot dog were manicured. Not just trimmed, but trimmed, filed, and clear coated. I nearly dropped the dog, but I gathered my thoughts and took the time to study the man. He was older than Hamilton, perhaps old enough to be his father. He watched me carefully, almost challenging me to say something to him.

  He was clean-shaven, yet his clothes were decidedly old and torn. I wasn’t sure what to make of this sudden trend of men dressing down like this. Were they hiding something or just trying to get away from it all?

  I started to ask him something, but he turned and left. I thought about confronting him, but what did I really have? He had nice nails and an upscale haircut. He couldn’t be arrested for wanting to look good. For all I knew, he had a family member who kept him cleaned up on a regular basis.

  I stood there, watching the man and letting my mind race through the possibilities. Nothing became clear to me.

  Carter came out of the truck and cleared his throat. “Hey, I’m all done. Did you want to visit Land before I leave?” He used air quotes as he said the word visit to let me know that he suspected we participated in more than talk in the other truck.

  I shook my head. “That’s okay. I’ll text him and then I should see him later.”

  He nodded and started to walk away, but then turned back to me. “Hey, about my mom, I wanted to let you know if something happened.” His words trailed off, and I suspected the worst had occurred. I braced myself for the news. “Aaron asked me to marry him last night.” The words were spoken in that same morose voice he’d just used, and I wasn’t sure how to take it.

  “Congratulations?” I asked, unsure of what to say when the groom seemed unhappy about the announcement.

  “Yeah, thanks, I guess.” He shrugged.

  “You don’t seem excited,” I added, stating the obvious.

  He turned, looked at the truck, and then turned back to me. “I’m not sure. I worry that he’s just proposing to take my mind off of everything else. I don’t want it to be way to cheer me up. I want it to be because he can’t live without me.”

  “How long have you two been together?” I asked, knowing they’d been off and on longer than he’d been working at the food truck. I wasn’t sure if he counted the entire time since they’d met, or only the months that they’d actually dated.

  “Four years, but it’s not always easy. You and Land make it seem simple. Maybe that’s what I want.” His expression was wistful, almost dreamy. I wondered if he thought we’d made it look simple when Land was in jail or I was accused of murder. We’d had a few booking sheets between the two of us.

  “I’m pretty lucky,” I admitted. “But the circumstances of our engagement were anything but storybook.”

  “Maybe I just want some excitement. You should let me do something on your next case. Are you following anyone at the moment or detecting a murder?” His eyes lit up. I suspected that Carter was just having a hard time because the reality of his situation was not what he wanted. For the foreseeable future, he had debts, a dying mother, and the potential to become the legal guardian for multiple children. That was a lot on his plate. Playing Nancy Drew with me would seem like more fun.

  Since he asked, I told Carter about how I was sure that I’d seen Hamilton Preston dressed as a homeless man, explaining Danvers’s reaction to hearing the man’s name earlier. Then I told him about the well-groomed man just now.

  Carter didn’t have much in the way of help to give me. There were too many nail salons downtown in Capital City to even begin to follow up that lead. Same with the haircut and shave. I didn’t have a photo of this new man, so I would have to go just on description, and chances were that he hadn’t gone into any salon dressed like he was today. Carter really didn’t seem like he was interested in pursuing this, despit
e his earlier enthusiasm. I wondered if he’d wanted a clean-cut murder rather than a masquerading politician, but he only offered a few suggestions before his ideas faded.

  After chatting a few minutes, I gave Carter a hug and headed back to the truck. I managed to finish my banking tasks and get the truck back to the secured lot in record time.

  Land had decided to come over that evening. He’d texted me while I was counting the money and told me what we’d have for dinner. Frankly, he had me at “you don’t have to cook.” He enjoyed cooking, even after a long day of working at a food truck. It was almost more than I could bear to order takeout after a full shift.

  I made it home and stretched out on the couch. I hadn’t been sleeping well, thinking about all the things going on with the candidate and with Carter. My life, crazy though it could be, seemed like a breeze at this point.

  I woke to the sound of my cell phone. I’d set my ringtone to the old-fashioned ring, and it scared me back into consciousness. I looked at the name and saw that Carter was calling me. I wondered what he could want, since we’d just seen each other three hours ago.

  I picked up. “Hello?” I said with far less gusto than I intended.

  “Maeve, is that you?”

  I agreed that it was me. “What’s up?” I asked in return, thinking that something tragic had happened with his family situation.

  “You won’t believe the news. Turn it on.” His voice was breathless, like he’d been running.

  “I only have Netflix. So unless they’re streaming the news, just tell me.”

  “It’s Hamilton Preston. He’s dead.”

  That was enough to get me off my sofa and pick up the tablet. I pulled up the local news website. The first story on the site was about Hamilton Preston. I began to read. Preston had not come to work at his gallery. The family had called the police, though little could be done so soon after his disappearance. It wasn’t until this evening that the body had been located at a local park with injuries likely sustained from an assault with a blunt instrument.

  “You were right. Something was going on with him,” Carter said, sounding slightly superior.

  I ignored his words for a moment as I continued reading the article. My eyes stopped on the last line of the story. Preston’s body had been found in the same park I’d seen him two days ago.

  I knew that he hadn’t been in the park the entire time. If so, his body would have been found long before now. That meant that he’d returned to the park again later. I wondered if he’d been with the same man he’d been with two days ago, and if they’d argued again.

  “Well, we certainly don’t know very much,” I added. “The police probably have more information that we do at this point.”

  “And I suppose that Detective Danvers can’t be persuaded to tell you anything about the case?” he queried. “Maybe that’s why he stopped by today.” When Carter had first started working at the truck, he’d been convinced that I should date Danvers, but since I’d been with Land, he’d stopped that campaign, though a few suggestions that I had some magical allure over Danvers still arose.

  “I doubt it. I won’t ask him for details.” I bristled at the thought of asking Jax Danvers for anything. He was normally annoyed with me for showing him up during investigations. I couldn’t imagine that he would enjoy sharing information with me, so that I could do it again.

  Carter was halfway through an explanation of his scheme to go undercover amongst the homeless people to learn more when I cut him off. I suspected that Carter was feeling a bit overwhelmed by his personal life and was trying to escape via a criminal investigation. In reality, he had far more on his plate than he needed, and I wanted to keep him away from any other problems.

  I hung up quickly and called Land. He simply said, “Be there in seven,” and hung up.

  True to his word, he was there in about seven minutes. He came through the door and gave me a long, deep kiss. My mouth responded, but my brain wondered if he was trying to distract me from the news reports.

  He finally broke it off, and I had nearly forgotten about the death of Hamilton Preston. He looked at me, his eyes boring into mine. “You’re going to insist that you saw that politician in the park, aren’t you?”

  I gave him a squeeze. “I know what I saw, and Hamilton Preston was there. At Government Square and again at the park—the same park where his body was found in.”

  Land sighed. While he was the one with more formal training in police techniques and military actions, he despised getting involved with local crime investigations. Apparently, he’d had enough of that before we met, and now he just wanted to cook and be married to me. Not a bad life, but I couldn’t help getting involved. This crime had potential ramifications for the food trucks. “I’ll talk to Danvers tonight, and see what he knows. Then we can go from there.”

  I gave him a smile and a kiss—and a reason to not call Danvers until much later.

  Chapter 3

  True to his word, Land had called Danvers late last evening. I knew from experience that Detective Danvers didn’t stop by the food truck until we were almost done for the day. In that way, he didn’t impact our sales, and he wasn’t interrupted by paying customers.

  Sure enough, Danvers stopped by at 1:30 p.m., right on time. He looked worn out, and I suspected that he’d been out on the case all night. I poured him a large cup of coffee and handed it to him immediately.

  He took a few sips before talking. “Land said that you know some information about this case. Care to share?”

  I explained how I’d seen Preston on Government Square a few days ago, dressed as a homeless man. Then I had again seen him at the park by my house while I was running and that he’d been arguing with another man.

  “Describe the other man,” Danvers said, pulling out a small notebook from his pocket. I rarely got the notebook treatment, so either he thought the murder might be related to this, or he was desperate for any leads that he could get.

  “It was dusk, so I didn’t get a great look at him. He had his collar pulled up, but he was slightly shorter than Preston and had dark hair.”

  “If he was wearing a coat with the collar pulled up, could you be sure that it was a man?” Danvers asked.

  I had to think about the question. I had only assumed it was a man, because it was a man’s overcoat, but given the bulkiness of the coat, I could only see the outline of the garments and not the person. Considering that I was running in shorts at the time, the coat had seemed unnecessary. Now, maybe I could see the purpose for the outerwear.

  “If you’re taking that long to think it over, the answer is no, you’re not sure.” Danvers scribbled down some notes as to the time and the exact location in the park. “We’re not going to be able to tell if it’s a man or woman, but we can use the time and place to see if we can learn anything. The park has a history of cruising and prostitution. Capital City has been working to clean it up. You might want to keep that in mind if you’re running alone there. It’s not exactly the safest route for you. Anyway, there are cameras everywhere, so we might get lucky. Then, of course, we can start asking for alibis for that evening, too.”

  I nodded. Apparently the discussion was only going to go one way, where I was telling him information.

  I filled up his coffee again, and he headed out, still mum as to what had happened. One thing was for sure. I didn’t have much faith in the cameras, or else the police would already have a suspect in custody from the video feeds from the other night.

  Carter smiled at me after Danvers left. “You’re engaged. You’re losing that touch with other men.”

  I wasn’t amused. I had already made plans to find out what I wanted to know. The family would likely have shut down the art gallery for a few days to mourn, but I figured that the campaign staff would be more concerned about paychecks and closing up the facilities. So I would be heading to the Preston campaign headquarters after work. It was only a few streets from here, so I could make a quick trip
when we were done.

  I gave Carter a smile. “Does that mean that you’re losing your touch, too?” I asked, hoping to divert his thoughts from this case.

  “If that’s your way of asking if I’ve decided what to do, the answer is still no, I haven’t.” He went back to work and didn’t ask any more questions.

  ***

  Since I was staying downtown, I locked up the truck where it was and ran the cash deposit over to Land at Basque in the Sun. The kiss I got today was not intended to make me forget looking into the murder. After a few minutes, I checked my hair, added some makeup, and left the truck to go the few blocks to the campaign headquarters.

  The door was unlocked, and so I entered the storefront space. A lone woman worked in the back of the office. She lifted her head and gave me the once-over. Granted, I was in jeans and a T-shirt, but I looked respectable.

  The office was half decorated with signs urging voters to support Hamilton Preston. His image was on most of the signs, which made the situation feel somewhat surreal. The man I’d seen as a homeless person was staring at me from every corner of the room.

  A bank of phones sat on the far wall, now silent. Chairs for the campaigners were everywhere, but many had been pushed out and not returned to their original positions, making it seem like the staff had left in a hurry.

  “If you’re from the press, the press release is on that desk there.” She pointed to a stack of papers on an otherwise empty desk. I picked one up and read through it quickly. The notice merely stated that Preston’s campaign had been suspended following the discovery of his body in the park last night.

  “Any word on the cause of death yet?” I asked. I hoped that the staff member would consider me to be a reporter and answer a few questions.

  “The autopsy is scheduled for tomorrow, if I understand correctly. However, in most cases, this is pretty standard if the person wasn’t in the hospital when the death occurred,” she said in a monotone voice. I wondered if she had some real feelings for the candidate or if she’d just answered this question too many times.