FOOD TRUCK MYSTERIES: The Complete Series (14 Books)

by Chloe Kendrick

  “Do you still think that someone in the department could have been involved?” I asked. “I mean, they have access to these types of materials.”

  Land studied the device. “I’m thinking not. This thing is way more expensive than what the police used to use. I doubt government budgets have gotten more generous since then. Still it’s not the latest model, but it is better than the police version.”

  I sighed. “So what does this get us?”

  “At least for the minute, they don’t know for sure where we are. They’ll have to follow us the old-fashioned way and allow us a chance to see them.”

  All day Saturday, Land eyed the growing stack of boxes in the corner that represented the wedding gifts that had been received in advance. A few he’d shaken and others he had felt. “If you want to open them, go ahead. We can run the dishes through the dishwasher and be done with it.”

  He nodded and began slowly prizing back corners on the boxes and peering inside. With a shock, I realized that he wasn’t expecting a particular gift or wanting to see what friends had purchased for us. He was thinking that one of the boxes could bring us harm as either a bomb or some other danger. It was an unnerving feeling to watch what should be a fun occasion turn into a bomb squad reenactment. My mind had never gone in that direction.

  All of the boxes turned out to be fine though. “What exactly did you think was going to happen?” I asked when he was done. He’d just come back from taking all of the broken down boxes out to the recycling dumpsters in the back of the complex.

  “Carona has to have physical documentation of what’s going on. No administrator in any organization is going to believe her at her word. She has to have photos or documents or something that back up her thoughts on the ambassador and the attempts on his life. There has to be documentation as to why she thinks something will happen in Capital City. I was just thinking that she might have sent them to us. What better way to disguise it than to make it look like a wedding gift the week before we get married?”

  The thought that it was only a few days until the wedding made my stomach knot up. I knew this was the right thing for us, but the stress of running the business and getting prepped for the big day was getting to me. And seeing all of Land’s clothing, photos and more lying around in the living room made it feel all too real.

  Danvers stopped by on Sunday along with Land’s sports car. They’d done nothing to clean up the mess or the broken rear window of the car. “We need to talk,” Danvers said as he handed over the keys.

  “Go ahead. We’re a package deal,” I reminded him with a smile. “If you make Land go somewhere so you can tell him something, he’s just going to come back and tell me. So save yourself the trouble.”

  Danvers didn’t look pleased that I would be sitting in on the conversation, but I didn’t care.

  “The backseat of the car looks faked,” he said plainly. “There’s no blood on the seats. There’s no sign of a struggle or of anyone trying to pull out a heavy weight. Frankly, I would say that it was a put-up job by Carona herself.”

  Land was quiet for a moment before nodding. “I didn’t hear any shots that night. There should have been at least the sounds of a shot, even if it was muffled by a silencer.” I knew that Land had great hearing, but I hadn’t been aware that he had been listening for a scuffle on Friday night. I had just taken it at face value that she would remain unconscious until we woke her.

  “Are you sure?” I asked, thinking of the scene.

  “There are two holes in the rear window, but there’s no sign of bullet holes inside the car. So I’m not sure how she did it, but given the lack of blood, those bullets didn’t hit her.” Danvers looked annoyed. “It was such a put-up job that we barely looked at the rest of the car. That’s why it’s back here so early.”

  I had trouble getting my mind around this. On the one hand, she had faked her own death or possible abduction, but on the other hand, the work had been so sloppy that a cursory glance by the crime scene techs had likely ruled out a crime. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to be impressed at her ingenuity or dismayed that this was the best she could do.

  Land had apparently seen the expression on my face and understood it. “She just wanted it to look real enough to suggest to the press that she’d been killed. We were gone only a few minutes, so her time was limited.”

  I thought back to the scene in the car. I didn’t like it at all that she’d been listening in on our intimate discussion. Even though we had only engaged in handholding, I had not expected anyone to be listening. It seemed like most of our moments these days were viewed by others. Not only had she likely been awake as Land and I had talked about the case, she’d been armed too. The shots had definitely come from a weapon of some sorts. Danvers had suggested a small caliber weapon but without the bullets, the model could not be traced. They couldn’t trace the weapon without the ballistics from the bullets either.

  “So what do we do now?” I asked, thinking of the situation. I wasn’t sure if there would be additional contact from Carona, or if she had thought we weren’t likely to back her up on whatever plan she’d had for the ambassador.

  “You go ahead and get married,” Danvers said. “The rest of the case, I’ll handle.”

  I doubted his words on that. If the ambassador was coming into town, then Danvers would likely need Land in some capacity. Land had proved invaluable in areas like reconnaissance and stakeouts. I couldn’t see Danvers passing up a chance to save an international figure and beat out one of our own operatives for the glory. He would likely be looking at a promotion after that.

  Sabine showed up then, so Danvers beat a hasty retreat out of the apartment before she could come up with some new insult for him. She was accompanied by Land’s grandmother, who had come over to offer help with the preparations.

  I was doing my wedding on a budget. We were hosting a small intimate affair in my parents’ backyard. The meal was being catered because I wanted the people who worked in the food trucks with me to be guests and not workers for the day.

  Land’s grandmother had pulled me aside shortly after our engagement to explain the basics of a Basque wedding. The men would be dressed in lightweight and light-colored suits per her edict. The bridesmaids would wear cocktail dresses with rather large hairpieces, and there would be the expectation of a considerable amount of food.

  I had mistakenly thought that this meant a larger cake and more potato chips, but I was sorely mistaken. The food was all supposed to be traditional Basque fare. While I’d eaten many times at Basque in the Sun, I’d only eaten a few full Basque meals in my time, mostly prepared and served by Land’s grandmother.

  She had pulled out a long list of dishes and on that day, we’d selected a number of appetizers and entrees, including consommé, lamb and mussels. I felt full just making the list that day.

  She had explained as well who all had to attend the wedding. While I’d only met Land, Sabine and his grandmother, there were apparently a number of sundry aunts, uncles and cousins who lived in the United States. Even though grandmother had not expected them all to attend, she wanted them to know that Land was getting married.

  However, the funny thing was that when I sent out the invitations, the RSVPs had poured in, all agreeing to attend. The backyard would be packed for the wedding, and I’d gone back twice to the caterer to increase the number of heads to be fed that day.

  Land had laughed at my surprise. My side of the family would be limited to my parents and a third cousin from somewhere else in the state. I’d originally felt sorry for Land that his parents, who had recently fallen on hard times, would not be able to attend, but he would have more relatives at the event than I could dream of.

  “Come, Maeve. Show me what you have,” she said, taking my hand and pulling me to the stack of gifts that had been opened by Land. Fortunately, Land had used my spreadsheet of gifts and givers, so that thank you notes could be given promptly.

  I went through all of the
gifts with her, and she spent a certain amount of time looking through the presents from her relatives. She gave me a running commentary on what she’d given these people when their children and grandchildren had married and either approved or muttered something I didn’t understand when she did not.

  We were on one of the last presents, a handsome silver pair of salt and pepper shakers, when I read the name. “Paula Revere.” I looked at the name twice, thinking that Land had pulled a joke on me, but when I called to him, he insisted that he had only copied down the items as they’d been received.

  I picked up the saltshaker and hefted its weight in my hand. Then I repeated the same thing with the peppershaker. It was noticeably heavier.

  Land had come over at that point and repeated the process. “Sabine, go outside with Grandmother,” he said in a hoarse, tense voice. “Now.”

  Sabine swooped in without asking any questions and the two women were out of the apartment in seconds.

  “What is this?” I asked, watching him turn the shakers over to inspect them more closely. Nothing was wrong with either. No wires, no alterations. Just a difference in weight.

  “I don’t know, but we’re going to find out,” he said as he popped the bottom off the pepper dispenser.

  He used a pinkie finger to twist the contents and pull it out. “It’s a flash drive,” he said, rather obviously. “Let me see your computer.”

  “I’ll do this,” I said, grabbing the flash drive and moving to my desk in the spare room. “I’m running a full scan on it before we do anything. I don’t want it to be some sort of virus that wipes out the drives of anyone who uses it.”

  Land sighed, but nodded. The only other option would have been to go back to his place in a car with faux bullet holes in the back window. My plan won out over that.

  I ran the scan in a few minutes and finally the screen popped up to tell me that everything was fine.

  I clicked on the file explorer. One document appeared—a picture. I clicked on the preview button to see the picture without opening it. I was being very careful since this was the same machine that I used for my business dealings. While I have backups, I wasn’t in the mood to have my machine battle some superbug while I was finishing payroll for the weeks ahead and maintaining my list of presents and senders.

  Land leaned over my shoulder, and scanned the drawing, which I enlarged. It was obviously architectural, but there were no identifying markers on the photo to let us know if this was an actual building or where it was located. It could be the layout of a cheese shop in France for all I knew.

  We studied the drawing for a few minutes without speaking. Finally, Land said, “I give up. I have no idea what this is.”

  “Same,” I admitted, shamefaced.

  He called the two women inside and explained what had happened. His grandmother’s eyes turned to slits. “Land Mendoza, you had better not let this interfere with the wedding. I am telling you.”

  Land nodded in all seriousness. “Yes, grandmother.”

  I nodded as well, thinking that a higher force had spoken.

  The artwork looked familiar, and I went back to the computer to see if I could do a search and find out its provenance. It took a few minutes, but the work had come from MC Escher, and it was a lithograph.

  The drawing was of staircases that seemed to go ever higher, but the supports were drawn in such a way that the lower levels supported the higher levels in ways that were not viable in the real world.

  “What do you think this means?” I asked. “It’s not like Paula gave us a clue.”

  “You don’t think so?” Land asked. “This is telling me that things are not as they appear. We need to be careful, because the supports we think we have are not realistic.”

  My mind went to Danvers. Was he the support that didn’t match up with reality? Was this odd flash drive telling me to not trust him? If so, it was another odd clue in this case. I wished someone would just come out and say what they meant. Life would be so much easier that way.

  Chapter 8

  Sabine showed up late the next day at work, stressing me out no end. The wedding would be Friday, and we would leave the following morning for two weeks. I trusted this woman with the business, and suddenly she was no longer acting in a trustworthy manner.

  Before I could say a word, she spoke. “It’s not what you think. There was a car following me. I had to lose it before I drove here,” she said. “They might know where I’m ending up, but I didn’t want to be in a parking garage with them.”

  We were all a bit on edge. The wedding was close, and Land’s grandmother’s edict had made both of us agree to sacrifice the operation, if we had not come to a solution by Thursday evening. I thought we could have gone until Friday morning, but Land muttered something about his grandmother’s ability to hold a grudge.

  We both agreed to the pact, but neither of us spoke about the one fact that we both knew—the ambassador arrived in Capital City tomorrow and was scheduled to leave on Thursday. His fate and the mission would be decided by that point anyway.

  I mulled over Sabine’s words as we prepped for the day. I concentrated on counting the cash, but I allowed my mind to wander back to the situation as I prepped the coffee. Why had Sabine been followed like this? I couldn’t imagine what they thought that she had in this matter.

  She hadn’t been at the correct location on the 13th. On reflection though, had anyone but the police learned that Carona had contacted us that evening, and not Sabine. Yet, it seemed odd that she was suspected of anything by anyone involved in the case.

  Detective Danvers arrived just then, far earlier than I’d ever seen him at the food truck. I opened the window when I saw him through a peephole for security. “What are you doing up?”

  Sabine began chopping at a much louder level than necessary, putting the same force into dicing onions that I suspected she’d put into chopping Danvers into bits.

  “Yeah, I got a call this morning. You’re not going to like it. A woman’s body was found in the Lewis River this morning. She matches Carona’s description, but that doesn’t mean anything. She was shot twice in the head.”

  I cringed thinking again of Land’s rear window and the bullet holes we’d found there. Had she actually died in our car, or had she escaped and this was just another false lead? I knew that I couldn’t get out ahead of the police on this one. While I could make deductions about the information I had, there was no way that I would be able to learn anything from the body before the ME did.

  “Will you tell Land?” he asked, taking the proffered coffee and heading toward the police station in one of the glass and concrete buildings around Government Square.

  I stood there, wondering why he was in so early. I had a sneaking suspicion that I knew the answer.

  I looked to Sabine. “What type of car did the men following you drive?”

  She shrugged. “Boxy, Ford.”

  “A Crown Victoria,” I asked.

  She nodded. “I think so. Why?”

  I knew the answer to that one then. Danvers had been here because, for whatever reason, he was having Sabine tailed. This was definitely something that was outside of my area of expertise, more in line with a big brother’s responsibilities.

  Sabine looked at me, but fortunately two customers arrived and I was able to turn away and work until she forgot what she had been going to ask. I would definitely mention this to Land. He’d suspected a link to the police department already and if a Crown Vic was following his sister, he might want to insist that we all drop the case and just get married.

  I began to wonder about Danvers’ motivation for having Sabine followed. It seemed unlikely that he’d be tailing her to see where she went or whom she went out with. So much time had passed. I kept remembering all of Land’s warnings not to trust Danvers. Could it be possible that he was the mole? Danvers had an ambitious streak that made mine look like apathy.

  If someone offered him the opportunity for bigger thing
s, then I was sure he would take it, even if it wasn’t legal. Danvers could easily betray someone to get what he wanted. Now I was torn, because I felt incredibly selfish. Danvers was going to be Land’s best man, and I was suspecting him of being a mole in the police department.

  While, of course, the diplomat’s life was more important, missing the best man would definitely put a damper on the wedding ceremony. I wiped the selfish thoughts from my mind and got back to work.

  I waited until about 10, before the lunch crowd started, to call Land. I wanted to catch him before he came to work that day. This would give him some time to deal with the things before he had to cook and serve the dinner shift at Basque in the Sun.

  I told him about the incident with Sabine as well as the information about the body in the river. He indicated that he’d be down in a bit to talk to Danvers. I hoped that it was about the corpse more than his sister.

  Everyone had been a bit keyed up over the past few days. The fact that it was now obvious that Danvers and Sabine would still be in a major grudge match for the wedding —as well as the only two people standing up for us—made for some tense moments. I had thought that the situation had subsided a little, but the notion that Danvers was now following Sabine put a whole new level of creepy on things.

  I rushed through the lunch crowd. Even Sabine was amazed at my level of efficiency. Maybe it was everything on my mind, but I was laser focused on each order, and in no time, the crowds were thinning out, and everyone had been served.

  I was glad for the work, since I was waiting for Land to report in. He showed up around one, a bit early for him, and parked the truck in its normal space. I nodded to Sabine, who gave me a wave.

  I didn’t want Land to come over to Dogs on the Roll, fearing that Sabine would hear whatever Land had to say. He greeted me without the usual kiss, so I knew the news wasn’t good.

  “So what did you find out?” I asked, wondering what was going to be so bad.