FOOD TRUCK MYSTERIES: The Complete Series (14 Books)

by Chloe Kendrick

  Veronica Stacey came up to me and put a hand on my forearm, startling me. “Thank you so much for putting this on. It’s a great idea. The eating-with-the-spouse thing was getting rather old. It’s not nice to say, but sometimes I just like to get away and talk to other people.” She smiled at me, as if we now were co-conspirators.

  I wanted to turn the conversation over to Capital City and the jailbreak. “You’re in Capital City, right? I wonder how the weather is there?” I asked, already knowing that the major snowfall had missed the city.

  “Yes, we live downtown, not far from the square.”

  I mentioned the food trucks to her, never wanting to lose a chance to promote the business. Her husband, Ted, was an accountant, and we talked for a few seconds about his work, but Veronica did not seem to be a numbers person. She worked in cosmetics, going from store to store selling the brands she worked with. I was almost equally lost with the discussion of make-up. I used base and eyeshadow at times. The rest was gibberish. I really needed Sabine at this point to translate for me.

  Veronica hadn’t heard about the jailbreak and seemed quite surprised to learn about it. “I hadn’t heard about any such thing. I was out of town the week before we came here, and I haven’t kept up with the news at all.”

  I nodded, knowing that she had an alibi, but she’d left none for her husband. Her statements seemed to indicate that he’d been alone and available to do whatever he wanted. Additionally, he worked downtown, which put him near the location for the jail. The admission was the closest thing to a connection that I’d found so far.

  One of the staff members, an older woman with dark hair that had been streaked with gray, approached us. Like many of the other employees, she looked overworked and unrested. Her hands shook a little as she offered us more to drink.

  Since I was pregnant, the champagne-laced drinks were off-limits to me. I wished that I could partake. All of these questions were taking their toll, but I asked for a hot tea instead. The woman nodded, but she didn’t hurry for my tea. Instead, she moved to another group of guests who stood about ten feet from us.

  I tried to get Ted to answer a few questions about his profession and his position at the firm. I wanted to hear more about any links to the dead man. However, every time I asked a question, Veronica responded for him. I wasn’t sure if Ted was just a shy type who didn’t want to respond or a man who never got the chance to respond to a question.

  I tried for a few minutes, but nothing came of my attempts to pump him for information. I was on the verge of giving up when I saw a couple that I hadn’t expected to see.

  Detective Jax Danvers was hurrying down the hall with Sabine scurrying after him. The expression on his face was a mix of anger and frustration.

  He made his way directly to me as he entered the common area. “What the hell do you think you’re doing here?” he asked.

  I looked around. “Just hosting a small a getting-to-know-you party after a rather massive snowstorm that has cut us off from the city.” I gave him my most beneficent smile, trying to convince him of my pure motives.

  “I don’t believe you for a moment,” he replied. “Besides, you’re wasting your money. The local police have already arrested the murderer.”

  Chapter 6

  My mouth dropped open in surprise. The Richardsons, the couple who had gone to town and not been able to return, were the only suspects that the local police could possibly arrest at this point.

  “That’s not right,” I proclaimed, trying to modulate my voice so that I wouldn’t be heard by the guests. “The Richardsons couldn’t have done it.”

  Now it was Danvers’ turn to look confused. “How?”

  “They are the only ones the police could arrest, unless someone has slipped out of the resort since the snow storm started. I don’t think that’s happened.”

  Danvers rolled his eyes. “Well, the police are satisfied, so the case is officially closed. I just got off the phone with them. I opened the door and found your little soiree going on.” I knew he was annoyed, since he was using big words on me. Detective Danvers’ vocabulary often rose in correlation with his frustration with me.

  “I’m not satisfied,” I replied. “It couldn’t have been the Richardsons. Why do the police think it was?”

  Danvers waited to see if I was going to explain my rationale first, but I wanted for him to start. “The couple went into town to get some supplies. They weren’t able to return to the resort, though they got on the shuttle. When the local police looked at their story, they found that the Richardsons paid with cash, and the bills were some of the ones that were stolen in the theft that Gardner was in jail standing trial for.”

  “Did they have an explanation?” I asked, knowing in my heart that they were innocent.

  “Yeah, they told the police that they had eaten a very early breakfast with Gardner that morning, around 4:00 a.m. They were surprised to see anyone else in the café, but invited him to join them.”

  I just nodded. I didn’t want to interrupt at this point—even to point out that the story changed the timeline that the police had put together, which set the time of death much earlier in the evening.

  “When the bill came, the waitress put all the orders together. The Richardsons didn’t have any cash, so they put the tab on the room. According to them, Gardner gave them $100 to cover his part of the meal.”

  I could feel my eyebrows furrow in puzzlement. $100,000 was substantial, but not enough to support a person for years. So why would he give away $100 to total strangers? The story didn’t make sense to me.

  “From your silence, I take it that you don’t have a response to that. I didn’t either. It’s the first hard evidence that someone had interactions with Gardner here. I’m sure when the police are done with their investigation that we’ll find a relationship between the Richardsons and Gardner. I wouldn’t be surprised if Mrs. Richardson turns out to be his sister. For now, the money is a clear indicator that they were involved in the matter.”

  The woman who had been bringing around the drinks arrived with a small tray and a cup of hot tea. It was herbal, and I mentally cursed overeager people trying to help the pregnant lady. I had been savoring the idea of having one cup of regular tea during our stay, just one, and I was now deprived of that.

  I noticed that the woman’s name was Angela, and I recalled that the resort manager had indicated that she was one of the few people who had access to the safe. I wanted to talk to her at some point to see if she knew anything, but now was not the time.

  I carefully set down the cup of tea and turned to look at Danvers. “Here’s why the Richardsons are innocent,” I started. Apparently, my voice carried, because a couple of people turned around and looked at me. One of them was the woman in the Thomas couple, with whom I had not conversed. I made a note to chat with her later.

  “And just how do you know anything about this case?” Danvers said over my words. “You can’t have installed tracking equipment on the guests, and you didn’t have access to the conversations with the Richardsons. So, you have no idea what they did or didn’t do.”

  “I do know that they couldn’t have put the bloody clothing in our room,” I said. “That wasn’t done until later today, long after the Richardsons had left for town.”

  Danvers’ glance shot arrows at me, but I stood my ground. He might have forgotten the attempt to leave clues to the case in my room, but I hadn’t. Unless we were to assume that multiple killers were out for a relaxing weekend at a ski resort, then the person who had killed Gardner had also put the clothing in our room. The latter could not have been done until much later in the day, meaning that the Richardsons were cleared of that crime.

  Sabine approached us and looked at her fiancé. She grimaced at me and asked, “What’s going on here? I thought that the case was solved.”

  In a few short sentences, I explained the situation and how the Richardsons had to be innocent.

  “Do you think that they stole
that money from Danny Gardner?” she asked. “How else would someone give you $100 of stolen money? That story makes no sense.”

  Danvers still didn’t speak, and I assumed that this was the end of our détente on vacation. He walked off, and I went back to socializing with the group.

  Land slid over next to me as I was surveying the room. Mrs. Thomas was nowhere to be seen. I described the woman to Land, but he shook his head. “I’ve been busy with the bacon. This group can eat a lot of pig.”

  I did a quick lap around the common area, but she was gone. I cursed under my breath. When I turned around, Angela was there again. “Was there something wrong with the tea?” she asked. “I made it especially for you.”

  I explained that I had wanted caffeinated tea as a weekly splurge, rather than herbal tea. I had even given up Land’s special blend of coffee for the duration. That had been my biggest sacrifice to date.

  She smiled and left, promising to return with some nice black tea. I walked around some more, but most of the people had eaten their fill and begun to head back to their rooms. While I had learned a few things, the majority of the information had come from Danvers, who I could have seen at any time without sponsoring an event.

  Land and I jumped in to help with the clean-up. Wayne told us that we didn’t have to clear the dishes, but I couldn’t count the number of times I had cleaned up after a shift. What was one more time?

  Just as we were finishing up, Angela came back with the tea. She set it down on a table that had already been cleared and put out silverware and sugar packets for me. “Is there anything else I can do? You seem like you have this down,” she said.

  “Old hat. I do this at the food trucks all the time,” I replied. “We own four trucks in Capital City, most of them around Government Square, if you ever find yourself in the area. It would be good to see you again.” I gave her a broad grin, using my best marketing skills.

  “I’ve heard of you!” she said with an odd tone to her voice. “You solve crimes—and you’re here?” Her face grew grave.

  I smiled again. “Yes, but there’s no way that we could have known that anyone would be murdered on this trip. It’s just a quick trip to enjoy ourselves before the baby comes.”

  Angela gave me a long look. “Yes, there’s no way that you could have known about a murder, right?” With those words, she left the area and went back into the kitchen. Had I detected a note of concern in her voice? Granted, three murders had taken place at the resort, but something more troubled me.

  I sat and wondered. The woman had stressed “a murder” too much for my liking. Perhaps she was just tired, but the stress on that word led me to a single conclusion.

  Angela thought that I was at the resort to investigate a crime that wasn’t murder. The only thing that I could think of that would apply would be the grand theft committed by Danny Gardner.

  From that suggestion, I had to wonder how she knew about the money. Had Jonathan Wayne told the staff what was in the bag? I doubted that he had.

  Yet if he didn’t tell his employees, then someone else had discussed the matter. Since the staff wouldn’t have known, the only source would be Gardner himself. I recalled what Danvers had said about the victim’s contacts and who might have helped him. The relatives who were not accounted for were his mother and his sister. Danvers had suggested Mrs. Richardson as the sister of Danny Gardner, and we would have to wait to see if that turned out to be true.

  Angela was too old to be a sister, though perhaps she could have been his much older sister from another mother. The more reasonable conclusion would be that Angela was Danny Gardner’s mother.

  I decided to find out from Detective Danvers if only the guests had been investigated. I looked around the common room first, but I found no signs of him. I made it back to my room, but Land was not there. I wondered if the two men were together somewhere. I was a bit surprised. Since my pregnancy, Land had been very careful to tell me his every move. He hadn’t done that now, and it made me wonder what he was up to.

  I walked to Danvers’ room, where Sabine opened the door. She was alone there as well. She had obviously been napping. “What’s up?” she asked as I entered the room.

  I looked around quickly, thinking that I might find some sign about where Danvers had gone. Nothing stood out. I turned back to look at Sabine. “You wouldn’t happen to know where your brother and fiancé are, would you?”

  She smiled. “They’re doing some sort of experiment down in Gardner’s room. It was an idea that Land had. But, of course, Jax wanted to take credit for it.”

  I was always amazed at how well Sabine could take Jax’s many imperfections. She knew of his ambition and his willingness to fudge the truth to make himself appear more intuitive than he was. Perhaps she could just accept those things. Personally, his ego drove me crazy. They were the signs of an insecure, driven man, who would stop at nothing to get ahead.

  I thanked Sabine for the help and headed off again to find Land. When I turned down the hallway with the two empty cabins, I could see no one. I walked down the corridor until I was in front of Gardner’s room. I still heard nothing, but I knew that they could have closed the door to keep prying eyes, like mine, away from them.

  I knocked on the door. Almost immediately, Danvers opened the door widely. He jumped back slightly when he saw me. “Sorry, I was expecting Land.”

  I shook my head. “I haven’t seen him. Do you know where he is?”

  Danvers jerked his head towards the room that had been occupied by the Blaines. I couldn’t imagine why Land would be in there by himself. The room had been given a once over yesterday, and it seemed unlikely that Danvers would let my husband have a go at the room by himself.

  I knocked and Land answered almost as quickly as Danvers had. He gave me a peck on the mouth and smiled. “What have you been up to?” he asked. “I recognize that look.”

  I raised an eyebrow at him. “I could ask the same of you—hanging around the room of a dead couple.”

  Danvers cleared his throat. “You might as well hear it from me. I know your husband will tell you everything anyway.” He said that as if it was a bad thing. “We were conducting some tests to see if we could hear movements or actions in the other cabin. The thought was that the Blaines had heard or seen something that made them targets. So we conducted some trials to see if we could hear anything coming from the other room.”

  Land shook his head. “Nothing from the Blaines’ room. It was silent as a tomb there.”

  I thought my husband had chosen his words poorly. I shivered for a second. “What if the windows were open?”

  Danvers laughed. “Yes, we could hear each other like that, but we decided that, with blowing drifts of snow, it was unlikely that either room had its windows open.”

  I made a face, pursing my lips for a second. “What if the killer opened the windows to throw off the time of death? Would that have helped?”

  Danvers drew a deep breath. “It might have, but what noise would a killer make after the man was dead? I would think that he’d want to be quiet.”

  Land interjected. “So that leaves us back with what we thought before. The Blaines had to have seen something that made them dangerous to the killer. That’s the only explanation that I can come up with. The rooms are far enough away from each other that they can’t hear anything in the other room. We yelled back and forth and heard nothing.”

  While I hadn’t given it much thought, the cabins were separate by open air. These were not hotel rooms with paper-thin walls.

  I would have to think about the meaning of this development. The theory that the Blaines had heard something in their room and come out to investigate was wrong. The possibility that they came down the hall or opened the door at the wrong time still existed, but that chance was much more remote.

  However, before I tucked myself away to think things over, I wanted to ask about my own ideas. “Did you have the staff reviewed when you asked the Capital City polic
e to look at all the guests?” I asked, looking at Danvers.

  Danvers stood there for a second and then shook his head. “No, we had the résumés of the employees in the manager’s files. So we had all the information we needed. Why?” he asked, squinting at me with faint distrust.

  I cleared my throat and paused for a second. While I was certain that my logic was sound, I did realize that it was all built on the notion that Angela had laid stress on a particular word in a single sentence. ”I think that you’ll find some connections between the staff and Danny Gardner.”

  Danvers looked like he was going to explode. “Where did you hear that kind of nonsense?” he asked, a little louder this time.

  If the other room hadn’t been so bloody, I would have walked in there and closed the door so I wouldn’t have to hear him. Instead, I stood my ground. “I have a suspicion that Angela may be Danny Gardner’s mother. The easiest way to find out if I’m right is to call and ask the Capital City police, which is why I’m asking you.”

  Danvers just closed the door in my face. Land smiled at me and motioned with his hands for us to start down the hallway to our room. “So where did you get this idea from?” he asked when we were far enough away from the room so that we would not be plagued by eavesdroppers.

  I smiled at him and explained my line of thinking. Land listened carefully and asked a few questions at various points in my narrative. We had almost reached the common area by the time I’d finished.

  “So what do we do?” I asked, looking around the large room and seeing no one.

  “Well, you can bet that Danvers has already been on the phone to the local police and to the Capital City police to find out more about the employees. It was an oversight on his part that he’ll soon fix.”