“This is a surprise,” he said, standing up and pointing at a seat across from the desk. “Sit down. How are you? I see that married life has been treating you well.”
I was a bit taken aback by his manners and charm. Not at all what I had expected from this visit. We chatted for a few minutes about married life, the new baby, and my food trucks. It could have been a conversation with anyone.
However, I grew more nervous as I had to ask him the reason for my visit. “I’m kind of in a quandary, and I thought that you might be able to help me,” I said.
“That depends. If you’ve come to accuse me of something, then our visit is over.” While I was sure that he just meant that I’d have to leave, I was nervous thinking of the other connotations of “over.”
“It’s nothing of the sort. I wanted to ask if you’ve heard of a particular group who is replacing baby formula.”
Whatever his expectations were, it hadn’t been this. “Baby formula, okay. No, I don’t know anything about formula.” He chuckled a bit.
I explained the situation and the facts that I knew so far. I left out the entire part of the story about the murder and cyanide. No use in cluttering up my narrative with things he might think were accusations.
When I finished, he said, “That’s a hell of a story, but the answer is still no. It’s not us, and we don’t know who it could be.”
He sounded so certain that I hated to ask any questions, but I had to ensure that this was not going to step on any mob toes. I didn’t want to ruin the positive relationship that I’d made with them over a few cases. “How can you know for sure?” I asked.
He took a deep breath. “I remember that about you. Always with the questions. I know because of two things. First, if I was doing this, I wouldn’t transfer the product from one can to another. I would steal the good stuff and then turn around and sell. Much cleaner and easier. And I mean cleaner as in you’re going to make a big mess dumping powder out of one can and into another.”
I hadn’t thought of that before. Jose had indicated that the warehouse didn’t have the space, but I thought of the times that I’d missed the bottle when measuring out the formula. The powder was fine and hard to clean up. I couldn’t imagine doing that on a massive scale.
“Fair enough,” I said. “What was the second thing?”
“This has to be amateurs. We would already have a supply network established to move the goods. Something simple and easy. You’ll probably think it’s incredibly low-tech, but some of the people involved in my endeavors use Craigslist to sell things.”
I started to say something about CL being dangerous, but then I remembered who I was dealing with. I doubted that they’d be too scared of anyone they met off a website. The other party was the one who needed to be scared.
A man came to the door and stood there. He was just as large as the man who had guarded the doorway, but he was blond with acne and a frown that looked permanent. Johnny waited for a second and then turned to the man. “What do you need?”
“I got the information you asked for,” he said. He jerked his head in my direction.
Baird sighed. “Just tell us. It’s not like she couldn’t figure that out.”
The big man spoke in a monotone, like he was reading a grocery list. “I asked around. There’s a lot of powder that, well, isn’t powder, if you know what I mean, at a warehouse off Marshall at Henry Street.”
I raised my eyebrows at Johnny Baird. Apparently while we’d been chatting, he’d found the location of the warehouse in question.
Baird fixed me with his eyes, which had grown steely in the last few seconds. “Now, I’m assuming that you want to talk to these people before we do something about them?”
I nodded. “I think they’re somehow involved in the murder of Tom Rachford.” I didn’t bother to tell him that story, because it had been headline news in Capital City. I knew that Baird was likely to already know the details.
“Okay, so here’s the deal. I’ll let you deal with them first. If they got a murder rap on them, you can have the first crack at them. But when you’re done with them, you need to call me and let me know so that I can take care of them as well. You understand?”
Although it was supposed to be a deal, there was obviously no chance for negotiations. Baird had told me what was going to happen, and I was going to comply. I wasn’t thrilled by the orders, but I knew that my questions would have a price. I would give the suppliers a head start before informing Johnny Baird, but I had a strong feeling that he would go after them at some point because they would be cutting into his profits. I was very glad that he’d never decided to enter the food truck arena. I would not have done well.
After he told me his deal, Johnny entirely switched the topic to Andy. I wasn’t sure if this was supposed to be a threat in case I chose not to do what he wanted, but I decided to take it as a natural interest in children.
We talked for a few more minutes, and then I headed home.
Now that I had an idea that these people were amateurs who were not planning for a long-term business, I wanted to come up with a plan to confront them. I knew that it wouldn’t go well if I just barged into their warehouse. They would outnumber me, and I’d end up with no answers and a lot of baby formula.
Instead I needed an operation of people to ensure that they stayed at the warehouse and answered questions when asked. In short, what I needed was the police.
Even though I knew what had to be done, I really didn’t want to have to coordinate anything with Detective Danvers. Why should I allow him to shine when he was not inviting Land to be in his wedding? I’d rather do it myself and keep the accolades from him.
However, despite my best efforts at trying to come up with a way to surround a warehouse, take everyone away from the scene, and question them, I came up with nothing.
Finally, I picked up the phone and dialed. Andy was sound asleep in his bed, and this would normally be my naptime as well, but I could use this time to make some phone calls.
Danvers answered on the second ring. “What exactly do you want? Is this related to a criminal matter?”
I took a deep breath. “Yes. I think I know where the suppliers of the bad formula are working.”
“This wouldn’t have anything to do with your visit to Johnny Baird today, would it?”
I gulped. “Not necessarily. I needed information on how such an operation would work, and he gave me some ideas.”
“Do you know how stupid that was? You could have been killed,” Danvers said, starting on a rant.
“If he’d wanted to kill me, he could have done it at my wedding. Back row, remember?” I shot back.
“So where is this place?” he asked.
“Marshall at Henry,” I repeated. “There’s a warehouse there.”
“And I suppose you want to see the operation after we clear the scene?” he said with mock cheerfulness.
I was getting very annoyed. We were going to have to participate in the same wedding together, and he was behaving like an ass. I wondered if I was more upset that he was not asking Land to be best man, or if I was just annoyed at his normal sarcastic behavior.
“Yes. I don’t see why not. You’ll have done your work, and it will just be another warehouse at that point.” I tried to keep the annoyance out of my voice, but I wasn’t thinking that I’d done a good job.
Danvers shrugged. “I’ll tell you what. I’ll let you see the crime scene photos. How’s that? You’ll get to see if you were right or wrong without getting in my way.”
I agreed to it. There wasn’t much chance of me sneaking into the warehouse unnoticed at this point, and since tactically I needed to turn it over to the police, I was out of options.
In the meantime, I checked out some of the mommy blogs again. There were several responses to my queries. In nearly every case, the child had not liked the formula purchased at Bargain Baby, and so the mother had just stopped buying it there. Granted that not everyone went to t
he extremes that I did, but why hadn’t anyone tasted the formula? Why hadn’t they looked into why the baby didn’t like the formula? I had to admit that many of these women seemed overwhelmed with motherhood. I was not. It was a major change in my daily life, but. I had a number of friends and family to support me. So I could go investigate a bad canister of formula when the need arose.
I closed the laptop and checked the answering machine again. No messages. I wondered if Maggie Rachford had forgotten to tell me about the funeral and if Mr. Gage had learned anything from his wife.
***
I spent the rest of the day taking care of Andy and enjoying the time I had with him. Thoughts of what I’d been told kept crawling back into my head, but I tried to push them aside as much as I could. The tantalizing pieces of the formula ring and the murder of Rachford were trying to fit into place, but I felt that at this point, I was missing some piece of information that I hadn’t yet found. I let the problem stew, thinking that the answers might come to me if I just didn’t focus on it.
Around 4:00 p.m., my cell rang. The only people who called me were family, coworkers, and the police. I had a suspicion that Jax Danvers was calling to tell me about the warehouse, and I was right.
His name flashed on the screen, and for a moment, I thought the name looked angry. I should have listened to that premonition, because the first words out of his mouth would have been audible if the phone had been on the other side of the apartment.
“Just what the hell do you think you’re doing?” he shouted. “That was one of the worst attempts at a set-up I’ve ever seen.”
Since I had no idea what he was talking about, I asked, “What?” I had a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach that Johnny Baird had set me up for something. Perhaps he had drugs or contraband that he’d wanted to get rid of. I wasn’t sure what had happened, but my stomach was in knots.
“There’s a dead body here. We’re still trying to confirm the ID, but I’d be willing to bet that you know her. I have a strong feeling that you’re going to tell me that she’s mixed up in this baby formula racket.”
I started going through the names of women who were involved in this case in some manner. The only ones I could think of were Victoria Albrecht, her secretary, and Barb Yungbluth. Since Danvers had met the first two the night of the gala murder, I had a strong suspicion that the dead woman had to be Barb Yungbluth, the woman I hadn’t spoken with yet about the formula.
Since Danvers was already angry, I asked, “Is her name Barb Yungbluth?”
Danvers let out a stream of curses that would have made weaker women blush. I just waited it out.
“For the record, I don’t know her. She was the next lead I had in tracing the formula back to its source. I’d left messages for her, but she hadn’t returned them.”
“I wouldn’t wait by the phone for them,” Danvers snapped back. “You need to come down here now.”
“Can I bring Sabine?” I asked, looking at the clock. I would have to bring Andy, since Land was working, and Sabine would be the only other person I could get to watch Andy at the crime scene that I could think of.
“Why?” Danvers said plaintively.
I explained the situation to him, and he let out a long dramatic sigh. “This used to be so much easier when you were single.”
I hung up on that unhelpful note and called Sabine. I explained the situation to her, and she agreed to meet me at the warehouse.
With that done, I texted Land to tell him the situation as well. He’d be fine with me at a crime scene and Sabine watching Andy, but I always wanted him to know what was going on with any mystery that came our way.
By the time I arrived at the warehouse, the warehouse was surrounded by flashing lights and other police vehicles. I’d been right to inform the police about the warehouse. I counted at least six different exits to the building. I would never have been able to stop anyone from leaving.
Danvers was talking to Sabine when I arrived, and she swooped over to pick up her nephew. She made a series of cooing noises to him that made him smile. Danvers motioned for me to join him by one of the doors to the building.
“They’re taking photos here now,” Danvers said, with none of his previous anger. “So we have to stay out here.”
“So can you tell me what happened?” I asked, wondering how Barb had come to be in the warehouse in the first place. It certainly seemed to implicate her in the formula scam.
Danvers rolled his eyes. “Sometimes you sound more like my boss than an amateur,” he said.
I just waited, thinking that he would tell me anyway. In a few seconds, he said, “I did some recon on the warehouse and saw the number of exits. I called for some back-up units to watch the various means of egress. After they were in place, I made my move. I went to the door alone, but there were SWAT team members waiting—just in case.
“I knocked again,” he continued, “but there was no answer. I tried the door and it was unlocked. It felt like it could be a trap, so I brought up the SWAT team, and we entered the warehouse.”
I tried to look inside of the building, but I couldn’t see anything.
“When we got inside, the warehouse was empty except for the body of a woman who was lying in the middle of the floor.”
“No formula?” I asked, feeling that perhaps Baird had played me for a fool.
“None, but it had been there. We found traces of powder that we think might be formula. The tech team is looking at it, but it’s not any form of known drug.”
My mind was racing. The formula had been there, but now was gone. Had it been in the warehouse prior to Johnny Baird telling me that information? Or had it been gone for some time? Either events were a major coincidence, Baird’s information was out of date, or the formula ring had heard about Baird giving me their space’s address.
I looked around, wanting to have some time to do my own investigating, but that wasn’t likely to happen. It didn’t appear like Danvers was going let me see the body, much less look into anything.
So I decided to check out the parking lot. The only thing that might be out here was Barb Yungbluth’s car. However, when I looked around the lot, I didn’t see any signs of any vehicles that did not wear Capital City’s official seal. So what had happened to her car? Had she come here alone and the murderer took her car? Or had someone driven her to this place and done away with her once she was here? In either case, the crime seemed premeditated, planned to occur at a lonely place where a murder was not likely to be witnessed.
“Were there any signs that she’d been moved?” I asked.
Danvers eyed me for a second. “What’s going on in that mind of yours?” he asked. “That’s a fairly specific question to be asking.”
“This just seems like a fairly public place for a murder,” I lied. “I was just wondering if the body had been moved or if the crime had occurred here.”
He walked away, turned, and stopped. “You stay right here. I’m going to tell the patrolmen not to let you leave or move. Got it?”
I was not in a happy mood with Danvers. While I did want to know the answer to the question, I also wanted the time to walk around and look for the car. I had a strong suspicion that it wasn’t here and that it would be a vital clue to the murders. However, I couldn’t look into this while the patrolmen were watching my every move.
After Danvers left, I did walk around a little. The men couldn’t watch the scene inside the warehouse and keep an eye on me as well. Their lack of vigilance allowed me to stretch my legs. I walked to the edge of the parking lot and back. I assumed that as long as I stayed in sight, they’d let me be.
Of course, I found something as I strolled to the edge of the lot. Just under one of the police car’s chassis was a key ring. The ring had a fob with the initials “BY” on it. I knew who it had to belong to.
Chapter 7
I dropped a diaper out of my purse, and came up with the keys. I hadn’t touched them with my own hands, so there were no
incriminating fingerprints on them. In that manner, I could always return them to Danvers, but I had a few exercises I wanted to put them through before I did.
I walked as far as I could in every direction without bringing attention to myself. I pressed the open button as I approached each corner of my boundaries, but there was no noise from the car doors, no flashing car lights and no sound of the horn. The car wasn’t here. Given that I hadn’t learned anything from this exercise, I walked over to the two patrolmen and cleared my throat.
“You may want to check this out,” I said. I had no real worries about being yelled at here. The keys had been dropped on the ground, and the real location was of no value, given that the keys had likely been driven over by another vehicle.
One of the patrolmen approached me. He looked vaguely skeptical about my announcement. He came over, and I made the keys visible to him, despite the fact that they were still nestled in the diaper.
“Where did you find these?” he asked, putting the facts together. “These are evidence.”
I pointed to the under chassis of the patrol car not far from where we stood. “Someone ran over them,” I added helpfully, “but I’m pretty sure that they belonged to the victim, Barb Yungbluth.”
The older patrolman took his walkie-talkie and gave the information to someone at the other end of the conversation. I heard a stream of curses, and I knew they had to belong to Danvers, who wouldn’t appreciate my help in this matter.
Sure enough, he came out in the next few minutes, looking annoyed. His stride was fast enough that he was in my face in less than a minute. “What the hell is going on? I leave you here for just a minute, and you’re tampering with evidence and asking questions.”
I pushed the diaper back into my pocket. “I didn’t tamper with it. The key fob had been run over by a patrol car. There was no evidence that would be left after being squished into the asphalt by a 2000-pound car.”
FOOD TRUCK MYSTERIES: The Complete Series (14 Books) Page 165
