MURDER IN THE SPOTLIGHT (Food Truck Mysteries Book 2) (7 page)

Detective Danvers was one of the first policemen on the scene. The first responders had arrived along with an ambulance and EMTs. I’d been specific in my call to 911 that these women were most definitely dead, but they’d sent out responders who might have been able to save them. However, they took one look at the scene and left.

The first patrolmen arrived at the scene, taped it off, and called for backup. Danvers arrived about ten minutes later. I think the scene of the murders had brought his attention to this crime.

He sent the crime scene techs on to the green room while he stayed with me. I knew that it wasn’t out of some misplaced sense of loyalty or a strong attraction, but he pressed me on questions as to why I had come there today, when there was no filming, and what I’d hoped to accomplish. Since he had already talked to Land today, I didn’t feel like telling him much. I did retch twice more before he left me alone.

After my first reaction to the crime scene, I was feeling somewhat better. My stomach still roiled at the thought of the corpses roped together, but I no longer had a desire to heave up everything I’d eaten in the past week.

After I’d talked to Danvers, I’d put in a call to Land. He had demurred at coming over and standing around with me. He felt that his presence would be questioned, and that he would add very little to the conversation. So he agreed to take the truck to Elm Street in the morning, and I would get there when I could. I could already tell that it was going to be a long evening here.

Danvers and his crew continued their work inside. I had no desire to go back in and relive that scene again. The images were burned into my memory, and I knew that tonight would be a hard night’s sleep, if indeed there was any sleep. I wasn’t used to such graphic violence in my real life.

The images played through my mind like a film loop, and at some point, I decided to stop being horrified by the images and to see what I could learn about the situation based on what I’d seen. I’d played board games where you were asked to recall all the details of a scene that you only get to view for a few seconds. I tried to make this into a game, so that I wouldn’t freak out again. My stomach appreciated the attempt.

The first thing that struck me was that the women had not been gagged. I pondered this for a second. I knew that if I had been bound and about to be slaughtered, I would have raised a fuss. There were other people in the building, and perhaps one of them could have found the women before they were murdered. If nothing else, the second victim should have screamed out for help, knowing the fate of the first woman. She had nothing to lose by shouting out. She would be killed either way. So why didn’t the killer feel a need to silence their screams?

That likely meant one of two things. Possibly the women had been gagged prior to the murder, in which case there should be gags of some sort somewhere in the building. That could mean that the device used to silence them might be traced back to a single person, making the identity of the killer easier to deduce.

The other option was that the women had been drugged, or in some way sedated, so that they could not scream out. I thought it more likely that they’d been rendered unconscious somehow. It made more sense.

However, that meant that either the women had been drugged or they were rendered unconscious, both of which led to more questions. It’s not easy to get someone to ingest something based on your encouragement. The sedative or painkiller would have had to have been introduced into some food or drink, and both of the women would have had to ingest it about the same time. Drugs don’t affect people in the same way, so the killer could have ended up with one person fast asleep while the other was fine.

If the two women had been knocked unconscious, almost assuredly it would have been done in the green room. The thought of dragging the women across the studio to the green room seemed improbable. They would have been seen, or there would be the issue of the security cameras again. The killer couldn’t rely on having the opportunity to steal the DVDs of the security cameras’ footage again. However, if the killer had hit one of them hard enough to knock them out, why didn’t the other run?

I made a note to ask Danvers about the tox screen for the two women as well as finding out if there were any contusions or lumps made on the scalp just prior to their deaths. Part of me felt gruesome about this line of questioning, but emotionally I knew that I was engaging in this act of logic to keep from crying and throwing up again.

I scanned my memory again. I couldn’t remember seeing any signs of a struggle on either woman. There were no bruises, no signs of cuts. Their faces had been entirely intact. That made me lean more toward a possible drugging than a hit to the head.

I wondered about the blood pattern on the floor. There had been so much blood on the floor. However, I hadn’t seen any signs of bloody footprints walking away from the corpses. I didn’t know how blood came from that type of wound, but it certainly would have to have sprayed out in front and to the sides, which meant the killer had possibly had blood on him after the killing. I didn’t see any other way that it could be.

Yet, a person with that much blood on them would have been easily visible to the rest of the employees at the studio. Could the perpetrator have brought another set of clothes to the studio with them? That would have resolved the issue, but that made me wonder. An extra set of clothes would mean that these crimes were premeditated. This level of violence seemed more passionate, spur of the moment. Killing with a knife was typically a personal crime. If I thought out the murder of two women to a point where I wouldn’t be suspected, I would have made sure I could get away from the scene of the crime without rousing suspicion. That would mean a change of clothes to ensure that the blood would not be noticed on me.

Again, it seemed to point to someone in the studio as the culprit, just as it had with the pranks, but it seemed hard to believe that someone could easily make the jump from stealing ingredients from the food trucks to slicing women’s throats open. I couldn’t imagine what would force someone to take that drastic step. Even the prizes for winning the challenges here only netted a few thousand dollars and some notoriety. That didn’t seem sufficient to snuff out the lives of two women, but nothing did when I thought about it.

Danvers came back out and looked at me. “Are you going to be okay? You look white as a ghost.” He put his hand on my arm, perching it there in case he needed to keep me from passing out.

“Not a really good choice of words,” I chided him. “I wasn’t expecting that when I arrived today.”

He recognized the dark humor for what it was and gave me a small wry smile. “Right. Since you’re feeling well enough to critique my word choices, I’m guessing that you’re feeling up to answering a few questions. So, why exactly were you here?”

I took a deep breath. Even though my brain was doing everything it could do to keep me from obsessing on this, I couldn’t keep it out of my mind. I thought that discussing it in detail would only make things worse. “I already told you this—twice.”

“Once more then.”

I took a deep breath. When my stomach felt somewhat calm, I started. “I had developed a timeline for when the cilantro could have been taken from the food truck. The timeline indicated that the theft had to happen while we were at the studio. Since the contestants were being filmed, that meant that the studio employees were more likely to have been behind the theft. I was here yesterday looking at security DVDs of the time when the box of cookware was likely to have been defiled. Again, apparently someone from the studio tripped the circuit breakers and stole the DVDs. Again, the knowledge to do all that would be available to someone who worked at the studio. Plus I heard the conversation between Jim Jackson and somebody whose voice I couldn’t make out.”

Danvers studied me for a moment. “You certainly seem to be putting a lot of time and effort into cilantro. I could buy you more if you need it that bad.”

I rolled my eyes. I knew he was trying to help me out, but I wasn’t in the mood for his comments. “The cilantro was just the easiest prank to study, since it had to be taken from the truck, which is rarely left unattended.” I shrugged as if to say that cilantro itself was not important.

“So who did you see when you got here?” Danvers looked around again. A couple of uniformed officers were leaving the building. They looked nauseated as well. I felt a bit better to think that I wasn’t the only one to feel sick at the sight of all that blood.

“No one. The offices were empty when I got here. I went to Mr. Jackson’s office, and then to Marsha’s office, and then to the green room, which is where we find Marsha from time to time. I didn’t see anyone in the studio until I found the bodies. I came outside after I threw up and called the police.” I wanted to be done with questioning. Every time I brought the subject up, the images came back to my mind. “How were the women killed? I mean, were they drugged or hit over the head or…?” I let the question stand open, hoping that Danvers would share something with me.

“The ME thinks they might have been sedated. He’s going to run some tests and let us know, hopefully tomorrow. Why? Did you see something that made you think of drugs?”

I explained how I had thought about the women and the reasons why the second victim hadn’t shouted out or tried to escape in some manner. He nodded as I spoke.

“Anything else you’d like to add before I get to work?” he asked.

“I didn’t see any footprints in the blood. Were there any footprints—and if not—how did the murderer kill both women like that and not leave footprints?” I shivered at the thought, and Danvers gave me an odd look.

“Maybe you ought to get home?” he suggested.

“Hold it here a second,” he shouted to a man who was leaving the studio. Danvers walked the few feet over to the man, talked to him, and then led him back to where I stood.

The man looked at me. He shone a small light in both eyes. He asked me a few questions and then nodded to Danvers before leaving to go back in the studio. I watched him walk away.

“Who was that?” I asked, suddenly feeling like I was under observation.

“It was the ME,” Danvers replied. “He thinks you’re experiencing a bit of shock. Is there somewhere that I can drop you, where you won’t be alone?”

I felt my face flush. “You just had a coroner check me out? Did I look dead to you?” It felt too close to death, like having a mortician do your make-up or something.

“No, but you’re not yourself. I was concerned. I thought you might be suffering from shock, and the doctor concurs.”

I looked in Danvers’ eyes, but I saw nothing that looked like concern. I shook my head. “The ME doesn’t get to diagnose too many cases of shock, because all of his clients are dead. I’m fine.”

Danvers pulled out his phone. “I’m either calling Land or your parents. Your choice.”

I growled to myself; I didn’t need him trying to diagnose me as a werewolf too. Finally, I said, “Parents.”

I gave Danvers the number, and he made the call. Twenty minutes later, my mother came to pick me up. I have to admit that I felt better just getting into her car with the comfort of knowing I would be cared for. I wasn’t so far gone that I hadn’t noticed that Danvers had not answered my questions about the footprints. I still kept thinking that there had to be some way for him to slice the throats of two women and get away without getting his shoes soaked in blood.

I must have said some of my musings out loud as my mother blanched as she looked at me. “What are you talking about? Gads, that cute detective was right. You do need some help. I’ll take care of everything.”

I didn’t bother to protest the implications of calling Danvers cute. Her next question on the matter would be asking about his marital status. I decided to stop that line of questioning. I professed that I was very freaked out.

My mother took me to my parents’ house. She put me in bed, threw an extra comforter on the bed, and then left the room for a while. She returned with a variety of suggestions; I guessed that she had found most of them on Google as ways to help alleviate sudden shock. In fairness, I must have been suffering from some degree of shock because I submitted to every last one of the treatments.

Finally exhausted, I went to sleep. It was so nice to be back in my old bed without the cares of adulthood, that I slept until nearly 7 a.m. I got out of bed feeling somewhat better. I was still shaken, but I no longer felt like I wanted to crawl out of my skin.

Land had already agreed to take over the truck that morning, so I took my time with a second cup of coffee. My mother had made a pot, and it was nice to drink someone else’s coffee for a change. I checked my phone and saw that I had a text from Land telling me that the studio executives wanted to meet with all of the contestants at 10 a.m.

I cursed the whole business. A meeting at 10 a.m. not only meant that I had to rush around to get ready, but it also meant that we would likely lose a good chunk of our lunch business for the day. Given that we’d missed several lunches already due to the show, I was resentful about missing another. I still had a business to run and money to bring in.

I made it to the truck by 9 a.m. I worked for about 40 minutes before we closed the window and Land drove us to the studio. All of the food trucks were waiting in the parking lot, which made finding a spot more difficult. I made sure to lock all the doors, but given that we didn’t have a competition that day, I doubted that anyone would want to break in this time. The damage had already been done.

Land and I walked to the set in silence. He hadn’t asked me any questions about my experiences with the dead women. He hadn’t so much as mentioned Danvers or the police or what I thought. I highly suspected that Danvers had told him about the shock and sending me to my parents’ house to recuperate, but Land remained silent.

We reached the set, and all eyes turned to look at me. I figured that they’d all heard that I’d been the one to find the bodies yesterday. Knowing some of the contestants, they were probably disappointed that they hadn’t found the bodies if there was any publicity to be had from the discovery. Fortunately, Danvers’ insistence on finding me a place to stay for the night had shielded me from the press, which I was grateful for now. But at the moment, it was difficult to take the prying eyes of the other contestants. I would have been a wreck if there’d been a camera and microphones.

Johnny Ruck was standing in front of the group, waiting for me to approach. The overhead stage lights flashed on, and I knew we’d be filming soon. He cleared his throat and fumbled around, looking for the script. That action made Marsha’s absence noticeable, and no one spoke as they all remembered what had happened to her. He managed to upend three stacks of paper before he found what he was looking for.

Finally, he started. “It’s with great sadness that I have to report to you that two members of our family were found dead yesterday. We lost a talented member of the production staff and a wonderful food truck owner whose screen presence cannot be replaced. As a result, we’re going to close production of the show for one week. That will give us time to hold the funerals and mourn the loss of these dear souls.” He finished and dropped his head as if he were in prayer.

I looked around at the other truck owners. Some had their heads down and a few were scanning the room, like I was. I stood there silently, waiting for Johnny Ruck to speak again.

“You’ll be notified of the dates and times for both funerals. For the sake of the show, I will expect you to be at either one funeral or the other, if not both, as a sign of respect for the dead. Plus it’s likely that many of the network entertainment shows will be covering the funerals. I want my show to be front and center for that coverage.”

No one spoke, so we all just stood there. I wasn’t sure if it was from the unattractive honesty of his statement or the possibility that one of the contestants might have slit the throats of two women.

Ruck looked around at us and continued, “I want you all here next week at this time. I will tell you that our next challenge will be a mystery ingredient. If you get a chance to plug that in the funeral coverage, I would ask that you mention it. That is all.”

No one moved for a moment, and then Anthony started to the exit. We all started heading toward the long hallway to leave when I heard a voice call my name. It was Johnny Ruck. He was walking briskly to me. “Maeve, I need to see you and Land in my office please.”

The rest of the contestants looked at each other, but not at us. Perhaps they thought, as I did, that we were going to be let go from the competition. I’d found the bodies—and given the chance that I could mention those gruesome images to the press, the other contestants or anyone else—I had to be a liability. If I was in this for the fame, this would be a ticket to being interviewed on all the talk shows and entertainment shows on television. Yet even as I thought that, I knew I could never profit off someone’s death in this manner. It wasn’t me.

Johnny Ruck led us to his office, which was located in the same suite as that of Jim Jackson. However, his office was larger and splashier. There were photos of him with movie stars and politicians. He had awards from TV shows and restaurant guides. The entire office was a shrine to his career. He sat down in a leather chair behind an oversized desk.

He urged us to sit down and paged a secretary to get us some sparkling water. I was puzzled because that did not seem like the beverage of choice when forcing someone to leave your show. I didn’t speak, and neither did Land.

Finally, Johnny said, “I need your help. I need someone on the show as a contestant who can be my eyes and ears.”

Land spoke up first. “Sir, that’s very kind of you, but we’re here to win a contest. If we’re busy investigating what is going on here, then we won’t have sufficient time to do our very best during the competition. We came here to win the competition and get the appropriate level of promotion from that win.”

Ruck looked from one of us to the other. “Fine, you do this for me, and I guarantee that you’ll win the contest. That’s how bad I need a spy here.”

“Can you do that?” I asked, thinking that perhaps I was still in shock to be hearing this. He was offering to throw the competition to us if we helped him learn more about what was going on at the studio. It seemed unlikely—and possibly immoral. I was less worried about the morality than the logistics, if I was honest with myself. The fame from winning the food truck show would catapult my career to a place where I wouldn’t have to move back home.

He gave me the same grin he’d used on set so many times before. “Honey, I can do any damned thing I want. I hire the judges and I tally the results. Marsha was a wonderful woman and a damned good employee. I don’t know where I’ll find another one like her. I want whoever did this to pay for it. If that means you win, so be it. Dogs on a Roll isn’t a bad truck. There’s a chance that you could win this on your own, so your taking the championship wouldn’t raise too many eyebrows.” His face had grown red during his speech, and I believed his words. He was either a very good actor or he was sincere.

Land, apparently, was more skeptical. “Can we get that in writing? Just to be on the safe side.”

Ruck nodded. “I’ll write it up and get my lawyers to draft it. I’m serious. I’ll give you access to everyone here at the studio and all the truck owners too. I want this solved. I won’t be able to get contestants for another season if they’re being systematically slaughtered.”

“Why us?” Land asked, still not willing to accept the deal. I was less willing to look a gift horse in the mouth, but Land seemed downright skeptical.

“Because I heard from Detective Jax Danvers that you two solved another series of crimes before, and that you did a good job at it. He said that of all the folks in the contest, you two would be the most likely to give me the information I wanted and that you’d be most likely to get to the bottom of these crimes. That’s a pretty good recommendation in my book.”

I was surprised to hear that Danvers had said anything nice about us. He never seemed that happy to have me around. Maybe I wasn’t reading him correctly. Land seemed to take it in stride, so I still was no closer to finding out how these two had interacted before. It was more of a mystery to me than these deaths, which I still wanted to rid from my mind.

“In the meantime, here’s a copy of the ME’s report. I thought you might want to look at this while we get the papers drawn up.” He shoved a rather thick manila folder over toward me. I wondered how Ruck had gotten a copy. Given the fact that barely twenty-four hours had gone by, the ME had apparently put a rush on it and offered a copy to the famous chef.

I thought about opening it, but I was still a bit squeamish from yesterday. Fortunately, Land picked up on my reticence and took the folder from me.

He began to flip through the pages, careful not to drop out any of the photos. I wasn’t sure that I could have handled that yet. I knew if we looked into this, then I would need to get over it, but the level of blood and violence had shaken my little peaceful world. This was definitely a topic that was not covered in business school.

Land turned to face me. “To answer the questions you had yesterday, the women were knocked unconscious by a blow to the head. So they didn’t feel anything happen to them. That’s why they wouldn’t make a fuss when they were killed.”

“Do they know what they were hit with?” I asked, feeling myself drawn into this despite the fact that I was still skittish about the whole matter.

“Not yet, but this is just a preliminary report.” He turned to face Ruck. “If you can get us the final copy when it comes out, that would be a big help to us as well.”

Ruck nodded and wrote something down on a pad of paper.

He looked at me, staring squarely at my face. “Are you ready for the rest?”

I nodded slowly. I knew that I might not be, but if we were going to look into this, I had to get past the stress of finding them. Deep down, I knew I was strong enough to get through this and manage, but right now, it didn’t feel like it. I wanted to go back home to my parents’ house and crawl back into bed.

“The blood patterns and blood flow suggest that their necks were sliced after they were already dead. The coroner isn’t sure why they would have been cut after death, but the blood didn’t move like it would have in life. They haven’t found the cause of death yet, but as I said, this is a preliminary document.”

Johnny Ruck had not said a word during any of this. He’d grown a few shades whiter during Land’s discussion, but he remained quiet. He didn’t have to speak, I thought, as long as he holds up his end of the deal.

“Mr. Ruck,” I asked, feeling more in a detecting mode at this point, “do you have the names and addresses for the other participants in the competition? That may come in handy if we need to talk to them this week. Otherwise, we’d be forced to ask questions during the funeral or wait until we all come back in a week.”

He nodded. He clicked his mouse a few times on the computer and a sheet of paper hummed out of the printer. “I included the contact information for Marsha. I thought that perhaps you’d want to find out more about her as well. I have no idea why anyone would want to harm her.”

Land took the sheet and tucked it in a pocket. He stood to leave and I followed suit. While I wasn’t a follower by nature, in this case, I wanted us to look like we were of one mind, so I put away my independence and stood when he did. This would be a long case indeed if I had to do that very often. Land wasn’t good at showing his emotions so I’d have to follow whatever leads he provided me.

We walked out of the studio and to the truck before Land spoke. The parking lot was nearly empty, and there were no signs of any of the other food trucks. That made it safe to talk without anyone overhearing us.

“I don’t like this,” I said. “I want to win the contest fair and square. I don’t want to win because we did a favor for the producer, even if it keeps the show on the air.”

Land smirked. “Don’t be naïve. This type of thing happens all the time. These shows are about as real as a soap opera. Nothing in that contract says that we have to sit back and that we can’t work hard to win. I plan on working as hard as I can on this, but I wanted some assurances that we would not be penalized for helping out—especially if Mr. Ruck doesn’t like what we find. I wouldn’t want to be kicked out because he liked the killer.”

“You mean my theory that someone from the studio is behind this?” I thought about how that would reflect on the show and the studio, if an employee were behind all of the pranks and the murders. “That would definitely not be something he’d be happy to hear.”

Land nodded. We had reached the door to the food truck, and Land pulled something off the door. It was another note. I recognized the gray lined paper. He read it aloud, “Stay away from the murders and stay away from Ruck—if you know what’s good for you.”

He handed it to me. It looked similar to the other note, though I was no handwriting expert. The author had used block lettering like last time, which is hopelessly easy to imitate. I could have probably written a few similar notes given the time and the energy.

“So now what?” I asked. “Apparently someone else knows what we were asked to do. It won’t be long until the whole show knows.”

Land rolled his eyes. “They would have anyway. We’re going to be asking questions of everyone associated with the show. It wouldn’t take long for them to figure out what we were doing, especially if they look up the fact that you got yourself involved in another murder case a few months ago. They’ll know exactly what you’re up to.”