FIVE WILL GET YOU TWENTY (Food Truck Mysteries Book 9) (4 page)

Land had come over that night to hear what was going on. He’d been surprised to learn that I’d already found out about the connection between Ryan Pohler and the people passing the bad twenties at our truck. He waited until I was done to ask questions.

“It doesn’t seem like the actions of a good businessman,” Land said finally. “I mean, he’s got all these trucks up and running, and yet he bungles a simple thing like this. He should know better than to pass them that close to home and to go back to the same places to pass the bills. It doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

Before I could answer him, the door buzzer sounded. I hadn’t been expecting anyone. We both looked at each other for a second, and then I pressed the buzzer.

The unmistakable voice of Detective Jax Danvers came over the intercom. He couldn’t be here with good news. His official shift had been over hours ago, and he should have been out with Sabine. I hoped he wasn’t here to ask us to interfere in that relationship. I wasn’t sure that either Land or I could persuade her to do anything that she didn’t already want to do.

Even so, I buzzed the outside door and then waited by the apartment door to let him in. He was dressed in a white dress shirt that fit snuggly and a pair of jeans, the kind of outfit that he often wore to work.

Land stood up as he entered. “What’s going on? Is Sabine okay?” I guessed that his thoughts had gone in a different direction than mine. He’d been concerned that Danvers had bad news about his sister. I was just puzzled by the visit.

“What? Yeah, I guess so. We’re still not talking,” he said without looking at either of us.

“I noticed,” I said. “She’s pretty angry toward you.”

He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I know. That’s not why I’m here though. If I had an issue with Sabine, I’d just tell Land.” I was annoyed by the way that Danvers forgot that I would soon be a member of the family. I had a right to know what was going on as well. He was still cutting me out of that segment of my life.

“So are you going to tell us what’s going on or do we play 20 questions?” I said with some amount of snark. I could understand Sabine’s feelings if Danvers treated her this way. She deserved better, especially after a year. If he hadn’t been ready to take their arrangement to the next level, then he shouldn’t have asked her to move in.

“Ryan Pohler is dead,” he said.

I took the words in slowly. I’d been involved in murder cases before, so a sudden death wasn’t a shock. However, in this case, it felt like I’d been cheated out of justice—and retribution. I had wanted to recoup the money I’d lost to Pohler and get an explanation as to why I’d been targeted, though I felt like I knew the answer. There were so many questions left unanswered that I knew I’d have to get involved, if for no other reason than to satisfy myself with the answers.

“What happened?” Land asked while he kept an eye on me. “If you’re involved, I guess it’s not natural causes. I’m going to guess that it was a pretty clear case of murder then.”

Danvers checked his notebook, even though I knew that he had the answers in his mind at the moment. “He was shot this afternoon at his truck. One of his trucks has the same shift as you, two o’clock to after dinner. The truck was parked there, but the window never opened.”

“Who found him then?” I asked. Frankly, the way that Danvers was solely addressing Land, I wasn’t certain if he would respond to my question.

Danvers took a deep breath and answered me. “A customer. They knocked on the window, got no response and checked the door to the truck. It was open, and she found the body.”

“It wasn’t the woman in the photo, was it?” I thought of their meeting just a few hours ago.

“No, just a customer. We’re running her information through our databases to see if there’s any link between them, but of course she says there isn’t any. It seems pretty random so far.”

“She might be telling the truth,” I countered. While I wasn’t sure at all whether or not she knew Pohler, I was just feeling contrary. It would be stupid of her, if she had killed him, to go back to the scene of the crime and pretend to find him.

“Then again she might not,” countered Land. “So why are you here?” he asked, getting to the heart of the matter.

“You’re a food truck owner, and he’s a food truck owner. I thought that maybe you’d know some gossip about him or his business that we could use. The city wants this case cleared up immediately. The murder of a storeowner doesn’t match the image that the city wants for downtown. The mayor called my lieutenant personally to see that it would be resolved quickly. I knew I could count on you not to bring me those stories that the deceased was a wonderful man who did no wrong crap. I want the straight truth here—the good, the bad, and especially the ugly.”

I took a deep breath. “I don’t know him well, so there’s not a lot that I can give you. I know a few things though. First, you’ll need to look at how he was able to afford all of those trucks so quickly. I’ve gone through the math in my head, and there’s just no way that he could maintain his existing fleet and handle food costs. So I’m guessing that he had to cut corners somewhere. That could have created some angry customers or suppliers.”

Danvers wrote down the information. “Any specifics you can give me there or is it just a hunch?”

I shrugged. “Not much. Last year he put three new trucks on the road. Now maybe someone is bankrolling him, but then again, he’s always maintained that he’s a self-made man. It wouldn’t go over well if the word got out that someone else was footing his bills.” I liked the idea that Danvers would finally be answering the questions I had about Pohler’s finances. I wanted to know how he did it.

Danvers looked up. “Don’t worry. We’re going to have someone in forensic accounting go over the books. Between his murder and the counterfeit cash, his books need some investigation.”

“My dad could do that,” I said, trying to get a foot in the door. I knew that Capital City, though the largest city in the state, did not have the funds to keep a forensic accountant on staff. The majority of the cases they solved were simple street crimes. The chances to investigate a full-blown embezzlement or financial crisis were slim. My dad, who had worked in accounting and consulting, would be an ideal person for the job.

Danvers laughed. “I’m not sure that my superiors would appreciate that suggestion, but I’ll put his name forward if it comes to that. He’d have to sign a non-disclosure agreement, so you’d still be cut out of the deal. You know that, right?”

I nodded. “There’s more that you can do.” I went on. “I would talk to the people he used to pass the twenties. It shouldn’t be too hard to find them. I mean, you have photos of one of them, and a police sketch of another.”

Danvers checked his watch. “If they weren’t on the six o’clock news, they’ll be on the eleven o’clock broadcast. I plan on finding them as soon as I can.”

Not if I find them first
, I thought. I had a few ideas about how to find the woman and man that I’d try out this week. I wanted to find these people and learn what I could about the counterfeit operations.

“Plus I’d check out the plates and ink,” I added helpfully.

Danvers shut the notebook. “You’re not telling me much that I don’t know already. I have most of this stuff to cover, and I know it. I’m looking for more than just a rundown of what I should be doing. That’s too easy.”

I took a deep breath. “I don’t know what to tell you. I’d only heard about Pohler from others before the last few weeks. There was some discussion of how he got the money to open the trucks. No one ever mentioned any criminal activities, and while he was polite to me, he never once gave any indication that he planned on passing bad bills to get me to lose money and be investigated. So I can’t tell you that sort of thing.”

Danvers nodded. “But now I’m sure that you will be asking a few questions. Why don’t you talk to some of the food truck owners and see if there’s any sort of stories you can get from them? It would be nice to have that information, and I doubt very much that they’ll talk to me.”

I was surprised, to say the least. While I’d helped to solve murders over the years, I had rarely been asked to help the police. Usually, I had to do things under the radar to solve a crime. “Sure,” I said, “no problem.”

Danvers got up and left on that note. I sat back down and looked at Land. “I’m not sure if I’m more surprised by Danvers asking me to help or by the murder itself.”

Land eyed me suspiciously. “You do realize that he only asked you to do that because he wants you out of the way. The counterfeit case is going to be huge, and he wants the notoriety of solving that on his own. So, by asking you do to something easy, you won’t be in his way. He wants to solve this before the Feds get involved and take the case away. He’s looking for the glory for himself.”

I hadn’t thought of that aspect, but I didn’t care. The mere suggestion that I could be involved in the case would give me wide latitude in what I could do and say in the days ahead. I told Land that, but he didn’t seem mollified.

“So what exactly is going on with Danvers and Sabine? Are they done forever, or is this just a bump in the road?” I asked, wanting to change the subject. Land didn’t like talking about his family, but he was vehemently opposed to my investigating other people’s crimes.

“I don’t know,” he said with a sigh. “I warned both of them about this, and neither of them would listen. So it’s hard to tell what will happen. I don’t really feel sorry for either one. They had to know what they were getting into. Neither one of them likes to admit they’re wrong, nor are they particularly trustworthy.”

“So, what exactly happened?” I asked again. Land was being his usual close to the vest self, but if I was going to help Danvers, I didn’t want to find out that he’d cheated on Sabine, making it look like I condoned his behavior.

“I don’t know the exact details, but they’re arguing about their future. They don’t see eye to eye on where they go from here, and they’re fighting about it. After grandma said no to their living together, Danvers seemed to get cold feet. Sabine didn’t give him time to think things through. She just went ballistic. I’m thinking that she’s regretting her actions, but you’ll never get her to admit that.”

His face plainly asked me to stop talking about it, so I changed the subject. I decided that I would enlist Sabine’s help in collecting information, and she’d likely tell me at some point. “So what would you suggest doing first?” I asked.

“I would try to follow what Danvers asked,” Land said eyeing me cautiously. “He was pretty specific about what he wanted you to do. Of course, if you can find out anything about those two people that Carter identified, that would be something you could follow up as well, but I wouldn’t start a big investigation and cross Danvers on this matter. He’s seeing this as a career-maker.”

I nodded. Land usually gave me a lot of rope in such matters, so for him to suggest boundaries, he had to feel strongly that I could run afoul of the law. I took his word for it.

Land didn’t stay the night since I had to be up at 4a.m. I had a long day ahead of me, and I wanted the time to write up a few lists on what I wanted to accomplish the next day.

Sabine was already at the food truck the next morning when I made it to Elm Street. She had texted me to let me know that she had picked up the truck. I was surprised at her initiative since Land had led me to believe that she was not reliable.

She had already begun creating the condiments for the day. She’d picked up some fresh tomatoes and peppers for the salsa, and the truck smelled great. Land had made this same dish in the past, and I wondered if it was a family recipe.

“I heard that Jax was over at your place last night,” she asked, almost making it sound like a conspiracy against her. I guessed that she’d heard the story from Land, since it seemed unlikely that she’d talked to her former boyfriend from the way she pronounced his name.

I told her quickly what had happened and what he wanted me to do.

Sabine rolled her eyes. “That’s just like him, isn’t it? He wants your help when it is something that benefits him, but not if it takes some of the glory away from him.”

I took a long look at her. She was certainly bitter about whatever had happened, though she said about the same things that Land had said about him. I opened my mouth to ask her, but decided against it. Now was not the time to go into it. She seemed poised to take no prisoners, so I thought it best to just move on.

“I thought you might want to help?” I asked timidly.

“If it means taking Jax Danvers down a few notches, I’ll do anything you want,” she said. Sabine went back to chopping with an enthusiasm that scared me a little.

I decided to wait a while to tell her what I wanted to do. After our shift at Dogs on the Roll ended, I wanted to take a two-pronged approach to finding the woman who had met with Ryan Pohler. The plan was to go back to the restaurant where Pohler had met the woman and see if any of the wait staff new anything about her. My thoughts had been that Sabine would be the better person for that job. She’d worked in food service before the truck, and she could charm most of the male staff.

I was going to go back to work with Carter again to see if any of the counterfeit people came back again today to pass phony bills. I strongly doubted that anyone would be that stupid, coming on the heels of Pohler’s murder, but greed trumped intelligence in so many areas.