MURDER IN THE SPOTLIGHT (Food Truck Mysteries Book 2) (16 page)

So it was that I made it to the studio wearing a wire and a nice skirt and top. I’d never done undercover work before, and I wasn’t sure if this was going to be aired anywhere, but after the last several weeks, I knew the value of looking good on camera. I didn’t want to waste this last opportunity to get my name in the papers.

I made my way from the entrance, down the long hall to the executive suite. Marsha’s door was closed today, and I said a little prayer over her empty office. She hadn’t deserved her fate. She was a follower by nature, and she had only been doing what she was told. It seemed terribly unfair to me that someone should be killed for being themselves.

I looked in Jim Jackson’s office, but no one was there. I cursed. I’d really hoped that he would be here today. I’d been counting on it. It was just my luck that he was gone.

I thought about paging him to see where he was, but Johnny Ruck’s voice behind me startled me. “Maeve. How is my favorite little snoop? Have you brought me anything? I want to finish this show before anything else bad happens.”

I turned to face him. “Actually I do have something for you to see.” I pulled the flash drive out of my bra, which seemed to be my new favorite hiding place for it. The skirt and blouse combination really didn’t have the pockets I needed to do my work.

I held up the flash drive. “Can we use your computer?”

He nodded and led the way into his office. He smiled as he let me pass him and insert the flash drive into his computer. The images popped up almost instantaneously, which was how I’d set things up.

He looked at me with iron eyes. The sparkle was gone. In its place was the darkest gray. “What do you want from me? You’re already going to win the competition. What else is there?”

I looked at him. He’d already mentioned the price for our participation in looking into this matter. I knew that we’d never win now. That was one of the items that I’d discussed with Land last night. The chance to win and perhaps get a second truck wasn’t really mine by itself. I had promised him the second truck, and screwing up that deal affected him as much as it did me.

“I was thinking of one of your restaurants. Would that be a good deal? You could run it, and I could reap the profits from it. That’s what you offered Marsha, isn’t it?” In all honesty, I had no idea what he’d offered his assistant, but I wanted to get him talking. I thought that the wrong accusation might do as much as the right one in these circumstances.

He laughed. “You’ve done your homework. You’re a much better investigator than I gave you credit for.” He took a step nearer to me. “Are you sure that’s such a good idea though? Look what happened to Marsha. She met a very ugly end.”

The video of Marsha doing Johnny Ruck’s bidding played on. I watched her walk away from the box of pots and pans. She’d done exactly what he’d told her to do, and this was how she’d been repaid.

“Why did you kill her though? She was doing what you asked.” I wanted to keep him talking, so that Danvers could get as much of this recorded as a confession as possible.

He hadn’t been thrilled with this idea at all, so it was up to me to show him that he was wrong. I had solved the crimes, and I knew how to take care of the matter of evidence. It was now a point of pride that I follow this through and not leave it to someone else to clean up.

“She had enough. She was tired of Tracy’s demands. She was tired of lying. She was going to come clean about her part in the pranks. I couldn’t have that. This whole thing was based on the show getting great ratings and making a profit. Then I could start another line of cookware or add some more restaurants. Possibly do personal appearances.”

I rolled my eyes. “Don’t you have enough money? Is it always about more with you?” I thought of those women’s lives and how he’d killed them for a restaurant or personal appearance. I was happy with a small apartment and the possibility of a car. I certainly wouldn’t kill anyone for a house or a Beemer.

“It wasn’t about
more
money. It was about money. I’m nearly broke. My restaurants are doing poorly, and this show was not living up to the hype. You people were dull. You wanted to do your jobs and go home. That’s not what reality TV is supposed to be. It’s supposed to be arguments and drama and upset people. It’s supposed to have love affairs and people you love to hate. My show was all about food. That was it.” He was moving closer to me. I had about two feet between us now. It was still enough room that his arms couldn’t reach me, but I had to back up to keep that distance.

“Then why did you kill Annabella? You had a motive for Marsha, but not for Annabella.” I wanted the whole thing down before Danvers came crashing in. The agreement was that he was outside of the studio itself. He was in an unmarked van with Land and several members of a SWAT team parked near the gates. I knew that it would only take him a few minutes to get here, but I was still worried about how much damage Ruck could do in a few minutes

“She’d overheard Marsha and me talking. She’d heard Marsha announce that she was going to come clean with the network and all of you about the pranks. After that, she made her presence known. Marsha left, and I was stuck cleaning up the situation with Annabella. So I did. I knocked her out and tied her up. Then I went out and found Marsha. I did the same to her.” He was smiling at me now, which was much worse to my mind that if he’d gone on looking angry. The familiar face and the frightening words combined made for a terrifying situation.

“What did you inject them with?” I knew that the coroner was still running tox screens to learn what had been injected into the two women. It was the one point of the murders that Danvers had not been able to clear up.

“Air. It worked with Annabella. The syringe full of air killed her, but Marsha was still breathing, so I took one of my knives and finished the job with both of them. It made for a mess, but I didn’t have to clean it up, so I wasn’t too concerned.” He laughed at his last comment, and I took another step back.

He took a swipe at me, but missed. I jumped back a few steps. I lost my balance and fell. That was the last thing I remembered.

When I awoke, I was trussed up and lying on my side. I wasn’t in Johnny’s office any more. We were in some other part of the building that I didn’t recognize. That didn’t bode well for me. Danvers’ team would be expecting me in the executive suite, where I’d originally confronted Ruck. I wouldn’t be there. So then it would become a grind of going from room to room and office to office in the studio to look for me.

I didn’t know how long that would take, and I didn’t know how long I had. I wasn’t gagged, but that only made me feel that there was no reason for me to shout. I had to be in an area where I would not be heard.

I shouted a few times, but there was no cavalry coming over the hill to save me. I was alone in a room by myself. My arms were tied behind me, so I couldn’t check to see if Ruck had discovered my wire. Given that I was still dressed, I hoped that he’d left it intact. So I began to talk, telling the air and hopefully the rest of Danvers’ team that I was in a room that I didn’t recognize. I wasn’t sure how much help that would be since I couldn’t share much in the way of concrete information, but I was willing to try.

I described the walls and the floors and any equipment I could see from my vantage point. I kept at it until my voice started to become scratchy. I felt desperate and slightly silly. I didn’t even know if the wire was still attached. I could be spending my last few minutes describing the décor to myself.

Ruck appeared in my line of vision. He was holding a syringe in his hand, with the plunger pulled back and ready to use. I didn’t like the thought of that. He’d killed one woman with that contraption and tried to kill another. I knew that he probably had his knife on him, in case this didn’t work out.

He started his way to me, still smiling. “Don’t worry. This will be over one way or the other in a few minutes. You won’t feel any pain.”

I shouted again, cursing my sore throat. I went on shouting until he was a few feet from me. Then I stopped because I saw the door open. I’d never been so glad to see men with guns in all of my life. Danvers led the charge with Land, who was also carrying a gun, right behind him.

Ruck stopped as he saw the men in the room. He looked like someone caught in that game where you have to freeze in place. He didn’t move, and I wondered if he was trying to come up with a halfway decent excuse as to why I was tied up in a storage room at the studio with him carrying a syringe just as the murderer had done several days ago.

Danvers didn’t have that long. “Put down the syringe, Ruck, and come with us. You’re under arrest for two murders. You don’t want to add to the list of crimes.”

I thought about the implications of Danvers’ statement. Ruck had only committed the murders, which meant that it wasn’t a case of capital murder—yet. If he surrendered now, the police would have nothing else to charge him with except my kidnapping. I’d be willing to drop the charges to see him not be shot up like he was threatening to do to me. I just wanted this to end.

Ruck looked at the detective for a long time, and then he charged at the men with the syringe held high over his head—as if that would be a sufficient weapon against a group of men with guns.

It wasn’t.

His body danced as the bullets hit him repeatedly. The noise alone made me shut my eyes as if I could avoid what was going on around me. However, with my hands tied behind my back, there was no way to remove myself from the noise of the gunfire or the sound of his body hitting the floor.

When I opened my eyes, Land was in front of me, untying my legs. “Sorry it took so long. The sound went dead for a bit, and Danvers didn’t make the call to come in for a few minutes.” I could imagine what Land had said about that. He wasn’t known for holding his tongue.

“I fell backward and hit my head trying to get away from Ruck. He was a bit crazy there at the end.” Land moved around me to untie my hands. I waited patiently as he did. Someone had thrown a blanket over the body. I knew this wasn’t standard protocol for a crime scene, but I was grateful not to have to look at his body while we waited for the ME.

“Well, it’s all over now,” Land said finishing the last knot.

I sighed deeply, bordering on the start of a sob. “But there won’t be any prize and we won’t win anything. I had counted on the publicity.”

Land smiled at me. I wasn’t really in the mood for smiles at the moment. I was dirty, disheveled and had rope burns on my wrists and ankles. My voice was hoarse, and I thought I was going to cry. I wasn’t up for anyone being nice at the moment. “You’re going to get more publicity than you can handle.”

Of course, he was right. No sooner than I’d left the building with Land at my side, at least twenty video cameras were in my face.

~ End of Book 2 ~

NEXT FOOD TRUCK MYSTERY: Leftovers