Leftovers (4 page)

I hopped over to email and brought up the inbox. Nothing. The inbox was cleaned out. There were no sent mails or deleted mails either. Someone was being very careful about what outsiders could see. I wondered again about the lack of a passcode, but I shrugged. People are hard to explain.

Business school had given me the wonderful skill of being able to multitask, and so when I saw Land and Danvers stand up, I shoved the phone back into the purse and walked it over to them.

“This was on the ground over there,” I said, pointing to where I’d just stood. “I’m guessing it’s the dead woman’s purse. No one else was claiming it.” I held it out like an offering.

Danvers grunted and took it. He waited for a tech to come by, and he passed it off to her. If I’d have known that, I would have spent a few more minutes on a more complete reconnaissance of the contents, such as it was. Land caught my eye as I watched the purse disappear, and I had a sneaking suspicion that he knew I’d checked out a few things. We’d grown to where we could read each other to a certain extent. He spoke so few words anyway that reading his posture and expressions was almost necessary to communicate.

Danvers turned and looked at me. “Did you know this woman? Land said something about her coming to visit you today?”

I looked at Land again. How could he have known that? I hadn’t mentioned the dead woman to him at all. Even so, I knew that Danvers would believe him over me, and so I opted to spill what little I knew.

“Her name was Mariel Mills. She was the dead health inspector’s sister. I went to talk to the Zoz family yesterday, but they’d moved away—rather quickly and with a lot of cash it would appear. No forwarding address. So I called the sister to find out what had happened. She said that she would meet me here today. And you know the rest.”

Danvers walked away from us for a moment. I could see him talking to the same tech who had received the purse from him a few minutes before. The tech shook her head violently, and I wondered what was going on. Danvers took a deep breath and headed back to us.

“The dead lady’s name is not Mills—or Mariel either. We interviewed Mariel Mills at the time of her sister’s murder and that’s not her. Do you want to try again?” His eyes flashed anger as his arms crossed over his chest. “Who was she, and why was she coming to visit you?”

I panicked. I didn’t have any other answers for the police or for myself. “I told you the truth. I called Linda Zoz’s sister. You knew that I wasn’t happy with the results of the trial or the fact that no one would admit to her murder. It left me with questions—lots of them. So I went and asked some of them. She wouldn’t meet me last night, but she said she’d stop by the food truck today around 1 p.m.” I stopped to breathe.

“Well, you better come up with some answers as well as your questions. You’re going to come with us to the station.” He pointed to an upper floor of the government building where Linda Zoz had been beheaded. I’d been to Danvers’ office a few times, but most of them had been social. I’d been questioned there once, and I didn’t really want to repeat that experience. Danvers had not been social at all. He had accused me of murder then. I knew he couldn’t do that today, but I had heard of material witnesses and how they could be held in custody for what they know. I didn’t want to learn more about that process.

Land coughed and looked at Danvers. “Why? She can’t possibly be the killer. She was with me when the shots were fired. I’m sure that at least ten other people will say the same thing. Secondly, this was a professional hit, and I know as well as you do that Maeve is not a professional hitman.”

I looked at him. “Professional? How do you know that?” I asked. When had my chef become an expert on murder for hire?

“The MO is clear. The killer was far away from the scene of the crime. Mostly likely he found a spot to take out the target. He had to use a high-powered rifle, I’m guessing a MSR. You don’t tote those around public places. They’re expensive, and they take time to learn how to use them. Most people don’t own one or use one. So it’s likely someone who gets paid to do just that was behind this murder. We both know that Maeve isn’t a hit man, and she wouldn’t even know where to find a hit man. It’s not like they advertise on Emily’s List.” While I appreciated the support for my innocence, I felt that Land was going overboard with the description of my incompetence. I doubted that Bill Gates or Warren Buffet could find a hit man either. That skill wasn’t taught at business school.

I’d forgotten about the murder for a minute. I was puzzled by the knowledge that Land possessed. While I couldn’t find a hit man if I wanted one, apparently Land could. I didn’t even know that he knew the first thing about guns, and suddenly he’s sounding like a professor on
CSI
. I was going to have to find out where he’d gained all of this experience and knowledge. Now was not the time or the place, but it would be soon.

Danvers nodded finally. The pause was probably his reluctance to blame me for all the homicides in his life. “Yeah, it was professional. No other way to be. Still I think Maeve is not telling us everything she knows. She has a history of doing that.”

“I’m not always tight-lipped,” I reminded him. If he was going to throw me off my game, I thought I could return the favor.

Land ignored me. “Well, we can agree that Maeve didn’t do it. So what did the tech say that has you so pissed off?” Land was serious and taking the lead, which made me wonder if this was how the two men knew each other. Danvers was unlikely to take orders from a civilian unless he’d worked for him before in a similar capacity. The man had too much arrogance for subservience. Had they served in the military together? Or possibly worked for a police unit together? I wondered since Land had a working knowledge of firearms.

“We ran a background check on Mariel Mills. I didn’t trust my memory. She’s 52 and plump. Of all the things you can say about our victim here, she’s not 52—and she’s not plump. There’s no ID and no wallet, which is even more reason to think that she’s not Mills. So I got a patrol car to head over to Mariel’s last known address, and we’re going to find out what’s going on. I still think that Maeve knows more than she’s telling, but I would have to agree that she’s not involved in this killing.”

I took a deep breath. I was glad to be excluded from suspicion, though I didn’t like the way in which I was so quickly thought to be less than competent in the methods of killing. Even so, I counted this as a win.

Another tech came up, shot a glance to Land and me, and then leaned in to tell Danvers something. The tech walked away, and Danvers didn’t speak. “If you don’t need me, I’m going to make sure that no one steals the food truck,” I said to no one in particular.

Neither man bothered to stop me, but I heard them talking as I left. Danvers was complaining that another case would cut into the time he had to prepare for the big trial that was coming up. Apparently he was a witness in a mob case, and he had to be perfect in his delivery. Other people being murdered got in the way of his performance.

I remembered what Land had told me before. Danvers tended to put his own career first. I doubted that he was as worried about the mob guy getting off as he was about how well he played to the camera.

I walked back to the truck, entered through the door instead of the window, and closed the window. I didn’t want any more business today. Any clients that stopped by the food truck would be more interested in the killing than the cuisine. I wanted to complete the daily cleanup and head home. I had the good sense to realize that I was over my head with snipers and rifles with names. I preferred a nice easy poisoning or a bop on the head. Even the beheading looked good compared to the faceless death that came from over fifty yards away. At least you could see the end coming with a knife.

I was about halfway finished with counting the money when Land returned. I was glad, because I didn’t feel like doing his work as well. He started cleaning. After a few seconds he said, “Danvers dispatched a patrol car over to Mariel Mills’ house. I’m guessing that they’ll find she’s been killed.”

I furrowed my brows. “You seem pretty certain of that.” I had just assumed that she’d chickened out.

Land didn’t look up, but just kept cleaning. “If you’re coming to meet someone and you’re pretending to be someone else, then you need to make damned sure that the real person won’t show up in the middle of things and muck it up. You can restrain them, tie them up, or you can kill them.” Land seemed to be comfortable talking like this, but it bothered me to think that this family had so much loss. First Linda and now her sister. The poor parents had lost two children. The rest of the family had disappeared, and no one seemed to know exactly where they were.

“What did she hope to gain by meeting with me? I can’t think of any reason why I’d be important enough to kill someone.” If she’s known her information would be vital, I imagined that she’d bundled it up in a letter that would be sent to the police in case something happened to her. I wondered if people did that in real life, but it seemed handy for the circumstances. Mariel had something of interest, and now she was dead. How could she have prevented her own death?

Land shrugged. “She wasn’t carrying a gun or a knife, so she wasn’t coming to kill you. That’s a good sign. So she must just have wanted to talk.”

My mouth dropped open. “In what world is it a good sign if they’re not here to kill you? A good sign would be that she was carrying a check for a large sum in her purse.” I stuffed the cash in the deposit bag and started helping with the cleanup of the food prep areas.

Land watched me as I started putting unused vegetables in the refrigerator and wiping down surfaces. “I think you’ve stepped into something where you’re way over your head. You need to be careful.”

I felt my cheeks burn. I knew I was getting angry. “I think I’ve done pretty well for myself. I’ve solved multiple murders and explained cases that stumped the police. And I’m still here.”

Land took a deep breath. “This case is not like those murders. This one is different. You could have easily been killed. The sniper could have moved his aim a few feet to the right and shot you before you even knew what happened. You can’t protect yourself against that. You could have been picked off any time during the morning shift if he’d wanted you dead. You’re not used to that type of security and caution.”

I turned to face him. “You certainly seem to know a lot about it though. Care to enlighten me?”

I could actually see his lips clamp into a thin line, which didn’t open for a few minutes. He had his lips pressed so tightly that the lips turned white. The silence was broken by a knock at the door. Danvers identified himself before Land opened the door.

“The patrol car reported back. The house is locked up. No sign of a break-in or any violence inside. I’ve got someone trying to get a warrant to get in, but frankly, I’m not sure that we’ll get it. The whole premise is a long shot. Mills could just have decided not to meet with you, or something could have come up to prevent her from meeting you. That stuff happens all the time. There’s nothing that directly ties the Mills woman to the shooting. The judge will likely want more to issue a warrant, rather than just speculation of a possible crime.”

“Any ID on the dead woman?” Land asked, still sounding more like the person in charge than my chef. I knew the answer, but I kept quiet.

Danvers shook his head. “No clue. The chief has given this the highest priority. One of the techs already took fingerprints and ran them through the system. No hits at all. So our most likely means of identifying the suspect is shot.”

“You’ll get it,” Land said, almost encouragingly. I wasn’t used to Land being positive. Usually he was thinking that the situation was bleak, and here he was cheering the police on.

“Probably, but it will be weeks. Our DNA lab is always backed up. They’re trying to process current cases as well as the backlog of cases where we have DNA evidence that’s never been tested. We’ll get priority, but it still won’t be fast.” His shoulders were slumped a bit, and the cocky attitude was gone. Danvers looked almost human when he wasn’t so full of himself. Apparently, he wasn’t as assured that the DNA labs would find a match for the dead woman. There were limits to identification, so unless the victim had submitted to a DNA test or been required to give fingerprints, she could easily not be in the system.

However, I suspected that something would turn up. If snipers were involved, then this might be related to a government, military or police matter, and likely the woman’s identification could be tied to one of those organizations.

For me, I had to wonder about the timing. It seemed entirely too coincidental that the woman had been killed at nearly the same time that I was to meet Mariel Mills, the sister of a murder victim. That was entirely too many interrelated events for me to believe that they weren’t all tied together. I believed that coincidences did happen, but not in this large of a number. I cringed though, not wanting to apply the label “conspiracy” to this case.

I figured that I would take a chance and visit Mariel’s house after I finished this shift. I needed to wash some things in the sink, but I hesitated to get wet since I had phone numbers written in pen on my hand and arm. I would have to put on rubber gloves, and that would arouse Land’s suspicions. And since Danvers was here, Land would likely tell him what he suspected. They had a bad habit of ganging up on me, even though Land obviously didn’t trust Danvers.