Murder on Wheels

Book 6: Tourist Trap Mystery

by Lynn Cahoon

Genres: Private Investigators

Synopsis

The food truck craze has reached the charming coastal town of South Cove, California, but before Jill Gardner—owner of Coffee, Books, and More—can sample the eats, she has to shift gears and put the brakes on a killer . . .

Now that Kacey Austin has got her new gluten-free dessert truck up and running, there's no curbing her enthusiasm—not even when someone vandalizes the vehicle and steals her recipes. But when Kacey turns up dead on the beach and Jill's best friend, Sadie, becomes the prime suspect, Jill needs to step on it to serve the real killer some just desserts.

Release date: February 2, 2016

Publisher: Lyrical Press

Print pages: 196

Reader says this book is...: clever protagonist (1) entertaining story (1) female sleuth (1) trail of clues (1)

Sample

Fun , just like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. As I watched Greg and Justin stare at the handheld GPS hung around Justin’s neck with a University of California lanyard, two things were perfectly clear. One, Greg King, South Cove’s lead detective and my boyfriend, was not having the least bit of fun. And two, Justin Cross, history professor and Amy’s boyfriend, was oblivious to everyone else’s discomfort. Amy shot me a look as we leaned against an old wooden-post fence. “Do you think we might talk him into lunch at least?”

I glanced at my watch and shrugged. “Are we allowed to leave the hunt without finding anything?”

Justin had talked us into a new activity for our monthly double date. Geocaching. Basically, people go out into the woods, hide an object, and then post the GPS coordinates with a list of clues for others to find the item. Then, apparently, you post on the website that you “found” the spot (without leaving spoilers), take something from the cache, and leave something for the next explorer. It would be fun and all if the people hiding the stuff weren’t crazy illusionists.

The hobby was like a big scavenger hunt. Except this game was self-study instead of time-based. Today when we’d shown up at the park outside Bakerstown, there was a group of geocachers milling around the parking area. Most people were the same age as us, thirty-somethings looking for a weekend distraction that didn’t take place in a bar. We’d been directed to the registration desk and given our assignments.

Now we were in the middle of the Los Padres National Forest watching our boyfriends argue over our current GPS coordinates. Justin glanced back at us. “It should be here. What was the clue again?”

“Fake rock,” Amy called over to him. We were looking at an abandoned water pumping shed. The building had been made of stone, but now it looked more like it had been hit by a bomb. Or a meteor. She pointed up to the still-standing trees. Some of them were small, new growth. Others were old but charred on one side. “The forest fires ravaged through this area about ten years ago, and they let loggers come in to clean up the damaged trees. That’s why there’s so many dirt trails.”

“So, maybe this cache was destroyed in the fire,” I said, looking around for any kind of rock.

“The cache wasn’t placed here until last year.” Greg took my hands and pulled me into a standing position. “Come on, you’re not going to find anything by holding up that fence.”

I followed him, keeping my eyes on the ground for a plastic rock. After a few minutes, I was into the hunt. I stepped toward a tree and froze. A snake lay curled up next to the trunk. My stomach cramped, and I slowly moved away from the tree, pointing but not saying anything.

Amy came up next to me. “What is wrong with you?” She followed my gaze and laughed. “Jill found a snake.”

“It’s probably harmless. I don’t think there are rattlers in the area.” Justin crouched near Amy to examine my find.

I stood at the far end of the group as the three compared notes on what type of snake it could be. All I wanted to know was when we could get out of there. As they talked, I inched closer to the pump house. When I reached the back wall of the building, I saw a pipe coming out of the concrete. Under the water pipe was a rock. Could it be this easy?

I picked up the heavy rock and turned it over. The rock was concrete and had a film canister built into it. I tried to open the lid, but didn’t have enough strength. I looked over at the group. Greg was poking the snake with a stick to get it to move along, out of the search area. “Umm, guys? I think I found it.”

Justin sprang to his feet and sprinted toward me. He peered down at the bottom of the rock. “You did it. You found the geocache. Good job, Jill.”

Yep, that’s me. Jill Gardner, bookstore/coffee shop owner, and mad geocacher. I handed the rock to Justin. “You open it. I can’t get the lid off.”

He took the rock with a gentleness I hadn’t seen anyone use before when handling stone. Well, fake stone. He pulled off the lid and dumped the contents into his hand: a scroll of paper, a short golf pencil, and a polished rock. Justin scribbled our names and the date on the paper. Then he handed me the pink tinged rock. “Take one, leave one. Do you have something we can leave for the next guy?”

I dug in my pocket. I had change from the candy bar I’d bought at the gas station when we stopped for snacks. My stomach growled at the memory. Digging deeper, I found a snail shell I’d found on the trail. I handed the miniature shell to Justin. “It’s this or a quarter.”

He smiled. “This will do just fine. I didn’t know you had a fondness for trinkets.” He put everything back into the canister, closed the lid, and looked at me. “So, where did you find it? We need to put it back exactly for the next person.”

I pointed to the shed and the pipe. “It was right there, on the cement.”

Greg put his arm around me. “I looked at that rock more than once, but when the clue said ‘fake rock,’ I kicked it for weight and moved on. Good thing you thought to pick it up.”

I gazed into his blue eyes, pushing his hair away from his face. “So does this mean we can eat now? I’m starving.”

By the time we’d hiked back down the mountain to the parking lot, the geocaching club had set up a barbecue grill and was selling hot dogs and cold sodas as a fund-raiser. Greg shrugged. “Want a snack to hold you over until we get into town and find a real restaurant?”

“Are you kidding? Of course.” My mouth watered as we walked toward the smell of grilled dogs, mustard, and chopped onions. A dark-haired woman in a WE HIDE THINGS FOR FUN T-shirt motioned us over.

“Dog and drink for five bucks. Can’t beat that.” She grinned, rubbing the back of her hand over her forehead. “Darn, it’s hot today.”

I looked at Greg, who like me, wore a light jacket. It might be an unusually warm Saturday in February in sunny California, but it still felt chilly, especially standing here in the shade. “Spring will be here before you know it.” I kept the small talk aimed at the weather. “We’ll take four dogs and sodas.”

“Jimmy will get your hot dogs wrapped up and you can pull your drinks out of the ice chest over there.” The woman held out a hand as Greg pulled out his wallet. “The Coastal Geocache Club thanks you for your support.”

“Do you do this a lot?” I’d never met anyone who even claimed to like this geocaching stuff. Now, in one day, I’d seen what a draw it could be for people. “I mean, I guess you do, since you’re in the club and all.” Now I was just stumbling over my words.

“You’re looking at the current president! I’m Kacey and I’ve been a member for five years.” The woman looked down at her slim body. “You’re thinking how can she be so heavy and be part of a hiking group?”

I stared at the woman. She stood about five-five and might weigh 120 pounds. Her dark hair bounced around her shoulders, and her fair complexion brought out her emerald-green eyes. If I had to guess her occupation, I’d put her in the want-to-be-an-actress category. “Don’t even think that, you’re tiny. It’s just that before today I’d never even heard of this activity, let alone any clubs around it.”

“Sorry, I’m a bit sensitive about my weight. I went through a bad breakup, and I think I ate most of Bakerstown’s supply of chocolate during that time.” She smiled softly. “But I’m back at the gym and back with my husband, so things are good now. Anyway, geocaching. Most people haven’t heard of it. We usually get several homeschooler families who use the hobby to teach geography principles. And they get a day out of the house.”

“I’m glad to hear that. Good luck with everything.” I hadn’t even asked for a fifth of the information she’d so quickly provided. Apparently Kacey loved to talk. I took a step closer to Greg, who had walked away, talking to Amy and Justin and ignoring me. I almost sprinted to the cooler.

Greg handed me a cola and looked at Justin and Amy, “What’s your poison?”

“Poison’s right.” Justin smirked. “I’m not much of a soda guy. Just throw me a bottled water. The sodium in the hot dogs is going to be bad enough for my body.”

“Give it a break, honey.” Amy turned toward me as she took a lemon-lime soda. “Justin’s on this healthy food kick. I haven’t had a French fry in months.”

“Now, that’s true love.” I grinned at my friend. “I think I’d ditch Greg if he started feeding me health food.”

Greg handed me a hot dog. “At least I know where I stand in your priority list now.” He nodded toward the condiments table. “You’re not going to have onions, are you?”

I grinned. “I love onions.”

He shook his head. “I guess necking on the couch is off the agenda for this evening’s activities.”

Amy shook her head. “TMI, guys.” She paused, then pointed to a man who walked toward the concession stand. “Isn’t that Dustin Austin?”

I put mustard and ketchup on the dog and frowned toward the approaching figure. It was Austin with his Hawaiian shirt, Birkenstocks, and, in deference to the weather, long shorts. The guy’s gray dreadlocks bounced as he walked toward us. I hadn’t talked to the guy since he had broken my friend Sadie Michaels’s heart and dumped her to return to his wife. I hadn’t even known the guy was married. “I need to have a little talk with the jerk.”

Greg held my arm, which also kept me from throwing my hot dog at Austin as he walked by. When he reached the table, instead of buying his meal, he walked around the table and kissed Kacey on the lips. Apparently she was the mysterious wife, and, of course, she was younger than either Austin or my friend. Sadie had just turned forty; the women’s group at the church had invited me for her black party. I wonder if Austin was the one putting the “fat” ideas into her head. I turned away and took a bite of the hot dog, hoping the food would keep me from making a scene.

“You guys already out of here? We have another round starting at one.” The man who had registered our group stood between us and the car.

“We’ve got reservations in town.” Justin shrugged. “What can I say, newbies.”

The man looked us over and nodded. “We’ll just have to make you want to come back.” He held out his hand. “I’m Taylor Archer, vice president of the Coastal Geocache Club. Four years running now.”

“You must like the hobby a lot.” Amy leaned into Justin, taking his hand.

“I love it. You wouldn’t believe the stuff I’ve found just lying around. I have a metal detector, too, but you have to have a permit for it in national forests or state parks. And they’ve been good about allowing us to hold these monthly get-togethers here, so we don’t want to mess with that.” Taylor took a breath.

“Besides the fact that you wouldn’t want to break any laws,” Greg added to Taylor’s list of reasons.

He grinned. “Yeah, there’s that. But mostly all the stuff we find here is just things people have left behind while they’re camping or hiking. It’s not like it’s a Confederate battleground or a historical site.”

I knew from personal experience that historical objects were hiding everywhere, including an old shed that had been turned into an art studio. “You’d be surprised what can turn up where you don’t expect it.”

“True that.” Taylor waved at another group. “I’ve got to go. Check us out on the web. Kacey over there’s our webmistress, and she’s crazy-good about keeping our page current.”

I looked in the direction he was pointing and confirmed that Austin’s latest love was the computer guru Kacey. Now the guy’s website skills made sense. Of all the businesses in South Cove, Austin’s Bike Shop had been the first on the web and had the best site even now.

The four of us walked back to Justin’s car and sat inside as we ate our food. Finally Amy spoke. “Wow, I guess you can’t know what anyone is really thinking.”

“She doesn’t seem Austin’s type, that’s for sure.” Greg took a sip of his cola.

“When I talked to her, she said she’d gained weight when he left her. I can’t imagine how little she was before.” Kacey seemed to have a thing about her weight, even though I thought she looked amazing.

“There’s no way she thinks she’s heavy.” Greg rolled his eyes. “I don’t understand women and their weight obsession.”

“She’s totally different from Sadie.” I peeked around Greg, and watched the couple near the table. “I hate saying this, but she seemed nice. I kind of liked hating the woman for what she did to Sadie.”

“We all make our own choices.” Greg crumpled the hot dog paper wrappings and held out his hand for mine. “She’s not the one you should be mad at. Dustin didn’t tell Sadie he was still married. And he’s the one who broke it off.”

As we drove back into town, I thought about my friend. Sadie had been alone for years after her husband died, and the first man she’d let into her heart since then had torn it apart. I was focusing on the ocean when a thought occurred to me. “Darn, I forgot to ask him what they planned to do with the food truck.”

“You think he would have told you?” Amy turned around to look at me.

I shrugged. “Probably not, but who knows? He’s the one into New Age honesty and purity. Maybe I could have used his beliefs against him?”

“Tricked him into telling you the truth?” Greg laughed. “Honey, that hasn’t worked since they stopped making those Scooby-Doo cartoons.”

I leaned up against him. “Well, Austin definitely would be playing the part of Shaggy.”

Justin and Amy dropped us at my house when we returned to South Cove. Greg walked me to the porch. “Well, that was fun.”

“You’re a bad liar.” I poked his chest. “I didn’t think you were going to make it ten more minutes looking for that fake rock. In fact, I believe I saved you from a boring afternoon.”

“Don’t tell Amy or Justin, okay?” Greg took my key and unlocked the door. “It’s just that I get enough of the search stuff in my day job. When I’m on my own time, I don’t want to look for clues or find hidden treasure. I want to drink beer and eat buckets of clams.”

“Now, that sounds like a terrific plan. Let’s say we do that tomorrow.” I had three days off this week—Friday, Sunday, and Monday—and I intended to make the most of my last day to relax. As we walked into the living room, Emma leaned against our legs, whining and yipping. I leaned down and gave her a quick hug. “You want to go out, girl?”

She ran to the back door and barked.

“I guess that’s your answer.” Greg nodded to the television. “You mind if we watch some of the game? I could go home if you’d rather be alone.”

“I can read with you here or gone, so I’m fine.” I threw the remote at him. “But I’d rather snuggle on the couch with you while I’m doing it.”

Greg chuckled and settled on the couch as I let Emma outside. “Do you happen to have a beer?”

“Beer and chips. And I might just be talked into warming up a frozen pizza if you’re good.” I opened the fridge and grabbed a couple of bottles, then checked the freezer to make sure we had pizza. I poured a bag of potato chips into a large bowl and headed back to the couch.

Double dating was fun and all, but Greg and I had developed our own routine as a couple. And this was our comfort zone.

If I believed in fate, I’d worry about feeling this settled. Instead, since I wasn’t superstitious, I believed we’d have many more nights like this to enjoy each other’s company. Change, however, happens when you’re not expecting it.

Aunt Jackie put the standing water pitchers away under the counter. “Until the water ban is lifted, we’ll only serve water when requested. Do you know how much water we go through in the afternoons? Those kids drink it because it’s free.”

“Then we should provide it.” I looked to Toby and Sasha for support. Neither met my gaze. This was our first monthly staff meeting, and my aunt seemed to be changing everything. “Toby? What do you think?”

Toby didn’t even look up from his texting. “If we have to pour water for every kid who asks, we’ll be swamped and we won’t give great service to the paying customers.”

Mayor Baylor had put out a save water decree after the third month of the drought. Businesses were supposed to turn in their plans to City Hall by the end of the week. I didn’t mind helping the cause, but this seemed extreme. “Yeah, I’m sure we don’t want to add staff hours just to pour water.”

Aunt Jackie seemed to consider our objections, then crossed the item off the list. “We’ll try it this way for a while. Next topic is new aprons. Who has an idea for a new slogan?”

Toby tucked his phone in his shirt pocket. “Look, I don’t want to be rude, but it’s my one day off and Elisa’s upset I’m not helping with the yard work. Is there anything else we need to talk about before I leave?”

I glanced at my aunt, who narrowed her lips and scanned her list of items. “I guess there’s nothing here that I can’t update you on at the end of your shift tomorrow.” She nodded to me. “Go ahead and give them the envelopes.”

I handed out the white business-size envelopes. Sasha took hers like it could bite her. “You’re not closing the store are you? I know I haven’t been able to work as many hours this semester, but I’ll cut back on my schedule for summer and be here more.”

“Just open the envelope.” I watched as they each pulled out a check. “It’s not much, but Aunt Jackie and I wanted to share the amazing holiday season we had. And a lot of it is due to the two of you.”

“We just want you to know you’re appreciated.” Aunt Jackie put her agenda in the manila folder she’d set up for staff meeting notes. Then she went back behind the counter. “I’ll see everyone on Wednesday. Josh and I are going into the city for a play tonight.”

Toby sank back into his chair as Aunt Jackie left the shop. “Don’t I feel like a real heel right about now?”

“You didn’t know.” Sasha patted his arm, then grinned. “This will take care of Olivia’s day care for a few months. I don’t know what to say.”

“There’s nothing to say. But when you see my aunt, please thank her for insisting on the bonus program. She thought the entire thing up. In fact, there’s a whole performance-based section for next quarter’s bonus. The more traffic we get, the bigger your bonuses will be.” I focused on Toby. “Everything okay with you and Elisa? You seem a little tense.”

“Nothing I can’t handle.” His phone buzzed again with a new text message. He rubbed his face with both hands. “I guess I’d better get out of here before she blows another gasket.”

Sasha and I sat in silence as we watched Toby leave the shop. “That was interesting,” I muttered as I finished the rest of my coffee. “Do you want. . .