Read Online MURDER IN THE SPOTLIGHT (Food Truck Mysteries Book 2) by Chloe Kendrick - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Chloe Kendrick
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to the studio with the rest of us, taken a minute to sneak outside and take the ingredients. Our truck is locked, but we’d learned the hard way that the security system on the truck itself was shoddy. It would be simple to steal from multiple trucks if they were all parked in the same lot.
Having narrowed it down in that way, I knew that I’d have to investigate further to find out who had left the studio while we were filming. I could recall some people, but I didn’t have them all. I figured that Land would know who had stood next to him, and he would be able to fill in the holes in the chart. With a narrowed down list, I could start asking some questions.
The next morning came early at my house. I was up and out the door before 4:30 a.m. I made it to the lot, picked up the food truck, and had it to our location on Elm Street in a matter of minutes. Land and I always text each other to let the other know when the truck has been picked up. It saves time since no one is hunting for the truck in the wrong location. Typically, I was the one receiving the texts most days, a fact that I ascribed to being a woman; therefore, I needed more time for prep before I could appear in public. I wasn’t sure that Land believed me, but he also didn’t seem to care. So I let things stand.
I started my prep work and waited for him to appear. It figured that the one day I wanted to talk about clues and a timeline, he was slower in arriving. He showed up just after 5 a.m. and got to work on the day’s condiments. He was chopping avocados and pickles when I broached the subject with him.
“Do you remember if anyone left the studio the day before yesterday when we found out about the challenge?” I asked. I explained to him how I’d drawn up the timeline of events and the only time we could have been robbed was during the studio time.
He nodded. “I figured that out last night. As for the other people, nobody left once they got on set. Marsha gets irate if anyone wanders off on their own. The only place the contestants should be in the studio is on the show’s set or the green room. Everything else is off-limits. You’ve probably seen more of the studio than anyone else there.”
“Okay, so what does that leave us?” I asked, feeling like I’d just talked myself out of thinking anyone had taken the cilantro. If there hadn’t been other trucks that had the same circumstances, I might have thought that Land had merely forgotten the cilantro—as he’d not brought the avocado on another day. However, with all the thefts and pranks going on, I felt that he was right. We’d had the cilantro taken from our truck while we were inside the studio.
“The staff. The people who work at the studio can come and go as they please. Any one of them could have stepped outside and taken the ingredients. If they’d have waited until the filming started, there would have been practically no chance of getting caught. They’d know that all of us would be on camera, so there was no way that we’d be able to go outside. They could do what they wanted.”
I had to agree with him. The best shot for someone to take the ingredients would have been while we were filming the introduction of the new challenge. That meant someone from the studio was behind this. I thought of the DVDs yesterday and how easily that fit into this theory. The best person to manipulate the circuit breakers, steal the DVDs and wipe out the files would be someone who worked at the studio. They’d know the procedures and which rooms in the building to access. I explained all of this to Land, who merely nodded.
I went back to counting the money. Land took his phone out, hit a few buttons, and waited. The phone rang, and I gave him an odd glance. Land didn’t seem to know many people in Capital City, so for him to decide to call someone during work hours was strange indeed. I couldn’t recall him ever making or taking a personal call during work
Having narrowed it down in that way, I knew that I’d have to investigate further to find out who had left the studio while we were filming. I could recall some people, but I didn’t have them all. I figured that Land would know who had stood next to him, and he would be able to fill in the holes in the chart. With a narrowed down list, I could start asking some questions.
The next morning came early at my house. I was up and out the door before 4:30 a.m. I made it to the lot, picked up the food truck, and had it to our location on Elm Street in a matter of minutes. Land and I always text each other to let the other know when the truck has been picked up. It saves time since no one is hunting for the truck in the wrong location. Typically, I was the one receiving the texts most days, a fact that I ascribed to being a woman; therefore, I needed more time for prep before I could appear in public. I wasn’t sure that Land believed me, but he also didn’t seem to care. So I let things stand.
I started my prep work and waited for him to appear. It figured that the one day I wanted to talk about clues and a timeline, he was slower in arriving. He showed up just after 5 a.m. and got to work on the day’s condiments. He was chopping avocados and pickles when I broached the subject with him.
“Do you remember if anyone left the studio the day before yesterday when we found out about the challenge?” I asked. I explained to him how I’d drawn up the timeline of events and the only time we could have been robbed was during the studio time.
He nodded. “I figured that out last night. As for the other people, nobody left once they got on set. Marsha gets irate if anyone wanders off on their own. The only place the contestants should be in the studio is on the show’s set or the green room. Everything else is off-limits. You’ve probably seen more of the studio than anyone else there.”
“Okay, so what does that leave us?” I asked, feeling like I’d just talked myself out of thinking anyone had taken the cilantro. If there hadn’t been other trucks that had the same circumstances, I might have thought that Land had merely forgotten the cilantro—as he’d not brought the avocado on another day. However, with all the thefts and pranks going on, I felt that he was right. We’d had the cilantro taken from our truck while we were inside the studio.
“The staff. The people who work at the studio can come and go as they please. Any one of them could have stepped outside and taken the ingredients. If they’d have waited until the filming started, there would have been practically no chance of getting caught. They’d know that all of us would be on camera, so there was no way that we’d be able to go outside. They could do what they wanted.”
I had to agree with him. The best shot for someone to take the ingredients would have been while we were filming the introduction of the new challenge. That meant someone from the studio was behind this. I thought of the DVDs yesterday and how easily that fit into this theory. The best person to manipulate the circuit breakers, steal the DVDs and wipe out the files would be someone who worked at the studio. They’d know the procedures and which rooms in the building to access. I explained all of this to Land, who merely nodded.
I went back to counting the money. Land took his phone out, hit a few buttons, and waited. The phone rang, and I gave him an odd glance. Land didn’t seem to know many people in Capital City, so for him to decide to call someone during work hours was strange indeed. I couldn’t recall him ever making or taking a personal call during work
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