Leftovers by Chloe Kendrick Page B

I really wanted to know. Did she know who had done this to her, and what did she know about her sister’s death?
    Danvers gave a small wave to Land. “How are you today, Land? Did you hear about your boss’ exploits yesterday?” The wording of the question made me realize that Danvers was needling Land for working for me. It was bad enough that he hadn’t properly asked me out, but now he was actually using me as an insult. I was annoyed in return.
    Land nodded. “She was just telling me all about it.” I recognized the strained tone in his voice. Even if I didn’t know the details of his life, I could recognize his moods. This was not a good one. According to Land, my aunt had promised to leave him the food truck in her will. The fact that she’d left it to me instead had caused a lot of ruffled feathers between us in the beginning of our relationship. We’d recently talked about a second truck, and when I did purchase it, Land would be the sole operator of that food truck. In the meantime, we both knew that he didn’t like working for me. I was too young, in his opinion, and too inexperienced. He felt that as the senior person on the truck, he should have had more power in the relationship.
    Danvers turned to answer me again. “She was out most of the night. The doctors called this morning, and she is conscious now. The short version of the story is that she doesn’t remember anything about what happened. She was at the house, heard a noise, went to investigate and woke up in the hospital. So we have no idea who was behind the assault, but it’s a good guess that it’s the same person who shot our victim.”
    “Is she feeling okay? I might go visit my friend today,” I offered helpfully. I still knew that she had wanted to talk to me. For some reason, the woman who had been shot had played a role in stopping that from happening.
    That could mean one of two things. It could mean that the woman saw the meeting as a time where she could talk to me without arousing suspicions, if I thought she was Mariel. So Mariel had to be sidetracked so the other woman could go. I wondered about what she had to say that was so important that she’d taken the effort to disable Mariel so she could meet me instead. After all, I run a food truck. Anyone can buy a hot dog and talk to me. It only takes a few dollars and a stomach.
    The other option was that Mariel had to be replaced because she knew something that these people didn’t want her to tell. This seemed more problematic, because frankly, they’d left her alive. If they didn’t want her to say something that she knew, then Mariel’s life was in danger. Now that she was in the hospital, I was only a bouquet and quick trip away from finding out what she was going to tell me about her sister.
    So I was left with two options that didn’t make much sense to me. Neither of them offered a concrete case for what had happened. Each of the choices had serious problems with it. I hoped that talking to Mariel would point me to the correct option. Otherwise, I’d be following both at once, which would leave me overworked in the investigation. I was prone to taking the wrong path in an investigation, and for some reason, I didn’t feel like I had that kind of time now.
    As I came out of my thoughts, I noticed that Danvers was watching me. I didn’t care. Apparently all three of us had our secrets, and I would keep mine as long as they kept theirs. Three could play this game.
    “She can accept visitors, but there’s an armed guard outside the door too. Use my name, and they’ll let you in to see her.” He didn’t say a word about my thoughts or what was I thinking. He should know from earlier encounters that I was developing a plan.
    “Thanks. Have you learned anything about the victim yet? Do you have a name?”
    Even though I could only see Land in my peripheral vision, I could see him tense up while he was pretending not to listen. He was cutting up pickles, but we