Free JUSTICE Is SERVED (Food Truck 7) by Chloe Kendrick Page A

arrangement with Land?” I asked. “How did you hear about him?”
    I was curious about this. As far as I knew, Land had only worked as a part-owner and operator of a food truck. Nothing more. Now I was being told that he was doing some freelance sleuthing on the side – without me, no less!
    She took a deep breath. She turned her face to the wall. “Land apparently knew David, and David recommended him to us. I don’t know any details, but that’s why the police arrested him. Land had access to the food. He knew about the event far in advance, so he could plan – and he knew David and possibly had a motive to kill him.”
    “What motive would that be?” I asked. If it wasn’t my virtue at stake, which only had cropped up on the evening of the wedding apparently, then Land would have had no motive to poison David – and certainly no time in which to prepare for the deed.
    “This is what I didn’t want to tell you. The police are going on the theory that David and you were having an affair.” Gina flushed up to her ears as she said the last words.
    My flush nearly eclipsed hers. “What?” I asked, sure that I’d heard her wrong. That wasn’t possible. Detective Green thought that I would prefer David to Land? I was stunned to hear this.
    “It’s true. Look, I don’t believe it for a minute, but I heard that detective talking to Trent, and he told me that she implied that Land’s motive was you cheating on him with David.”
    I froze, trying to think of the potential headlines. I’d been worrying about the damage to the business, but now I’d be labeled a cheater, making it much more personal than before. I could advertise or have a sale to bring back business. Life offered no marketing to make you sound like a faithful girlfriend. Once the word was out, no matter how silly the gossip might be, that rumor was spread too far and too wide to ever be brought back.
    Of course, there was no way for me to contact Land and tell him that this was false. I had to just hope that he knew it. I did make a mental note to tell Sabine that about this, so she could pass the message along.
    ‘What else did Trent say? I’m kind of confused about this.” I was somewhat embarrassed to be admitting to Gina that I didn’t know these facts about the event and that I didn’t know about Land’s deal with Trent.
    “That was the gist of it,” she replied. “You didn’t know that Land had been hired to watch the aunts, did you?”
    I shook my head. “He hadn’t mentioned a word about it to me.”
    “Well, he can take outside work, can’t he?” I could definitely tell that Gina was one of my business school classmates. Her answers were focused on employee law, not our relationship.
    “Sure, there’s no problem there. I know he’s done things with the police before. So that’s not an issue.” I thought back to the times when Land had helped Detective Danvers in a stake-out. Would Danvers help Land out in this matter, or would he be more likely to cover his own butt and not put in a good word for Land?
    From what I knew about Danvers, I suspected the latter. He was more likely to be fretting about Land’s role in previous cases and how Land’s arrest might affect their outcomes than to be worried about the guy who helped him out.
    “And this wouldn’t have been a conflict-of-interest, since he could both watch Trent’s aunts and serve food. So that’s not a problem.” Gina shrugged as if her worries ended with that pronouncement. Mine had just begun.
    “I’m not worried about that,” I explained to her. “I’m more worried about this whole David connection. I didn’t know Land knew him or that he’d gotten Land this job.”
    Gina nodded. “I thought you might want to know, so I reached out to Christie to see if she knew anything. She said that Land and David had worked on some project about five years ago. Land had been doing some freelance investigatory work for David’s firm, and he’s interviewed