Leftovers Read Online Free PDF Page B

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