MURDER IN THE SPOTLIGHT (Food Truck Mysteries Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

results before people could watch it during the show.
    However, Friday came much too early. Land and I returned to the set. Marsha was standing guard at the door. “Your new pots and pans are in your dressing room,” she said. She didn’t mention a thing about why we needed a new box of pans after the other day. I didn’t press the matter with her either. There was no explanation of who had done this or what steps might be taken to make sure it didn’t happen again. She was not the person in charge that should have been handling this issue. “Don’t forget the pre-challenge interview in the green room,” she said, pointing down the hallway to the door on the right.
    I nodded, and Land acted as if she hadn’t said a word. I had noticed that on set his accent was far more pronounced than it was on a typical day. I wasn’t sure if he was trying to get out of speaking in public, or if someone had told him that the accent was attractive. In either case, he turned it up on days when we were on set.
    We went into the green room and sat down. A button to operate the camera sat on top of one of the stools, and I turned it on. I always felt stupid when I was forced to talk to this camera. It felt so much like I was so overly impressed with myself that I needed to share my every thought with a camera. I made a few comments about having won the previous challenge and then went on to talk about how we had immunity for this week. “Though of course, we’ll do our best to win the challenge. I don’t want to sit on my laurels.” I’d heard this statement made on other reality shows, and now was my chance to use it.
    Land muttered something with his accent running full-tilt. No one ever asked him to repeat himself, feeling it their own failing for not understanding the first time. He talked about his excitement with the new pots and pans.
    Having done our duty, we went to the set where several of the contestants were already waiting. Jerry waved as we approached. He was talking to Annabella, one of the taco truck drivers. I’d finally pulled out the packet given to us when we started the reality show that had all of the other contestants on it. I thought that if I was going to be spying on them for Danvers, then perhaps I needed to know their names. Danvers would not be impressed with me identifying a suspect as Taco Owner #1.
    Annabella was a large blousy woman who wore entirely too much make-up and too little clothing. Her typical outfit was a pair of dark shorts, a change belt, and a t-shirt that was at least two sizes too small for her. I don’t know if she thought that brought in business. I wasn’t sure, because I wasn’t the business she’d be likely to bring in with that outfit. She was talking with her hands, waving them in the air as if she had just twirled a pizza and was waiting for it to come down from its flight. Apparently, she was unhappy about something, and I decided that I needed to know what.
    I motioned to Land, who had all the subtlety of a moose, as he moved toward them. I gave him a look, but he didn’t seem to care. He was more interested in getting as close as possible. Fortunately for him, Annabella found him very attractive and quickly turned so that Land could be a part of the conversation. “Have you heard about these nasty notes that have been going around? It’s just terrible. I’ve been looking forward to being on this show for ages, and now I just feel it’s spoiled. I wanted my win to be clean and fair, but now I’m beginning to think that whoever wins is going to be accused of being the nasty person behind all of this.”
    She’d gone on long enough that Land didn’t think an answer was required. He just nodded and smiled.
    Annabella continued. “I don’t like to complain, but frankly the show needs to do a better job of policing the contestants. Everything should be fair and square so the best woman wins.” She flashed a smile at Land to show him that her sentiments were meant