Page 16 of No Good Deed

She nodded again. Marcus squatted down and ran his hands under the wheel wells and the undercarriage.

It didn’t surprise Troy in the least when his friend grunted and motioned him over. Piper followed. Marcus handed Troy his phone. “Take a video. I’ll need it for evidence.”

“Evidence?” Piper’s voice was high.

Marcus nodded and when Troy started the video, he stated his name, the date, and the people present. He gave a succinct account of the vandalism and then, with gloves on, pulled a tracker from the wheel well.

Marcus held it up. “This is a tracking device. I think we can rule out a random crime.”

* * *

Piper huddled into the couch in the B&B’s living area with Troy at her side and another hot cocoa in her hand. The flummoxed feeling continued. Carl and Jim had bustled around, covering up the window in her car, and checking locks before taking Oreo into the kitchen so she could talk with the deputy.

Someone had put a tracker on Rusty. “Can you tell how long the tracking device has been on the car? Maybe it was there when I bought it.”

The deputy shook his head. “Did you buy the car from an individual or was it on a car lot?”

“On a lot.”

He shrugged. “If the tracker was there before, they had ample time to remove if. The lot owners would have caught it when they checked it over. I’m sorry, but that points to you being the target.”

Her stomach tightened at the word target.

Troy squeezed her knee. “You’ve mentioned a run of bad luck before. Is there any way this tracker could be connected?”

That made her feel ill. She’d taken this job and headed out on this adventure to leave those troubles behind. Had she inadvertently brought that trouble to Phail and its people?

Deputy Ramirez ignored his hot cocoa and focused on her. “Why don’t you tell me more about this string of bad luck?”

Piper blew out a breath and shot a look at Troy before turning her attention back to the deputy. “I think it’s just that. A string of bad luck.”

The man nodded and waited her out.

“Fine. Someone broke into the urban planning office where I worked a few weeks ago. They stole laptops and monitors, dumped desks, and opened cupboards. They tossed everything around.”

The deputy nodded. “What personal stuff of yours did they touch?”

A shudder ran through her. “Everything. They uprooted my plants and ripped pictures off the walls of my cubicle. They emptied my drawers. I had containers of office supplies on the desk. Pens, clips, USBs, sticky notes, that kind of thing. They tossed everything around the room.”

“Did they take any of your personal items?”

She shook her head. “Not that I could tell.”

“What about your work computer?”

Another shake. “I usually take my laptop home in case anything comes up.”

The deputy kept his steady eyes on hers. “What kind of projects have you been working on recently?”

She smiled at that. “Nothing that would cause anyone to be upset. A park with a splash pad for a low-income neighborhood. An outdoor activity area for a nursing home. Community gardens with teaching and composting areas.”

The man chuckled. “No obvious reasons to upset the mob in any of those.”

She smiled back. “Most of our work aims to improve life for community members. We try to improve accessibility while recognizing and celebrating marginalized people.”

Troy squeezed her knee. “Sounds like we’ve hired the right person to help us out here.”

Her heart swelled at that. She’d worried they’d be kicking her out unceremoniously, like her last job.

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