Chaos in Mudbug (Ghost-in-Law Mystery/Romance Series) (14 page)

“Yes, that was such a better option,” Maryse said. “Helena’s always had a problem with shoes.”

The jangle of the bells over the front door caused them all to turn. Jadyn was surprised to see Colt holding the door open for a pretty young woman.
 

“Ladies,” Colt said. “I hope we’re not interrupting important women business.”

“You are,” Maryse said, “but we can always get back to it as soon as you’re gone.”

Colt smiled and pointed to the young woman. “This is Taylor Beaumont, a private investigator from New Orleans. She’s looking for a missing husband and a hotel room. I told her I could help her with the hotel room part, but since you’re all here, you may be able to help with the husband part.”

Colt waved his hand at each of them. “This is Mildred, the hotel owner. If your missing husband has stayed here, she’ll remember. Her memory is sorta frightening when you’re on the wrong end of it.”

“Welcome to my hotel,” Mildred said and shook her hand.

“The sarcastic one is Maryse,” Colt continued. “If your missing husband spent a lot of time on a boat in the surrounding bayous, she will recognize him.”

“You know it,” Maryse said.

“And this is Jadyn, our game warden. She’s fairly new around these parts but catching on quickly.”

“Nice to meet you,” Jadyn said.

“What?” Helena said. “No introduction for me? People are so rude.”

“If you ladies have it under control,” Colt said, “I’m going to head home for a hot shower and a cold beer.”

Taylor’s eyes narrowed for a split second before she smiled. “Thanks. I appreciate the help.”

Colt gave them all a smile, winked at Jadyn, and left the hotel.
 

“I hope you have a room available,” Taylor said. “I think I’ve driven through ten bayou towns asking for a place to stay. This was the first one that I actually got a positive response in.”

“You’re in luck,” Mildred said. “The last round of EPA inspectors left a couple of days ago.”

“Great,” she said and pulled out her wallet.
 

She looked around the hotel, then at each of them, the normal sizing up that someone in her line of work did. But Jadyn got the impression that with Taylor Beaumont, something more was going on than what they could see.

Finally, she cocked her head to the side and said, “So, who’s the ghost?”

Chapter Nine

They all froze. Mildred’s eyes widened and Maryse sucked in a breath. Jadyn stared, trying to wrap her mind around this strange woman, standing in front of her and calmly asking about Helena.

Even Helena appeared shocked into silence.

Finally, Maryse broke the silence. “You can see her?”

“Yes,” Taylor said. “I can’t decide whether the boots are awesome or tragic, but I can definitely see her.”

Jadyn frowned. “And that doesn’t freak you out? Because when I first realized I was seeing dead people, I wasn’t nearly as calm about it as you are.”

Taylor smiled. “I suppose if this were my first time, it might bother me, but the truth is I always see them.”

“Horror story!” Maryse said. “I bet you never get a moment’s peace.”

 
Taylor laughed. “They usually don’t realize I see them because I no longer react. Some of them look so real, though, that I have to be careful who I speak to, or I’ll accidentally address one.”

“Helena looks real,” Maryse said, “so how did you know she was a ghost? Does she have some ghost label or aura or something that you read?”

“No. That part was simple deduction. Mildred glared at her when she made the comment about not being introduced. But even though your sheriff seems a nice and mannered man, he didn’t introduce…Helena, right?”

“That’s me,” Helena said, managing to shake herself out of silence. “We’re not related, are we? So far, only people related to me somehow have been able to see me.”

“If Taylor sees lots of ghosts, she can’t be related to all of them,” Maryse pointed out.

Taylor shrugged. “I suppose anything is possible. My family descendants are from Great Britain and Haiti.”

Helena frowned. “Probably not related then. So how come you can see ghosts?”

“I was born with a caul.”

“That sounds painful,” Helena said. “Is it anything like hemorrhoids?”

Taylor laughed. “No, it’s a membrane over the face of an infant when they’re born. Some people believe it gives them special powers.”

“Like the ability to see the dead,” Jadyn said, still dumbfounded at the girl’s comfort with her lot in life. Helena was the first ghost Jadyn had ever seen, and she prayed daily that she’d also be the last.

“Exactly,” Taylor said. “My grandmother had the ability to see glimpses of the future. Her mother could predict the weather with uncanny accuracy, even down to a five-minute shower.”

“What about your mother?”

Taylor shook her head. “Grandma says that Mom was a skeptic even in the womb. She became an accountant and doesn’t buy into any of this. You can about imagine how horrified she was when I was born. And even more so when I started talking to people who weren’t there.”

Jadyn cringed. Her relationship with her own mother had been less than stellar, but she couldn’t imagine the difficulties Taylor had faced, especially before she managed to sort out the living from the dead. “That sucks,” Jadyn said.

“That’s a most accurate description,” Taylor agreed.

Mildred, who’d been staring at Taylor, almost without blinking, gave a start. “Lord, we’re being rude. Grilling you like the police and here you are needing a room and probably some rest.”

“It’s not a problem,” Taylor assured them. “I’m as fascinated as you are by this. I rarely meet others who can see spirits.”

“Oh we can’t, really,” Maryse said. “We can only see Helena, and if it’s all right with the universe, we’d like to keep it that way.”

Taylor grinned. “I hope I have some time to sit and talk with you while I’m here. If not, I must come back and visit when I’m done with this case.”

“A missing husband, right?” Jadyn said. “And you have reason to believe he’s been in Mudbug?”

“Or nearby. A witness spotted a man matching his description on one of the docks in a nearby fishing village while she was antiquing in this area.”

“I hope it wasn’t Deer Killer,” Helena said.

“Oh no.” Mildred’s hand flew over her mouth. “I’d completely forgotten.”

“Who’s Deer Killer?” Taylor asked.

Mildred gave her the short version of what had transpired. Taylor’s eyes widened when Mildred described the whole head-in-the-bed incident.

“You didn’t?” Taylor asked Helena.

“Damn straight I did,” Helena said. “Those two rotten cheaters deserved exactly what they got.”

Taylor reached into her tote bag and pulled out a drawing. “Was this the man?”

Helena and Mildred peered down at the drawing and both shook their heads.

“I’ve never seen this man in the hotel before,” Mildred said.

“Not even close,” Helena agreed. “This guy is Christian Bale compared to Deer Killer. Christian Bale was the best Batman ever.”

“We know,” Maryse said. “You’ve told us a million times. May I?” She motioned to the drawing and Taylor passed it to her. Maryse studied it for several seconds, then frowned.

“Does he look familiar?” Taylor asked.

“Not really,” Maryse said. “I mean, I get the impression that I’ve seen him before, but I don’t recognize him in a way that would be helpful. Sorry.”

Jadyn looked at the drawing, but the man didn’t resemble anyone she’d met so far. Still, something about it bothered her, and finally it clicked. “How come you have a drawing and not a photo?”

“The man I’m looking for went missing almost thirty years ago. The woman who saw this man is a friend of the wife and also a fairly famous portrait artist. So did the drawing. I know it sounds weird…”

“Not really,” Jadyn said. “She saw something similar in the bone structure.”

“Exactly,” Taylor said. “Being a very accomplished artist, she would see right past the surface things the rest of us see. I’m not saying she’s right and that this is the same man, and neither is she, but the wife can afford for me to check it out and so I am.”

“You’re saying wife,” Jadyn said, “like they’re still married.”

“I guess, technically, they are. He was supposed to have died in an explosion, but his wife saw one of those specials about amnesia and now she thinks there’s a tiny chance he could have survived but lost his memory.”

“Fascinating,” Jadyn said. “Would you mind if I made some copies of this? With my job, I meet new people every day. It doesn’t hurt to ask.”

Taylor brightened. “That would be great. Thanks so much for offering.”

“No problem,” Jadyn said and headed to the break room to make some copies. The man in the drawing didn’t look even remotely familiar to her, and the story sounded more like the far-fetched fantasy of a long-grieving widow than something that could really happen, but perhaps finding the man in the drawing and seeing that he wasn’t her missing husband would finally set the widow on the road to recovery.
 

Thirty years was a long time to mourn and hope.

###

He watched from the alley across the street as she entered the hotel. She’d been at the cabin, the diner, and now at the hotel. He’d seen her and the man talking to fishermen in the café. What had they learned? Apparently, the shot he’d fired hadn’t scared her off the job. In fact, she looked completely comfortable having dinner with the man. Not the response he expected her to have when she’d almost been killed.

How much time did he have until she caught up with him? Even though he’d had to put it into action before he was ready, his backup plan was working for now. But he had a month, maybe six weeks at best before he had to make other plans. Would his carefully created cover hold until then? He hoped so.

But in the meantime, he’d keep an eye on the woman. In case she got closer.

###

Jadyn knew that the Mudbug community, especially the fishermen, would rally for the search party, but she was surprised at the number of people at the dock when she pulled up that morning. At least fifty locals as well as the two men from the diner and some others she didn’t recognize were huddled by the bayou, sipping coffee and talking.

Colt pulled up beside her while she was exiting her Jeep and gave her a nod. “Good turnout,” he said as he grabbed a stack of papers and headed for the group.

“Yeah, it’s great.” The more people they had, the quicker they could cover the areas the boat may have traversed in the storm and the inlying channels.

“Morning, gentlemen,” Colt said as he approached the group.

“And ladies,” a woman Jadyn hadn’t seen before called out.

Colt smiled. “And ladies. Glad you’re here, Tina. One of the main areas is your stomping ground.”

The middle-aged Tina, with her weathered skin and ripped forearms, looked as though she could hold her own against any of the men here.
 

“I assume you’ve all heard the basics—the boat was found in one of the coves near here yesterday morning, most likely damaged in the storm the day before. We have reason to believe the boat captain is Clifton Vines, a fisherman from Pirate’s Cove. We all know that an underwater recovery is an impossibility, so we’re concentrating on the possibility that Clifton made it ashore somewhere and is injured.”

One of the locals raised his hand. “How well does Clifton know the topography out this way?”

One of the men from the diner spoke up. “I don’t think he knew it overly well. He usually fished east of town, not west. But he’s got a good sense of things. He’d know to wait for the outgoing tide and follow it out. Assuming he’s able.”

Colt nodded. “We’re going to assume that if Clifton is on the move, he’ll remain close to the banks. Get as close to the banks as you can for the search. Given the number of people we have, I’m going to ask you to form teams of two so that one can go ashore in the places where the bank is too high to see over. Does anyone have any questions?”

“What channel are we using?” Jadyn asked. Cell phones were essentially useless in the swamp, so boaters communicated using CB radios.
 

“Channel 15. My dispatcher will be listening as well, so if you encounter an emergency situation, call out to Shirley and ask her to send help. If you get into trouble or encounter a situation that is more than two of you can handle, call for backup. Whoever is closest to your territory can respond. I know I don’t have to tell you all to be careful.”

He held the papers in the air. “I have the territories divided out for the most efficient coverage. We have enough people to cover them all today. If you have expert knowledge of any area, let me know and I’ll make sure you’re assigned to it.”

“You and I will work together,” Colt said to Jadyn as the men and Tina buddied up and formed a line. He spoke briefly with each duo and gave them a map of the coverage area, indicating their assignment.